NVIDIA Releases 350.12 Game Ready WHQL Drivers
by Ryan Smith on April 13, 2015 4:15 PM EST
Hot on the heels of their first R349 branch driver release earlier this month with the release of the 350.05 hotfix drivers, NVIDIA is back again with another R349 release. This time NVIDIA is releasing 350.12, which happens to be both a Game Ready release and their first R349 WHQL release.
On the Game Ready front, NVIDIA is releasing these drivers ahead of this evening's release of the PC version of Grand Theft Auto V, and as is customary for a Game Ready release it contains all of the latest optimizations and profiles necessary for the game. This includes profiles to enable both SLI and 3D Vision support. Meanwhile from a technical standpoint GTA V will be a GameWorks-enabled title, with developer Rockstar using NVIDIA’s Percentage-Closer Soft Shadows (PCSS) and TXAA technologies in the game.
Otherwise as this is also the first R349 WHQL driver we have a bit more detail on what NVIDIA has been working on under the hood for this branch, thanks to a proper set of release notes. Of particular note, NVIDIA has improved the interaction between high resolution (4K+) displays, SLI, and their frame buffer capture technology (used in GameStream/Shadowplay) to reduce the performance hit from using all of these technologies together. Similarly, the NVIDIA control panel is now finally HiDPI aware, capable of supporting 250 DPI.
With this driver release NVIDIA has also posted a bit more information on their OpenCL 1.2 driver. The driver has not yet passed OpenCL conformance testing over at Khronos, but it is expected to do so. OpenCL 1.2 functionality will only be available on Kepler and Maxwell GPUs, with Fermi getting left behind.
Finally, for Windows 10 users, it looks like you'll want to stick to the Windows Update drivers if you want WDDM 2.0 support. A quick check of the 350.12 INF file shows that it doesn't have entries for Windows 10, indicating that this driver is not WDDM 2.0 enabled.
As usual, you can grab the drivers for all current desktop and mobile NVIDIA GPUs over at NVIDIA’s driver download page.
Source: NVIDIA (via SH SOTN)
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Jtaylor1986 - Monday, April 13, 2015 - link
AMD seriously needs to get their act together on the driver front. It's been 4 months since their last WHQL driver. Nvidia is making them look ridiculousneonisin - Monday, April 13, 2015 - link
My drivers work fine. I think there would be something wrong if they released a new driver every 2 weeks, yes? Can you elaborate?Death666Angel - Monday, April 13, 2015 - link
And WHQL drivers are important for gamers, why?Jtaylor1986 - Monday, April 13, 2015 - link
Then why does Nvidia take the time and effort to make all their releases WHQL if there is no benefit?DanNeely - Monday, April 13, 2015 - link
Windows update distribution is probably the biggest tehcnical one. It means that less hardcore gamers who don't have their GPU vendors app lurking in their tray pushing driver updates still get the latest drivers within a month of release.lazarpandar - Tuesday, April 21, 2015 - link
That question implies quite a load of inductive reasoning. I mean, how could there be all this life on earth if there is not an intelligent creator? How can it be cold in the midst of global warming?Sorry but the burden of proof is on you.
SlyNine - Monday, April 13, 2015 - link
Any word on DSR and SLI. Shame the to can't play together.Morawka - Monday, April 13, 2015 - link
DSR isnt that great in my experience. I'd much rather have the developer integrate native resolution scaling like Frostbite 3 Engine games. Works amazing and no filter is used, so its clear as a bell.eanazag - Monday, April 13, 2015 - link
DSR - Dynamic Screen Resolution allows you to play at higher, non-native resolutions. I can understand if you prefer native resolution only. It is nice to have the option to run a game at a higher resolution than the monitor supports if your video card has the balls to do so. I have some older monitors that it would be great to do this on.tuxfool - Monday, April 13, 2015 - link
Maybe you should read what he wrote? Built in scaling at the engine level is better i.e. you actually get considerations for UI legibility etc.