Each generation of graphics card driver will make more optimizations for the game. In order to bring players a better gaming experience, NVIDIA, as a professional graphics card manufacturer, has done quite well in driver updates. It will soon launch a new driver optimization program, which is also to enhance the operational sense of the game.

NVIDIA Control Panel

However, every driver update is not satisfactory. The reason is that although the driver updates have improved the graphics card game performance, the improvement is not large and almost negligible. Therefore, unless it is a driver with large changes, players are not so tempted to update the driver updates, and they are not even lazy to update them. On February 11, NVIDIA released the latest GeForce 347.52 WHQL driver, which is known as a "chicken blood" driver, especially for the GTX900 series graphics cards and new games optimization. It is also a game-specific driver, and the optimization is quite comprehensive.

GFE driver upgrade

The driver of this update has focused on optimizing some new games. Turtle Rock Studio's online multiplayer competitive game "Evolution" is one of them. It also optimizes large-scale high-quality stand-alone games such as "Assassin's Creed: The Revolution", "Far Cry 4", and "Crisis 3". Of course, the new driver will also support some original technologies such as SLI and GeForce Experience one-click optimization.

Theoretical Improvement Data

This driver update seems to be a rename for the GTX970 and GTX960. It has confirmed that the 3.5G video memory incident of the GTX970 and the 128-bit video memory wide GTX960 have been questioned by players. The game performance of the Chicken Blood Driver is still quite good for the game performance of the graphics cards of these two models, at least from the theoretical data.

Whether it is true that the performance improvement in theory can be revealed by doing an actual graphics card game test. The test uses i7-3770K, Souste GTX960-2GD5 Supreme OC, 8GB of memory.

Sotai GTX960-2GD5 Supreme OC

Sotai GTX960-2GD5 Supreme OC performance is ahead of the same model of non-public graphics card, 1024 stream processors, 1304/1367MHz core frequency, ultra-high core frequency, and huge overclocking potential make its gaming performance far exceed that of the public version. 7200MHz video memory frequency, and also comes with a 128bit video memory bit width and 2GB video memory capacity. In terms of heat dissipation, the graphics card can still maintain a low temperature at high frequency. Three 9cm super-large fan blades are combined to form a full-domain interference fan.Combination, such a combination can achieve the fastest heat dissipation effect and avoid heat accumulation on the surface of the fin. And the intelligent over-demand design allows for normal cooling even if any fan stops accidentally.

Backboard design

Sotai GTX960-2GD5 Supreme OC is the first time that the graphics card fan stops in the game. Freeze, the first in the game! Low temperature start-stop technology, with intelligent temperature control fan stopping, and with an ultra-large heat dissipation base, 4-way directional sintered heat pipe, and a large area of heat dissipation fins, even when playing power consumption like LOL, the fan is still unconscious, truly realizing zero noise in the game.

Interface Design

The external power supply interface of 6+8pin and 6+2 super-performance power supply provide stable and efficient current for the overclocking of the graphics card. The high-definition flagship output port configuration of 1 DVI interface, 3 DP and 1 HDMI can also support the screen output of a single card multiple screen, so players can easily experience the visual experience of the game without dead angles.

Far Cry 4

"Far Cry 4", which is one of Ubisoft's 2014 game masterpieces. "Far Cry 4" is loved by players for its beautiful pictures, fascinating scenery and extremely openness. This time the story came to the Himalayas, and the exquisiteness of the picture was upgraded again. Players can enjoy the magnificent rivers and mountains and many beautiful scenery in the game, surrounded by clouds and mountains, as if they were in it.

Comparison of test scores

From the actual test results, although the actual game results brought by the new driver do not have much improvement in theoretical performance, the frame rate is still improved.

Crisis Isle 3

The Crysis 3 plot mode has the required soul and emotion to make the killing in the game meaningful. And added multiplayer mode. The control is perfect, the rhythm is compact, the tactics are flexible, and the plot is real and reasonable. It is a qualified sequel to the "Crisis of Isles" series. In Crisis 3, New York has become a rainforest, with new enemies and new weapons.

Comparison of test scores

Judging from the test results of "Crisis 3", the gap between high resolution and low resolution frame rate is relatively obvious, and at high resolution, the frame rate increase brought by the new driver is almost negligible.

Assassin's Creed: The Revolution

"Assassin's Creed: The Revolution", the game is also Ubisoft's 2014 masterpiece of the year. Although it is full of bugs, it has been played by many people.The criticism of the family, but the exquisite game graphics of the game itself are movie-level, and the reputation of the Assassin's Creed series is also very famous, without much transcendence. Because the game is not optimized properly, it is also called the hardware killer by players.

Comparison of test scores

Whether it is high resolution and the frame rate of the game is not very high at low resolution, and the frame rate difference between high and low resolution is not very large. The performance improvement brought by the new driver is indeed the most improved game among the three tested games. Almost close to the theoretical performance improvement.

Judging from the tests of the three games, NVIDIA's announcement that the performance improvement of the chicken blood driver, which was greatly optimized for the GTX960, was not very obvious in its optimized game tests. In addition to the improvement of "Assassin's Creed: The Revolution", the improvement of the other two games is almost negligible. Of course, it once again confirms a fact that the driver is just a catalyst for the performance of graphics cards. If the hardware performance of the graphics card has reached a bottleneck, it is not a realistic thing to just improve the gaming experience through the update of the driver.