Last week, Nvidia officially released new Windows 10 drivers for its family of graphics adapters.
Normally, that would be no big deal–graphics hardware companies update their Windows video drivers all the time.
The twist is that these new drivers, version 352.84, are certified for Windows 10 by the Windows Hardware Quality Lab (WHQL), with full support for DirectX 12. After installation, Nvidia’s GeForce Experience app reports that “this driver … is the first WHQL-certified and latest recommended driver for all pre-release Windows testing.”
If you have an Nvidia adapter and you’re running the Windows 10 Insider Preview, you can download the drivers directly from the company’s download site.
WHQL certification is a big deal. It means the drivers have passed a battery of independent tests from Microsoft and the driver package can include a digitally signed WHQL catalog file. Most importantly, it means the drivers are eligible to be distributed through Windows Update.
If it seems odd to see third-party code being declared ready to ship while the operating system itself is still in preview mode, welcome to the brave new world of Windows development. Thankfully, it’s a far cry from the driver chaos that contributed so much to the disastrous launch of Windows Vista.
So far, the other two major PC graphics players have been less embracing of Microsoft’s upcoming Windows release.
