Game Ready GeForce 466.77 Driver Performance Analysis – 18 games benchmarked 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 18 PC games using the latest GeForce 466.77 Game Ready driver. We compare these drivers versus our previously recommended driver 466.27 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.
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 UltraHD (3840×2160) 60Hz 5ms FreeSync Monitor (Fixed Refresh Rate On) when testing games at 2160p resolution.
- ASUS ROG Swift PG279Q 27? IPS QuadHD (2560 x 1440) 165Hz 4ms G-Sync Monitor (Fixed Refresh Rate On) when testing games at 1440p resolution.
Test Configuration – Software
- NVIDIA GeForce 466.27 and 466.77 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 v21H1, High-performance power plan, HAGS off, Game Mode, Game DVR & Game Bar features off.
- GIGABYTE and ASUS tools not installed.
- Latest DirectX
- All 18 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.
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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).
- ‘Aggregate excluding outliers’:
- 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: 18 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)
- Days Gone (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)
- 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 466.77 Game Ready WHQL Drivers
This latest GeForce Game Ready 466.77 driver was released on Thursday (06/10/21) primarily for the launch of RTX 3070 Ti GPUs. It also brings support for the enhanced version of The Persistence, which adds real-time ray-traced reflections, shadows, global illumination, and NVIDIA DLSS.
This new driver also includes among others the following bug fixes:
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[Crossfire HD]: Freestyle is not supported for the game. [200734448]
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[Kepler/Turing GPUs]: Blue-screen crash with DPC Watchdog Violation error may occur. [3321668/3321735]
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The download links for the latest GeForce 466.77 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 No Man’s Sky DLSS Patch
This new Game Ready Driver provides support for the latest new titles and updates, including the latest patch for No Man’s Sky which introduces NVIDIA DLSS technology. Additionally, this release also provides optimal support for The Persistence, Chivalry 2, Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts 2, and the new NVIDIA Reflex integrations in War Thunder and Escape from Tarkov.
Gaming Technology
Includes support for the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti and GeForce RTX 3070 Ti GPUs.
The Performance Summary Charts with 18 Games
Below you can find the summary charts of our representative selection of 18 games and 4 hybrid and 4 non-synthetic benchmarks. We chart our games’ driver performance progression from version 466.27 to 466.77 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, Days Gone, 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. We applied the following custom formula to calculate the stability gains or losses:
{[(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 466.77 Driver Performance Charts
Notes on GeForce 466.77 Driver Performance
From the charts, we see no significant differences in graphics performance between drivers for both the hybrid and non-synthetic tests using both our RTX 3080 and RTX 2080 Ti. It’s worth noting that the anomalous high GPU usage we saw in the 3DMark Fire Strike Physics sub-test using driver 466.47 is not present using this latest Game Ready driver.
About the built-in game benchmarks, although most games show no significant differences when we move to 466.77 drivers from the 466.27 driver version using both GPUs, we see a performance improvement in Ghost Recon Breakpoint (Vulkan API mode) in terms of frametime consistency.
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 v21H1. 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 recommend Ampere and Turing users to update to the latest GeForce 466.77 driver. Its raw performance and smoothness or frametimes consistency level are overall on par with our previously recommended driver 466.27 using both NVIDIA GPU architectures.
From a qualitative point of view, there are important reasons that also make it advisable to upgrade to version 466.77. These reasons include its higher level of security and driver bug fixes, the optimizations for the latest games, and support for the latest NVIDIA technologies.
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.