GeForce 457.09 Driver Performance Analysis

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Game Ready GeForce 457.09 Driver Performance Analysis featuring a Gigabyte AORUS RTX 3080 MASTER using 11 13 Games

[Updated 12/22/2020 19:35 PM PT]

This driver performance analysis showcases the performance of a Gigabyte AORUS RTX 3080 MASTER with 11 13 PC games using the latest GeForce 457.09 Game Ready driver. We compare these drivers versus our previously recommended driver 456.71, and we perform all tests on the same game version and the same OS build.

Source: NVIDIA

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 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.F9 BIOS)
  • Kingston HyperX Predator 32GB DDR4 (2×16GB, dual-channel at 3333 MHz CL16)
  • Gigabyte AORUS GeForce RTX 3080 MASTER 10GB; v.F2 VBIOS, stock clocks
  • Samsung 500GB SSD 960 EVO NVMe M.2
  • Seagate 2TB Desktop SSHD SATA 3.1
  • Seagate 2TB FireCuda SATA 3.1
  • Corsair RM750x, 750W 80PLUS Gold power supply unit
  • ASUS ROG Swift PG279Q 27? IPS 2560 x 1440 165Hz 4ms G-Sync Monitor (G-Sync off, Fixed Refresh Rate on)

Test Configuration – Software

  • NVIDIA GeForce 456.71 and 457.09 drivers; High Quality & prefer maximum performance (on a per-game profile-basis); fixed refresh rate (globally).
  • 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, Game Mode, Game DVR & Game Bar features off.
  • GIGABYTE tools not installed.
  • Latest DirectX
  • All 11 13 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, v1.1
  • CapFrameX (CX), the latest version
  • RivaTuner Statistics Server (RTSS), latest version
  • Display Driver Uninstaller (DDU), latest version; always uninstall old driver using DDU in safe mode, clean & 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 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 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).
  • To compare and value the results and aggregated records in terms of percentages of Gain / Loss, the following thresholds are set to consider a certain % value as significant (not within the margin of error) for our benchmarking purposes:
    • Score/FPS Avg > 3% when valuing hybrid & non-synthetic benchmarks;
    • FPS Avg > 3% when valuing raw performance;
    • P1/P0.2 > 3% when valuing frame time consistency; custom formula

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

Benchmark Suite: 11 PC Games, 4 Hybrid & 3 Non-Synthetic Tests

Hybrid Tests (3DMark)

  • Fire Strike Ultra
  • Time Spy Extreme
  • DirectX Raytracing feature test (NEW addition)
  • Port Royal

Non-Synthetic Tests

  • Basemark GPU
  • UNIGINE Superposition
  • Neon Noir (Benchmark)

DX11 Games

  • Borderlands 3 (DX11)
  • Deus Ex: Mankind Divided (DX11)
  • Far Cry New Dawn (UPDATE, Far Cry 5 left the list)
  • Tom Clancy’s Ghost Ghost Recon Breakpoint (DX11)
  • Neon Noir (Loop Mode)

DX12 Games

  • Borderlands 3 (DX12)
  • Horizon Zero Dawn
  • Metro: Exodus (DX12)
  • Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 (DX12)
  • Watch Dogs: Legion (DX12) (NEW addition)
  • Shadow of the Tomb Raider (DX12)

Vulkan Games

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

[Updated 12/22/2020 19:35 PM PT]

NVIDIA Control Panel settings

Here are the global NVIDIA Control Panel settings:

Nvidia Control Panel – Global 3D Settings.

Both ‘High Quality’ value 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 457.09 Game Ready WHQL Drivers

This latest GeForce Game Ready 457.09 driver was released on Thursday (10/29/20) primarily for the launch of Watch Dogs: Legion and to bring support for RTX 3070 GPUs. Watch Dogs: Legion implements real-time ray-traced reflections and NVIDIA DLSS. This new driver adds support for 4 more monitors to the G-SYNC compatible list, bringing the total to 119 (Acer XB323U GX, Asus VG279QL1A, Dell AW2521HFLA, and Gigabyte AORUS FI25F), and also provides the best experience for GeForce gamers who play DiRT 5, Ghostrunner, Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit Remastered, and Xuan-Yuan Sword VII.

Source: NVIDIA.

The download links for the latest GeForce 457.09 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 Watch Dogs: Legion
This new Game Ready Driver provides support for Watch Dogs: Legion. In addition, this driver provides optimal day-1 support for DiRT 5, Ghostrunner, Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit Remastered, and Xuan-Yuan Sword VII.

Gaming Technology
Includes support for the GeForce RTX 3070 GPU.

Let’s head to the tables and charts to compare the driver performance changes of the latest GeForce 457.09 driver versus 456.71.

The Performance Summary Charts with 11 13 Games

Below are the summary charts of our representative selection of 11 13 games and 4 hybrid and 3 non-synthetic benchmarks. We chart our games’ driver performance progression from version 456.71 to 457.09 using the AORUS RTX 3080 MASTER. We list the graphics settings on the charts, and we run each built-in game benchmark’s sequence at 2560×1440, except for Borderlands 3 and Far Cry New Dawn which are tested at 150% resolution scaling. You may click on each chart to open a pop-up for best viewing.

Results give average framerates and higher is better. The low FPS percentiles (P1 and P0.2) are displayed below the corresponding averages. We use CapFrameX to record frametimes over time 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 green or red font for the significant gains or losses respectively.

[Updated 12/22/2020 19:16 PM PT]

Significant Differences – 457.07 vs. 456.71

The following charts detail the two significant performance regressions in terms of frametimes consistency we found in both Ghost Recon Breakpoint (Vulkan) and Wolfenstein Youngblood after updating to driver 457.09 from 456.71.

Bar Charts

Ghost Recon Breakpoint (Vulkan)
Ghost Recon: Breakpoint (Vulkan) – 457.09 vs. 456.71 – Notable regressions in both 1% percentile FPS and 0.2% percentile FPS values.
Ghost Recon: Breakpoint (Vulkan) – 457.09 vs. 456.71 – Notable regression in Adaptive STDEV FPS values.
Wolfenstein: Youngblood
Wolfenstein: Youngblood – 457.09 vs. 456.71 – Significant regressions in 0.2% percentile FPS value.
Wolfenstein: Youngblood – 457.09 vs. 456.71 – Significant regression in Adaptive STDEV FPS value.

Frametime Graphs & L-Shapes

Ghost Recon Breakpoint (Vulkan)
Ghost Recon: Breakpoint (Vulkan) – 457.09 vs. 456.71 – The notable performance regression is quite evident when looking at this frametimes comparison.
Wolfenstein: Youngblood
Wolfenstein: Youngblood – 457.09 vs. 456.71 – The significant regression in 0.2 percentile FPS value is quite evident when looking at this frametimes comparison.

Notes on GeForce 457.09 driver performance

From the charts, we see no significant performance changes between drivers for both the hybrid and non-synthetic tests.

For the built-in game benchmarks, most games show no significant differences when we move to 457.09 drivers from the 456.71 driver version, except for two significant regressions in frametimes stability that affect both Ghost Recon Breakpoint (Vulkan API mode) and Wolfenstein: Youngblood (with RT reflections off). The performance regression in Ghost Recon Breakpoint deserves special attention since it is notable, striking, and quite evident.

Disclaimer

Please be aware that the following results, notes, and the corresponding driver recommendation are valid for similar Ampere 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 457.09 drivers if you play Ghost Recon Breakpoint or Wolfenstein: Youngblood (Vulkan), as they showed an overall trend toward poorer frametimes stability. Otherwise, driver 457.09’s raw performance and smoothness or frametimes consistency level are overall on par with the prior driver.

However, our current recommended GeForce driver is still 456.71 unless you favor certain Game-Ready optimizations, support for GeForce RTX 3070 GPUs, new G-SYNC compatible monitors, or certain recent bug fixes.

Let’s Play!

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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.

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