Along with the all-new RTX 4090, Nvidia has released a new driver as expected: the 522.25 driver not only adds support for the RTX 4090, but also brings various features and performance updates to RTX 30 series cards.

According to a post on Nvidia's website (opens in new tab), the driver brings several significant DirectX 12 performance improvements to GeForce RTX GPUs. While this post only discusses RTX 30 cards, presumably some of these benefits apply to RTX 20 cards as well.

Many of the improvements are small, but some, like Assassin's Creed Valhalla (1080p) and Cyberpunk 2077 (1080p), bring 24% and 20% improvements respectively. This is truly impressive.

According to Nvidia, the performance gains are due to a combination of shader compilation optimizations, reduced CPU overhead, and Resizable BAR profiles for some games including Forza Horizon 5 and F1 22. In the case of F1 22, performance was improved by 17% at 4K; the reduction in CPU overhead appears to benefit in CPU-bound scenarios, which are more likely to occur at 1080p.

The driver also introduces DLSS 3.0 (opens in new tab) support. Currently, five games support DLSS 3.0, including Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered and Bright Memory: F1 22, Microsoft Flight Simulator, and many more support DLSS 3.0. DLSS 3.0 is supported by five games including Bright Memory: F1 22 and Microsoft Flight Simulator.

Nvidia calls its driver releases "game ready," which includes optimization and support for newly released games. The latest release includes support for Gotham Knights, Scorn, and Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection.

Of course, the new drivers support the powerful RTX 4090, which is fast and powerful, but also expensive; see our RTX 4090 review. (opens in new tab)

This is a driver worth downloading. If you want to try this new driver, visit Nvidia's website (opens in new tab).