Thursday, September 17th 2020

NVIDIA GeForce 456.38 WHQL Released: Ampere Support, SLI Finally Dead

Sep 17th, 2020 10:41 Discuss (91 Comments)

NVIDIA today released the latest version of GeForce Game Ready software. Version 456.38 WHQL comes with support for the new GeForce RTX 3080 and RTX 3090 "Ampere" graphics cards. The mammoth software release also adds optimization for "Fortnite" with RTX and DLSS on all GeForce RTX GPUs. The new NVIDIA Reflex technology is formally launched, with support for "Fortnite" and "Valorant." Reflex is supported on all NVIDIA GPUs going back to the GTX 900 series "Maxwell." Optimizations are also added for "Halo 3: OSDT" and "Mafia: Definitive Edition." Also introduced are the NVIDIA Broadcast app, and a host of new GeForce Experience features, including in-game performance/overlay, one-click performance tuning, HDR ShadowPlay Capture, AV1 decoding, support for new G-SYNC compatible displays.

Buried in the bowels of the driver change-log is a big disclosure, that the RTX 30-series "Ampere" GPUs don't support SLI (as in implicit multi-GPU), only explicit multi-GPU through modern APIs such as DirectX 12 and Vulkan (if supported by the game). NVIDIA has already restricted the NVLink interface needed for SLI only to its topmost RTX 3090 SKU, so the lack of implicit multi-GPU effectively marks the end of SLI for future GPUs. That said, the technology itself is very much present on all GPUs that support it, provided games do. NVIDIA announced the GeForce RTX 30 series "Watch Dogs: Legion" + GeForce NOW bundle. Buying a new GeForce RTX 30-series graphics card now comes with a year's membership of the GeForce NOW cloud gaming service, plus you get the next chapter in the Watch Dogs franchise, which supports a ton of NVIDIA RTX features, possibly including DLSS 8K.

DOWNLOAD: NVIDIA GeForce 456.38 Game Ready Drivers

The change-log follows.

Game Ready

Fortnite RTX: This new Game Ready Driver provides support for Fortnite's dramatic new update which adds raytraced effects, NVIDIA DLSS, NVIDIA Reflex, and a custom RTX map.
Halo 3: ODST: Mafia: The Definitive Edition.

Gaming Technology

Includes support for GeForce RTX 3080 and 3090 GPUs
GeForce Experience Automatic Performance Tuning for GeForce RTX 30-series and RTX 20-series
GeForce Experience in-game performance monitoring for GeForce GTX 600 series and above
ShadowPlay gameplay recording now supports HDR on GTX 900-series and above (RTX 3090 can capture 8K 30fps HDR)
NVIDIA Broadcast app with AI-powered noise removal and virtual background
5 New G-SYNC Compatible Monitors

New Features
Supports CUDA 11.1

SLI Profiles

Baldur's Gate 3
Comanche (NVIDIA Turing GPUs and later)
Crusader Kings III
Disintegration (NVIDIA Turing GPUs and later)
Population Zero
RIDE 4 (NVIDIA Turing GPUs and later)
Rocket Arena (NVIDIA Turing GPUs and later)
The Blackout Club (NVIDIA Turing GPUs and later)

SLI

Implicit SLI Disabled on NVIDIA Ampere GPUs
Implicit SLI, where the driver makes assumptions with application profiles to achieve GPU scaling, is disabled on NVIDIA Ampere GPUs. Explicit SLI is still supported, where the application knows the SLI state and uses extensions (such as DirectX 12 linked nodes, Vulkan device groups, or OpenGL multicast extensions) to issue commands to each device in the SLI group.

Fixed Issues

[Batman Arkham Knight]: Enabling Hardware-accelerated GPU Scheduling on PhysX games results in lower frame rate.[2988376]
[Call of Duty: Modern Warfare]: The game may intermittently see a drop in frame rate when ray tracing is enabled. [3050468]
[Detroit: Become Human]: The game may crash. [3037846]
[Forza Horizon 4]: Stuttering occurs in the game after racing a few laps. [3101001]
[Horizon Zero Dawn The Complete Edition]: Flickering and texture corruption occurs in game after setting Anisotropic Filtering to 16x from the NVIDIA Control Panel. [200638389]
[madVR][MPC-HC]: Various HDR issues occur when using the madVR renderer with MPC-HC. [3038381]
[Minecraft Java Edition;]: The game may crash when launched with XSplit Broadcaster running in the background. [3052464]
[World of Warcraft]: Objects randomly flicker. [3101638]
Video playback on the secondary display lags/freezes while playing a game on the primary display if Hardware-accelerated GPU Scheduling is enabled [200586262]
[Notebook]: Display is not detected when connected to Thunderbolt 3 port on HP Spectre x360-15t-df100 Notebook. [3087076]
[Notebook][NVIDIA Control Panel]: With Clone mode set, only the Developer pages are visible in the NVIDIA Control Panel after hot-plugging a DisplayPort/HDMI Freesync display. [200637570]
[Notebook]: When a game is played on the primary display and a YouTube video is played on the extended display, viudeo playback is sluggish and stutters. [200586262]
[Pascal GPU][Marvel's Avengers]: The game may crash when switching windows [Alt+Tab] while the game is running. [3101682]

Windows 7 Issues

[Notebook][H-Clone]: With the integrated graphics processor as the clone source, display settings cannot be changed from the NVIDIA Control Panel. [200594188]

Windows 10 Issues

[SLI][G-SYNC][Red Dead Redemption 2 Vulkan]: With SLI + G-SYNC enabled, the games display corruption and a blank screen.[200645671]
[World of Warcraft Shadowlands]: When run at frame rates greater than 60 FPS with high display settings, moving characters display minute twitching/stuttering. [200647563]
[Sunset Overdrive]: The game may display random green corruption if Depth of Field is enabled from in-game settings. [2750770]
[V]}: HDCP errors occur with Valve Index VR. [2967616]
[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. [2781776]
[Fortnite]: Blue-screen crash occurs pointing to nvlddmkm.sys when playing the game at 4K resolution. [200645328]
To work around, set the resolution to lower than 4k.
[Zombie Army: Dead War 4][Ansel/Freestyle]: The Ansel & Freestyle tabs are unselectable. [2810884]
You may encounter issues installing the NVIDIA Control Panel from the Windows Store.
[Omniverse 2020.2.4496]: Corruption occurs after switching from RTX Real-Time to RTX Path-Traced renderer. [200649160]
[Notebook][H-Clone]: With the integrated graphics processor as the clone source, display settings cannot be changed from the NVIDIA Control Panel. [200594188]
[Notebook]: Some Pascal-based notebooks w/ high refresh rate displays may randomly drop to 60Hz during gameplay. [3009452]
[Notebook]: Performance Power Mode cannot be set from the NVIDIA Control Panel. [200657525]

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91 Comments on NVIDIA GeForce 456.38 WHQL Released: Ampere Support, SLI Finally Dead

#51

Upgrayedd

AssimilatorAnd the answer is equally simple, and already stated. Read it again.And do not spread FUD about NVIDIA "disabling" anything.

That's because the game is a buggy POS. But as long as people like you keep rewarding EA for their failures by buying their buggy POS games, and blaming GPU manufacturers instead of EA, EA will happily take your money and keep churning out buggy POS games. So complain elsewhere, because you're part of the problem.

dude chill, you're coming at everyone pretty aggressive and rude.

CoD is Activision, not EA.
--
Ok kill SLI but I want an add in RT card. Like the old PhysX days.

Someone should be able to buy an RT card to throw in with their 1080Ti.

#52

lexluthermiester

TheLostSwedeI'm just curious, when is Nvidia going to update their driver UI, as it's circa Y2K design is getting a bit long in the tooth...
In fact, the attached screenshot offers a better view of the interface than the poor scaling Nvidia's interface has on my 4K screen...

Because there is no need to change what works and works very well. We otherwise might end up with some garbage nonsense along the lines of what happened with the transition from Windows 7 -> Windows 8 -> Windows 8.1 -> Windows 10.

#53

raptori

Does Geforce Experience still require log-in ? I remember that Nvidia said they'll introduce an overhaul to Geforce Experience that'll let the user use it without log-in along with the release of Ampere ...

#54

MxPhenom 216

ASIC Engineer

Upgrayedddude chill, you're coming at everyone pretty aggressive and rude.

CoD is Activision, not EA.
--
Ok kill SLI but I want an add in RT card. Like the old PhysX days.

Someone should be able to buy an RT card to throw in with their 1080Ti.

That's all hes ever done on this forum while making himself look like the moron. Ironic.

#55

Caring1

MxPhenom 216That's all hes ever done on this forum while making himself look like the moron. Ironic.

How does making an informed and direct reply make one a moron?

#56

MxPhenom 216

ASIC Engineer

Caring1How does making an informed and direct reply make one a moron?

Go back through this thread there buddy. Informed? LMAO

#57

kn00tcn

too many misleading bait news titles on tpu last few years making me repeatedly almost leave...

mouacykDoes anyone with tweaking experience and driver experience know why NVidia is preventing implicit SLI on 3090, since it should come naturally free? Is this an artificial limitation, or is there something in Ampere that would be impossible or too much work to maintain support for implicit SLI?

each architecture needs new/different code in the driver, historically gpu drivers are full of per game or engine optimizations, it's kind of a development nightmare

however, in the past you could try different existing sli profiles on arbitrary games using nvinspector, but a lot of times with minor or major visual side effects even if the performance goes up

it's more like dead end work rather than impossible, the single gpus will keep getting more performant while the games stuck on old APIs wont need a second gpu as time goes on, plus engine complexity makes it harder for a gpu driver to hack up working multigpu

if it wasnt dropped this gen then it would be next gen, especially as dx12 & vulkan usage continues to rise

also note this line in the PR "Instead, we will focus efforts on supporting developers to implement SLI natively inside the games"

#58

AddSub

Hmm, I can force SLI profiles on games that have none, both with my 1070's, 980ti's, GTX 580's, 550TI's, etc etc, and still have amazing success and pretty amazing scaling. This seems like more of a corporate "does this help us make more money or less?" maneuvering and obsoletion by force than anything else. I mean, 3070 in SLI for $1400? Wouldn't that outperform, or at least slow the sales of 3090 as people turn to buying one 3070 and then another 6-18 months down the road (2nd one for a deep discount making it even more attractive).

...
..
.

#59

mouacyk

AddSubHmm, I can force SLI profiles on games that have none, both with my 1070's, 980ti's, GTX 580's, 550TI's, etc etc, and still have amazing success and pretty amazing scaling. This seems like more of a corporate "does this help us make more money or less?" maneuvering and obsoletion by force than anything else. I mean, 3070 in SLI for $1400? Wouldn't that outperform, or at least slow the sales of 3090 as people turn to buying one 3070 and then another 6-18 months down the road (2nd one for a deep discount making it even more attractive).

...
..
.

That's always been my suspicion that a generic SLI (AFR) solution exists in the driver, that just copies the completed frame from a buffer without much knowledge of the arch. Thanks for confirming that SLI can be attempted for games without profiles (I thought this much was true.)

#60

TheLostSwede

News Editor

lexluthermiesterBecause there is no need to change what works and works very well. We otherwise might end up with some garbage nonsense along the lines of what happened with the transition from Windows 7 -> Windows 8 -> Windows 8.1 -> Windows 10.

But it doesn't though. It scales like shit on 4K screens, it's hard to find the new features, it's fiddly to use and sometimes settings aren't applied. So no, it doesn't work very well, it's a horrid, old UI that is in need of a massive overhaul.

#61

rtwjunkie

PC Gaming Enthusiast

KrzychNot very good at reading I see. Try again:

No I read quite fine. You, besides complaining about a non-issue, apparently did not make clear what you were referring to. Since you like to insult, Welcome to ignore.

#62

Mussels

Freshwater Moderator

Nvidia: lets release a 4k gaming monster card and bundle it with all these new features in fortnite

Also Nvidia:

[Fortnite]: Blue-screen crash occurs pointing to nvlddmkm.sys when playing the game at 4K resolution. [200645328]
To work around, set the resolution to lower than 4k.

#63

lexluthermiester

TheLostSwedeIt scales like shit on 4K screens

Then don't use scaling. On the system I have plugged into my living room 4k TV, scaling is turned off(set for 100%). Everything works fine.

TheLostSwedeit's hard to find the new features

How? It's all front & center the moment you open the control panel.

TheLostSwedeit's fiddly to use and sometimes settings aren't applied.

I'm not having this experience. When a setting is changed, it acually changes the moment I click the "Apply" button.

#64

Bubster

I had a problem installing from Geforce experience program...i had to use Techpowerup to download and install it. Thank you TPU.

#65

Upgrayedd

BubsterI had a problem installing from Geforce experience program...i had to use Techpowerup to download and install it. Thank you TPU.

The method I use for installing drivers is
1 - download the driver of choice from TPU. The non-DCH or Standard driver from TPU should have a smaller file size than DCH.
2 - Disconnect ethernet to fully prevent Win10 from downloading GFE and a quick driver. (Disabling the auto update feature doesn't fully work for me.)
3 - use DDU (Display Driver Uninstaller) , choose clean and restart.
4 - use TPU'S own NVCleanInstall and manually select the driver you downloaded from step 1. Clean install and select the components you want, GFE is optional.

#66

lexluthermiester

BubsterI had a problem installing from Geforce experience program...i had to use Techpowerup to download and install it. Thank you TPU.

Skip "Geforce Experience". Drivers and Control Panel are good.

#67

TheLostSwede

News Editor

lexluthermiesterThen don't use scaling. On the system I have plugged into my living room 4k TV, scaling is turned off(set for 100%). Everything works fine.

How? It's all front & center the moment you open the control panel.

I'm not having this experience. When a setting is changed, it acually changes the moment I click the "Apply" button.

I think you misunderstand, I don't use scaling, the UI is tiny, because it doesn't scale. It's like using Windows 7 software on Windows 10.

Uhm, not, they're all hidden under little drop downs and the new features are never highlighted or explained in a sensible way.

Nope, disabled G-Sync, hit apply, it was still enabled, so yeah, it doesn't always work. Had to enable it, hit apply, disable it and hit apply again to disable it.

#68

ROLHISHIOUS

nice, no fix for device_removed erros from Shadow Of The Tomb Raider

#69

Vayra86

TheLostSwedeI think you misunderstand, I don't use scaling, the UI is tiny, because it doesn't scale. It's like using Windows 7 software on Windows 10.

Uhm, not, they're all hidden under little drop downs and the new features are never highlighted or explained in a sensible way.

Nope, disabled G-Sync, hit apply, it as still enabled, so yeah, it doesn't always work. Had to enable it, hit apply, disable it and hit apply again to disable it.

As long asI know SLI it has had these niggles. Saying its active when only one card works, being disabled out of the blue (monitor on/off did it at some point...)

And then there is frametime variance...

#70

Slizzo

UpgrayeddThe method I use for installing drivers is
1 - download the driver of choice from TPU. The non-DCH or Standard driver from TPU should have a smaller file size than DCH.
2 - Disconnect ethernet to fully prevent Win10 from downloading GFE and a quick driver. (Disabling the auto update feature doesn't fully work for me.)
3 - use DDU (Display Driver Uninstaller) , choose clean and restart.
4 - use TPU'S own NVCleanInstall and manually select the driver you downloaded from step 1. Clean install and select the components you want, GFE is optional.

Actually, the DCH driver download should be SMALLER, as it doesn't contain the NVIDIA Control Panel with it. You need to download that from the Windows Store.

#71

EarthDog

Finally... put a fork in that debacle called SLI/CFx already.... lol

#72

DJSuprimeW

skydoyYeah it´s the only problem is the BOSD :(

Clean install incoming

You fixxed already?...or still bluescreens?

Because i got here the same problem. midle in the installation bam bluescreen.

i tryed this so far:

-ddu unninstall. does not work
-normal install. does not work
-installing the update within geforce expierence. does not work
-downloading the drivers from nvidia and other websites. does not work.

you got some any ideas?...

the bluescreen is:

System thread exception not handled
nvlddmkm.sys

hope you got a fix of a answer?...

peace :D

#73

skydoy

DJSuprimeWYou fixxed already?...or still bluescreens?

Because i got here the same problem. midle in the installation bam bluescreen.

i tryed this so far:

-ddu unninstall. does not work
-normal install. does not work
-installing the update within geforce expierence. does not work
-downloading the drivers from nvidia and other websites. does not work.

you got some any ideas?...

the bluescreen is:

System thread exception not handled
nvlddmkm.sys

hope you got a fix of a answer?...

peace :D

No luck, my BSOD is: VIDEO_SCHEDULER_INTERNAL_ERROR

Tried eveything

My friend with the same gpu has exactly the same error :(

#74

moproblems99

skydoyNo luck, my BSOD is: VIDEO_SCHEDULER_INTERNAL_ERROR

Tried eveything

My friend with the same gpu has exactly the same error :(

Roll drivers back and move on.

#75

DJSuprimeW

skydoyNo luck, my BSOD is: VIDEO_SCHEDULER_INTERNAL_ERROR

Tried eveything

My friend with the same gpu has exactly the same error :(

pff wthekk...

here still te problem. but i know what the problem is i think.
my second cardhas no bios. and is bricked.
i got tomorrow my same second gtx 1080.
so i tryed it out tomorrow and let you know if that fix it for me.

and hopefully 24 sept i got one rtx 3090.

buth bluescreens sucking hard socks XD

i tryed with disabled my second gpu. but does not work eather :( i hope my new gpu fix the bluescreen so not, then its the driver. and waiting for a hotfix or the next driver..

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NVIDIA GeForce 456.38 WHQL Released: Ampere Support, SLI Finally Dead

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