NVIDIA this afternoon was quick to announced that it was supporting the new OpenGL 3.0 standard for graphics and has already launched a software driver beta. The update is currently available only for Windows PCs but lets all GeForce 8-, 9-, and GTX-series cards plus equivalent Quadro models run most of the newer features, including the 32-bit, floating point color and textures as well as other improvements to the way it handles geometry and vertex data.

The surprise launch points to a probable quick software update following from AMD as well as a faster upgrade process for alternative operating systems. Both Linux and Mac OS X are known to be receiving OpenGL 3.0 support in the future and should have the option through minor patches and drivers rather than major operating system replacements.