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.