Nvidia GeForce driver version 466.27 flags mid-May GPU refresh

Nvidia released an updated GeForce graphics card driver on Thursday, version 466.27. The driver was headlined as being optimised to deliver day-one support for the ray tracing and Nvidia DLSS 2.0-enabled Metro Exodus PC Enhanced Edition, as well as Mass Effect Legendary Edition and Resident Evil Village. However, there was something perhaps even more newsworthy mentioned briefly in the release notes – news that a new hash rate limiter was here, and a hint that it will apply to a range of GPUs from mid-May onwards.

Starting with Nvidia's chosen headlining news with regard to the new driver, it adds support for Metro Exodus PC Enhanced Edition, which is due to be released on 6^th May. This edition of the game will be free for all Metro Exodus owners. However, to play it you will need a GPU with hardware ray tracing acceleration. That doesn't just include the GeForce RTX cards now, AMD's Radeon RX 6000 series will fit the bill.

Other games with optimizations in this latest driver are Mass Effect Legendary Edition, launching 14^th May, and Resident Evil Village, launching 7^th May. It is also worth pointing out that driver 466.27 added five new monitors to the G-Sync Compatible displays list.

Lite Hash Rate GPUs incoming

Yesterday HEXUS reported upon the rumours that 'Lite Hash Rate' GPUs were going to be released as direct replacements to the current Ampere consumer cards from mid-May. This very change was later that day hinted at in the release notes for the Nvidia GeForce driver version 466.27.

Above you can see that Nvidia is updating the Hash Rate Limiter on the software side in this new driver and that this limiter and driver support will be necessary for anyone buying a GeForce graphics card which is from any new batch starting mid-May. Nvidia doesn't have to concern itself with worries about old stocks as there aren't any.

According to VideoCardz, the new RTX 3060 12GB cards that are specifically mentioned here will come with a new PCI Device ID of 2504, and a new GPU with codename GA106-302, as was mentioned yesterday.