Nvidia is releasing a new driver update today that will support Microsoft’s DirectX 12 Ultimate and the latest GPU scheduling feature of the Windows 10 May 2020 Update. Nvidia’s DirectX 12 Ultimate support means its latest RTX cards support Microsoft’s latest set of gaming and multimedia APIs, which promise to better unify the feature set and capabilities of Windows gaming with the Xbox platform.
A lot of DirectX 12’s marquee features were already available on RTX GPUs either through existing DirectX 12 APIs or custom frameworks created by NVIDIA. In Wolfenstein: Youngblood, for instance, developer MachineGames used the company’s Adaptive Shading technology to add VRS to its co-operative first-person shooter. There are a couple of noteworthy additions, including support for Microsoft’s latest DirectX Raytracing (DXR) 1.1 API — which will help make it easier for developers to optimize ray tracing performance in their games. But for the most part, DirectX 12 Ultimate is a branding exercise that will help consumers know whether the GPU they’re about to buy will make the latest games look their best. The way NVIDIA sees it, DirectX 12 Ultimate “codifies GeForce RTX’s innovative technologies as the standard for multi-platform, next-gen games.”
Each of the other hardware features supported by the framework will improve your gaming experience. To return to VRS, for example, NVIDIA says the technique can improve performance in Wolfenstein: Youngblood by as much as 20 percent. Other features such as mesh shaders have just as much potential. And now that they’re supported across the board, they’ll become more commonplace.
This new driver also adds support for nine G-Sync-compatible displays, and 12 more games to Nvidia’s one-click optimal settings feature that provides the best game settings for your hardware.
It’s not all good news, though. Nvidia notes that “support for the simultaneous recording and broadcasting of gameplay is not supported” with the latest Windows 10 May 2020 Update. You might want to hold off on the update if this is important to you, otherwise Nivdia says “this will be fixed in a future release.”
The 451.48 WHQL driver is now available over at Nvidia’s driver page or through the GeForce Experience app.
