nVidia puts early driver releases behind a registration wall.

D

Deleted member 13524

Guest
http://www.extremetech.com/gaming/2...-game-ready-drivers-will-require-registration

Their "Game Ready" drivers which release in time for new games will only be available for people who give them their personal e-mails for registration after installing Geforce Experience.
People who don't do this will only get quarterly driver updates.



How long until the registration wall becomes a paywall? This is the direct result of the discrete card business slowly becoming a monopoly. Let's just hope AMD comes out of their abyss.
 
Arghh, I was just about to start a thread on this topic. Title field suggestion tipped me! ;)

Anyway, so looks like NV is pushing GFE as kind of a platform support distribution/management system, like what Steam, Origin and Uplay are for games.

By the way, didn't Creative Labs required a product serial number before downloading drivers for their graphics cards some years ago?
 
fellix said:
By the way, didn't Creative Labs required a product serial number before downloading drivers for their graphics cards some years ago?
Click to expand...

I've been using their audio products for over 15 years and don't remember that ever happening..

Only graphics card I had from them was the 8MB Voodoo 2 and I don't remember ever having to send them the serial code, but that was a looooong time ago.
 
I think AMD will get more customers even with this not being a pay wall - IMO it will never be a revenue mechanism but a way to integrate high rate of driver developments along with other GPU-games operations as a one brand NVIDIA fits all.
On the plus side with all these services running in the background while playing games it may help AMD higher-core Zen (if any good) CPU over quad core Intel mainstream :)

Puts me off as well as I do not like intrusive-background services unless truly necessary.
Lets see how long NVIDIA takes to back down as someone in an ivory tower there really has not thought this through from a customer perception.
Cheers
 
BRiT said:
This is such a stupid idea on Nvidias part. I cant believe it was given the go ahead.
Click to expand...

Jen-Hsun as been saying that nVidia is first and foremost a software company for a couple of years. With the Tegra and SHIELD lines only reaching niche markets and entire ranges of discrete GPUs being eaten by integrated GPUs every year (~100mm^2 discrete GPUs hardly have any reason to exist anymore, in a couple of years it could be ~200mm^2 and so forth), maybe they're looking to monetize from software support for their hardware as a service.

Of course, they're only doing this now because they reached an all-time high of discrete GPU marketshare. AMD is indirectly to blame for this.
 
ToTTonTranz,
This feels more like a solution-services-branding convergence strategy to me, a painful-annoying one for sure that will still hurt them.
Comes down to how monetising is seen by each of us, not sure if we see it in the same context but probably so.
Some seem to think they will charge for this, but IMO that will not happen.
Cheers
 
I've never been terribly bothered by GFE and I think it's actually pretty useful for less savvy people. So my rage level isn't particularly high. I've seen GFE as a competitive advantage for them for awhile, and AMD made a half-assed attempt to copy it.

As for the email requirement - that's what my spam ridden Hotmail account is for. :)
 
swaaye said:
I've never been terribly bothered by GFE and I think it's actually pretty useful for less savvy people. So my rage level isn't particularly high. I've seen GFE as a competitive advantage for them for awhile, and AMD made a half-assed attempt to copy it.

As for the email requirement - that's what my spam ridden Hotmail account is for. :)
Click to expand...

I dont disaggree with you on this, but i prefer have the choice instead of been forced to do it.. peoples who use GFE for update their driver can do it, peoples who dont want use GFE should been able to do it otherwise.

I see too a problem on reviewer side.. today, they (should) dont use it for be sure no setting interact silently with quality ( i dont speak about cheatting, but error mainly ).. or have bad result due to streaming enabled in background, as it have been the case lately.

Will they use quarterly WHQL drivers release or use a special driver send by Nvidia ?
 
Last edited:
I think the only people who will care enough about this are the same people who'll know how to get the drivers from 3rd party websites.

I really don't see nVidia charging money for drivers.
 
tabs said:
I think the only people who will care enough about this are the same people who'll know how to get the drivers from 3rd party websites.
Click to expand...
On the face of it, this alters the risk profile at least a little for using this vendor in that case, since it would be nice if one didn't need to go to an alternate download source that could have varying levels of reliability and authentication.

One question I have with that in mind is how useful is an email requirement in the face of third party downloads unless it is no longer so simple install a driver downloaded with a third-party's email address?
 
Ryan Smith said:
For launches it will be an NVIDIA-supplied driver for sure. I don't see that ever changing.
Click to expand...

Thats sure, as thoses drivers are in general not released anyway before the launch. i was more think to other test ( even competitors product ), or performance analysis on specific games launch. ( who are more and more common today )
 
Similar to forced hardware/software updates in Windows 10. Could be the method that allows Nvidia to override the Win 10 driver update process and have complete control over driver distribution. Also is a way to gather statistics without needing to pay MS services to provide the same information.

Edit: Windows 10 is really changing how companies approach consumers, or is it livestock.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Between this and their refusal to support adaptive sync, I'm definitely going AMD again for my next video card if it's at least within 20-30% of the Nvidia product in the same price bracket. Assuming AMD survives and continues to make competitive or somewhat competitive graphics cards.

I don't have very fond things to say about Geforce Experience. I've had a few friends who play Final Fantasy 14 who used the automatic game setting adjustment and then ended up with their video card constantly black screening during gameplay with Windows having to reset the driver. Took me for freaking ever to figure out what was causing their machines to do that. I never would have thought GFE would have been the cause as I figured Nvidia would have been smart enough to choose conservative settings for their video cards. But nope, not the case evidently. Their settings push some of cards so much that they end up becoming unstable in some games.

I don't have anything good to say about AMD's Raptor either, but at least they aren't (currently) planning on forcing you to use it AND give your e-mail address in order to use the most recent BETA drivers.

Regards,
SB
 
I don't know what the problem is, I have GE installed but I have it shut off from startup, I only use it when I need it and then exit it after using it. Not to mention there will be ways of installing drivers outside of GE, the other sites that generally post drivers just have to get their hands on the driver, which should be doable through GE where you can dl the drivers and they should go to c:\nvidia
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

D
Nvidia GeForce GameReady 361.75 WHQL
Replies
0
Views
2K
Deleted member 2197
D
D
GeForce 353.62 WHQL driver download
Replies
4
Views
2K
Deleted member 2197
D
A
NVIDIA Analyst Day: Webcast Report (+PSP2 Hints)
2
Replies
36
Views
9K
Geo
G
Back
Top