NVIDIA are back once again with their third major consumer driver update this month, swiftly following-up last week's release, which enjoyed little fanfare, that enabled support for the GeForce GTX 1650 SUPER. The [url=]GeForce Game Ready 441.41[/url] update not only supports the new GPU, it also implements support for Halo: REACH and recent improvements made to the ray-tracing-enabled Quake II RTX.
Halo Reach is due on PC this December 3rd and, even though the game engine isn't expected to be particularly taxing, stability and high frame rates remain critical to the experience. The Game Ready 441.41 driver are primed for that, and pre-release benchmarking on NVIDIA hardware with them has been distinctly promising. The RTX 2060 SUPER has been clocked offering over 120fps at 4K with max settings, and the RTX 2080 SUPER has allegedly breached 200fps. Your mileage may vary on launch day but there's enough there to be up-beat about this remaster.
Meanwhile, Quake II RTX has been updated to v1.2, incorporating changes to more than 400 textures to improve overall image quality. Textures are now sharper, interactive surfaces such as monitors are now also ray-traced, glass reflections and refracted light are now better represented, and underwater god rays are also rendered. This blog post at nvidia.com covers the whole bevvy of updates including comparison screenshots.
It's now possible to create a 'hall of mirrors' style effect in the enhanced Quake II engine
A demo of Quake II RTX is available on Steam, and - if you own the original game - all its content can be played through using the real-time ray-traced rendering scheme (if you also own an RTX GPU).
In terms of fixed issues, these drivers roll in the improvements made to Red Dead Redemption 2 and Shadow of the Tomb Raider via the 441.34. Newly identified issues include the rather worrying 'V-SYNC does not work' tag, which will no doubt be a strong priority.
In addition to the above, NVIDIA have also tweaked their Image Sharpening tool to also be compatible with Vulkan and OpenGL APIs as well as DirectX. Image Sharpening settings are available in the NVIDIA Control Panel by selecting Manage 3D Settings -> Image Sharpening.
The GeForce Game Ready 441.41 Drivers are available direct from geforce.com/drivers after selecting your system configuration. They are compatible with 64-bit versions of Windows 7 and 10, and support NVIDIA GPUs are far back as the GTX 600-series (Kepler). Alternatively, you can take advantage of the GeForce Experience App's Live Update functionality to download and install the drivers automatically.
Release Notes
What’s New in Version 441.41 WHQL
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 Halo: Reach
The new Game Ready Driver provides the latest performance optimizations, profiles, and bug fixes for Halo: Reach. In addition, this release also provides optimal support for the Quake II RTX v1.2 update which provides exciting quality enhancements for ray tracing and textures.
Image Sharpening Support for Vulkan and OpenGL
Last month, we introduced a new NVIDIA Control Panel Image Sharpening feature that enables GeForce gamers to improve clarity and sharpness in DirectX titles, and to easily upscale and sharpen. With this new Game Ready Driver, this feature is also now available for OpenGL and Vulkan games. To enable Image Sharpening, open NVIDIA Control Panel and select Manage 3D Settings -> Image Sharpening.
Changes and Fixed Issues in Version 441.41
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
[SLI][Red Dead Redemption 2][Vulkan]: The benchmark may crash while running in Vulkan mode with SLI enabled and using Ultra graphics settings. [200565367]
[Red Dead Redemption 2][Vulkan]: Stalling occurs on some systems with 4-core and 6-core CPUs. [2752394]
[Shadow of the Tomb Raider]: The game may crash when launched in DirectX 12 mode. [200566997]
[Forza Horizon 4]: "Low streaming bandwidth" error may occur after extended gameplay. [2750515]
Open Issues in Version 441.41 WHQL
As with every released driver, version 441.41 WHQL of the Release 440 driver has open issues and enhancement requests associated with it. This section includes lists of issues that are either not fixed or not implemented in this version. Some problems listed may not have been thoroughly investigated and, in fact, may not be NVIDIA issues. Others may have workaround solutions.
For notebook computers, issues can be system-specific and may not be seen on your particular notebook.
Windows 10 Issues
[V-Sync]: V-Sync does not work. [2719115]
[Forza Motorsport 7]: Game starts to stutter after racing a few laps [2750611]
[Grand Theft Auto V]: The game frequently crashes.
NVIDIA is working with the application developer to resolve the issue.
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 Halo: Reach
The new Game Ready Driver provides the latest performance optimizations, profiles, and bug fixes for Halo: Reach. In addition, this release also provides optimal support for the Quake II RTX v1.2 update which provides exciting quality enhancements for ray tracing and textures.
Image Sharpening Support for Vulkan and OpenGL
Last month, we introduced a new NVIDIA Control Panel Image Sharpening feature that enables GeForce gamers to improve clarity and sharpness in DirectX titles, and to easily upscale and sharpen. With this new Game Ready Driver, this feature is also now available for OpenGL and Vulkan games. To enable Image Sharpening, open NVIDIA Control Panel and select Manage 3D Settings -> Image Sharpening.
Changes and Fixed Issues in Version 441.41
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
[SLI][Red Dead Redemption 2][Vulkan]: The benchmark may crash while running in Vulkan mode with SLI enabled and using Ultra graphics settings. [200565367]
[Red Dead Redemption 2][Vulkan]: Stalling occurs on some systems with 4-core and 6-core CPUs. [2752394]
[Shadow of the Tomb Raider]: The game may crash when launched in DirectX 12 mode. [200566997]
[Forza Horizon 4]: "Low streaming bandwidth" error may occur after extended gameplay. [2750515]
Open Issues in Version 441.41 WHQL
As with every released driver, version 441.41 WHQL of the Release 440 driver has open issues and enhancement requests associated with it. This section includes lists of issues that are either not fixed or not implemented in this version. Some problems listed may not have been thoroughly investigated and, in fact, may not be NVIDIA issues. Others may have workaround solutions.
For notebook computers, issues can be system-specific and may not be seen on your particular notebook.
Windows 10 Issues
[V-Sync]: V-Sync does not work. [2719115]
[Forza Motorsport 7]: Game starts to stutter after racing a few laps [2750611]
[Grand Theft Auto V]: The game frequently crashes.
NVIDIA is working with the application developer to resolve the issue.
