Nvidia GeForce 451.48 driver introduces full DirectX 12 Ultimate support

Nvidia released a new GeForce graphics driver today that introduces full support for DirectX 12 Ultimate and features other improvements.

The new driver can be downloaded from Nvidia's official driver's downloads site; it may also install automatically depending on the installed driver on the system and configuration.

The Nvidia GeForce 451.48 driver for Windows introduces support for new features and updates several game profiles next to that. It introduces full support for DirectX 12 Ultimate, a new version of DirectX that Microsoft unveiled back in March 2020.

DirectX 12 Ultimate requires a PC with Windows 10 version 2004 or newer; the new technology is integrated in Microsoft's upcoming Xbox console Xbox Series X as well.

Current hardware will be compatible with DirectX 12 Ultimate but some advanced features may not be supported. Microsoft promises that current hardware will be able to run next-generation games that use DirectX 12 features.

DirectX 12 Ultimate supports DirectX Raytracing 1.1, Variable Rate Shading, Mesh Shaders, and Sampler Feedback.

Nvidia's new driver introduces support for all the features that Microsoft highlighted in the announcement of DirectX 12 Ultimate.

Another new feature of the new GeForce driver is support for accelerated GPU Scheduling; this requires Windows 10 version 2004 or newer, too. The feature allows the graphics card to manage video RAM directly to improve performance and framerates, and reduce latency.

The driver introduces support for Vulkan 1.2 next to that and Nvidia notes in the release notes that it includes bug fixes for "the latest creative applications from Adobe, Autodesk, Blender, Chaos, and Corel".

A good dozen application profiles were updated in the new release. Updated games include Yakuza Kiwami 2, 7 Days to Die, Will you Live Online, and several that require a Turing GPU or newer GPU.

The list of fixes is embedded below:

• [Just Cause 2]: The game does not detect CUDA files which results in missing "GPU Water Simulation" and "Bokeh Filter" settings.
• [Sea of Thieves]: Issues with game rendering occur.
• [Resident Evil 2 Remake]: The game may display random object and menu flickering.
• [Devil May Cry 5]: The game may display random object flickering.
• [Divinity Original Sin 2 - Definitive Edition]: The game experiences low performance when hardware accelerated GPU scheduling is enabled.
• [Maxon Cinema4D]: Line width range limit has been extended.
• [Notebook]: Windows Mixed Reality headsets may display jitter when connected to the HDMI port linked to the NVIDIA Optimus notebook integrated graphics.
• [G-SYNC]: G-SYNC does not work with DirectX 9 games if "Disable full screen optimizations" is selected.
• Display brightness increases while enabling GPU scaling.
• NVIDIA HD Audio may disappear after display goes to sleep.
• The cursor turns into a grey rectangle when playing YouTube 4K HDR videos.

The list of known issues is equally long:

• [Sunset Overdrive]: The game may display random green corruption if Depth of Field is enabled from in-game settings.
• [VR}: HDCP errors occur with Valve Index VR.
• [Call of Duty: Modern Warfare]: Color banding may occur in the game after enabling Image Sharpening from the NVIDIA Control Panel.
• [Call of Duty - Warzone]: Freestyle does not work. (200593020)
• [Forza Motorsport 7]: The curb may display a black strip during a race on certain tracks.
• [Zombie Army: Dead War 4][Ansel/Freestyle]: The Ansel & Freestyle tabs are unselectable.
• [Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege][Vulkan][G-SYNC]: When playing the game in Vulkan mode with G-SYNC enabled, flickering occurs after switching the game between full-screen and windowed mode. To work around, either disable G-SYNC or play using an API other than Vulkan.
• [SLI][G-SYNC]: With multi-GPU and G-SYNC enabled, TDRs occur soon after launching an application.
• [Notebook][The Witcher 3 WILD HUNT]: The game remains minimized when DDS switch is set to Optimus and Automatic, and cannot be restored to full screen.
• [Notebook][H-Clone]: With the integrated graphics processor as the clone source, display settings cannot be changed from the NVIDIA Control Panel.
• [Notebook]: Some Pascal-based notebooks w/ high refresh rate displays may randomly drop to 60Hz during gameplay.
• [Notebook][G-SYNC]: Graphical corruption occurs when windowed G-SYNC+V-Sync is On while running applications in Clone/Duplicate mode.
• [Notebook]: LVDS-display goes blank upon rebooting the system after driver installation on some systems.