GeForce 560.81 WHQL Driver Download & Discussion (2024)

I have other applications and titles I engage in. I also have workstations limited to Quadro drivers. But for using the 3090 and 4090 series of cards here are common ground games as a common language:

Asus PA32UCG monitors (4k, 10bit, dynamic dimming) on HDMI 2.1 are still affected by the issue introduced in the 560.70 driver as they do not wake up or initialize in windows, also, an symptom seem in560.7, the cpl initially defaults to 3840-2160 at 59hz rather than the native (on the list is even calls it native) 3840-2160, 120hz.

Performance drop in titles where DLSS is not used, or DLSS is set to only use DLAA.
early dx12 games, show a performance drop such as Warhammer total war (1-2) and other benchmarkable dx 12 titles.

Vulkan instability since 560.7 is still there in such titles as RDR2 when max eye candy is set (4k, no DLSS, 16x, TAA, all ultra selections in config, except NO vignetting, No DOF, NO motion blur, No film noise, and no dynamic resolution - hence no visual compromises. (and non-related but also no geforce experience)

Observation, when no visual compromises are used, this driver is slower. So far only Cyberpunk with DLAA and FG show a 5-6fps at max eye candy, HOWEVER, if DLSS is not used and NO frame generation is selected, this driver is slower than pre 560 series, and much slower than 522 series.

OBSERVATION:
So monitor changes on the PA32UCG monitor recognition? Decrease in performance on titles where DLSS is not used? Instability introduced in VK titles where maximum visual fidelity is used?

While there are staunch advocates for DLSS, and I respect what they like:
I realize a lot of folks use DLSS, its popular, and folks think it makes things better for fps, but some of us like to see actual 4k (not DLSS dumbing down the resolution) and some of us want stability and performance improvement, with driver releases, not regression. DLSS is not "free speed/ performance increase" as its dumbing down what is rendered. DLAA looks better, but one can't say strictly using DLAA ads performance.

I have not seen any improvement is performance and stability when DLSS is not used. Titles that were fine in the past, now aren't. I covered in details those stability and performance variations on the 560.7 driver, those issue are still prevalent.

2nd observation: performance decrease in raw (non DLSS) titles ever since the 522 series driver, performance in non DLSS situations has never recovered since then on the same hardware.

Before making any counters sounds, please remember the basis of observation - 4k IPS monitors, 120hz/144hz Gsynch / free synch pro, no DLSS, no FG, max eye candy, max fidelity, no vignetting no dynamic resolution, no film noise, no DOF, no motion blur, not texture optimizations (set as high quality in cpl).

So when selecting max visual fidelity, with matching hardware, the performance has decreased since drivers in 522 series.

DLSS optimalizations provide the impression of increases, but its not apples to apples, as DLSS is removing visual elements

...nvidia, how about including increases in stability and performance regardless of using any DLSS?

See Also

PC - CSL Sprint 5907 (Ryzen 5) - DLSS320 Best Games with RTX and DLSS Support | GeekflareASUS Dual GeForce RTX™ 4060 Ti EVO OC Edition 16GB GDDR6ASUS TUF Gaming GeForce RTX ™ 4070 Ti 12GB GDDR6X OC Edition | Graphics Card | ASUS

Prior 560.70 feedback:

Some performance observations comparing this driver to the prior, I tried to be methodical
I noticed some strange behaviors in other imaging applications, and as these would not have common ground in this forum, I decided to use games with built in benchmarks as common ground :

Not earth shattering, I just checked the driver with games that have a built in benchmarks.

I dusted off some game folders and ran their executables. No steam implementation.

Total War, Warhammer 1 and 2, running in DX12, has a 21% performance drop with this driver

Chernobylite, with DX12, shows 13% performance drop.

Cyberpunk shows a 5 fps lift, with frame generation, without FG, there's is a drop of 2 fps

Batman, Arkham Knight. 7% drop

ROTTR - 7% drop

SOTTR - within a margin of error, unchanged.

Borderlands 3, 3% drop

See Also

Keep Hardware Accelerated GPU Scheduling On or Off? [2024]

Zombie Army 4, 6% drop, stutter introduced*

Quake 2 RTX, 5% drop, ver 1.7

Doom 3 (not BFG) and Quake 4 - 7% drop

Unreal Tournament 3, 4% drop

RDR2. within a margin of error, unchanged. but stutter introduced and instability.

Ashes of the Singularity 3% drop (multi-gpu)

Strange Brigade, 5% drop in dx12, unchanged in vulkan (multi gpu) stutter introduced and instability*

Quake 2 RTX , 11% drop (multi gpu, early version)

Gravity Mark 18% drop (multi-gpu) in VK, 27% drop in DX12

some considerations. I don't DLSS resolution reduction. I may use DLAA and I use frame generation, but not the DLSS resolution reduction stuff (never understood buying a nice monitor and running one or two resolution sizes lower using DLSS, I wonder if folks get it?) I run at max quality, as in max visuals and effects, but NO vignette, NO film grain (another I don't understand) NO motion blur, and no depth of field.
GSynch / Freesynch on, using HDMI 2.1, no VRR, TAA or FXAA when TAA not available. No path tracing (too much noise) only RTX ultra/max, hopefully surface noise will get better on path tracing eventually. No overclocking

Ray Tracing on maximum. No steam, all games are run on local executables.
DDU used as well. No steam for any of the games, local executables only.
All PCS use Resizable Bar and HAGS

*When I install the LunarG vulkan latest runtime, behind the driver install, it solved the drop in vulkan the stutter issue.

Caveats:
Systems observed on:
mine, my wife's, and my kids' systems. My rig has dual 4090 (hence the multi gpu, non SLI entries, 4k, 10 bit) wife's is dual 3090 FE Ti nvlink/SLI, 4k, 10 bit, kids are 4060ti 16gb each, 1920-1080, 10 bit,

Observational conclusion.

When no DLSS resolution reduction is used, using games with built in benchmarks, across dx12, vulkan, and max settings.
This driver exhibits a reduction in performance in most titles.

Cyberpunk exhibited an increase of 5ps, max settings, FG, nor DLSS resolution reduction. So from these titles, only Cyberpunk seemed to benefit and I suspect that's from the 3.7 dlss and FG from the driver.

On my kids PCs, I did some testing using DLSS, quality and the results where demonstrative of slight improvement, cyberpunk gaining 11-16fps

Driver reversion solved the performance drop on the 4k machines except for cyberpunk which lost 5 fps it had gained. DLSS gains went away for benchmarks on the kids' machines. Suggesting that, raw performance, non DLSS, has been reduced. Qualitatively making this basis on machines where hardware is not the rate limiting step.

For this driver, If I stand back and look at it, it seems DLSS has improvements, at the expense of titles that do not use it, disappointing.

Additionally, this driver borks our asus PA32UCG monitors in 10 bit as they only come on in Windows when we recycle the power on the monitors, driver reversion fixed this issue, reproducible.