Today is the release date for Nvidia's GeForce RTX 4090, and with it comes a brand new driver — version 522.25, which is jam-packed with features. Aside from RTX 4090 and game ready driver support, Nvidia has added a slew of DX12 optimization updates, which apply to 14 titles and give all RTX GPUs a performance boost (depending on title and resolution).
This is one of the most feature-rich updates we've seen from Nvidia in a while — it might be worth installing if you don't update your graphics drivers often. Nvidia's DX12 optimizations steal the show, offering performance gains of up to 25% in titles such as Assassin's Creed Valhalla.
The optimizations include the following 14 titles:
Latest Videos FromTom's Hardware
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla: up to 25% (1080p)
Battlefield 2042: up to 7% (1080p)
Borderlands 3: Up to 8% (1080p)
Call of Duty: Vanguard: up to 12% (4K)
Control: up to 6% (4K)
Cyberpunk 2077: up to 20% (1080p)
F1(R) 22: up to 17% (4K)
Far Cry 6: up to 5% (1440p)
Forza Horizon 5: up to 8% (1080P)
Horizon Zero Dawn: Complete Edition: up to 8% (4k)
Red Dead Redemption 2: up to 7% (1080p)
Shadow of the Tomb Raider: up to 5% (1080p)
Tom Clancy’s The Division 2: up to 5% (1080p)
Watch Dogs: Legion: up to 9% (1440p)
Most of Nvidia's DX12 optimizations don't significantly improve performance, but they're still better than nothing. On the low end, Nvidia's optimizations provide a 5% boost in Shadow of the Tomb Raider and Tom Clancy's The Division 2. The best performance results come from F1 22 with a 17% performance boost at 4k resolution, and Assassin's Creed Valhalla, which saw a 25% bump at 1080p resolution.
According to Nvidia, these DX12 optimizations include shader compilation optimizations, reduction of CPU overhead, and resizable bar profiles for Forza Horizon 5 and F1 22 (the last of which only applies to resizable bar supported GPUs — RTX 30 series and newer).
The rest of these optimizations will work with any RTX graphics card, so it's a free upgrade for anyone packing an RTX GPU — but your mileage will vary based on your system configuration. Nvidia's results are coming from a test bed consisting of an RTX 3090 Ti, RTX 3080 Ti, RTX 3070 Ti, and RTX 3060 Ti paired to a Core i9-12900K processor with 32GB of RAM.
RTX 4090 Support
This driver update is also the first update supporting Nvidia's all-new GeForce RTX 4090 GPU, and is required to run the new flagship card (if you're planning on buying one today).
The RTX 4090 is Nvidia's first RTX 40-Series GPU operating on the Ada Lovelace GPU architecture. In our review of the Founders Edition variant, we saw performance improvements of 50 - 70% over the RTX 3090 Ti.
DLSS 3, DLSS 2, and Game Ready Support
Nvidia also announced several new DLSS 3- and DLSS 2-supported titles as well as game ready support for A Plague Tale: Requiem, Gotham Knights, Scorn, and Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection.
Newly-supported DLSS 3 titles include:
A Plague Tale: Requiem (available Oct. 18)
Bright Memory: Infinite (available Oct. 12)
F1 22 (updates coming soon)
Justice ‘Fuyun Court’ New Graphics Showcase (available Oct 12)
Loopmancer (available Oct. 12)
Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered (available Oct. 12)
r (available in beta for Xbox Insider Program members Oct. 17)
SUPER PEOPLE (available now in early access)
Newly-supported DLSS 2-only titles include:
Blind Fate: Edo no Yami
Dakar Desert Rally
Destroy All Humans! 2 - Reprobed
Gotham Knights
Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection
It's worth noting that all DLSS 3-supported games will also support DLSS 2 at the same time — going by the name "DLSS Super Resolution" in game menu options. DLSS 3 is the frame amplification/generation version of DLSS 2, and can be turned on and off in game settings.
