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Come December Nvidia graphics card users will need to sign up to and install the company’s GeForce Experience software to update their graphics drivers.
While GeForce experience has been an easy way to install driver updates for some time, users currently are also free to obtain drivers from Nvidia’s website or via Windows update. The latter two options will be removed before the end of the year, however.
Those who don’t want to register with and install Nvidia’s software will be restricted to quarterly driver updates – which is far from ideal, considering that nearly every major game launch is accompanied by a new dedicated driver.
Bug fixes and new features are rolled out fairly often, too. So far this year there have been 20 major updates, as well as additional fixes.
The move seems designed to push adoption of GeForce Experience. Nvidia argues, however, that more casual users don’t want the hassle of regular driver changes. Anandtech reports that Nvidia reckons that it already distributes 90 per cent of its driver downloads through the software
We kind of have two camps in terms of gamers,” Nvidia’s Sean Pelletier said in a group call, as reported by PCWorld. 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. 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.”
The new beta of GeForce Experience was rolled out today, bringing with it enhanced streaming and game sharing options. Nvidia says big things are planned for the future, too, including an in-built news stream, as well as early access opportunities and hardware giveaways.
