NVIDIA have just release some very special drivers in the form of the GeForce 295.73 WHQL Drivers. NVIDIA say they are essential for Skyrim, Diablo III and Mass Effect 3, and once you see these numbers, you'll probably agree.

The drivers sport numerous "game-changing", NVIDIA-exclusive improvements that have been baked into previous beta downloads, as well as a few other treats, all wrapped up in a nice WHQL-certified package. Skyrim gets a serious punch in frame rates with these new drivers, with performance on the GeForce GTX 560 receiving an amazing 44.5-percent increase in performance, and GTX 560 SLI performance seeing a boost of 44.1-percent. The GTX 580 sees a nice 36-percent bump, with GTX 580 SLI only receiving 17.3-percent. All of this testing is done at 1920x1080 with Indoor Scenes, Ultra Detail, 8xMSAA, 16xAF.

Diablo III Beta doesn't miss out from these new drivers, where the immersive Ambient Occlusion shadowing now featuring in Diablo III, which looks quite good. Instructions on how to enable this feature are available on NVIDIA's website.

The Mass Effect 3 demo arrived last week, and has already received some lovin' from Team Green. Mass Effect 3 enjoys some amazingly huge increases in performance with the new 295.73 drivers, where frame rates on a GTX 560 increase by 91.63-percent, and 90-percent on the GTX 570. Insane! This is at 1080p, with 2560x1440 seeing an even larger increase: 100-percent on the GTX 560, and 95.04-percent on the GTX 570.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 isn't left out, and gets the benefit of GeForce-exclusive Ambient Occlusion support.

NVIDIA have also baked in new SLI profiles into the 295.73 drivers:

• 7554
• Afterfall: InSanity
• ArcheAge
• Core Blaze
• F1 2011
• Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning
• Mass Effect 3
• Oil Rush
• Red Faction: Armageddon
• The Darkness II
• Trine 2

 

New & Updated 3D Vision Profiles:

 

• Afterfall: Insanity - Rated Fair
• Alan Wake - Rated Poor
• ANNO 2070 - Rated Not Recommended
• Apache: Air Assault - Rated Fair
• Black Prophecy - Rated Not Recommended
• Chaos Online - Rated Fair
• Choplifter HD - Rated Good
• Cities XL 2012 - Rated Good
• Da Vinci Online - Rated Fair
• Dino D-Day - Rated Good
• DotA 2 - Rating upgraded to Fair
• Dungeon and Dragons: Daggerdale - Rated Fair
• Edge - Rated Excellent
• Ferrari Project - Rated Not Recommended
• Fractal - Rated Excellent
• FreeStyle 2 - Rated Good
• Insane 2 - Rated Excellent
• King Arthur II - Rated Not Recommended
• Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning - Rated Fair
• Kong Fu Ying Xiong - Rated Fair
• Love Beat - Rated Good
• Marvel Super Hero Squad Online - Rated Good
• Microsoft Flight - Rated Fair
• Perpetuum - Rated Fair
• Post Apocalyptic Mayhem - Rated Fair
• Prototype 2 - Rated Fair
• Q.U.B.E. - Rated Excellent
• Quan Qiu Shi Ming - Rated Excellent
• Red Bull X-Fighters - Rated Excellent
• rFactor 2 (mod mode) - Rated Good & Updated Convergence
• Risen 2: Dark Waters - Rated Fair
• Saints Row: The Third - Rated Not Recommended
• Shadow Company: Left for Dead - Rated Not Recommended
• Special Force - Rated Good
• Tera - Rated Good
• The Adventures of Tintin - Rated Good
• The First Templar - Rated Fair
• The Haunted Halls Reach - Rated Excellent
• Top Gun: Hard Lock - Rated Not Recommended
• Tropico 4 - Rated Good
• Worms Blast - Rated Good

• WRC 2: FIA World Rally Championship 2011

You can grab the new NVIDIA GeForce 295.73 WHQL drivers here.