Over time, graphics cards have been improving primarily in terms of hardware, although their drivers have also significantly impacted performance. Drivers are crucial because, without them, we could have a powerful graphics card that performs below its potential in games and applications. The latest NVIDIA 551.61 WHQL drivers do not bring many changes, but we will receive a revamped control panel design, finally modernized after waiting for more than 20 years.
Whenever a new and relatively popular game is released, we have NVIDIA showing us an ad for a new version of their drivers. We can receive a version within just one or two days after the release of the previous one, which usually happens when an important game is released. It is always recommended to keep the graphics card updated unless there is a problem or error generated with the latest drivers, which requires our attention.
We can now say goodbye to the old NVIDIA control panel as the new 551.61 WHQL drivers update its design.
Most drivers from both NVIDIA and AMD focus on optimizing performance in current games and, on the other hand, fixing errors and bugs. There are times when companies release drivers that bring more interesting changes, such as adding a new feature or functionality. For example, last year NVIDIA launched their 531.61 WHQL drivers, which unlocked NVENC in their GPUs. If we focus on the most current NVIDIA driver called 551.61 WHQL, we will see that the full list of changes is much smaller than usual.
However, this does not mean that the new driver does not bring a lot. What has caught our attention is that the outdated control panel interface is finally updated. This comes in the form of a new Beta application, which combines GeForce Experience and NVIDIA Control Panel in an all-in-one solution using a modern and updated interface. To have this modernized control panel, in addition to the 551.61 WHQL drivers, we will need to download the beta version of the NVIDIA app, which we can find with the drivers in GeForce Experience or from the NVIDIA website itself.
The modern control panel simplifies options and makes it easier to use.
As we can see, the new control panel maintains the original GeForce Experience aesthetic and, from what we see in images, greatly simplifies compared to the old version. With the new modernized control panel, we only have one configuration tab for games and another that focuses on global graphics settings. This corresponds to what was in the “Manage 3D Settings” section in the old version.
However, the other options for configuring the screen, colors, and more do not seem to be present. Still, the new NVIDIA app has the option to open the old control panel. Regarding the change list of the new NVIDIA 551.61 WHQL driver, we have:
– Support for the Nightingale game
– Support for the beta version of the NVIDIA App
– Optimal settings in GeForce Experience for Granblue Fantasy: Relink, Nightingale, Pacific Drive, and Skull and Bones
– Stability issues resolved in Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege with Vulkan
– Bugs fixed in Adobe Substance Painter with Vulkan, RTX Video HDR, Google Chrome, and NVIDIA Freestyle that did not save filters when exiting
– Display problems continue on Netflix using the Edge browser; the Netflix app on Windows is recommended as a solution
– Persistent problems with GTX 10 and RTX 20, with Hardware-Accelerated GPU Scheduling and SLI, the PC may freeze.
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