NVIDIA has just released brand spanking new ForceWare 158.19 drivers. The driver package adds support for the GeForce 8600 GTS, 8600 GT, 8500 GT, 8400 GS, 8300 GS GPUs and weighs in at just under 40MB. Grab them if you need them!

Release Highlights:

• Adds support for GeForce 8600 GTS, GeForce 8600 GT, and GeForce 8500 GT, GeForce 8400 GS, and GeForce 8300 GS GPUs.
• Increased performance in 3D applications.
• Numerous game and application compatibility fixes.
• Microsoft DirectX 9.0c and OpenGLR 2.1 support.
• Please read the release notes for more information on product support, feature limitations, and known compatibility issues.

PureVideot HD support is currently only available on Microsoft Windows Vista

Nvidia has also released a brand new beta version 158.18 of its ForceWare graphics drivers for Windows Vista (Vista 32-bit, Vista 64-bit, Release Notes). However, it's still a beta, and its installation procedure is a little peculiar. Whereas Vista is supposed to allow users to upgrade graphics drivers without rebooting, installing this latest release actually involves two reboots. Nvidia's installer removes the old drivers, asks the user to reboot, then re-loads itself loads at the next bootup (which, incidentally, is at a resolution of 800x600), installs the new drivers, and asks the user to reboot yet again. Nvidia may be slow to re-introduce features, but the firm has nonetheless fixed a good number of bugs with this latest ForceWare release. Problems in a host of games including Dark Messiah of Might & Magic, Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter, Half-Life 2, Oblivion, Serious Sam 2, and Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War have been fixed, as have a number of miscellaneous issues pertaining to various desktop applications, including Nvidia's own control panel.