Nvidia is releasing a big driver update for its graphics cards to coincide with Gamescom this week. Dubbed the “Gamescom Game Ready Driver,” the 436.02 update includes a new ultra-low latency mode, integer scaling, and a new Freestyle sharpening filter. up to 23 percent framerate improvements for Apex Legends, Battlefield V, Forza Horizon 4, Strange Brigade, and World War Z.
Nvidia’s new ultra-low latency mode is the big new feature, and it’s designed for competitive gamers in mind. It’s a setting that can reduce latency by up to 33 percent, and uses a “just in time” technique that submits “frames to be rendered just before the GPU needs them.” Nvidia used to have a maximum pre-rendered frames option in its control panel, but Eurogamer explains that this new latency mode alters the pacing of frames so they’re generated just before they’re needed.
This new feature will be more noticeable on games that are GPU bound and running between 60fps and 100fps, according to Nvidia. The Ultra-low latency mode will work on DirectX 9 and DirectX 11 titles, but DirectX 12 and Vulkan games decide when to queue the frame.
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Pixel art fans will be pleased to hear that Nvidia is introducing GPU integer scaling with this new driver. It will allow you to scale up pixel art or retro games without blurriness, and it’s something that fans of FTL, Hotline Miami, and Terarria have been asking Nvidia to implement for years. It will be available on Nvidia’s Turing cards, so GeForce RTX or GeForce GTX 16-Series GPUs.
Nvidia is also introducing a new Sharpen Freestyle filter, which seems to be a response to AMD’s Radeon Image Sharpening feature. Nvidia’s filter is designed to improve the image quality of the previous “detail” filter. “The performance impact is roughly half that of the prior filter,” claims Nvidia. You can customize the level of sharpness, and it supports more than 600 games that use DirectX 9, DirectX 11, DirectX 12, and Vulkan APIs.
Alongside these performance and feature changes, Nvidia is also expanding its G-Sync compatibility list to include Asus’ VG27A and Acer’s CP3271 / XB273K GP monitors. The 30-bit color feature, that was previously limited to Nvidia’s Studio drivers, is also included in this game ready driver. You’ll be able to download Nvidia’s 436.02 WHQL drivers at 9AM ET / 6AM PT from the company’s GeForce Experience app, or you can download them a little early direct from Nvidia’s servers (Windows 10 64-bit).
