Nvidia releases first Windows 11 compatible driver
Nvidia has released the first official graphics card driver for Microsoft's upcoming Windows 11 operating system. The company is second only to Intel, which released a Windows 11 driver last week.
Microsoft's Windows 11 operating system is available as a preview build currently. It is expected to be released at the end of the year, likely in October 2021.
Windows users who run Windows 11 already on test devices or their own systems may install the official drivers to improve graphics adapter support.
Nvidia's Game Reader driver 471.41 WHQL is available for all supported versions of Microsoft's Windows operating system. Besides Windows 7, Windows 8.1 and Windows 10, Windows 11 is also supported.
Nvidia announced recently that it will stop supporting Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 partially later this year. Game Ready drivers won't be released anymore for these operating systems from October 2021 on, but security updates will be released until 2024.
The driver introduces support for Windows 11 and CUDA 11.4. Besides that, it is also including updates for the latest versions of the games Read Dead Redemption 2 and Chernobylite, which introduce support for Nvidia DLSS.
Nvidia provides advance notice of support discontinuation in the release notes. According to the notes, release branch 470 is the last to support Nvidia Quadro desktop GPUs based on the Kepler architecture. Graphics adapters based on Kepler include the Nvidia GeForce GTX Titan series, GTX 700 series, and GeForce 600 series GPUs. Check out this Nvidia support article that lists all Kepler-based GeForce desktop GPUs.
Additionally, release 470 will be the last branch to support NvIFR OpenGL.
Nvidia notes that the release has several limitations, including the following:
- Several OpenCL 3.0 issues
- Issues with HDR games in games and Windows HDR settings.
- Implicit SLI disabled on Nvidia Ampere GPUs.
- Image sharpening feature limitations.
The company fixed several issues in the new Game Ready driver 471.41. Some of these fix issues in games such as Doom Eternal and League of Legends, others address general issues that could cause audio dropouts, display resolution limitations, or corrupted pictures when using remote desktop connections.
Nvidia's driver download website does not list Windows 11 yet as an option. The Windows 10 driver should install fine on Windows 11 devices, however.
