Nvidia RTX: Mortal Shell, Valorant and Fortnite have great advantages from the latest Game Ready drivers
Nvidia RTX
Nvidia has released the latest Game Ready drivers for its RTX cards in conjunction with Mortal Shell's RTX update. This soulslike isn't the only one to benefit from this update: Valorant and Fortnite also have improvements thanks to Reflex.The new RTX update for Mortal Shell is to add NVIDIA's DLSS and ray tracing to the Cold Symmetry single player action RPG. This update adds ray-traced shadows and support for NVIDIA's DLSS to the game, resulting in up to 130% performance boost in 4K:
Mortal Shell enhancements through DLSS. Instead, Valorant players will enjoy greater responsiveness thanks to a Reflex update. Now, Reflex's Boost Mode further reduces system latency in some CPU-related scenarios. These types of CPU-related scenarios can occur when there are many objects to render on the screen at the same time. The same happens with Fortnite.
New features in this update include:
Support for the native integration of the NVIDIA Broadcast background noise removal function directly within Open Broadcaster Software (OBS), the most popular broadcasting tool among streamers. Support for other G-SYNC compatible displays, including LG 27GP950, 2021 B1 4K Series, 2021 C1 4K Series, 2021 G1 4K Series and 2021 Z1 8K Series, along with the MSI MAG 301 RF. Optimal game settings for two games, It Takes Two and Rogue Heroes: Ruins of Tasos The addition of optimal GeForce Experience settings for creative applications, with 34 applications from Adobe Lightroom to Blackmagic Davinci Resolve supported with this release.
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Nvidia is struggling to get people onto GeForce RTX GPUs
If you've been trying to get your hands on the Ampere line of gaming GPUs from Nvidia, such as the RTX 3080 or RTX 3070, chances are you've been unsuccessful due to the ongoing shortage of available stock. Older hardware still dominates user systems for a wide variety of reasons, so it might not come as a surprise that Nvidia has found 85% of GeForce owners have yet to purchase a raytracing capable graphics card.
A comparison chart was shown during the annual Nvidia investor presentation on Monday 12 April, dubbing RTX as 'the new standard', and stating that the 85% of users still using older hardware like the GTX 1660 need to upgrade.
This mirrors information shared by the official Steam Hardware Survey, painting a picture of just how little market share raytracing GPUs currently have. The survey also shows that while some cards such as the GTX 1060 are dropping in popularity, other non-RTX options such as the GTX 1650 are still making significant gains every month.
While technology like raytracing is gaining popularity, there are many games that don't include it – and nor should they have to. For folk who choose to play competitive titles such as Valorant or Apex Legends, the sacrifice of framerates required for RTX graphics isn't worth the payoff, even with AI boosting DLSS.
A large part of the low GeForce RTX userbase is also likely down to stock shortages and finances, with affordability being quoted across social media as a major reason people wouldn't choose to upgrade their systems.
During the presentation, chief financial officer for Nvidia Colette Kress made a statement regarding the low stock for the new Ampere lineup: “our operations team is agile and executing fantastically. We expect our supplies to increase as the year progresses'.
This is unlikely to solve other issues any time soon however, such as scalpers who use bots to scrape sites for available inventory to then resell on online auction sites like eBay, as well as cryptominers buying up large quantities of the cards to profit from the growing Ethereum and Bitcoin boom.
Even the most affordable graphics card of the Ampere line, the GeForce RTX 3060 with an RRP of $330/£300/€330, is scarcely available despite being designed with lower mining efficiency in a bid to make more stock available to gamers.
There is a growing number of games that support RTX, and Nvidia's statements make it clear that it believes this tech, alongside DLSS, will be implemented into future games as standard. For now though, many fan-favorites survive just fine without it, and it's unlikely you'll need a serious upgrade to your system if you selectively play titles that wouldn't benefit from the software.
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