14 DAY TRIAL // Delaying tactics seem to be quite the trend nowadays. First, the Fermi cards were delayed repeatedly. After they were launched, they were very scarce, at least at first. Now, that which is plagued by yet another delay is not a new adapter, but the driver meant to enable support for one of the more important features that the GeForce GTX 470 and GTX 480 are supposed to have. Known as 3D Vision Surround, this display mode won't be included in the first 256 branch driver.
End-users versed in such things will have likely recognized 3D Vision Surround as the technology that allows a pair of GTX 470 or GTX 480 DirectX 11 graphics cards to support tri-dimensional, multi-monitor setups. Basically, a pair of adapters in SLI should be able to enable 3D gaming while spreading the display area over three monitors. Unfortunately, support for this feature won't come as soon as NVIDIA has hoped.
According to one of the company's latest blog posts, some final improvements need to be made to the software before it can be given to the public. This means that the upcoming 256 driver release, which will be issued on May 24, won't include this feature.
As such, the first release of the 256 branch driver will settle for improving performance on “several key applications for GTX 400 GPUs” and will provide new SLI setup controls.
As it stands, enthusiasts will only be able to see just what multi-monitor 3D looks like around the end of June. This is far later than the April release initially promised, but, at this point, delays are no longer all that surprising. NVIDIA does want to make up for it, however, which is why it will provide a game list and guidelines on how to make the best of the technology.