Nvidia's GeForce RTX 2070 Super and RTX 2060 graphics cards have now landed on store shelves, and right on cue, there's a new GPU driver available. The latest GeForce 431.36 WHQL officially welcomes the new cards to the fold.
The 431.36 driver release also brings to the table 'Game Ready' optimizations for a few previously released games, including Tom Clancy's The Division 2, Strange Brigade, and Metro Exodus. Game Ready drivers typically focus on delivering the "best possible gaming experience" when a game first comes out, though can also include optimizations for previously released games.
As it pertains to the latter, Nvidia says it cooked up some tweaks that can improve performance by up to 12 percent compared to its previous driver, and up to 16 percent on average compared to its GeForce RTX 20 series launch driver from back in August.
Here is a specific breakdown of Nvidia's performance claims for all three games:
- In Metro Exodus, performance increases by up to 31 percent compared to our launch driver, with overall average improvements across all tested resolutions and GPUs of 14.6 percent compared to the launch driver, and 10.5 percent compared to our previous Game Ready driver.
- In Strange Brigade, performance increases by up to 13.7 percent compared to our launch driver, with overall average improvements of 9.2 percent compared to the launch driver and 7.7 percent compared to our previous Game Ready driver.
- In Tom Clancy’s The Division 2, performance increases by up to 11.3 percent compared to our launch driver, with overall average improvements of 6.7 percent compared to the launch driver and 3.6 percent compared to our previous Game Ready driver.
Nvidia also continues to add more adaptive sync monitors to its list of certified G-Sync Compatible models. The newest additions include the LG 34GL750, and HP's 25mx and HP Omen X 25f.
The grand total of G-Sync Compatible monitors now sits at 31, out of hundreds that Nvidia has tested to date. Nvidia explained back in May why so many monitors don't make the cut, and you can revisit that article here.
Finally, the 431.36 driver release squashes a handful of bugs. They include:
- [GeForce Experience]: FPS Counters appear in the Windows Start Menu for certain applications after upgrading to Windows 10 May 2019 Update.
- [Notebook]: Fixed BSOD that occurred after waking Asus GL703GS/Asus GL502VML notebook from hibernation.
- Code 43 error occurs when installing driver 430.64 on Windows 10 May 2019 Update system with Intel Sandy Bridge CPU.
- [Grand Theft Auto V]: The game may experience flickering when MSAA is used.
- [Forza Horizon 4]: The game may crash when driving through tunnels.
- [Shadow of the Tomb Raider][Pascal GPU]: The game may crash or experience a TDR when launched on Pascal GPU.
- [Shadow of the Tomb Raider]: Benchmark quits when running with ray tracing is enabled.
- [Windows 10 version 1903]: The system does not write a dmp file after a blue-screen crash event.
You can update your driver through GeForce Experience, or head here to download and install it manually.
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Paul has been playing PC games and raking his knuckles on computer hardware since the Commodore 64. He does not have any tattoos, but thinks it would be cool to get one that reads LOAD"*",8,1. In his off time, he rides motorcycles and wrestles alligators [only one of those is true].
Game Ready Drivers provide the best possible gaming experience for all major new releases, including Virtual Reality games. Prior to a new title launching, our driver team is working up until the last minute to ensure every performance tweak and bug fix is included for the best gameplay on day-1.
Nvidia has released a new version of its graphics drivers for Windows, bringing the version number up to 431.36. The highlight of the release is the added support for the new Super GPUs in the RTX lineup, since the RTX 2060 Super and 2070 Super are both launching today. The new cards offer significant performance improvements over the original RTX lineup, bringing the framerates closer to those you'd find on previous GTX cards.
In addition to the new hardware support, the latest driver improves performance in some games. Metro Exodus should get around 10.5% better performance than with the last Game Ready driver; Strange Brigade gets improvements of around 7.7%; Tom Clancy's The Division 2 gets around 3.6% better performance. The driver also updates the SLI profile for F1 2019.
Nvidia is also continuing to add more G-Sync Compatible displays to the list. Three new monitors are supported as of today:
- LG 34GL750
- HP 25mx
- HP Omen X 25f
As usual, the latest release includes a few bug fixes as well. Here's what's new:
[GeForce Experience]: FPS Counters appear in the Windows Start Menu for certain applications after upgrading to Windows 10 May 2019 Update. [2617230] [Notebook]: Fixed BSOD that occurred after waking ASUS GL703GS/ASUS GL502VML notebook from hibernation. [2612106/2540582] Code 43 error occurs when installing driver 430.64 on Windows 10 May 2019 Update system with Intel Sandy Bridge CPU. [2606672] [Grand Theft Auto V]: The game may experience flickering when MSAA is used. [2583604] [Forza Horizon 4]: The game may crash when driving through tunnels. [200515120/ 200523430] [Shadow of the Tomb Raider][Pascal GPU]: The game may crash or experience a TDR when launched on Pascal GPU. [200519081] [Shadow of the Tomb Raider]: Benchmark quits when running with ray tracing is enabled. [2599507] [Windows 10 version 1903]: The system does not write a dmp file after a blue-screen crash event. [2636104]
Despite the included fixes, there are still some known issues to be aware of:
[NVIDIA Control Panel]: When the 3D Settings page->Vertical Sync setting is set to Adaptive Sync [half refresh rate], V-Sync works only at the native refresh rate after rebooting the system. [2543187] [Tom Clancy's The Division II]: The game may crash when played in DirectX 12 mode. [2587043/200406322] [World of Warcraft Battle for Azeroth]: Terrain and icons flicker randomly in the game. [2633205] [Mortal Kombat 11]: Random white and green flickering occurs in the game.[2599980]Additional issues
- 2626510-Windows 10 May 2019 Update: Banding on some displays after OS update -> Working with Microsoft on a fix
If you want the latest Nvidia drivers, you can find them by checking for updates through GeForce Experience, or download them from the links below. The full release notes can be found here.