Just a couple of days after publishing 378.66, NVIDIA released GeForce 378.72 Hotfix drivers. This fixes a bug encoding video in Steam’s In-Home Streaming, and it also fixes PhysX not being enabled on the GPU under certain conditions. Normally, hotfix drivers solve large-enough issues that were introduced with the previous release. This time, as far as I can tell, is a little different, though. Instead, these fixes seem to be intended for 378.66 but, for one reason or another, couldn’t be integrated and tested in time for the driver to be available for the game launches.
This is an interesting effect of the Game Ready program. There is value in having a graphics driver available on the same day (or early) as a major game releases, so that people can enjoy the title as soon as it is available. There is also value in having as many fixes as the vendor can provide. These conditions oppose each other to some extent.
From a user standpoint, driver updates are cumulative, so they are able to skip a driver or two if they are not affected by any given issue. AMD has taken up a similar structure, some times releasing three or four drivers in a month with only, like, one of them being WHQL certified. For these reasons, I tend to lean on the side of “release ‘em as you got them”. Still, I can see people feeling a little uneasy about a driver being released incomplete to hit a due-date.
But, again, that due-date has value.
It’s interesting. I’m personally glad that AMD and NVIDIA are on a rapid-release schedule, but I can see where complaints could arise. What’s your opinion?
Hey look another hot fix not
Hey look another hot fix not even 3 days after other driver.
Get your shit together nvidia
Yeah, they should just stop
Yeah, they should just stop releasing these pointless hotfixes. The previous one fixed the UI issue in a CPL which no one uses. This one is fixing a GPU PhysX issue while there are no GPU PhysX games in sight. Both of these are hardly warrant a fix even, let alone a hot one.
My DATA QUOTA T_T……geez,
My DATA QUOTA T_T……geez, find a way to reduce the bloat…..
Is better like this than
Is better like this than nothing to fix some problems. They doing a good job by making driver fixes each time very fast. GOOD JOB !!
Nvidia had to push the
Nvidia had to push the previous driver faster out to manage to have it ready for reviewers testing performance in Sniper Elite 4. Nothing strange here, and to say the truth, I don’t blame them this time.
To be honest, the constant
To be honest, the constant release cycle of WHQL drivers, that have been constantly followed up by a hotfix makes the driver quality from NVIDIA look very bad.
I prefer the older method of longer times between driver cycles, which also allowed for more QA and bake time.
A rapid release schedule
A rapid release schedule would be fine if they weren’t breaking something (sometimes majorly) every other release. It gets extremely tedious being forced to rollback to really old versions of drivers waiting for a solid, stable release.
They need way better QA.
Couldn’t they have a beta
Couldn’t they have a beta branch? I’m not sure if that’s a thing yet but they could release the drivers in beta format a few days early so people can report issues before it’s released in WHQL.
I’ve been jumping almost all WHQL releases because of these issues, i think my last 5 drivers are hotfixes.
This is not bad that they fix
This is not bad that they fix something that is broken but why I need to download a new(fixed) driver, uninstall old one and then install the fix after only a 2 or 3 day after WHQL release when it supposed to update through GFE automaticaly?! After all that’s way GFE is for, no? Make life simplier…
Besides playing games, I use
Besides playing games, I use my RIG for work and need to rely on heavy GPGPU codecs and software for compiling and converting video effects on the fly. Suppose I was forced or willing to install always the lastest driver, I would be without GPGPU (compute) from late december/2016, or I other words, 2 months of severely compromised productivy. So, my point is : 2 MONTHS it’s TOO MUCH TIME TO WAIT with no official support for backup procedure.
I hear you. I’ve had to keep
I hear you. I’ve had to keep the 376.33 drivers and DDU handy, because every update since then has broken my OpenCL workload. I’m real tired of updating hoping for a change, only to find more CL_OUT_OF_RESOURCES errors waiting for me.
Getting real tired of these
Getting real tired of these NVIDIA drivers.
nvidia drivers are shit.
GFE
nvidia drivers are shit.
GFE is shit.
their ethics are shit.
their prices are shit.
Most importantly their drivers, I will never get an nvidia card unless it is priced way lower than an equivalent AMD. IDK how people can stand the bottom-tier nvidia control panel, takes ages to open and not even stable. GFE is also utter shit, did I mention that yet?
Oh yeah, forgot to mention
Oh yeah, forgot to mention that CUDA broke on my card after updated the drivers. Now no matter how many times I use DDU and reinstall fresh drivers an error always pops up. RIP.
No yearly customer is 100%
No yearly customer is 100% loyal to a single brand, daily customer is the worst.
Monopoly is shit regardless which good company, they would turn evil.
They should put that Deep
They should put that Deep Learning stuff to use to figure out why they keep breaking the drivers and how to release refined ones.