Nvidia released the GeForce Game Ready 358.50 WHQL drivers as part of its promotion for the recently-initiated four-day open beta testing (OBT) of Star Wars: Battlefront, a multiplayer shooting game published by Electronic Arts and developed by EA DICE.
Star Wars: Battlefront was developed using DICE's Frostbite game engine, the same one that was used for the Battlefield games and some others. Nvidia highlights the game's 20 vs. 20 mass PvP on Holt. The OBT is in preparation for the game's launch on Nov. 17.
According to a post by Nvidia's Andrew Burnes, Star Wars: Battlefront requires at least an i3-6300T processor, 8GB of RAM, a GTX 660 for the GPU and a Windows 7 OS, which is a big hint that the game was designed with DirectX 11. For optimum gameplay, the recommended system requirements include an i5-6600 processor, 16GB RAM and a GTX 970 with the entire system running on Windows 10.
Note that both the minimum and recommended system specifications were all according to EA's suggestions.
Furthermore, the GTX 970 will yield a 60-fps average when played in "high" settings with a 1,920 x 1,080 resolution. For those that plan to play on "ultra," the GTX 980 and 980 Ti are suggested.
However, the released 358.50 WHQL drivers are not limited to cards that can handle the game. Nvidia lists the GeForce 900, 700, 600, 500 and 400 series as supported products for the fresh driver release.
Before downloading and installing the fresh drivers, keep in mind that some Nvidia graphics card owners have complained about the average fps dipping after installing the new drivers as well as problems with SLI. Others have also complained that they could no longer get the game to run after updating their drivers.
"If you want to run ultra DO NOT INSTALL THIS DRIVER. This driver drops the fps in Battlefront," noted Kyle Holden, an Nvidia community member. "The previous driver runs Battlefront much better. Previous driver fps 80. New driver 50."
Below is a benchmark video by "sergeant mavri" of Star Wars: Battlefront with GTX 770 and the new 358.50 WHQL drivers installed.
