Items tagged with drivers
Every so often NVIDIA will push out a hotfix driver to address certain issues before its next regular driver release. Now is one of those times. Call it a Thanksgiving treat if you will, but NVIDIA's GeForce 496.98 hotfix driver squashes a handful of bugs, and notably some that could otherwise result in your PC crashing or displaying a black screen during the holiday (and beyond). Bear in mind that installing a hotfix driver is not mandatory by any stretch. If you're not affected by any of the issues outlined in the release notes, you're better off just waiting for the next regular driver release. The same bug fixes will be included anyway. However, if you are affected by any of the issues, having...
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Battlefield 2042 is now just a week away from launching, and if you're planning to play, be on the lookout for hardware driver updates that could improve the experience. Specifically, GPU driver updates. To that end, AMD is pushing out is Radeon Software Adrenalin 21.11.2 driver package, and with it comes some purportedly sizable performance gains in EA's upcoming shooter. AMD often provides performance claims for whatever title or multiple games a driver release is optimized for, though sometimes just for a single graphics card. This time, however, AMD offered up some numbers for three of its desktop graphics cards based on RDNA 2. In all three cases, AMD is promising double-digit performance...
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AMD is pushing out an updated Radeon Software Adrenalin Edition driver package (version 21.11.1), and if you're planning to play Forza Horizon 5 when it comes out next week, you'll want to grab this one. That is, if you're rocking a Radeon graphics card, of course. If so, this driver update brings with it some under-the-hood tuning to significantly improve performance in the racing sim. According to the release notes, the 21.11.1 driver package boosts performance by up to a whopping 23 percent when playing Forza Horizon 5 at a 4K resolution and with the Extreme Settings option. That performance claim is linked specifically to the Radeon RX 6800 XT, and is compared to the previously driver release...
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It doesn't matter which graphics card you own, chances are, there's a driver update available that is tuned for Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy. We wrote about NVIDIA's 'Game Ready' 496.49 WHQL driver update just a little bit ago, but if you own a Radeon graphics card, don't fret—there's a new Radeon Software Adrenalin Edition driver update available as well (version 21.10.3). AMD's driver team put in work optimizing the latest GPU driver package to wring more performance out of Guardians of the Galaxy, which dropped today, versus the standing pat on the previous driver version. Not just a small bump, either—AMD is claiming that updating to the latest driver alone will boost performance...
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Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy is out now on game consoles and PC, and if you aim to play on the latter with a GeForce graphic card, note that NVIDIA has a 'Game Ready' driver update on tap. NVIDIA's latest GPU driver—version 496.49 WHQL—is prepped and primed for Square Enix's just-released game, as well as a handful of other titles. It also squashes a few bugs, one of which will make owners of LG's C1-series OLED TVs happy as a clam (assuming clams are actually happy). One advantage PC players have over their console brethren is they can play Guardians of the Galaxy at up to an 8K resolution in HDR. Theoretically, anyway—you'll need a monster PC to support 8K gaming. However,...
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It's October 5th, which means Windows 11 is out. Naturally, that's set off a chain reaction of other release both hardware and software. Drivers could reasonably be mentioned in either category, though. Yeah, anyway—there's a new Radeon driver for Windows 11. Radeon Software Adrenalin 21.10.1 is out and has official support for Windows 11. That's not all, though; it also brings up to a 13% performance improvement in Far Cry 6 and 11% uplift in PUBG when playing that game using DirectX 12. Medieval fantasy battle royale Naraka: Bladepoint also gets unspecified official support, as does the open beta for Battlefield 2042. This release should reduce the idle memory clock on Radeon cards with...
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Heads up for anyone running an AMD build, there is a new chipset driver update available, and you're going to want to install it. The update patches a vulnerability that could allow a user with low privileges to access uninitialized physical memory pages that potential contain sensitive information, including passwords. The vulnerability is tracked as CVE-2021-26333. In a security advisory, AMD explained that the flaw resides in the Platform Security Processor (PSP) chipset driver, and recommends either updating through Windows Update (which bumps the PSP driver to 5.17.0.0) or applying a newer chipset driver (version 3.08.17.735 or later). Security researcher Kyriakos Economou discovered the...
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Surprising as it may seem, Intel is the first company to release a stable (read: not beta) graphics driver tuned for Windows 11, beating both AMD and NVIDIA to the punch. This kind of aggressive push bodes well for Intel's efforts to infiltrate the modern discrete GPU market, and as far as gamers are concerned, specifically its Xe-HPG part. Just to be clear, the driver Intel just released is not for its upcoming lineup of discrete graphics cards, like the DG2 card for gaming. instead, the WDDM 3.0-compliant driver is for various integrated graphics solutions, dating back to ones found on its 6th Gen Core and related Pentium Silver and Celeron processors. That also includes its newest integrated...
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Anyone who owns a graphics card based on AMD's Graphics Core Next (GCN) architecture may want to seek comfort in Willie Nelson singing, "Turn out the lights, the party's over." Why is that? Starting with the latest Radeon Software Adrenalin release (version 21.6.1), a wide range of GCN cards are officially classified as legacy GPUs and no longer supported by AMD. Hey, it was good long run for GCN, but as the Red Headed Stranger also sang, "All good things must end." The last supported driver release for affected GCN models is the previous Radeon Software Adrenalin 21.5.2 package, which AMD pushed out a little over a month ago. "This change enables AMD to dedicate valuable engineering resources...
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Today is a pretty big day for gamers on the go—it marks the launch of GeForce RTX 30 series laptops sporting the company's latest generation Ampere GPUs, in mobile form. And right on cue, NVIDIA has released a driver update and a bolstered version of its GeForce Experience utility, the latter of which brings support for WhisperMode 2.0. There is a bit to unpack there. Let's start with the laptop GPUs, of which there are three main versions: GeForce RTX 3080, GeForce RTX 3070, and GeForce RTX 3060. Each one can be configured to different power profiles and clockspeeds by the OEMs. And if you are curious what to expect, have a look at our GeForce RTX 3080 laptop performance preview, as well...
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Virtual assassins will be pleased to know that Hitman 3 is now available, and if you plan to play on PC, it is available exclusive in the Epic Games Store. The latest entry wraps up the World of Assassination trilogy. And if you happen to be gaming on a Radeon RX 6800 XT graphics card, AMD's latest GPU driver promises a big performance boost. According to the release notes, the Radeon Software Adrenalin 2020 Edition 21.1.1 driver release (what a mouthful) provides up to a 10 percent performance gain in Hitman 3, when playing at a 4K resolution with the visual quality settings configured to Ultra. That is a significant jump. It's not clear what kinds of gains can be had on other Radeon SKUs, but...
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NVIDIA is pushing out a new 'Game Ready' driver for its GeForce GPUs (WHQL 456.55), and with it comes Reflex support for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and Call of Duty: Warzone, along with optimizations for Star Wars: Squadrons. The GPU maker also claims its latest driver "improves stability in certain games on RTX 30 series GPUs" as well. Consider yourself lucky if you managed to pick up a GeForce RTX 3080 or GeForce RTX 3090 (and have not been running into any issues with cheap capacitors). Those cards are in super high demand, and as a result, NVIDIA and its retail partners quickly sold out of initial inventories, leading to silly prices on eBay. More supply will come, of course, as well as...
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Support for an interesting feature has recently found its way into the latest graphics drivers from NVIDIA, and now from AMD as well. It is called hardware accelerated GPU scheduling, and in theory, it could improve the performance of select graphics cards when playing certain games. AMD has added support for the feature in its latest Radeon Software Adrenalin 2020 Edition 20.5.1 beta driver. There are some caveats that accompany the feature, one of which is when and where it applies. Not only do users need the latest graphics driver, they must also have the May 2020 Update for Windows 10 applied. In addition, this only works on a handful of graphics cards. "AMD is excited to provide beta support...
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NVIDIA's driver team is pushing out a hotfix for users who are experiencing unusual levels of brightness in games when HDR is enabled, with the latest GeForce 'Game Ready' 445.87 driver release. The hotfix bumps up the driver version to 445.98, and also addresses a few other niggling issues, like instability in Overwatch. Hotfix releases are entirely optional, but can also be a boon if experiencing issues they are designed to address. All of the fixes in the 445.98 hotfix will be rolled into the next Game Ready driver release anyway, and while you can sit back and wait if you wish, having access to the hotfix driver means you can benefit from certain bug fixes right away. Here are the ones the...
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Windows 10 users have been encountering more problems with updates in recent months, with the optional KB4535996 causing the most recent problems. However, some Windows 10 users have also been facing issues when manually installing drivers, which has prompted a warning from Microsoft. We're not talking about drivers that are downloaded and installed automatically from Windows Update; this specifically pertains to drivers that you have downloaded directly from a device maker and choose to install yourself. Updated drivers are the lifeblood to keeping your system running at peak performance, and can provide critical boosts to performance or enhancements to security. So, anything that...
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AMD has gone all-in with 7-nanometer manufacturing, with both its Zen 2 CPU and Navi GPU architectures being built on a 7nm node. And for the most part, the move to 7nm has served the company well. There is just one hiccup—a growing chorus of Radeon RX 5700 and Radeon RX 5700 XT owners are complaining of black screen issues. This does not appear to be an issue with the node itself or any kind of faulty hardware, and instead is very likely tied to sloppy driver code. AMD has even acknowledged the issue in some of its Radeon Software Adrenalin 2020 Edition driver releases. "Some Radeon RX 5700 series graphics users may intermittently experience a black screen while gaming or on desktop. A...
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As we approach the end of the calendar year, we will also wave goodbye to the 2019 Edition of AMD's Radeon Software Adrenalin Edition, which will be updated to a 2020 release. We know this because logic dictates as much, and also because advertising banners are already showing up for the next major release of AMD's GPU driver ecosystem. So, it is fair to say AMD is teasing its Radeon Software Adrenalin Edition 2020 release, whether on purpose or by mistake. Whatever the case, the banners were spotted by Reddit forum member PKBeam64, as well as Twitter user Blaze (@BlazeK_AMDRT). pic.twitter.com/4ZyGHgYruF — Blaze (@BlazeK_AMDRT) December 7, 2019 There's not much in the way of details, though...
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Unlike a few years ago, GPU makers are not really pushing the use of multiple graphics cards, at least not as heavily as they once were. Even so, NVIDIA has not abandoned the technology. Incidentally, recent driver releases seem to support a checkerboard rendering scheme that can improve performance on SLI setups. This is not a brand new technique. The developers of Rainbow Six Siege used it as a form of anti-aliasing. In addition, Sony added hardware to the PlayStation 4 Pro to support checkerboard rendering. And if you go all the way back to 1993, Doom used a similar technique in the low detail mode. As for NVIDIA, 3DCenter forum member Blaire wrote up a post on his discovery of a checkerboard...
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It'd be a gross understatement to say that retro gaming has experienced something of a renaissance in recent years. Nintendo's NES Classic and SNES Classic mini-consoles or the Switch Online's NES and SNES catalogs might be the first thing that comes to mind when you think about older games, but the House of Mario is hardly alone. Sony stumbled into the retro scene last year, and both the Sega Genesis and NEC TurboGrafx-16 (by way of rights-holder Konami) will get their respective official love letters shortly. We'd be remiss, however, if we didn't think about the technology at the heart of all of these fun old games—good old software-based emulation. If it wasn't for SNES9x or Gens,...
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Intel is pushing out a new graphics driver with support for integer scaling, a feature that could come in handy when playing retro video games. Appropriately enough, Intel is calling the feature "Retro Scaling" in its Graphics Command Center utility. This is intended to make classic (read: old) PC games render better on today's higher resolution displays. "We're listening to our community. You wanted a way to experience pixel-art games at their best so we created Retro Scaling. Enhance the latest indie releases and timeless classics so they look their best on modern HD displays," Intel explains. At its best, Retro Scaling can take a blurry or fuzzy image and restore the graphics to their pixelated...
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There are two main trains of thought when it comes to updating drivers. One is to always install them right away to ensure you are protected from the latest threats, and that everything is working as intended. The second is to wait a bit to make sure there are not any unintended side effects, like sending your system into a reboot loop (it happens). If you prescribe to the latter philosophy and own a GeForce GPU, you may still want to go ahead and install the latest driver package rather than wait any longer. NVIDIA began pushing out its GeForce 430.64 WHQL driver package last Thursday (May 9), which delivered 'Game Ready' optimizations for Rage 2, Total War: Three Kingdoms, and World War Z,...
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NVIDIA has launched a new set of graphics drivers aimed specifically at creators who use programs like Adobe Photoshop and Blender Cycles. Appropriately called "Creator Ready" drivers, these will exist alongside NVIDIA's "Game Ready" driver packages that are optimized for gaming and often tuned for the latest game releases. Similar to how AMD maintains two separate sets of graphics drivers—regular and Pro version of its Radeon Software Adrenalin Edition—NVIDIA now has two sets as well. Both contain the full feature set and application support for games, so users can choose either driver they wish, depending on which they do more often—play games or create content. The primary...
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