GeForce Game Ready Driver 397.64 Released

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rgMekanic

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NVIDIA has released the new GeForce Game Ready Driver, version 397.64 today. The new driver brings SLI profiles for Kingdom Come: Deliverance, and GRIP, as well as

Provides the optimal gaming experience for Destiny 2: Warmind, Conan Exiles, and Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire.

You can grab the new driver here, and check out the full release notes here.

Hopefully these ones are a little more "ready" than the last ones.
 
The most interesting part of this update for me is the information that the Destiny 2 expansion launched, I mean I haven't played in a while but I did get the season pass, they really have not hyped this expansion at all...
 
I'll wait a week. I have a 1080 and a 1060 pushing pixels 26,726,400 to five monitors, lots of opportunity for NVidia to screw up ... again.
(Perhaps they spent too long as undisputed king of the heap and got cocky.)

P.S. what does it take to get hardware accelleration to not screw up in Microsoft Office?
Clearly, having the latest series of GPUs and the latest drivers isn't enough.
 
Much better install this time on my sig rig and they actually installed on my Surface Book 2, the last ones just refused to install though the hot fix version did.
 
lostin3d said:
Woohoo! SLI for KCD. Can't wait to install and try 'em out. For those one or two people out there still using SLI I'll let you know what happens.
Click to expand...

SLI gets debated a lot these days. Of course it's not cost effective but can make a difference with the right game and resolution. I plan on sticking with it, if for no other reason I kind of need the ports.
 
pcgeekesq said:
I'll wait a week. I have a 1080 and a 1060 pushing pixels 26,726,400 to five monitors, lots of opportunity for NVidia to screw up ... again.
(Perhaps they spent too long as undisputed king of the heap and got cocky.)
Click to expand...

Right, one bug that affected one model of card in 4-5 years of otherwise smooth sailing updates = driver team must've just gotten "cocky". SMH.

Anyhoo my 1060's are working flawlessly with this driver.
 
Driver install went fine for me but I had to wait for today's latest MS updates(May cumultative and malicious software tool) do their thing first. Just did a quick KCD test on my two remaining SLI rigs. Basically I just set everything to Ultra/max draw distances/motion blur off/v-sync on/fov 75.

G1 1080 SLI rig @ 4096x2160 avg'd 40-50 fps, 5-6GB(a nice safe zone for the 1080's 8GB), 20-30% load on both cards. I still have to check if this is using the same profile the newer CryEngine 3 games use but it seemed like a better load balancing but I'm not totally sure yet. Game does look amazing with these settings though on my LG 31". I feel confident with some minor tinkering(shaders) I get easily get up into the 60fps realm with most ultra settings.

MSI GT80 980m SLI laptop @ 1080p avg'd 30-36 fps, still need to update afterburner for vram usage #'s, 60-70% load on both cards. DItto for needing to check about the profile. At 1080p on the 17.4" screen some distance details are definitely lost. Ultra really unneccessary for 1080p but back when I still had my G1 970 SLI in my desktop they often had near exact same FPS(980m's were couple less). So any one still holding onto their 970's should expect similar performance.
 
Denpepe said:
Nvidia drivers for the last 2 years orso have been pretty hit and miss, hence the semi regular hotfix drivers needed.
Click to expand...
I totally agree. The last 2-4 years have left me cringing sometimes. I couldn't resist the bate for these and at the moment all seems o.k. If you're not doing SLI KCD I doubt their 'optimal gaming experience' will amount to much. I took the plunge for Conan last night and it was averaging 120-160 fps on my 1080TI rig in 1440p so not exactly a demanding game. Don't know about Destiny or Grip though.
 
DPI said:
Anyhoo my 1060's are working flawlessly with this driver.
Click to expand...
Good to hear. I make my living off my workstation, so I'll let others beta-test the drivers.
I don't game anymore, so I don't really need them.
 
Any idea if these are good for folding? I'm still running 372.90 for my 1080's.
 
DPI said:
Right, one bug that affected one model of card in 4-5 years of otherwise smooth sailing updates = driver team must've just gotten "cocky". SMH..
Click to expand...

4 or 5 years smooth sailing? have you been living under a rock? Nvidia's drivers have been very poor for the last few years.
 
Lakados said:
The most interesting part of this update for me is the information that the Destiny 2 expansion launched, I mean I haven't played in a while but I did get the season pass, they really have not hyped this expansion at all...
Click to expand...
Word is they just reused campaign missions from the base game to make new strikes and stuff. PS4 appears to be the only platform that got something new. People are pissed. And they expect we'll go for a "Season 2" pass after this shit?
 
reaper12 said:
4 or 5 years smooth sailing? have you been living under a rock? Nvidia's drivers have been very poor for the last few years.
Click to expand...

My personal experience has been for a while is that they can be inconsistent, particularly in the install process. With the WHQL version before this one, I again had the drivers hang while trying to install the 3D Vision driver. I was able to work around it each of about the 4 or 5 times I can recall in the last year but I'd never seen that before until the last year. And prior drivers refused to install on my Surface Book 2, which is officially supported and that's the second time that's happened in just two months. On both occasions with the SB2 problem, a hot fix driver was released within a week that resolved the install issue.

When installed however, I can't say I've experienced many issues though. The only operational issue I know about is that the last versions broke 4k full screen playback in the Windows 10 Netflix app. Strange because 4k full screen playback worked fine in Edge during that time. These drivers seemed to fix that. Not the hugest deal but 5.1 is only supported in the app.

It's like anything else when it comes to complex tech and individual experiences, they can vary. But I'd say the install process has been a bit off from normal just because I've seen the same problem pop up, then get fixed, then pop up again with the two install issues I just described.
 
Hopefully it resolves an issue I've had lately, where the nvidia container (32 bit) doesn't close after I exit a game, and after jumping between divinity original sin 2 and far cry 5 a few times, neither will launch with various errors all related to the device not being available. Killing all the leftover nvidia containers in task manager lets me play again, but this was a new phenomenon with 397.31 for me.
 
I should probably update my GPU driver one of these days. I probably haven't touched mine in over a year.

I've been playing mostly older titles lately, so I haven't had as much of a need to grab the latest game optimizations. The last newish games I played were Fallout 4, Deus Ex Mankind Divided and Civilization 6.

I am currently enjoying 2017's Prey though, so maybe I ought to actually grab some more recent drivers... I've been in "if it ain't broke" mode for too long now.
 
lostin3d said:
Woohoo! SLI for KCD. Can't wait to install and try 'em out. For those one or two people out there still using SLI I'll let you know what happens.
Click to expand...


I am interested in what you get. I need Moar GPU for KCD on my monitor. I have access to a second 980Ti, and I would like to know what kind of increases you get. I want more frames and more eye candy! Well, maybe can't have more eye candy, already using 5.5GB of the 6GB of vram. I'll settle for more frames :)
 
Zarathustra[H] said:
I've been in "if it ain't broke" mode for too long now.
Click to expand...


yeah.. i have been meaning to grab the latest firmware update for my washing machine for some time now....

*snickers*


but seriously.. just imagine if all our day to day devices required the constant onslaught of patches and learning new interfaces. yesterday.. the main knob on the washing machine turned to the left.. after todays update, you have to learn how it now turns to the right for the same functions, which have of course been re-organized, to better help with the work flow.. according to a study group. Causing you to have to spend some time relearning it.. and all you want to do is a damn load of laundry
 
DPI said:
Right, one bug that affected one model of card in 4-5 years of otherwise smooth sailing updates = driver team must've just gotten "cocky". SMH.

Anyhoo my 1060's are working flawlessly with this driver.
Click to expand...
That is honestly an extremely ignorant comment. I guess you lived under a rock for the last couple years as pretty much every Nvidia driver has had a hotfix driver come out right after to fix stuff they keep screwing up left and right.
 
DPI said:
Right, one bug that affected one model of card in 4-5 years of otherwise smooth sailing updates = driver team must've just gotten "cocky". SMH.

Anyhoo my 1060's are working flawlessly with this driver.
Click to expand...

Nah, Nvidia's consumer drivers have had problems across the board ever since 372.54, the first WDDM 2.1 drivers, affecting hardware models across the board.

Starting with 372.54, suddenly my Pascal Titan X started to have initialization issues defaulting back to VESA/VGA mode at boot, something which wasn't solved for like 8 months.

In that same time period I've heard of many more driver issues from other people with other models of Nvidia GPU's than I ever did before 372.54.

My only concluicon is that something changed with Nvidias WDDM 2.1 drivers. Maybe a new team? Maybe a changed software development process? I have no idea. But something is different, and not in the good way.
 
heatlesssun said:
SLI gets debated a lot these days. Of course it's not cost effective but can make a difference with the right game and resolution. I plan on sticking with it, if for no other reason I kind of need the ports.
Click to expand...

I think more goes into it. Without wanting the absolute best and fastest out there (high end enthusiasts...) and just wanting more performance, people might be more inclined to buy a second GPU and go SLI instead of going for a much higher end and more expensive single GPU. It's better to start with the higher end card. However, if you already have a 1060 for example, it'd be fine to buy another one for SLI instead of tossing it and going with a 1070Ti.

Cost vs. return.
 
Ur_Mom said:
I think more goes into it. Without wanting the absolute best and fastest out there (high end enthusiasts...) and just wanting more performance, people might be more inclined to buy a second GPU and go SLI instead of going for a much higher end and more expensive single GPU. It's better to start with the higher end card. However, if you already have a 1060 for example, it'd be fine to buy another one for SLI instead of tossing it and going with a 1070Ti.

Cost vs. return.
Click to expand...

I agree that SLI can be un upgrade path on lower end hardware. The 1060s don't support SLI I think. So going to two 1070s, that's a lot GPU power where it might make sense to add a second card, if you have the right games.
 
heatlesssun said:
SLI gets debated a lot these days. Of course it's not cost effective but can make a difference with the right game and resolution. I plan on sticking with it, if for no other reason I kind of need the ports.
Click to expand...

Maybe I just don't play the right games, but I have had both Crossfire and SLI systems over the years, and I have never played a title inin whi it helped me over a single GPU.

I had dual 3 slot Asus DirectCU II Radeon 6970's back in 2010, and I was so disappointed that I upgraded to a single 7970 upon its launch.

Likewise I had dual 980ti's in 2015, but I was so disappointed I upgraded to a single Pascal Titan X upon launch.

I found that while average framerates certainly went up, it was only because the dual GPU solution ran away with the framerate during simple scenes, when you didn't need the performance anyway as you were already way above 60fps. Whenever you needednthe extra performance the most, when the scenes became more demanding - however - in my experience the performance was no better than a single GPU, resulting in minimum framerates that were not improved at all.

I have for a long time judged GPU solutions entirely by their minimum framerates. The average FPS to me is just for Dyno Queens.

Not only did my experiments with dual GPU's not typically result in useful improved performance, but they also came with all the problems that affect SLI, including game crashes, incompatibilities, micro-stutter and increased input lag.

The first time I did it I just blindly bought a second 6970 because I believed the over simplified "two is better than one" mentality. When I got the 980ti's I justified it by that I kept hearing SLI was better than crossfire, and besides, 5 years had passed, things must have gotten better.

Now I know better. I will never go multi-GPU again, even if both those GPU's are on the same card. Actually, ESPECIALLY if they are.
Instead I'll spend the extra money I would have spent on the second GPU on better cooling and try to squeeze more of an overclock out of it...

...which is why I now have a custom water loop.
 
Zarathustra[H] said:
Maybe I just don't play the right games, but I have had both Crossfire and SLI systems over the years, and I have never played a title inin whi it helped me over a single GPU.
Click to expand...

I've played a number of games in the last couple of years that got a nice and noticeable boost from SLI, Battlefield 1, Gears of War 4, Rise of the Tomb Raider and most recently Far Cry 5. In my case, I kind of need two cards just for the ports unless I go with a non-reference design and considering how hard parts are to get right now, two cards are just easier.

SLI isn't something I'd recommend unless one is going for top end cards and wants some more horsepower when available or needs ports or some other specific concern. I just don't see it as a useless waste of money.
 
just installed this driver and my 980ti is crashing in gta v with ERR_GFX_D3D_INIT error after ???30min???

first time i've seen that
 
d3athf1sh said:
just installed this driver and my 980ti is crashing in gta v with ERR_GFX_D3D_INIT error after ???30min???
Click to expand...
Only time I've seen that error is when a particular game doesn't like my OC settings on my GPU. KCD gave me a slew of 'em when it first launched. For awhile I couldn't use any of my OC profiles until they got some patches out. Don't know what they fixed but it doesn't happen anymore. Considering GTA's age at this point going back to which ever previous driver you were using might be the only option. If NV broke something now I doubt RS is going to put out an update for it, but maybe they will.

I did some testing with my 1080ti/1440p rig and the 1080 SLI/4k. No problems with either so far. Played Conan for around 4 hours on each and KCD about 2 hours on the SLI rig.

Looked via NV profile inspector and the SLI profile is different. For those playing Hunt Showdown on a SLI rig I'd recommend perhaps trying this one on it and see if it helps since I think both use nearly identical versions of CryEngine.

In terms of performance on the SLI rig with 4k well, it's interesting. Testing area is roaming the countryside around the monastery and the 1080's are clocked ~2000+mhz. As I mentioned before the average was 40-50fps or something similar with all smaa x4/ultra/max distances/v-sync on. Vram was more or less 6GB. I turned SMAA off and gained around 5 fps. Vram still hung in 5-5.5GB range. Not as much of a drop as I'd expect. GPU usage dropped to around 10-15%. Since the performance gain between off and x4 smaa wasn't that significant I set it back to x4. I then did the well known trick of turning shaders to high. This brought averages of 50-55, dips in the 40's, and peaks of 60+. All 'n' all a pretty sweet spot for 4k ultra gaming and visually the game looks amazing at this point.

Conan, well it's a mixed bag of results on the 1080TI rig with this driver. Honestly hadn't tested enough prior to know if its the driver or how they're using Unreal. Has a very annoying glitch. Pulling up some of the in-game menus will regularly cause the screen to reinitialize. Afterwards FPS will cut in half or more. I.E. I go from 80-140fps to 30-60fps. Alt-Ent will fix it, but it kind of sucks when in the early stages of setting things up. BTW Conan doesn't have SLI support and the AFR2 didn't really offer any noticeable gains either. Strange thing is I didn't see the menu issue on the SLI rig-go figure.
 
alxlwson said:
So what's the word?
Click to expand...
lostin3d said:
Looked via NV profile inspector and the SLI profile is different. For those playing Hunt Showdown on a SLI rig I'd recommend perhaps trying this one on it and see if it helps since I think both use nearly identical versions of CryEngine.

In terms of performance on the SLI rig with 4k well, it's interesting. Testing area is roaming the countryside around the monastery and the 1080's are clocked ~2000+mhz. As I mentioned before the average was 40-50fps or something similar with all smaa x4/ultra/max distances/v-sync on. Vram was more or less 6GB. I turned SMAA off and gained around 5 fps. Vram still hung in 5-5.5GB range. Not as much of a drop as I'd expect. GPU usage dropped to around 10-15%. Since the performance gain between off and x4 smaa wasn't that significant I set it back to x4. I then did the well known trick of turning shaders to high. This brought averages of 50-55, dips in the 40's, and peaks of 60+. All 'n' all a pretty sweet spot for 4k ultra gaming and visually the game looks amazing at this point.
Click to expand...

Basically it's a little smoother than just running the crysis 3 profile to force SLI. Performance is almost the same. Those who have 1080's or higher can expect a near 60fps/4k with only dialing back shaders to high. Some dips in the 40's but avg around 55. TBH ever since the HD pack performance really leveled out quite a bit. Things really do look great in 4k and if you've got the hardware I recommend setting the distances to max.
 
heatlesssun said:
SLI gets debated a lot these days. Of course it's not cost effective but can make a difference with the right game and resolution. I plan on sticking with it, if for no other reason I kind of need the ports.
Click to expand...

I have wound up being disappointed every time I have gone multi-GPU. It doesn't matter if it is two GPU's on the same board or on multiple video cards, or if it is AMD's crossfire or Nvidia's SLI. It has always just sucked in every title I have cared about.

Many titles broken for months after release if they ever get proper support, increased input lag due to AFR, stutter, you name it.

Worst of all - however - is that while average FPS does go up considerably, I have found that going to multiple GPU's have a very small impact on minimum FPS, which is what really matters.

I don't think I'd ever do it again. I'd spend $3k on a TitanV before I'd ever go SLI again.
 
Private_Ops said:
My 1050ti is working fine, not updating for games I don't play.
Click to expand...

nVidia says "if it ain't broke don't fix it" but then they said (in the same paragraph) "If your NVIDIA based graphics card is a newer model, it is recommended that you update your graphic card drivers regularly to get the best performance and experience from your PC."

:confused::bucktooth::meh::LOL:
 
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