Nvidia released today new GeForce Game Ready 419.35 WHQL drivers to improve performance in Apex Legends and the upcoming Devil May Cry 5 and Tom Clancy's The Division 2. The new drivers also add support for newly certified G-Sync Compatible monitors from Acer and BenQ.
Apex Legends has 50 million players, so it was an obvious game for Nvidia to optimize. Meanwhile, Devil May Cry 5 arrives this spring, and Tom Clancy's The Division 2 just held an open beta from March 1-4 and is set to debut March 15.
Nvidia said it also improved performance in Metro Exodus, Anthem and Battlefield V. But that note was mostly to highlight its new GeForce RTX Triple Threat Bundle, which offers all three games with the purchase of an RTX 2080 or RTX 2080 Ti.
That bundle is apparently part of Nvidia's efforts to inflate RTX sales after some disappointing results in the previous financial quarter. The cards are simply too expensive for many gamers, especially when features like ray tracing support aren't fully utilized by the vast majority of games.
In addition to the optimizations for these games, the 419.35 WHQL drivers add support for three new G-Sync Compatible monitors, displays previously lacking G-Sync that Nvidia newly certified as G-Sync capable, a practice the vendor started in January (partially to throw shade at AMD FreeSync for, according to Nvidia, not actually working as advertised). Those monitors are the Acer ED273A, Acer XF250Q and BenQ XL2540-B (also known as the Zowie XL LCD). That brings the total count of G-Sync Compatible monitors from 12 to 15.
Nvidia tests each monitor before certifying them as G-Sync Compatible.
"This means there’s no blanking, pulsing, flickering, ghosting or other artificating during VRR [variable refresh rate] gaming," Nvidia said in a statement accompanying today's announcement. "And that they can operate in VRR at any game framerate by supporting a VRR range of at least 2.4:1 (e.g. 60Hz-144Hz), in addition to offering a seamless experience by enabling VRR by default when the driver is installed and the monitor plugged in."
The GeForce Game Ready 419.35 WHQL drivers are available now from Nvidia's website and the GeForce Experience app. They should include the security patches Nvidia revealed on March 1, which protect against eight vulnerabilities across its product lines.
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