What Are NVIDIA "Game Ready Drivers?"

Summary

The video explains that while Nvidia labels most of their graphics card driver updates as 'game ready', implying big performance boosts for new games, these drivers rarely provide massive improvements. This myth originated with a famous 1990s driver. Now Nvidia works closely with game developers, so performance is already optimized by launch day. Instead of focusing just on framerate boosts, game ready drivers prioritize stability across hardware configurations. They disable problematic features and include game-specific code. So drivers are huge, sometimes still cause issues, and game developers now have more responsibility with DirectX 12.

Takeaways

• 😀 Game ready drivers are marketed to optimize performance for new games, but often don't provide big boosts
• 🤔 Optimization work between Nvidia and game devs happens before launch, so drivers are mainly for stability
• 🧠 Game ready drivers disable features that cause problems to maintain performance across hardware configs
• 😕 Resizable BAR and DLSS are examples of features toggled on/off to optimize stability
• 📉 Nvidia and AMD criticize each other over driver release cadence and stability
• 😯 DirectX 12 shifted responsibility for optimization from GPU vendors to game devs
• 😟 But devs sometimes incorrectly believe they follow the DX12 spec, causing issues
• 😀 Nvidia offers special Studio drivers focused solely on stability for content creators
• 😕 AMD's slower driver releases may increase stability but hotfixes are still needed
• 😉 Optimization responsibility is increasingly on game devs with DX12, but driver tweaks remain vital

Q & A

What was the Detonator driver released by Nvidia in 1998 famous for?

The Detonator driver significantly boosted performance for Nvidia's TNT graphics cards due to optimizations for AMD CPUs in the driver. This set high expectations that new drivers could greatly improve performance.

Why don't modern graphics drivers boost performance as much as the old Detonator driver did?

Nowadays Nvidia works closely with game developers while games are in development to optimize drivers ahead of release. So by the time a game launches, drivers are already well optimized for that game.

How does Nvidia test upcoming game drivers before release?

Nvidia has a regular cadence of sending pre-release drivers to game developers on Mondays. Then Nvidia and the devs collaborate to ensure stability and optimize performance before launch. Nvidia tests drivers on over 4,500 hardware configurations dating back to 2012.

What types of optimizations does Nvidia focus on with game ready drivers?

The focus is mainly on ensuring stability rather than maximizing every last FPS. For example, they may disable certain features known to cause crashes or performance issues on some hardware.

Why can game ready drivers still cause problems even after extensive testing?

Modern GPUs have so many features and options that it's impossible to test every single hardware and software configuration. So issues can still slip through.

How is AMD's approach to drivers different from Nvidia's?

AMD uses a slower release cadence for its WHQL certified Radeon drivers, rather than pushing out frequent game ready drivers like Nvidia. However, AMD drivers have also caused issues at times.

How has DirectX 12 changed things relating to game drivers?

DirectX 12 shifts more responsibility to game developers for getting things right in their engines. But devs can still violate the spec, leading to the need for driver fixes.

Why are modern GPU drivers so large in size?

New game ready drivers contain specific code to optimize each new game. So over time, the drivers accumulate code for all supported games and become huge - up to 1GB.

What are Nvidia Studio drivers designed for?

Studio drivers prioritize stability over new optimizations, so they are geared towards content creators rather than gamers. They are updated less frequently than game ready drivers.

What are some ways Nvidia and AMD have criticized each other regarding drivers?

Nvidia has criticized AMD's slower driver releases. AMD has pointed out issues caused by Nvidia's frequent game ready driver model. There are tradeoffs to each approach.

Outlines

00:00

😊 History of Nvidia's 'Game Ready' drivers

Nvidia's 'Game Ready' drivers originated from a notable performance boost with the Detonator driver for the Riva TNT graphics card in 1998. This set an expectation that new drivers bring major performance gains. However, modern games work closely with Nvidia during development, so big gains from new drivers are less common nowadays. The focus is more on stability than squeezing out extra frames per second.

05:01

😕 Potential downsides to frequent driver updates

Frequent 'Game Ready' driver updates from Nvidia sometimes cause issues, even after extensive testing. This is partly why Nvidia offers less frequent Studio drivers for content creators, prioritizing stability over new optimizations. AMD has criticized Nvidia's pace of updates and has slower driver releases, but AMD drivers also sometimes have problems. Ultimately developers have more control and responsibility with modern APIs like DirectX 12.

Keywords

💡Nvidia

Nvidia is one of the largest graphics card manufacturers. The video discusses Nvidia's 'game ready' graphics drivers, which are supposedly optimized for specific new games on their launch day. However, the video explains that these drivers don't actually provide a massive performance boost for those games.

💡graphics driver

A graphics driver is software that allows the operating system and programs to properly communicate with the graphics card hardware. Nvidia frequently releases updated 'game ready' graphics drivers meant to optimize performance in new games. However, the video argues these don't boost performance as much as people think.

💡optimization

Optimization refers to tweaking software or hardware to maximize performance. The video explains that Nvidia works closely with game developers before launch to optimize drivers for the game. So drivers are already optimized before the 'game ready' version is released.

💡stability

Stability means the software or hardware reliably works without crashes or errors. The video says a main goal of Nvidia's game ready drivers is actually ensuring stability, not maximizing performance.

💡resizable BAR

Resizable BAR is a PCI Express feature that improves GPU memory access. The video uses it as an example of something Nvidia will selectively disable in drivers if it causes stability issues on certain hardware.

💡DirectX 12

DirectX 12 is a graphics API that gives game developers more low-level control. The video says it has shifted optimization responsibility from GPU vendors like Nvidia to game developers.

💡hotfix

A hotfix is a quick software patch released to fix a specific problem. The video says hotfix drivers that target particular issues will still be needed due to mistakes by game developers using DirectX 12.

💡WHQL certification

WHQL refers to driver testing and certification done by Microsoft. The video notes AMD releases drivers less frequently but puts them through more rigorous WHQL certification testing.

💡release cadence

Release cadence refers to how frequently software updates are released. The video contrasts Nvidia's frequent game ready driver releases with AMD's slower and more thoroughly tested driver releases.

💡API

API stands for application programming interface. The video discusses how the transition to DirectX 12 graphics API has shifted more optimization responsibility to game developers instead of GPU vendors.

Highlights

Misconception about Nvidia driver performance boosts dates back to 1998 Detonator driver

Nowadays developers work closely with Nvidia, so big driver performance gains are rare

Nvidia has contacts at major game studios and sends pre-release drivers to developers

Game ready drivers focus on stability, e.g. disabling features that reduce performance

Tweaks often apply to entire product stacks, not individual GPU models

Modern GPU drivers are huge due to game-specific optimization code

Nvidia offers Studio drivers focused on stability for content creators

AMD has criticized Nvidia's frequent driver updates, touts benefits of slower cadence

Transition to DirectX 12 has shifted optimization burden more to game developers

DirectX 12 allows devs to violate spec when they think they're following it

Hotfix drivers targeting specific games are still needed despite DirectX 12

Slower driver cadence not a perfect solution either, AMD has had issues too

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Transcripts

if you've got an Nvidia graphics card

you may have noticed that the majority

of their driver updates are labeled as

game ready drivers with the idea being

that in addition to Bringing General

updates that benefit everyone these

drivers are optimized for a specific new

game and are released very near or even

on the game's launch day but guess what

with a few exceptions downloading the

latest driver for your graphics card

probably isn't going to give you a

massive performance boost even in that

new game huh so what are they they

actually do well we'll get to that but

first a quick history nugget it turns

out this misconception about performance

goes all the way back to the days of the

Reva TNT an Nvidia product from 1998

there was a famous driver for the Reva

TNT called Detonator that actually did

boost performance significantly due to

the inclusion of optimizations for AMD

CPUs that previous drivers lacked this

was great press for NVIDIA but

unfortunately it ended up setting

setting an expectation that drivers

would be some kind of Silver Bullet for

performance issues the issue with that

is they're usually not and a big part of

the reason it's rare to see big

performance jumps with new drivers these

days is that devs work closely with

Nvidia while the game is in development

this isn't to say you never see

significant performance increases with

new NVIDIA drivers but it's not as

common as you might think especially as

tweaks to the drivers are often made

with specific games in mind well before

launch meaning that if you've updated

your drivers with any regularity there's

a good chance your game will perform

just fine even if you're not yet using

the specific game ready driver for that

game Nvidia has over an 80% market share

in the discrete GPU market so it

probably isn't a surprise that they have

plenty of contacts at Major game studios

there's actually a regular Cadence where

Nvidia sends out pre-release drivers to

developers on Mondays and from there

there's back and forth between the game

developers and the Nvidia folks to get

things to play as nicely as possible

before launch day and while Nvidia can't

possibly test every single Hardware

configuration they do have over 4500

combinations they test that go all the

way back to 2012 as of the time this

video was shot in case you were

wondering this is how they figure out

what the optimal settings for your PC

are in GeForce experience but enough

context already what specifically about

these drivers do they tweak before

release we'll tell you right after we

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off rather than pushing drivers to

squeeze every possible frame per second

from an upcoming game the general

approach with game ready drivers is to

ensure stability for example Nvidia has

outright disabled resizable bar support

for certain games as it actually caused

performance degradation with certain

Hardware configurations something that

notably happened with Hitman world of

assassination where Nvidia turned off

the feature on systems with Intel CPUs

to prevent a performance hit but if you

had an AMD CPU in left resizable bar on

because it wasn't causing performance

issues that's not fair not only that

tweaks like this tend to be for an

entire product stack so for example if

there's a problem with an optional

feature that's being seen with a lot of

RTX 480s it's often switched off for the

entire love lace architecture instead of

creating a situation where that feature

has to get retested on a per card basis

for every subsequent driver release and

of course resizable bar is just one of a

huge number of levers Nvidia can pull

dlss other AI features and the actual

Cuda cores themselves all need to be

able to support a massive number of

games which is part of the reason modern

GPU drivers have gotten so huge your new

game ready driver has specific code

describing how to behave when you're

playing this specific new game Nvidia

has actually tried to strip out

unnecessary components to get driver

sizes down from around a gigabyte to

around 600 megabytes which is still

pretty gigantic and with all of those

variables game ready drivers still can

and sometimes do cause issues even after

extensive testing this is part of the

reason Nvidia also offers Studio drivers

geared toward even greater stability for

Content creators which aren't pushed out

as frequently as game ready drivers the

issues that game ready drivers sometimes

face are a possible point in favor of

amd's slower release Cadence for its

whql certified radon drivers and

something that the two companies have

publicly critici ized each other on of

course AMD has also had issues with its

drivers at times with their anti-ag plus

feature causing Gamers to run into

problems with anti-che software in late

2023 standing out as an example so

slower cadences aren't necessarily a

perfect solution either and the

industry's transition towards the

directx12 API has actually shifted more

of the onus for getting things right

towards the game developers and away

from GPU companies the intent behind

this is to give Developers more control

over their own game engines but an

unintended and common consequence has

been that devs can violate the directx12

spec when they actually believe they're

following it so I wouldn't expect those

hot fix drivers that Target a specific

problem to go away anytime soon it's not

exactly like trillion dollar companies

can't make mistakes hey thanks for

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