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Nvidia plans to lock Game Ready drivers behind GeForce Experience registration

courtesy of derExperte


Sometime in mid-December, however, you’ll be able to install Game Ready drivers only via GeForce Experience—and even then only after you’ve registered a verified email address with Nvidia. The drivers you can grab on GeForce.com or via Windows Update will be limited to quarterly releases for bug fixes, new features, security updates and so on. More frequent Game Ready drivers will be GFE-only.
nvidia game ready driver support

Locking performance-enhancing drivers that have always been freely available behind a registration wall chafes—hard—but Nvidia says the change will reduce headaches for both casual and hardcore gamers, as well as continue to push GeForce Experience as a go-to PC gaming solution.

“We kind of have two camps in terms of gamers,” Nvidia’s Sean Pelletier said in a group call with journalists. “On one hand you have the gamer that’s just casually playing things here and there, using their system for daily use and gaming on the side. They don’t want to be inundated with these [Game Ready] drivers…

“On the other side of the equation you have enthusiast gamers, who get excited about preloading a game, who want to play a game the day it comes out with all the bells and whistles,” Pelletier continued. “That’s obviously the demographic we’re looking at for Game Ready drivers. We’re targeting GFE as a single-source destination for those gamers.”

more at the link
 

10k

Banned
It'll reduce headaches for casual and enthusiast gamers......how?

I mean I don't care I already registered but seriously, don't just state something without backing it up.
 

Zemm

Member
I wonder how many different gaming accounts and/or programs I'll have on my PC in 5 years time. Such a mess right now.
 

EatChildren

Currently polling second in Australia's federal election (first in the Gold Coast), this feral may one day be your Bogan King.
Eat wet shit Nvidia.
 

Steel

Banned
Considering how bad geforce expereince works on Windows 10, I'd at least hope they get that shit sorted out.
 

NeOak

Member
So the drivers that some people consider puts NVIDIA at an advantage vs. AMD will be behind a registration wall?

Ayyyy LMAO
 

Vuze

Member
Uhm. How exactly would this benefit either "type of gamer"?

E: If it didn't sound so stupid you'd think they're eventually planning to charge money for the drivers hence requiring a unique account lol. I mean, asking the user to install GFE to get the drivers would suck as well, but what's up with the account?
 

Steel

Banned
So the drivers that some people consider puts NVIDIA at an advantage vs. AMD will be behind a registration wall?

Ayyyy LMAO

Hey, it is free. That's not even the part I'm upset about. Geforce experience glitches out all the time and having no alternative way to access the drivers is kinda a pain.
 

Gumbie

Member
seriously-wtf-is-this-shit_583.jpg
 

Corpekata

Banned
Considering the latest Game Ready Driver tanked my performance in a few games, I don't know if I'm all that tempted to sign up for this Nvidia.
 

LQX

Member
Fuck that. GeForce Experience seemingly has issues on my system. The fucking thing refuses to install.
 

bro1

Banned
you know you don't have to use the features of Geforce Exp. It's like having to have a steam account to play steam games. Nobody is forcing you to use big picture, but the option is there. GAF overreaction in full effect
 

Drazgul

Member
Lol, good luck with that Nvidia. Guess I'll be downloading my drivers from 3rd party sites from now on.

you know you don't have to use the features of Geforce Exp. It's like having to have a steam account to play steam games. Nobody is forcing you to use big picture, but the option is there. GAF overreaction in full effect

Maybe you don't care about all the useless shit tacked on to installers these days, but others do.
 

Gumbie

Member
you know you don't have to use the features of Geforce Exp. It's like having to have a steam account to play steam games. Nobody is forcing you to use big picture, but the option is there. GAF overreaction in full effect

Some us don't want Geforce Experience PERIOD. Why the hell are you defending putting drivers behind a registration wall?
 

Tenebrous

Member
you know you don't have to use the features of Geforce Exp. It's like having to have a steam account to play steam games. Nobody is forcing you to use big picture, but the option is there. GAF overreaction in full effect

Uh...

Sometime in mid-December, however, you’ll be able to install Game Ready drivers only via GeForce Experience—and even then only after you’ve registered a verified email address with Nvidia. The drivers you can grab on GeForce.com or via Windows Update will be limited to quarterly releases for bug fixes, new features, security updates and so on. More frequent Game Ready drivers will be GFE-only.

Yeah only getting drivers on a quarterly basis is just fine and dandy.
 

d00d3n

Member
Anti-consumer crap like this is expected as NVIDIA gets closer and closer to a de facto monopoly in the enthusiast GPU market segment. Why do you hate your customers so much, NVIDIA?
 

PnCIa

Member
you know you don't have to use the features of Geforce Exp. It's like having to have a steam account to play steam games. Nobody is forcing you to use big picture, but the option is there. GAF overreaction in full effect
Maybe i dont want to have more shit running in the background? Shit that makes no sense for me since, you know, i dont want to use it?

Also, the response is so fucking stupid. I wonder if whoever wrote it is a notorious liar or just an asshole. Hardcore gamers know how to install drivers and dont need a software to download it for them.
Shit like this is the reason why we need competition.

One day they will charge for drivers for older hardware. You know, you bought a GPU for 500, but it only has a 2 year warranty. But if you want to have continued driver support, you can buy our yearly driver subscription for only 29.99.
 
I'm not happy I'd have to install that Experience POS to download drivers, so hopefully the internet rage will be loud enough to get them to fuck off.

It will probably be reversed, but they'll release another PR piece and pretend they are doing us a favor, and use the typical condescending language to make a point that we don't know what's good for us.
 

EatChildren

Currently polling second in Australia's federal election (first in the Gold Coast), this feral may one day be your Bogan King.
Their response makes no sense at all, really bad move

A company desperately trying to convince enthusiasts they're not actually enthusiasts and don't prefer enthusiast things is always really painful to read and listen to.
 
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