Nvidia GeForce 331.82 WHQL driver offers 4K gaming boost

Nvidia has updated its WHQL graphics driver package for GeForce GTX users to version 331.82. The green team calls this an “essential update for all GeForce GTX users” and also informs us it is the “game ready driver” for Assassin's Creed IV and Need for Speed Rivals. Alongside this new WHQL driver release Nvidia has included GeForce Experience 1.7.1 which includes the “much anticipated” GeForce ShadowPlay (beta) game recording functionality.

The Nvidia GeForce 331.82 WHQL drivers contain several key updates which could be an essential to you depending upon the games you play. Nvidia will help you get the best gaming experience with new games including Assassins Creed IV: Black Flag and Need for Speed: Rivals with these drivers but also provides performance boosts in many other popular modern games. If you are a 4K gamer running an Nvidia SLI setup you can expect performance increases by as much as 50% in key titles like Metro: Last Light, Crysis 3, and Battlefield 4.

Examples of measured games improvements with the new WHQL drivers and GeForce GTX 770/780/TITAN/780Ti graphics cards are as follows:

Up to 50% in Metro: Last Light
Up to 26% in Crysis 3
Up to 18% in Battlefield 4

Nvidia has also updated SLI profiles for Assassins Creed IV: Black Flag and Natural Selection with an update profile for Path of Exile. A ‘good’ 3D vision profile has also been created for Assassins Creed IV: Black Flag.

As mentioned in the intro, the latest version of the GeForce Experience is bundled with the new WHQL driver. Version 1.7.1 includes two important new features; GeForce ShadowPlay (beta) “a free, fast, easy-to-use, gameplay-recording module that allows you to record video of your gaming’s most exciting moments and share it so the whole world”, and Nvidia GameStream 1.0 for streaming your PC games to your SHIELD handheld console. This just-out-of-beta streaming function supports more routers and more games for a smoother higher quality experience with your SHIELD.

The GeForce Experience now also contains recommended optimal play setting for over 110 games with 20 games supported at 4K resolutions. Nvidia says all future game additions to the program will get such Ultra HD optimal settings.

Finally a more frivolous addition to the GeForce Experience is the GeForce GTX LED Visualizer which lets users control the brightness, flashing, and pattern displays on their LED-equipped NVIDIA GPUs and the SLI Bridge. Conveniently, just in time for Xmas.

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Why are the constantly pushing 4k on us. Honestly it's not to the point where it's decent enough to use, it's an expensive product, and I find my 1080p dual monitor setup to be more of a use than a huge resolution screen. Too early, too much. I can see 4K being used for image creation but for gaming, we really don't need it

soljakwinever
Why are the constantly pushing 4k on us. Honestly it's not to the point where it's decent enough to use, it's an expensive product, and I find my 1080p dual monitor setup to be more of a use than a huge resolution screen. Too early, too much. I can see 4K being used for image creation but for gaming, we really don't need it

As a user of a 2560x1440 display with a 1080p as a secondary I find 1080p to be less useful, I can't really put two windows side by side effectively as there just isn't enough horizontal space, if you start reading blogs or programming then you'll soon be wishing for more vertical space as well.

That said, I'd love to move to 4K but first the price tags have to come down. I can order a 4K TV from china for £500-1000 (and probably will do once I have some money), but because HDMI 2.0 has only recently been released and none of the TVs have displayport I'd be limited to 30fps which is the most HDMI 1.4 will do. If I want 4K @ 60fps I'd have to spend at least £3000 on a monitor from Asus and that's not worth it compared to a huge pile of 1440p monitors for £300 or so each.

The bandwidth limit of HDMI 1.4 means that the display is only really suitable for films and office applications, which is fine but video at least has a lack of 4K content atm so gaming is the best possible use.

Whilst I'm using a two monitors currently, I think I would prefer a continuous larger 4k display than to stick with multiple monitors. Would also get more screen estate in games, although at the moment it is far too expensive - both for the screen and then for the GPUs to handle the resolution.

soljakwinever
Why are the constantly pushing 4k on us. Honestly it's not to the point where it's decent enough to use, it's an expensive product, and I find my 1080p dual monitor setup to be more of a use than a huge resolution screen. Too early, too much. I can see 4K being used for image creation but for gaming, we really don't need it

Hi Pixel density screens are absolutely gorgeous to play on. Go grab an ipad 1 and a nexus 10 and sit them next to each other, even at the same brightness theres no contest. The problem of course is how things scale, which windows isn't great at, and neither are a lot of games (huds in particular).

Nvidia are rather obviously pushing it because it will drive GPU sales. I suspect we're two generations away from mid range cards hitting 4K, but the top end of this generation is getting there, and you'd expect 880/R10 290 (R9 390?) to easily handle it.

I personally won't be buying into 4k…..at 2560x1600 on a 30" I already find it hard to see the difference between AA on and off…..higher resolutions aren't going to make that much difference unless you are talking about a gigantic display…..

As for these drivers, used them last night for BF4 and they worked really well, great performance.

Nvidia GeForce 331.82 WHQL driver offers 4K gaming boost

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