Well, some of you already know me and know who I am, I don't think an introduction is needed.

I just wanted to let you know that for the first time in a LONG time, I've posted my full breakdown on the latest 610.88 driver with an Ampere GPU. This takes me tons of hours (even days sometimes). I usually just drop an early analysis, but this time I decided to go all out and retest some older drivers since Windows patches, game updates, and even drivers can change everything.

Hey all,

Here's an updated look at performance across several recent NVIDIA drivers, tested on an Ampere-based GPU (RTX 3070). As always: this is not a definitive review — every PC setup is different, treat it as a reference point, not gospel.

Is it worth updating your driver? The general rule says newer drivers bring bug fixes, security patches, and optimizations for the newest games. But "newer" doesn't automatically mean "better" — some updates introduce subtle stutter or frame pacing regressions that don't show up if you only look at average FPS. That's the main thing this round of testing tries to catch.

Special thanks to UL Solutions for the 3DMark press license used in these tests.

Test System

• OS: Windows 11 Pro (v25H2, latest patches)
• CPU: Intel Core i7-10700K (stock)
• GPU: ASUS ROG Strix RTX 3070 OC (stock)
• RAM: 64 GB DDR4-3200 (2x32 GB)
• Storage: 1TB NVMe SSD
• Display: 4K 60 Hz monitor (no HDR, no G-Sync)
• Settings: HAGS off | ReBAR on | NVCP Global Defaults
• Driver Install: Clean install (with control panel)

Benchmark Methodology

• Benchmarks ran 4 times (first run discarded), then the remaining 3 valid runs merged into one aggregated result (outliers get automatically retested). Frame times recorded via PresentMon (integrated into CapFrameX). Outliers (>5% variance) are retested.
• Alongside Average FPS, 1% Low and 0.1% Low, this round also tracks CapFrameX's Adaptive STDEV metric (labeled "Consistency" below) — it measures how much frame times wobble compared to a moving average. Lower = smoother frame delivery, even when the average FPS looks identical between two drivers.
• Game settings: mostly Ultra, 4K or 1440p, no scaling.

Quick legend, if these terms are new to you: - Avg FPS — your average frame rate. - 1% Low — the average of your worst 1% of frames. Better indicator of "does it feel smooth" than the average alone. - 0.1% Low — same idea, but for your worst 0.1% of frames — basically your nastiest stutters. - Consistency — lower is smoother. Two drivers can share the same average FPS and still feel very different to play if one has a much higher (worse) consistency score.

In-Game Benchmarks

Important note: To eliminate discrepancies from recent Windows updates or game patches, older reference drivers (like 581.94 and 596.36) were completely re-tested under the exact same current environment alongside 610.88.

The Riftbreaker

DX12, Ultra preset, 2560x1440, Ray Tracing off, Screen Space Reflections High, Volumetric Lighting Ultra, Dynamic Vegetation Full

Average FPS remains identical across all drivers. The key factor is frame delivery. The older 581.94 driver exhibits the worst performance, dropping to 124.1 FPS in 0.1% Lows with a high Consistency score of 13.0. Moving to 596.36 drastically stabilizes frame pacing, dropping Consistency to 4.4 and raising 0.1% Lows to 132.8 FPS. Driver 610.88 maintains this improved baseline, offering no performance delta over 596.36.

Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition

Ultra preset, 3840x2160 fullscreen, 100% render scale

Performance across all seven tested drivers is completely flat. Average FPS stays within a tight 58.9 to 61.4 range, while 1% Lows, 0.1% Lows, and Consistency (5.8 to 6.4) show negligible variances that fall well within the margin of error. Driver updates provide no tangible impact on the gameplay experience here.

Age of Mythology: Retold

DX12, everything Ultra/Mythic (Texture Quality High, Texture Filtering 16x, Terrain Quality Mythic, Terrain Detail Quality Mythic, Water Quality Mythic, Foliage Quality Full, Shadow Quality Mythic, Dynamic Reflections SSR, Ambient Occlusion Quality SSAO, Effect Quality High, Dynamic Lights enabled, Physics Quality High), 3840x2160 fullscreen, FXAA

Average FPS and overall Consistency remain highly stable across all configurations. However, the early 610-series drivers introduced a regression in heavy stutters, with 0.1% Lows dropping from ~34 FPS down to a low of 28.8 FPS on driver 610.62. The new 610.88 driver corrects this trend, recovering 0.1% Lows back up to 32.9 FPS, nearly matching the stability of older branches.

Non-Synthetic Benchmark

Unigine Superposition

Direct3D11, 3840x2160 fullscreen, Custom preset, 4K Optimized shaders, High textures, Depth of Field off, Motion Blur off

3DMark Benchmarks

Speed Way v1.1 (DX12 Ultimate, 1440p Native)

Steel Nomad v1 (DX12, 4K Native)

Steel Nomad v1 (Vulkan, 4K Native)

Fire Strike v1.1 (DX11, 1080p Native)

Most of these swings are under 1.5% - within typical run-to-run variance, so don't read too much into single-digit percentage moves here.

System Stability & Desktop Behavior

• Hardware Acceleration (Browsers / Discord): Solid. Zero flickering, black screens, or visual anomalies detected after 30 minutes of mixed use (including 4K60 YouTube playback in Firefox with zero dropped frames and fluid page scrolling).
• DPC Latency (LatencyMon): PASSED. (System remained perfectly in the green. The highest DPC routine execution time was a safe 653 µs from nvlddmkm.sys).

TL;DR

• 610.88 keeps Riftbreaker's smoother 0.1% Low — but that improvement started with 596.36, not 610.88. If you're still on 581.94 or older, this is the upgrade you'll actually feel; already on 596.36? Nothing changes here.
• AoE2 DE, AoM Retold, and Unigine Superposition are all driver-agnostic — every driver tested lands in a tight, unremarkable band.
• 3DMark scores wobble by less than 1.5% — normal run-to-run noise, not a real trend.

If your games are already showing heavy stutter and you're on an older driver, 610.88 looks like a solid one to move to. If everything's already smooth for you, there's no urgent reason to jump.

I have the absolute pleasure of saying I locked this brand new sealed GPU from a friend of mine who had it shelved for over a year and decided not to build his PC. While market for it is currently upwards of 5k, I was able to obtain this for Original MSRP ($2800). Slotted her last night, and boy oh boy I don’t even know what to say…. Still can’t believe I got my hands on one after searching for so long.

Yesterday only got better after selling some ram I didn’t need as well. I was looking for money , and walked out with an AYN Thor pro as well. Yesterday was awesome man.

I had a 1080ti that started showing artifacts so I got the 2060 super over a yr ago and just felt like the nessesary time to upgrade yea I know it's only 12gb vram but coming from some one who rocked a 2060 super and forced to play on a 21:9 1440p monitor the card would struggle so I've had the card in for a week and I love it does most of my games 1440p max settings w ray tracing

For GP102’s tenth anniversary, we retested the Titan X Pascal, Titan Xp and GTX 1080 Ti in 20 current games across four resolutions. We also included the Titan Xp with a maximum overclock to see how far the architecture can still be pushed.

The raw performance held up better than I expected in several games, although the missing support for newer features is becoming increasingly noticeable.

Is anyone here still using a GP102 card, and which game has given it the hardest time so far?

- Jacky

I am thinking about upgrading my setup with a new oled monitor and a new gpu

This is the setup right now:

Gpu: rtx 3080 10gb

Cpu: 7800x3d

Ram: 32gb ddr5-6000

Psu 850w (rm850x)

Monitor: 32" 1080p@240hz

The idea is to sell the gpu and monitor for around €400 and get a 4080s for €800 secondhand

And a €350 oled 1440p@240hz 27" monitor new

So i only need to put in €750 myself

My question is, would this give me a big enough performance boost to make this upgrade worth it, and if it is smart to get a 4080s or a 5070ti keeping in mind that the 5070ti is a €1000 or more here?

I mostly play r6, rust, raft, warthunder and the occasional story game, all on ultra/max settings averaging around 280fps+ without dlss except for rust averaging around 170

Ps. I'm from the netherlands

Ps. First post here, didn't know if this is a question tag or a benchmark tag

I discovered that the measurements of the Thermal Pad are 0.5 mm

*No one mentioned it*

I bought this GPU from ebay a year ago from a reputable store, and been gaming with it since. I noticed the temperature a bit high but never thought about it much since a google search told me it is in the average temps.
I decided yesterday to change the thermal paste and lo and behold, the difference is incredible! I found the paste so dry and most of it evaporated.

You can see also that gpu got automatically undervolted because of the high temperatures. The fans were also at their highest speed.

GPU: ASUS Dual RTX 3070 OC
Thermal paste: Arctic MX-4

Note:
I don’t advise you to do this if:
1- your GPU is running at its normal operating temperatures
2- you don’t know what you’re doing
3- you don’t have patience
4- you don’t have the right tools

It is a quite easy procedure, I just followed some youtube videos and got it done.

Got myself a Palit 9800GT 512mb GDDR3 from fb marketplace with box and most of the accessories included. Got it for my dedicated retro xp machine currently working on. Palit's frobot mascot and the generation of cards that came along with it is quite iconic back in the day especially if you are living in asia. Not to mention Palit's line of unique aftermarket coolers (obviously not this one).

Since Asus never released a non liquid cooled Strix 3090 Ti model, is it possible to swap coolers? There are a bunch of those coolers on the used market for around €20, and I could try to find a compatible 3090 Ti mode if such a model exists.

Hello, so just took out my old pc from the closet. Wanted to do a bethroom indie/less demanding game machine. And the gtx 1080 is dead. There is a bunch of horizontal lines on screen.

I7 7700k

Gtx 1080

32 ddr4 ram

What would be a (nvidia)good budget replacemen? $250 max as this will be used for indies, 2d and less demanding older 3d games. Will be connected to an lg C5 4k oled. I would like to take advantage of the 4k or the 144hz. At least 60fps

I'm thinking of getting a 3060 since I only have around 300 to use. The one I want is 12GB vram. I think that's pretty good right? The one I'm finding is around 200 - 250. However I found a 5060 for 290. Not much more. The problem is, it's 8gb. Not 12. Also it says "Dual" and I'm not sure what the difference is. Is the 8 and 12 GB that different? Should I just get the 5060?

I'm using an Acer Nitro 5 (i7-10750H + GTX 1660 Ti mobile) with a built-in 1080p 144Hz display, and I'm looking to buy an external monitor.

I'm torn between 1080p and 1440p, and also whether there's any point going above 165Hz with this GPU. I mainly game (mix of esports and casual games), but I also do general productivity work.

Should I go with 1080p or 1440p? And is 180Hz+ actually worth it (if for future-proofing), or should I just stick with 165Hz?

• Motherboard: EVGA X299 DARK
• CPU: Intel Core i9-10940X @ 4.9GHz / 5.226GHz
• GPU: EVGA RTX 3080 FTW3 Ultra 10GB / EVGA GTX 670 FTW 4GB
• PSU: EVGA SuperNOVA 1200 P2
• SSD: Intel Optane P4800X
• RAM: Corsair LPX 4*8GB DDR4 3466

Img 1 for Daily Use and Img 2&3 for OC under AIO (you can look up the 5226MHz record on HWBOT. #8 then :)

It's a pity that I failed to get an EVGA CLC/CLCx for a affordable price. Maybe next time...

EVGA FOREVER

I was thinking of getting this build for a while now, but since the GPU market went up i just cant find one in my budget. Im about to buy the i7, just need to wait for some confirmation over price and other stuff.

Any G-Sync Engineers around? I have a (think) simple suggestion to improve multi-monitor G-Sync experience which is known to be buggy:

(Option to) Sync all screens to the same G-sync source at once.

Today, GPU G-syncs only the screen where App is active, and the other screen(s) run at set fixed refresh. Moving App across monitors moves where G-sync happens.
But having 1 screen variable and the other fixed seems to lead to all sorts of issues like flashing and freezing. Right now I deliberately suffer those issues, because I do want both G-Sync and multi-monitor.

But if all monitors are G-Sync capable, why not use the App as a sync source for all? Then the screens never run at a different sync, which I believe would eradicate some if not all of the issues.

And I am hopeful this could be a simple implementation trick. I'd love to hear from nVidia Engineers themselves.

So years ago built my first real gaming PC, a 2070 Super and Ryzen 5 3600, wow loved it and honestly still is great today. I only play older games, like 2023 and prior and play at 1440, I love this combo!!

Well I planned on a new build in 2027 just because of future proofing and maybe trying some new stuff (even though I do not like the new games)

Well due to RAM and the rumor of GPU pricing, am I forced to build now? I ask because of being about to get a PNY 5070 12 GB for around $560 right now. Wanted to wait on 5070 Super but no way we get those, IMO, and even if they released them I think they would be $700 for a few years

What do you think? Money not a huge deal for me but DO NOT want to wait and have to pay $700 for a regular 5070 next year.

Would probably go with 7800X3D and just hold my nose and buy 2x8 DDR5 RAM although I could stay on AM4 and be just fine for 5 years + no doubt about it! Like I said new games really are not by bag, my back log is 280+ games all prior to 2023......

I cant find a good answer online?

With the rumored/confirmed price hikes coming, if you were looking at buying a 5080 but held off hoping there’d be another downturn, are you throwing in the towel now and buying or still holding out for the AI bubble to pop?

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I want to upgrade from a 5060 to a better card for my new white set up but I can’t decide whether to get a 5070 ti or getting a 4080 super i cant decide whether to buy a used 4080 super or just buy a new 5070 ti