GeForce Experience Gets New Features & Locks Driver Downloads to GFE

The good news - if you grab the latest drivers then you will have noticed that GeForce Experience has received updates. If you are up-to date just hit check for updates in GeForce Experience. The bad news, Nvidia is forcing (in the near future) its Game Ready drivers to be downloaded through GeForce Experience. That means the  software (which the majority of people feels is bloatware) will become mandatory to be able to download first wave drivers.

Okay so NVIDIA has added a number of features over the past couple of years tied to their NVENC hardware encoder that resides in your GPU for GameStream, ShadowPlay, and most recently the beta for Share and GameStream Co-Op.  You will notice that:

• There is an updated in-game overlay - this brings access to streaming, recording, and screengrabbing features.
• There is a new broadcast feature (stream your gameplay live to Twitch and YouTube). This feature no does so at 1080p 60 FPS. Recording gameplay is as easy as bringing up the overlay and clicking a button.
• With GameStream Co-Op, your friends can simply watch you play in a low latency 1:1 stream, take control of your game with mirrored controls and help you with a tough boss fight in The Witcher 3, or play along-side you in supported multi-controller games like Trine 3, Gauntlet, FIFA 15, NBA 2K15, Mortal Kombat Komplete, and more (you need at least a 7 Mbps Internet connection on both ends for this to work).
• In-home GameStream (stream your game to say a living room TV). This has received an upgarde to 4K Ultra HD, at 60 FPS and with 5.1-channel audio.
• An instant replay" feature lets you play back the past defined time period of gameplay as video.

Moving on to the bombshell that Nvidia dropped today. Apparantly NVIDIA informed USA press only, so we heard this 2nd hand through unofficial channels only. 

Starting with a pending December update to GeForce Experience, NVIDIA will be changing the way they will distribute their driver updates. Nvidia currently posts new drivers on a regular basis to their website while also simultaneously pushing them out via GeForce Experience. Come December starting pending that update, this format will changing. GeForce Experience will be the preferred “first access” distribution mechanism for NVIDIA’s frequent driver updates. That means Nvidia will shove GeForce Experience down your throat whether you like it or not. So in short - you’ll be able to install Game Ready drivers only via GeForce Experience — and even then only after you’ve registered a verified email address with Nvidia. The drivers you can grab on GeForce.com or via Windows Update will also be limited to quarterly releases for bug fixes, new features, security updates and so on. Aside from perhaps a hotfix here and there.

There you have it guys, in an increasing complicated PC market where you should serve the end-users, and not annoy them I feel Nvidia made a huge mistake here.

If you like to see the new features, grab the latest GeForce 358.50 drivers here.