Nvidia and AMD Focus on Battlefield 3 with New Graphics Drivers

Large graphics card companies Nvidia and AMD have confirmed that their upcoming driver updates will focus on improving performance in the new Battlefield 3 first person shooter.

A variety of games are to be released in the near future, so you can imagine that graphics card manufacturers like Nvidia or AMD are working hard to enable their products to properly support the new titles.

Battlefield 3 is by far one of the most important games that will appear on the PC in the near future and, with the beta stage set to start later this week, Nvidia has already deployed a new driver update, version 285.38, which increases performance in the first person shooter by a whopping 38%.

What's more, the new driver, which is available for download right now from Softpedia, also improves the overall stability and image quality in Battlefield 3, a game that's certain to push computers to their limits thanks to the all-new Frostbite 2 engine.

AMD isn't backing down from this optimization fight against Nvidia, as a representative, via Gamasutra, already confirmed that special drivers designed to improve Battlefield 3 performance will also be released this week, just in time for the beta stage, although a concrete release date has yet to be set.

Battlefield 3 impressed a huge number of gamers earlier this year, when the first gameplay videos popped up. These were recorded on the PC and demonstrated just how powerful the Frostbite 2 engine was, when given the proper resources and power available on a computer.

Since then, footage from the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions were also revealed, and the game still kept most of its visual quality.

But, seeing as how both Nvidia and AMD are doing everything they can to optimize their cards for Battlefield 3, the PC is definitely the preferred platform.

Battlefield 3 is out on October 24, in North America, and October 27, in Europe. A beta stage kicks off today, September 27, for those who pre-ordered the game through EA's Origin digital distribution service or who bought the Medal of Honor Tier 1 edition. The open beta kicks off for everyone else on September 29.