GeForce 425.31 drivers bring DXR to the general public



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So, you're curious about this "RTX" thing but not enough to spend money on an RTX-compatible graphics card that may not be a huge update to your existing card. Do not worry, Nvidia would like to inform you that its latest GeForce driver (version 425.31) adds support for Microsoft DirectX Raytracing (DXR) to ten additional graphics cards, allowing you to enjoy the technology without the need A RTX card. You can view the list of supported cards below. Oh yes, the new drivers are also "Game Ready" for Anno 1800, in case you'd like that.

Image: Nvidia

Here is a brief summary of this list: in principle, each Nvidia graphics processor released in the last two years and faster than the GeForce GTX 1060 6 GB model now supports the DXR format. This includes both desktop and laptop variants of GPUs. Nvidia takes care to use the term "DXR" rather than "RTX". Obviously, these chips did not magically spawn the RTX acceleration hardware of their younger brothers. Instead, they perform all DXR operations on their old traditional FP32 functional units.

Image: Nvidia

You probably already think "damn it, it must be slow," and you'd be right. The shot is not as bad as you might be afraid of, though. Nvidia's numbers, as reproduced above, place a GeForce GTX 1080 Ti around the performance of a RTX 2060 when DXR is set to "Medium" in Battlefield V. This is a very big reduction in the frame rate, but it remains perfectly readable in most resolutions.

Image: Nvidia

Unsurprisingly, in technical demonstrations focused on ray tracing such as Atomic heart RTX demo, Pascal cards can not even produce playable results. GeForce RTX GPUs have a clear advantage here, but Nvidia notes that Turing GPUs lacking RT and Tensor specialty cores (such as GTX 1660 cards) have an advantage over DXR Pascal chips because of their INT32 side cores. If you want to see these demos in all their glory, you can get some from Nvidia.

Image: Nvidia

Nevertheless, in the actual games, it seems that those of us with powerful Pascal processors can participate in some of the preeminent visuals thus proposed. Although we probably would not want to play Shadow of the Tomb Raider at an average frame rate of less than 25 frames per second, note that Nvidia's data used the highest game settings, as well as the "high" DXR setting. Slowing them down a bit will probably improve performance to much nicer levels.

In addition to the exciting proliferation of DXR technology, these drivers fix some problems, as usual. ARK: Survival Evolved should work properly on RTX GPUs, and Ghost Recon Wildlands should stop planting when you open the inventory menu. A crash of blue screen in The witcher 3 has been resolved. Texture artifacts in The evil in 2 should be patched on. For creators, the Fabfilter plug-in should no longer crash host applications, and Adobe programs should work properly with SLI enabled. Finally, in what is arguably the most diverse patch of all time, Titan X users play GTA V in stereo mode (3D) should no longer be greeted by a message "insufficient memory".

Persistent issues include a problem with G-Sync's refusal to engage in surround mode, the 3D "Adaptive Sync (refresh rate)" setting option that does not persist after a reboot and ansel blocking Shadow of the Tomb Raider. There is also a persistent problem where some multi-screen PCs may experience random desktop flicker. Likewise, some multi-monitor machines may have desktop flicker when playing videos on a secondary monitor. Fortunately, none of these issues affect me.

Oh yes, this driver is also ready for the game for Anno 1800. Good luck on the Epic store, guys!

Before you get excited, remember that to use DXR with any hardware you will need Windows 10 update 1803 or later. I hope you have made your updates. You can read the release notes here or go to the Nvidia download site to retrieve the new package. Be careful when selecting your driver, because Nvidia now has the option to choose between standard driver packages and DCH. If you already use a DCH driver, it can be difficult to go back, so beware of this choice.

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