Nvidia’s new Geforce driver introduces pixel scaling and low latency mode

During the gamescom Gamescom, Nvidia is taking the opportunity to release a new version of the graphics driver for the company’s Geforce graphics card, which will be named Gamescom Game Ready Driver. Normally, new drivers mean improved performance in the latest game titles, but version 436.02 introduces two new major features.

The big news for players is something called “ultra-low latency mode”, a low latency mode that according to Nvidia’s data will reduce the latency in rendering by up to 33 percent. This is achieved by rendering frames exactly when the graphics card needs them, via a so-called “just in time” technology.

A similar feature has previously been available in the driver settings where the user could decide how many frames to render in advance, but the new low latency mode automatically adjusts the pace of how frames are rendered to achieve the lowest possible latency.

According to Nvidia, the benefits of the low latency mode will be especially noticeable for players whose computer systems render the game at between 60 and 100 FPS. The mode is compatible with DirectX 9-11 interfaces, but low-level interfaces such as DirectX 12 and Vulkan already offer developers fine-mesh access to queue management and the low-latency mode is therefore not compatible with these.

The other major feature of the new driver is something called integral scaling, or pixel scaling as it is likely to be popularly called. This is a feature that will fix the problems with retro-scented pixel art games getting blurred graphics when the operating system scales up the resolution. This causes the sharp edges of the pixels to lose sharpness.

With integer scaling, a single pixel can be scaled up to 2 × 2 or 3 × 3 pixels, without the scaled-up graphics losing sharpness as a result of resolution scaling. However, integer scaling is limited to the Turing architecture, ie the Geforce RTX 2000 and Geforce GTX 1600 series.

In addition to these two features, Nvidia is also introducing something called Sharpen Freestyle filters. This is a feature that should offer improved image sharpness with lower performance loads than if higher resolution were used. This is the company’s response to the AMD Radeon Image Sharpening that was introduced with the RDNA architecture of the Radeon RX 5700 family.

According to Nvidia, the Sharpen Freestyle filter will achieve improved sharpness with half the performance impact that the previous sharpness filter entailed. Over 600 existing games will be able to use the function that supports the interfaces DirectX 9-12 and Vulkan. The range of G-sync supported screens is also being expanded to include the Asus VG27A and Acer’s CP3271 / XB273K GP.

In conclusion, it would not be a new update but improvements in performance. Version 436.02 increases performance by up to 23 percent in the titles Apex Legends, Battlefield V, Forza Horizon 4, Strange Brigade and World War Z.

Gamescom Game Ready Driver 436.02 is available for download via the Geforce Experience software or Nvidia’s driver portal.

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