New GeForce Game Ready Driver Optimizes The First Descendant, Which Also Gets NVIDIA DLSS 3.5

Today, NVIDIA has released a new GeForce Game Ready driver (version 556.12) optimized for The First Descendant, the upcoming free-to-play third-person looter shooter game developed by NEXON.

The Unreal Engine 5 powered title will support NVIDIA DLSS 3.5 with Ray Reconstruction, ray tracing, NVIDIA DLAA, NVIDIA Reflex, and HDR10+ when it launches on July 2. Here's an excerpt from our recent hands-on at Summer Game Fest 2024:

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The First Descendant is a very mobile type of third-person shooter. Staying grounded in one spot and even strafing from side to side won't prevent players from catching a stray bullet to the face. Instead, adding in jumps and a sleek grappling hook helps the player bounce around the battlefield and circle to the backside of an oversized boss and escape attacks coming their way. Having the grappling hook set to the middle mouse button took some getting used to, but with a very short cooldown and a generous range, I could unload a full clip into the boss' weak point, grapple onto a nearby pillar, and hide behind it as cover while I reload. Gunplay is quick and snappy in The First Descendant and would be the main draw as a casual non-IAP, or truly free-to-play, player.

The GeForce Game Ready driver also brings optimization for a few games that have added NVIDIA DLSS support, such as PAYDAY 3 (now with integrated DLSS Frame Generation, which doubles performance for owners of RTX 40 GPUs), Tribes 3: Rivals (which added DLSS Frame Generation and NVIDIA Reflex in a patch released earlier this month), and Riven. The remake of the beloved adventure game originally released in 1997 is out now and supports NVIDIA DLSS Super Resolution.

As usual, the Game Ready driver adds one-click optimal settings for a few more games and fixes a few bugs. You can find those details below, straight from the official changelog.

Optimal settings via the NVIDIA app or GeForce