GeForce 466.27 Driver Performance Analysis – Using Ampere and Turing

GeForce 466.27 Driver Performance Analysis – 17 games benchmarked including Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition using an RTX 3080 and 2080 Ti

This driver performance analysis showcases the performance of a Gigabyte AORUS RTX 3080 MASTER (Ampere architecture) and an EVGA RTX 2080 Ti BLACK (Turing architecture) with 17 PC games including the Enhanced Edition of Metro Exodus using the latest GeForce 466.27 Game Ready driver. We compare these drivers versus our previously recommended driver 466.11 using both cards, and we perform all tests on the same game version and the same OS build.

Our testing platform is a recent install of Windows 10 64-bit Pro Edition, an i9-9900K with stock clocks, a Gigabyte Z390 AORUS PRO motherboard, and 32GB of Kingston DDR4 3333MHz. The games tested, settings and hardware are identical except for the GPUs we use and the drivers we compare.

Before offering the performance data and charts of each different analysis scenario, it’s important to describe both the hardware and software configuration used in our testing as well as the analysis methodology.

Benching Methodology

Test Configuration – Hardware

• Intel Core i9-9900K (Hyper-Threading/Turbo boost on; stock settings)
• Gigabyte Z390 AORUS PRO motherboard (Intel Z390 chipset, v.F12l BIOS)
• Kingston HyperX Predator 32GB DDR4 (2×16GB, dual-channel at 3333 MHz CL16)
• Gigabyte AORUS GeForce RTX 3080 MASTER 10GB (rev. 1.0); v.F4 VBIOS, stock clocks
• EVGA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti BLACK EDITION GAMING 11GB, stock clocks
• Samsung 500GB SSD 960 EVO NVMe M.2
• WD Blue 1TB SATA SSD
• Corsair RM750x, 750W 80PLUS Gold power supply unit
• ASUS TUF Gaming VG289Q 28″ IPS UHD 4K (3840×2160) 60Hz 5ms FreeSync Monitor (Fixed Refresh Rate on)

Test Configuration – Software

• NVIDIA GeForce 466.11 and 466.27 drivers; ‘High Quality’ and ‘prefer maximum performance’ (on a per-game profile-basis); fixed refresh rate (globally).
• Resizable BAR off.
• V-Sync application controlled in the control panel, V-Sync off in-game.
• AA and AF as noted in games; all in-game settings are specified.
• Windows 10 64-bit Pro edition, latest updates v20H2, High-performance power plan, HAGS off, Game Mode, Game DVR & Game Bar features off.
• GIGABYTE and ASUS tools not installed.
• Latest DirectX
• All 17 games are patched to their latest versions at the time of publication.
• 3DMark’s suite and UNIGINE Superposition benchmark, the latest version
• Basemark GPU benchmark, v.1.1
• UNIGINE Superposition, v.1.1
• CapFrameX (CX), the latest version
• RivaTuner Statistics Server (RTSS), the latest version
• Display Driver Uninstaller (DDU), the latest version; always uninstall old driver using DDU in safe mode, clean, and restart.

• ISLC (Purge Standby List) before each benchmark.

GeForce Driver Suite-related

• Standard Game Ready drivers are used.
• The display driver is installed.
• The latest version of PhysX is installed.

Hybrid & Non-Synthetic Tests-related

• Single run per test.

Game Benchmarks-related

• The corresponding built-in or custom benchmark sequence is used.

Frametimes Capture & Analysis tool-related

• CapFrameX is used for capturing and analyzing the relevant performance numbers obtained from each recorded built-in or custom benchmark sequence.
• Consecutive runs until detecting 3 valid runs (no outliers) that can be aggregated by CapFrameX using the following method:
  • ‘Aggregate excluding outliers’:
    • Outlier metric: Third, P0.2 (0.2% FPS percentile).
    • Outlier percentage: 3% (the % the FPS of an entry can differ from the median of all entries before counting as an outlier).
• We compare and value the results and aggregated records in terms of percentages of gain/loss, by setting the following thresholds to consider a certain % value as significant (not within the margin of error) for our benchmarking purposes:
  • Score/FPS Avg > 3% when valuing hybrid and non-synthetic benchmarks;
  • FPS Avg > 3% when evaluating raw performance;
  • P1/P0.2 > 3% when evaluating frame time consistency; after applying our custom formula

{[(LowPercentileFPS_2 / AvgFPS_2) / (LowPercentileFPS_1 / AvgFPS_1)] – 1} x 100

Benchmark Suite: 17 PC Games, 4 Hybrid & 4 Non-Synthetic Tests

Hybrid Tests (3DMark)

• Fire Strike Ultra
• Time Spy Extreme
• DirectX Raytracing feature test
• Port Royal

Non-Synthetic Tests

• Basemark GPU
• UNIGINE Superposition
• Neon Noir (Benchmark)
• Boundary: Raytracing Benchmark

DX11 Games

• Borderlands 3 (DX11)
• Deus Ex: Mankind Divided (DX11)
• Far Cry New Dawn (DX11)
• Tom Clancy’s Ghost Ghost Recon Breakpoint (DX11)
• Neon Noir (DX11; Loop Mode)

DX12 Games

• Borderlands 3 (DX12)
• Cyberpunk 2077 (DX12)
• Horizon Zero Dawn (DX12)
• Metro Exodus (DX12)
• Metro Exodus PC Enhanced Edition (DX12) – NEW
• Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 (DX12)
• Watch Dogs: Legion (DX12)
• Shadow of the Tomb Raider (DX12)
• Godfall (DX12)
• DIRT 5 (DX12)

Vulkan Games

• Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Breakpoint (VK)
• Strange Brigade (VK)
• Wolfenstein Youngblood (VK)
• Quake 2 RTX (VK; v.1.5.0)

NVIDIA Control Panel settings

Here are the global NVIDIA Control Panel settings:

Both ‘High-Quality’ values for texture filtering-quality setting and ‘Prefer maximum performance’ for power management mode are set on a per-game or program profile-basis via Manage 3D Settings > Program settings tab.

GeForce 466.27 Game Ready WHQL Drivers

This latest GeForce Game Ready 466.27 driver was released on Thursday (04/29/2021) primarily for the launch of Metro Exodus PC Enhanced Edition, which features new and improved ray-traced effects and DLSS 2.0 technology. It also brings support for Mass Effect Legendary Edition and Resident Evil Village.

This new driver adds support for 5 more monitors to the G-SYNC compatible list, bringing the total to 160 (AOC 24G2W1G8 and AG274US4R6B; ASUS XG349C; Philips 279M1RV; and Samsung LC27G50A).

The download links for the latest GeForce 466.27 drivers can be found starting here. The release notes can be found here as a downloadable pdf file. Here are the release highlights from NVIDIA’s website:

Game Ready Drivers provide the best possible gaming experience for all major new releases. Prior to a new title launching, our driver team is working up until the last minute to ensure every performance tweak and bug fix is included for the best gameplay on day-1.

Game Ready for the Metro Exodus PC Enhanced Edition
This new Game Ready Driver provides support for the Metro Exodus PC Enhanced Edition, which adds additional ray-traced effects and NVIDIA DLSS 2.0 for greater performance and improved image quality. Additionally, this release also provides optimal support for Mass Effect Legendary Edition and Resident Evil Village, along with support for 5 new G-SYNC Compatible displays.

The performance results of Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition are not very surprising. Basically, the game looks better than ever using all the new and improved ray tracing effects, but it also comes with a significant performance penalty (~10 FPS). Only DLSS 2.0 and VRS mitigate this performance cost.

Let’s head to the tables and charts to compare the driver performance changes of the latest GeForce Game Ready 466.27 driver versus 466.11 using both our AORUS RTX 3080 MASTER and EVGA RTX 2080 Ti BLACK.

The Performance Summary Charts with 17 Games

Below you can find the summary charts of our representative selection of 17 games and 4 hybrid and 4 non-synthetic benchmarks. We chart our games’ driver performance progression from version 466.11 to 466.27 using both the AORUS RTX 3080 MASTER and the EVGA RTX 2080 Ti BLACK.

You can see the list of graphics settings on the charts, and we run each built-in or custom game benchmark’s sequence at 2560×1440, except for Borderlands 3 and Far Cry New Dawn, tested at 3840×2160 resolution. You may click on each chart to open a pop-up for the best viewing.

Results give average framerates and higher is better. We display the low FPS percentiles (P1 and P0.2) below the corresponding averages. We use CapFrameX to record frametimes over time and to visualize and convert them into their corresponding average FPS and P1 and P0.2 FPS percentiles values. There are also columns showing percentages of gain/loss in both raw performance (average FPS) and, when applicable, in frametimes consistency or stability between the different driver versions. To calculate the gains or losses in stability we applied our custom formula:

{[(LowPercentileFPS_2 / AvgFPS_2) / (LowPercentileFPS_1 / AvgFPS_1)] – 1} x 100

We mark significant performance changes (higher than 3%) in bold and use purple or orange font for the significant improvements or regressions respectively.

GeForce 466.27 Driver Performance Charts

Notes on GeForce 466.27 Driver Performance

From the charts, we see no significant performance changes between drivers for both the hybrid and non-synthetic tests using both our RTX 3080 and RTX 2080 Ti.

For the built-in game benchmarks, although most games show no significant differences when we move to 466.27 drivers from the 466.11 driver version using both GPUs, there is a significant regression in Watch Dogs: Legion (DX12 API mode) in terms of raw performance.

Disclaimer

Please be aware that the following results, notes, and the corresponding driver recommendation are valid for similar Ampere and Turing gaming rigs on Windows 10 v20H2. Its representativeness, applicability, and usefulness on different NVIDIA GPU architectures, testing benches, and MS Windows versions may vary.

Conclusion

Based on our previous results and findings, we do not recommend updating to the latest GeForce 466.27 drivers if you play Watch Dogs: Legion (DX12), as it showed a noteworthy regression in raw performance using both GPUs. Otherwise, driver 466.27’s raw performance and smoothness or frametimes consistency level are overall on par with our prior recommended driver using both NVIDIA GPU architectures, Turing, and Ampere.

Therefore, our current recommended GeForce driver is 466.27 unless you favor the best performance in Watch Dogs: Legion using an RTX graphics card.

From a qualitative point of view, there are important reasons that also make it advisable to upgrade to version 466.27. These reasons include its higher level of driver bug fixes, the optimizations for the latest games, and support for the latest NVIDIA technologies.

Let’s Play!

***

Rodrigo González (aka ‘RodroG’) is an enthusiast gamer and tech reviewer interested especially in shooter games, open-world role-playing games, and software and hardware benchmarking. He is the author of the NVIDIA WHQL Driver Performance Benchmarks Series and founder and moderator of the r/allbenchmarks community on Reddit.