Nvidia released the NVIDIA GeForce Driver 397.31 WHQL to the public today. The new driver includes support for a new feature called Nvidia RTX Technology, updates to components, a new file cleanup operation after installation of drivers, and several fixes of issues.

The new driver is available as a direct update via GeForce Experience if it is installed on a client machine and as a separate download from Nvidia's download site. It is compatible with Windows devices running Window 7 and later.

Just like version 396.x of the driver, driver 397.x won's support 32-bit operating systems anymore.

Computer users who use the standalone installer to install and update drivers benefit from a new file cleanup feature that removes installation files after a successful installation of the graphics driver.

Previous versions of Nvidia's driver installer did not remove the driver installation files which it placed into c:\nvidia by default. A single driver package pushed the size of the folder beyond the 1 Gigabyte mark.

Note that this did not work correctly on a Windows 10 RS4 Insider Build PC. The Nvidia folder remained on the system after installation of the graphics driver.

Nvidia GeForce Driver 397.31

Nvidia cleans up the folder automatically after installation which means that you don't have to take care of that manually anymore to free up disk space.

The new driver adds development support for Nvidia RTX Technology, a ray tracing technology for DirectX 12 which has the following requirements:

  • Windows 10 RS4 (April 2018 Update)
  • Nvidia Volta GPU
  • Nvidia driver version 396 or higher
  • Microsoft DXR developer package

Driver 397.31 adds support for Vulkan 1.1, a new HD audio sample rates (32 kHz, 88.2 kHz and 176.4 kHz for all GPUs, new libraries (nvdlist.dll and nvdlistx.dll to support Optimus and MSHybrid notebooks), and a new NVDECODE API which lets clients reconfigure the decoder resolution and postprocessing parameters.

The driver adds Game Ready support for BattleTech and FrostPunk, and updates or adds SLI profiles and 3D Vision profiles for the following games: Descenders, Frostpunk, Warhammer: Vermintide 2, Far Cry 5, and Eve Valkyrie - Warzone.

The new Nvidia graphics driver version fixes several issues that users experienced with previous driver versions:

  • Fixed a game crash in Doom on GeForce GTX 1080 Ti devices when HDR was enabled.
  • Fixed a game crash in Far Cry 5 that occurred after some minutes on GeForce GTX 1060 devices.
  • Fixed NvfbcPluginWindow prevented Windows from shutting down if Steam was launched.
  • Fixed a driver error when using Firefox.
  • Fixed flickering and corruption in Rise of the Tomb Raider in the in-game options interface on GeForce GTX 1060 devices.
  • Fixed a V-Sync and SLI issue in Diablo III

The following issues are new or remain issues in the new driver:

  • Video and desktop corruption in Microsoft Edge with HDR turned on and video playback in full-screen mode on HDR displays.
  • Green flickering in Far Cry 5 with HDR and non-native resolutions.
  • G-Sync displays may go blank when switching between overclocked memory clocks.
  • No display output when connecting the DisplayPort and two DVI monitors.
  • The OS may fail after installing the graphics card on Threadripper-enabled motherboards.
  • Blue Screen crash in Gears of War 4.
  • TDR errors in Warhammer Vermintide 2 when changing resolutions.
  • Nvidia Surround hotkeys may not work.
  • In-Game overlay cannot be enabled and ShadowPlay does not work.

Click here to open the release notes PDF document.