The pace of GeForce driver updates may seem to have slowed a little in 2020, but NVIDIA's team are still toiling away to provide owners of their hardware the best possible experience in every PC title. Today they're releasing the GeForce Game Ready 452.06 WHQL driver package, an update that brings optimised early support for a trio of titles and RTX ray-traced visuals to an MMO stalwart of the last decade and a half.
The major videogame release of this week is probably Microsoft's Fight Simulator, a next generation version of the game that brings updated visuals and real-time world representation to the franchise for 2020. MSFS2020 launches tomorrow (August 18th) worldwide, but has been in limited beta over the weekend.
Remastered versions of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 & 2 arrive at the Epic Games Store on September 4th, and the Game Ready 452.06 will be pre-optimised for the improved graphics and gameplay it brings.
A Total War Saga: Troy was released on the EGS last week and free for 24 hours, accumulating more than 7.5 million downloads in that period. The sheer scale of Total War titles in terms of the number of detailed army units rendered in real-time make any optimisation passes more than welcome, even if it is somewhat belated.
And finally, surprising more than a few veteran members of the MMORPG community, World of Warcraft is getting support for ray-traced visuals in this latest patch. UI elements had been datamined that indicated ray-tracing could be coming to the game's engine in the relatively near future, but its arrival today wasn't predicted.
Ray-traced visuals are supported in the latest Beta build for World of Warcraft: Shadowlands, the sweeping MMO's 8th expansion. In theory they should also be supported in the pre-patch PTR currently available to all players, but that is to be confirmed. You can opt-in for the chance (a very small chance) at Shadowlands Beta access here and the expansion is scheduled for release before the end of the year.
As well as optimisations and incorporating new game features, these latest Game Ready drivers add G-SYNC Compatibility for eight additional Adaptive Sync monitors. The latest inclusions bring the number of G-SYNC Compatible monitors up to 110, significantly widening choice in the market for those who desire silky-smooth and hitch-free gaming at variable refresh rates.
The new G-SYNC Compatible monitors are:
A full list of certified monitors can be found here. Note however that monitor manufacturers often include sub-variants with the same model number, so be sure to double-check the tech spec on the monitor product page before making a purchase.
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The GeForce Game Ready 452.06 WHQL driver is currently only available through the GeForce Experience desktop app, but will hopefully be listed at the usual searchable driver page in the course of the next few hours. There is no equivalent NVIDIA Studio Driver listed at this time.
RELEASE NOTES
What’s New in Version 452.06 WHQL
GeForce Game Ready Driver
Game Ready Drivers provide the best possible gaming experience for all major new releases. 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.
Game Ready for Microsoft Flight Simulator
This new Game Ready Driver provides the latest performance optimizations, profiles, and bug fixes for Microsoft Flight Simulator. In addition, this release also provides optimal support for the World of Warcraft: Shadowlands pre-patch on the public test realm as well as for A Total War Saga: TROY and Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2.
Changes and Fixed Issues in Version 452.06
The following sections list the important changes and the most common issues resolved in this version. This list is only a subset of the total number of changes made in this driver version. The NVIDIA bug number is provided for reference.
Fixed Issues in this Release
[Shadow of the Tomb Raider][DirectX 12]: The game may crash when launched if Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling is enabled. [3037544]
[Death Stranding]: Texture corruption may be observed during gameplay on GeForce GTX 16/RTX 20 series GPUs. [200631405]
[Path of Exile]: Black square corruption appears around characters.[3038439]
[Sonic & All Stars Racing Transformed]: The game crashes when playing in a water level. [3028931]
[Forza Motorsport 7]: The game starts to stutter after racing a few laps. [3035005]
[Zhan Ge Jing Ji Chang]: Corruption occurs in the game when played in the Tencent mobile game simulator. [200631684]
Several games randomly freeze for a few seconds during gameplay. Affected games include Assassin's Creed Origins, Planetside 2, Assassin’s Creed III, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, and Assassin’s Creed Syndicate. [3038632]
The NVIDIA Control Panel does not display the native resolution of some HDTVs if the timings are invalid. [3060459]
Some displays may show a green tint when Windows Night Light is enabled. [3038686]
Snow appears on the display upon waking up the HDMI monitor. [3039265]
[Notebook][Turing] Display may show pixelated corruption on waking notebook from long display off [200633139]
Outstanding Issues
Windows 10 Issues
[SLI][Red Dead Redemption 2]: With SLI enabled, the game may crash with ERR_GFX_STATE error pointing to nvlddmkm.sys after pressing [Alt]+[Tab].[3083589]
[SLI][G-SYNC][Red Dead Redemption 2 Vulkan]: With SLI + G-SYNC enabled, the games display corruption and a blank screen.[200645671]
[SLI][World of Warcraft Shadowlands]: Character images may flicker when SLI is enabled. [200647193]
[World of Warcraft Shadowlands]: When run at frame rates greater than 60 FPS with high display settings, moving characters display minute twitching/stuttering. [200647563]
[Sunset Overdrive]: The game may display random green corruption if Depth of Field is enabled from in-game settings. [2750770]
[VR]: HDCP errors occur with Valve Index VR. [2967616]
[Call of Duty - Warzone]: Freestyle does not work. (200593020)
[Call of Duty: Modern Warfare]: Game may randomly show large frame rate drop with ray tracing enabled [3050468]
[Forza Motorsport 7]: The curb may display a black strip during a race on certain tracks. [2781776]
[Fortnite]: Blue-screen crash occurs pointing to nvlddmkm.sys when playing the game at 4K resolution. [200645328]
- To work around, set the resolution to lower than 4k
[Zombie Army: Dead War 4][Ansel/Freestyle]: The Ansel & Freestyle tabs are unselectable. [2810884]
Video playback on the secondary display lags/freezes while playing a game on the primary display if Hardware-accelerated GPU Scheduling is enabled [200586262]
[Notebook][H-Clone]: With the integrated graphics processor as the clone source, display settings cannot be changed from the NVIDIA Control Panel. [200594188]
[Notebook]: Some Pascal-based notebooks w/ high refresh rate displays may randomly drop to 60Hz during gameplay. [3009452]
GeForce Game Ready Driver
Game Ready Drivers provide the best possible gaming experience for all major new releases. 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.
Game Ready for Microsoft Flight Simulator
This new Game Ready Driver provides the latest performance optimizations, profiles, and bug fixes for Microsoft Flight Simulator. In addition, this release also provides optimal support for the World of Warcraft: Shadowlands pre-patch on the public test realm as well as for A Total War Saga: TROY and Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2.
Changes and Fixed Issues in Version 452.06
The following sections list the important changes and the most common issues resolved in this version. This list is only a subset of the total number of changes made in this driver version. The NVIDIA bug number is provided for reference.
Fixed Issues in this Release
[Shadow of the Tomb Raider][DirectX 12]: The game may crash when launched if Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling is enabled. [3037544]
[Death Stranding]: Texture corruption may be observed during gameplay on GeForce GTX 16/RTX 20 series GPUs. [200631405]
[Path of Exile]: Black square corruption appears around characters.[3038439]
[Sonic & All Stars Racing Transformed]: The game crashes when playing in a water level. [3028931]
[Forza Motorsport 7]: The game starts to stutter after racing a few laps. [3035005]
[Zhan Ge Jing Ji Chang]: Corruption occurs in the game when played in the Tencent mobile game simulator. [200631684]
Several games randomly freeze for a few seconds during gameplay. Affected games include Assassin's Creed Origins, Planetside 2, Assassin’s Creed III, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, and Assassin’s Creed Syndicate. [3038632]
The NVIDIA Control Panel does not display the native resolution of some HDTVs if the timings are invalid. [3060459]
Some displays may show a green tint when Windows Night Light is enabled. [3038686]
Snow appears on the display upon waking up the HDMI monitor. [3039265]
[Notebook][Turing] Display may show pixelated corruption on waking notebook from long display off [200633139]
Outstanding Issues
Windows 10 Issues
[SLI][Red Dead Redemption 2]: With SLI enabled, the game may crash with ERR_GFX_STATE error pointing to nvlddmkm.sys after pressing [Alt]+[Tab].[3083589]
[SLI][G-SYNC][Red Dead Redemption 2 Vulkan]: With SLI + G-SYNC enabled, the games display corruption and a blank screen.[200645671]
[SLI][World of Warcraft Shadowlands]: Character images may flicker when SLI is enabled. [200647193]
[World of Warcraft Shadowlands]: When run at frame rates greater than 60 FPS with high display settings, moving characters display minute twitching/stuttering. [200647563]
[Sunset Overdrive]: The game may display random green corruption if Depth of Field is enabled from in-game settings. [2750770]
[VR]: HDCP errors occur with Valve Index VR. [2967616]
[Call of Duty - Warzone]: Freestyle does not work. (200593020)
[Call of Duty: Modern Warfare]: Game may randomly show large frame rate drop with ray tracing enabled [3050468]
[Forza Motorsport 7]: The curb may display a black strip during a race on certain tracks. [2781776]
[Fortnite]: Blue-screen crash occurs pointing to nvlddmkm.sys when playing the game at 4K resolution. [200645328]
- To work around, set the resolution to lower than 4k
[Zombie Army: Dead War 4][Ansel/Freestyle]: The Ansel & Freestyle tabs are unselectable. [2810884]
Video playback on the secondary display lags/freezes while playing a game on the primary display if Hardware-accelerated GPU Scheduling is enabled [200586262]
[Notebook][H-Clone]: With the integrated graphics processor as the clone source, display settings cannot be changed from the NVIDIA Control Panel. [200594188]
[Notebook]: Some Pascal-based notebooks w/ high refresh rate displays may randomly drop to 60Hz during gameplay. [3009452]
