TECH ONE REVIEW: Game Ready

NVIDIA is making good on its promises at Gamescom PC Gaming Event on Monday with the release of a new Game Ready Driver for the Destiny 2 open beta. This new driver will also have GeForce gamers ready to use ShadowPlay Highlights in PlayerUnkown’s Battlegrounds, Ansel in Pro Evolution Soccer 2018, and to play Ark: Survival Evolved, F1 2017, and Quake Champions Early Access.

Game Ready, Even Before Launch - Destiny 2 Open Beta

NVIDIA works hard to make every game’s first impression a good one, even if the game is still in development - As they say, first impression matters. NVIDIA has been working with Bungie and Activision to bring the Destiny franchise to PC. With that in mind, today’s Game Ready Driver includes support for the open beta of Destiny 2. As titles continue to evolve with new content and features through patches and DLC, so will our drivers.

PUBG with NVIDIA ShadowPlay Highlights, PES 2018 with NVIDIA Ansel

Another important aspect of NVIDIA Game Ready drivers is that at they are often used as a delivery mechanism to add new features for our GeForce users. This Game Ready Driver is optimised for the addition of NVIDIA Highlights to PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds. Now PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds gamers can capture and share their best gaming moments using NVIDIA ShadowPlay Highlights. The tool automatically captures the player’s greatest achievements in video and screenshots, and enables seamless sharing through Facebook, YouTube or Imgur.

This driver will also enable NVIDIA Ansel support on Pro Evolution Soccer 2018. PES 2018 is the first sports game to support Ansel! Ansel is a revolutionary way to capture in-game photography. Compose your shots from any position, adjust with post-process filters, capture HDR images in high fidelity formats, and share your screenshots in 360 via your smartphone, PC or VR headset. Learn more about these features in the Ansel Technology page.

Game Ready on Launch Day - Ark: Survival Evolved, F1 2017 and Pro Evolution Soccer 2018

Available on or before launch day, NVIDIA Game Ready Drivers provide the best experience for GeForce gamers in these titles because NVIDIA engineers work up until the last possible minute to optimize performance and perfect gameplay. And as an additional verification of quality, every Game Ready Driver is WHQL-certified by Microsoft. These new drivers are dialed in for the official launch of Ark: Survival Evolved on August 29, F1 2017 on August 25 and Pro Evolution Soccer 2018 on Sept 12.

NVIDIA released its latest GeForce Driver 368.69 (WHQL) today which highlights the optimization for the upcoming DiRT Rally VR, one of the best racing game around that is coming to Oculus Store real soon and existing PC players on Steam will be receiving the update by this month.

There are of course, changes and fixes for existing issues highlighted in previous releases, new found issues and outstanding issues that has yet to be fixed as according to NVIDIA in GeForce Driver 368.69 (WHQL) driver release note:

Fixed Issues:

Windows 10 Fixed Issues

[368.39] If Fast Sync is enabled, Windows Media Player playback causes a blue-screen crash. [1779278]
[iRacing: Motorsport Simulator] Add DirectX 11 executables and profile. [1777259]
[368.39] The Crew crashes when launched after the driver update. [1775345]
[CUDA] cuda-memcheck reports error in dynamic parallelism code when compiled in debug mode, but not in release mode. [1773273]
[368.xx] R3D preview not working in Adobe Premiere Pro CC with 368.22 and 368.25 drivers. [1772639]
[368.25, GP104] GeForce GTX 1080 Founders Edition cards spin up and down rapidly.[1771960]
[NVIDIA GRID K1 vGPU] Windows 10 virtual machines (VMs) get purple screen of death (PSOD) with current 361.40 and 362.13 drivers. With 352.83 and 354.80 drivers, systems drop connections but VMs run. [1756897]
[368.15] XSplit Broadcaster has rendering error. [1755174]
[346.72] Sony Vaio laptop fails to boot into Windows on LCD. [1751326]

Windows 8.1/Windows 8/Windows 7 Fixed Issues

[CUDA] cuda-memcheck reports error in dynamic parallelism code when compiled in debug mode, but not in release mode. [1773273]
[Windows 7] Unable to set MOSAIC with a custom resolution. [1773273]
[368.15] XSplit Broadcaster has rendering error. [1755174]
[346.72] Sony Vaio laptop fails to boot into Windows on LCD. [1751326]

New Found / Outstanding Issues:

Windows 10 Issues

Assassins Creed -Syndicate shows intermittent flickering black or white patches ongame character faces. [200211264]
[Surround] Surround Display icon disappears after rotate mode set to portrait.[200201040]
[SLI] Street Fighter V performance drop (pause and play) observed when the game isplayed at 4K resolution with SLI enabled. [200172046]
[SLI] Blank display is observed on disabling SLI with two displays connected.[200168702]
[Luxmark 3.0] Display driver stopped responding while running benchmark LuxBall HDR (Simple Bechmark:217K triangles). [200153736]
Driver installation will fail if GeForce Experience is a selected component and the system is either in safe mode or without a network connection. [200151914]
[347.09, GM204] Blank screen observed on an ASUS Tiled display when system resumes from shutdown or hibernation with Fast boot option enabled from BIOS.[1591053]
[SLI, UEFI] Event Viewer error 14 points to nvlddmkm when the system is rebooted.[1309257]

Windows 8.1 Issues

[SLI] Mirrors Edge: Catalyst crashes with DirectX error on launch. [1773411]
[3DVision] While a stereoscopic 3D video with stereoscopic 3D enabled is played, the monitor refresh rate switches to 60 Hz after changing the resolution using the Windows control panel. [1314811]
[SLI, UEFI] Event Viewer error 14 points to nvlddmkm when the system is rebooted.[1309257]

Windows 8 Issues

[Optimus, Notebook] After installing the driver, the Device Manager includes an entry for the NVIDIA Virtual Audio Device but the entry has a yellow bang. The NVIDIA Virtual Audio Device is not needed nor used on Optimus notebooks, so there is no effect on your notebook function. To remove the yellow bang, reboot your notebook.
With a 3DTV connected and the resolution set to an HD3D resolution through the NVIDIA Control Panel, the display flickers constantly after installing the driver via INF over driver version 320.49. [1315116]
[SLI, UEFI] Event Viewer error 14 points to nvlddmkm when the system is rebooted.[1309257]
[Video, Notebook, Hulu Desktop] When attempting to play videos using Hulu Desktop, there is audio but no video. [1000017]
[Video, Notebook, Internet Explorer, YouTube] The NVIDIA Control Panel video color settings have no effect on YouTube flash video playback within Internet Explorer 10. [999485]
[SLI, GeForce 500 series, DirectX 11, Dragon Age II] Shadows flicker in the cutscene when SLI is enabled. [849235]

Windows 7 Issues

[SLI] Street Fighter V performance drop (pause and play) observed when the game is played at 4K resolution with SLI enabled. [200172046]
Driver installation will fail if GeForce Experience is a selected component and thesystem is either in safe mode or without a network connection. [200151914]
[3DVision] While a stereoscopic 3D video with stereoscopic 3D enabled is played, the monitor refresh rate switches to 60 Hz after changing the resolution using the Windows control panel. [1314811]
[GeForce 500 series, Need for Speed: The Run] During the race the sun flickers and there are bright blips and black patches. [909577]
[SLI, Company of Heroes: Tales of Valor] With SLI enabled, there is heavy flickering in the game after switching from windowed mode to full-screen mode. [892264]
NVS 4200M, Optimus, F1 2011] The game hangs while selecting Quit To Main Menu during gameplay. [879537]
[SLI, GeForce 500 series, DirectX 11, Dragon Age II] Shadows flicker in the cutscene when SLI is enabled. [849235]
[GeForce 400 series, Total War: Shogun 2] The sun and surrounding area within the game flicker. [807036]

(Source: GeForce Driver 368.69 (WHQL) Release Note, NVIDIA )