Nvidia released their latest Game Ready driver (version 496.49), ironing out user and performance experience for the latest game set in the Marvel universe, Guardians of the Galaxy. Nvidia doesn't say exactly what performance improvements have been brought to the table; however, the company is quick to point out the games' usage of ray tracing and the Nvidia-exclusive DLSS (Deep Learning Super Sampling) tech. If you've got one of the best graphics cards featuring an Nvidia GPU, give the new drivers a shot.
Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy implements ray tracing in the form of opaque reflections (metallic surfaces, for instance) and transparent reflections (water, glass) for physics-accurate visuals. No other ray tracing techniques have been employed, likely due to performance constraints. DLSS has been implemented so that any users with an Nvidia graphics card can claw back the performance lost to ray tracing techniques and then some, with a quoted "up to " 2x performance improvement compared to a DLSS-less playthrough. The largest gains come with DLSS performance mode running at 4K, naturally.
The latest Nvidia driver brings about support for a number of other games as well. Age of Empires IV marks a return to the pseudo-historical RTS series, which will be released on October 28th. Battlefield 2042 also received optimizations, with the game's Early Access allowing some players to get in the thick of modern warfare starting November 12, a full week ahead of the game's official and general release set for November 19.
Chivalry 2 now features application and driver support for Nvidia's DLSS tech, promising up to 45% higher performance compared to traditional rendering. GTA Definitive Edition Trilogy will also support DLSS, though Nvidia didn't give any performance improvement estimates for that particular implementation. Doom Eternal's DLSS implementation has also been updated, and other games with improved support (though absent any new technology introduction) are the upcoming Call of Duty Vanguard, Forza Horizon 5, Jurassic World Evolution, and Riders Republic.
Nvidia also took this driver release to update the list of its G-Sync Compatible monitor program, adding official support for six new monitors (three from ASUS, two from AOC, and one from MSI). GeForce Experience has also been updated with performance and settings profiles for Crysis 2 Remastered, Crysis 3 Remastered, Gas Station Simulator, Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy, Qian Nv You Hun, and Sword and Fairy 7.
Fixed issues in this driver release include visual corruption issues with DOOM 3: BFG, flickering and visual corruption after extended gameplay on Tom Clancy's The Division 2, as well as random black screen flicker at 1080p when an Nvidia graphics card is paired with LG's C1 OLED.
