It's going to be a busy few weeks for videos games as we approach US Thanksgiving, and NVIDIA are ensuring that the drivers are in good order prior to those titles being available. The new GeForce Game Ready update addresses a host of requirements, sprinkles in a few feature updates, and rounds it of by verifying four new monitors as G-SYNC Compatible.

The primary role of GeForce Game Ready 457.30 drivers is to provide an optimal experience in Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, the latest franchise installment from Activision. NVIDIA's front-line gaming technologies all have a strong presence in the title - including NVIDIA Reflex, NVIDIA DLSS and NVIDIA Highlights - as well as leveraging hardware acceleration for DirectX Ultimate ray traced ambient occlusion, local shadows and sun shadows. Even the awesome power of the RTX 30-series will need well-behaving drivers to maintain consistently high frame rates with those demands, pretty much mandating a day-0 update.

There's an additional pressure on NVIDIA's software team in this instance. New purchases of the RTX 3080 and 3090 qualify for a free copy of the Black Ops Cold War; the last thing they'd want to see is sub-standard performance on a showcase promotion.

Assassin's Creed Valhalla and Godfall are launching this week (on the 10th and 12th respectively) and both receive an optimisation pass as part of this driver. While they don't incorporate any of the green team's proprietary tech., their action chops demand smooth frame rates and stunning visuals.



In something of a surprise reveal, Bungie's MMO Destiny 2 has NVIDIA Reflex functionality unlocked with this update. Reflex streamlines the graphics pipeline to minimise click-to-screen latency, a feature that's especially important in local and competitive FPS gameplay but perhaps a little less expected with MMO shooters.

NVIDIA claim that adding Reflex improves the game's responsiveness by up to 49%, which is certainly a healthy chunk. Expect the Reflex update to be pushed by Bungie on Nov. 10th.

Finally, four additional monitors have been been certified as part of NVIDIA's G-SYNC Compatible Display program. These Adaptive Sync panels all pass the rigorous validation tests qualifying them as G-SYNC Compatible, offering a 'G-SYNC like' experience without the associated module integrated into the monitor. These displays are:



A total of 98 monitors have now been certified as G-Sync Compatible, the full list of which can be found here. Note that obtuse manufacturer naming schemes can sometimes double-dip on the model number (where one variant is comptible but another isn't) so is in doubt refer to the hardware specification or lodge a query with the retailer if prior to purchase.

You can download the latest drivers for Windows 7 & 10 64-bit through the GeForce Experience app, or directly via NVIDIA's 'Find a Driver' tool. They are compatible with GeForce GPUs as far back as the GTX 600-series, although some features may be restricted to more recent generations of hardware.

Release Notes