Buying a shiny new notebook with a powerful NVIDIA GPU is all well and good, but if you're then left to rely on the manufacturer to supply driver upgrades, there's a good chance you'll fail to take advantage of any new features that should be coming your way.
It's a surprisingly common complaint among notebook users, and has been for years, so you'll be glad to hear that the GPU giants are taking a stand. Earlier this year, AMD announced that it would begin rolling out monthly ATI Catalyst Mobility drivers for its notebook users, and NVIDIA is now following suite with a similar scheme.
Following a warm reception to the company's Verde notebook drivers in recent years, NVIDIA has confirmed that it plans to unify its desktop and mobile releases in an effort to bring a feature parity to both platforms.
NVIDIA already reckons its Verde drivers bring notebook users a 30 per cent average performance boost over OEM drivers, but starting with the 256 release - scheduled to become available in the coming months - the company states that "each driver release for Windows Vista and Windows 7 desktop PCs will go out with an equivalent Verde notebook driver".
Desktop and mobile releases will still be delivered as separate standalone downloads, but what's useful is that both platforms will be granted new features and general driver improvements simultaneously.
Sounds like a logical step forward considering the rapid growth of high-end mobile GPUs, but there might be a catch. According to the folks over at HotHardware, NVIDIA's regular Verde driver release will be compatible with all NVIDIA platforms - including IGPs and discrete GPUs, as well as Optimus-enabled systems - but it won't be applicable to hybrid systems that don't use Optimus technology. In English, that means most current notebooks that feature an Intel IGP and discrete NVIDIA GPU won't be able to take advantage of the new drivers. Still, one step at a time.
