Release Highlights:

Fixed a bug that prevented XvMC from initializing in most cases.
Added support for xorg-server video driver ABI version 8, which will be included in the upcoming xorg-server-1.9 series of releases.
Fixed a bug that caused extremely slow rendering of OpenGL applications on X screens other than screen 0 when using a compositing manager.
Fixed a regression introduced after 256.35 that caused stability problems on GPUs such as GeForce GT 240.
Fixed a slow kernel virtual address space leak observed whenstarting and stopping OpenGL, CUDA, or VDPAU applications.
Fixed a bug that left the system susceptible to hangs when running two or more VDPAU applications simultaneously.

Supported Products:

GeForce 400 series:
GTX 480, GTX 470, GTX 460, GTX 465

GeForce 300 series:
315, GT 330, 310, GT 340, GT 320

GeForce 300M series:
GTS 250M, GT 335M, GTS 350M, 310M, GTS 360M, GT 330M, GT 325M, 305M

GeForce 200 series:
GT 230, GTS 250, GT 220, GTS 240, 210, 205, GTX 280, GTX 260, GTX 295, GTX 275, GT 240, G210, GTX 285

GeForce 200M series:
GT 220M, GTX 260M, GTX 280M, G210M, GT 230M, GT 240M, GTX 285M, GTS 260M

GeForce 100 series:
G 100, GT 130, GT 120, GT 140

GeForce 100M series:
G 110M, G 103M, G 102M, GT 130M, G 105M, GT 120M

GeForce 9 series:
9800 GTX/GTX+, 9400, 9100, 9800 GX2, 9300, 9400 GT, 9600 GT, 9200, 9600 GSO 512, 9300 SE, 9300 GE, 9500 GT, 9600 GSO, 9600 GS, 9300 GS, 9500 GS, 9800 GT

GeForce 9M series:
9600M GS, 9100M G, 9300M G, 9300M GS, 9700M GTS, 9650M GT, 9500M GS, 9400M, 9200M GS, 9400M G, 9800M GS, 9800M GTX, 9700M GT, 9600M GT, 9800M GT, 9800M GTS, 9500M G, 9650M GS

GeForce 8 series:
8600 GT, 8100 / nForce 720a, 8500 GT, 8400, 8300 GS, 8200, 8800 GT, 8800 GTX, 8400 GS, 8600 GS, 8600 GTS, 8800 GTS 512, 8800 GS, 8800 GTS, 8300, 8200 / nForce 730a, 8800 Ultra, 8400 SE

GeForce 8M series:
8700M GT, 8200M G, 8400M G, 8600M GT, 8800M GS, 8400M GS, 8800M GTX, 8400M GT

GeForce 7 series:
7900 GTX, 7100 GS, 7300 GS, 7300 SE / 7200 GS, 7300 LE, 7100 / NVIDIA nForce 620i, 7500 LE, 7025 / NVIDIA nForce 630a, 7050 / NVIDIA nForce 610i, 7800 SLI, 7150 / NVIDIA nForce 630i, 7600 GS, 7300 GT, 7650 GS, 7950 GT, 7800 GTX, 7050 / NVIDIA nForce 630i, 7800 GS, 7550 LE, 7350 LE, 7950 GX2, 7050 PV / NVIDIA nForce 630a, 7900 GS, 7600 GT, 7600 LE, 7100 / NVIDIA nForce 630i, 7900 GT/GTO

GeForce Go 7 series:
Go 7900 GS, Go 7900 GTX, Go 7800 GTX, Go 7950 GTX

GeForce 6 series:
6800 GS/XT, 6700 XL, 6150LE / Quadro NVS 210S, 6610 XL, 6600 VE, 6800, 6200 LE, 6150 LE, 6800 XT, 6200SE TurboCache, 6800 Ultra, 6800 GS, 6100 nForce 420, 6100 nForce 405, 6800 LE, 6600, 6200 TurboCache, 6250, 6800 GT, 6100 nForce 400, 6600 GT, 6200, 6800 XE, 6200 A-LE, 6150, 6500, 6600 LE, 6150SE nForce 430, 6100

Quadro series:
6000, 5000, 4000

Quadro FX series:
FX 1500, FX 4700 X2, FX 3400/4400, CX, FX 3450, FX 5800, FX 3500, FX 4000, FX 370, FX 4500 X2, FX 380, FX 580, FX 4500, FX 560, FX 5500, FX 350, FX 1700, FX 370 Low Profile, FX 5600, FX 540, FX 4800, FX 1400, FX 3700, FX 1800, FX 550, FX 570, FX 4600, FX 3800

Quadro FX Notebook series:
FX 1600M, FX 370M, FX 360M, FX 570M, FX 3600M, FX 2700M, FX 1700M

Quadro NVS series:
NVS 290, NVS 210, NVS 450, NVS 440, NVS 420, NVS 280, NVS 285, NVS 295

ION series:
ION

GPU Computing Processor series:
Tesla C1060, Tesla C2050, Tesla C870, Tesla M2050

Additional Information:
Note that many Linux distributions provide their own packages of the NVIDIA Linux Graphics Driver in the distribution's native package management format. This may interact better with the rest of your distribution's framework, and you may want to use this rather than NVIDIA's official package.

Also note that SuSE users should read the SuSE NVIDIA Installer HOWTO before downloading the driver.

Installation instructions: Once you have downloaded the driver, change to the directory containing the driver package and install the driver by running, as root, sh ./NVIDIA-Linux-x86-256.53-pkg1.run

One of the last installation steps will offer to update your X configuration file. Either accept that offer, edit your X configuration file manually so that the NVIDIA X driver will be used, or run nvidia-xconfig

See the README for more detailed instructions.