NVIDIA GeForce 551.61 WHQL with RTX HDR Released, NVIDIA Finally Has a Modern Control Panel

[btarunr]

NVIDIA today released the latest version of GeForce drivers. While the actual driver package of the new GeForce 551.61 is WHQL, it also includes a beta version of the NVIDIA App. This is NVIDIA's take on a modern control panel application that combines functionality of the classic NVIDIA Control Panel that hasn't quite changed in 20+ years; and the GeForce Experience application that not everyone likes to have installed. The new NVIDIA App has a lot in common with the AMD Radeon Software application, in that you can configure your displays, monitor and tune your GPU, as well as manage and optimize your installed games. The app also helps gather and present software update options spanning both the main drivers and application profiles for DLSS and other technologies. Most importantly, the NVIDIA App provides a comprehensive performance overlay suite. We will be doing an article detailing the NVIDIA App before the weekend.

NVIDIA is also debuting RTX HDR, a technology that adds HDR capability to games that otherwise lack it. It does so by utilizing Tensor cores and an AI model that attempts to add HDR to SDR content. The driver adds optimization and optimal settings for Granblue Fantasy: Relink, Nightingale, Pacific Drive, and Skull and Bones. A stability issue with Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege running using the Vulkan API has been fixed. Among the general issues fixed concern incorrect tone mapping for RTX Video HDR; poor SDR video playback quality in Chromium-based web-browsers with Windows HDR setting enabled; filter settings not carrying over with NVIDIA Freestyle; and a couple of bugs with Adobe Substance 3D.

DOWNLOAD: NVIDIA GeForce 551.61 WHQL



Game Ready

• Nightingale

NVIDIA App

• Supports the beta release of NVIDIA App, which unifies GeForce Experience and the NVIDIA Control Panel

GFE Optimal Settings

• Granblue Fantasy: Relink
• Nightingale
• Pacific Drive
• Skull and Bones

Fixed Gaming Bugs

• Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege: Stability issues when running Vulkan API [4460050]

Fixed General Bugs

• RTX Video HDR: Tone mapping not working properly with custom HDR brightness values in Windows [4472972]
• Chrome/Edge Browsers: Poor black level quality in SDR video playback with Windows HDR setting enabled [4492243]
• NVIDIA Freestyle: Filter settings are not saved after quitting game [4472656]
• Adobe Substance 3D: Stager unable to initialize the viewport [4403960]
• Adobe Substance 3D: Vulkan version of Substance Painter cannot be launched [4425856]

Known Issues

• [Netflix] Display issues for videos when using Edge browser. Recommend using Windows Netflix application as workaround. [4388454]
• GeForce GTX 10/RTX 20 series: PC may randomly freeze when Windows Hardware-Accelerated GPU Scheduling and NVIDIA SLI are both enabled [4009884]

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[Space Lynx]

built in frame rate like AMD... I have no need for RTSS anymore regardless of company now lol

looks alright, I didn't mind the old control panel though

on second thought, I like the old UI way better than this. meh oh well

 

[wNotyarD]

Better late than never, I guess...

 

[Selaya]

there's nothing wrong w/ the nvcp. it does exactly what it's supposed to do. no1 needs that bloated garbage anyways.

 

[seventy]

End of the era. Rip nvcp, you will be missed.

 

[Solaris17]

there's nothing wrong w/ the nvcp. it does exactly what it's supposed to do. no1 needs that bloated garbage anyways.

Agreed, merging the GFE ruins this entire experience for me.

 

[rv8000]

there's nothing wrong w/ the nvcp. it does exactly what it's supposed to do. no1 needs that bloated garbage anyways.

It’s entirely out dated and lacks clarity imo, glad they’ve finally put the effort in to updating it; AMDs overlay and driver offer much better/quicker access to settings on the fly.

Was actually just attempting to mess with some AA and AF settings last night through control panel on Helldivers, and its just a very clunky process with Nvidia.

 

[jsfitz54]

Agreed, merging the GFE ruins this entire experience for me.

@W1zzard , is this going to cause a problem with NVCleanstall, where you could omit this?

 

[W1zzard]

@W1zzard , is this going to cause a problem with NVCleanstall, where you could omit this?

Right now it's beta and a separate driver/installation. Nobody knows what happens in the future, or we'd all have bought more shares of NVDA

 

[Event Horizon]

As long as there is no security risk in the form of an embedded outdated chrome, we're good. About time we got a dark mode NVCP and a decent overlay.

 

[adilazimdegilx]

Finally. It will surely need couple of updates until it can replace the old one completely (apparently display options and some driver & AA options are still missing) but this is in the right direction. Not needing a login information is a must for this kind of software and I'm glad they took a step back from Geforce Experience.

I know most of us has nostalgic bonds with the (now old) control panel but it has been 20 years. We need to let it go.

 

[remekra]

Finally they've caught up to AMD, good work!

 

[phints]

Wow this actually happened. Nvidia drivers have been fantastic lately and although there was some old world charm to NVCP, but really nice they are replacing it with something modern, as long as it's streamlined and performant people will rejoyce.

 

[duraz0rz]

Does the NVIDIA App require login like GFE? That's the only reason why I don't have GFE installed, but I did like the features it provided.

Glad they updated the Control Panel UI. The current one hasn't aged well: It's slow, clunky to use, and doesn't scale to larger screens.

 

[Gooigi's Ex]

ABOUT TIME!

 

[Aretak]

as long as it's streamlined and performant people will rejoyce.

But it won't be. They seem to have shoehorned the driver settings into GeForce Experience, which aside from being telemetry-ridden spyware with a forced online login, is also a labyrinthine pile of crap that runs a ton of processes in the background at all times. NVCleanstall is absolutely mandatory for installing Nvidia drivers as far as I'm concerned, yet it seems its functionality will be nerfed if this new integrated GFE/control panel becomes standard. The old control panel might not be pretty, but it's simple, lightweight and extremely functional. No doubt a bunch of that functionality will be lost in the transition, as it seems to be every time an older program is updated to add a bloated new web app UI.

 

[Event Horizon]

They've removed the forced login.

 

[N/A]

Is it better for snappyness. The old CP took forever to apply the changes made and navigation as well.

 

[DudeBeFishing]

Garbage. It's suppose to be a driver, not a game manager.

 

[mrnagant]

HDR stuff is honestly the most exciting thing. For me, more exciting (not that they aren't, just not as much) than things like RT/PT, upscalers and frame gen.

 

[ir_cow]

Why change something that was perfectly fine?

 

[xorbe]

NV making it easier to switch to AMD if they both have bloated control panels I guess.

 

[mxthunder]

I wonder if you can use it for some basic OCing? It would be sweet if I didnt have to install MSI afterburner / rivatuner anymore. I like how it has the performance metrics/overlay built in. Was never a fan of GeForce experience except when gamestream first came out and I could use it to stream to my nvidia shield tablets. Since they axxed that, I have totally ignored GFE.

 

[cvaldes]

NV making it easier to switch to AMD if they both have bloated control panels I guess.

Nvidia is the latecomer. If you prefer the AMD control panel and that was the primary factor of your GPU ownership experience, you would have switch to Radeon years ago.

My guess is Joe Consumer only fires up their GPU's control panel software once or twice a year. Now that the Nvidia app has rolled up the GFE functionality, it'll probably get more eyeballs than the old Control Panel.

From a software engineering perspective, it might be easier to write one application since essentially the GFE functions are to tweak GPU software settings for better gameplay.

 

[Super XP]

That's AMD's control panel lol