NVIDIA on Friday released the 595.44.06 beta driver build as their newest Vulkan developer beta for Linux. This was joined by the NVIDIA 595.46 Windows Vulkan beta and there are performance improvements in tow and more work on their descriptor heaps support.

The NVIDIA R595 Linux driver is big for [1]introducing VK_EXT_descriptor_heap support . Vulkan descriptor heap functionality allows for explicit management of descriptors and the memory used for descriptors. [2]This extension is important for improving the Steam Play (VKD3D-Proton) experience, can help reduce CPU overhead, and all around a modern efficiency win.

With Friday's Vulkan developer beta driver update, there are various fixes and performance improvements to the VK_EXT_descriptor_heap support with NVIDIA's driver. The new driver builds also bring performance improvements for some shader operations on BDA data.

This Vulkan developer beta also now allows external buffers and images to be bound to host-visible, device-local memory. Additionally there are various bug fixes.

Downloads and more details on these new Vulkan developer beta driver builds for Windows and Linux via [3]developer.nvidia.com .



[1] https://www.phoronix.com/news/NVIDIA-595.58.03-Linux

[2] https://www.phoronix.com/news/Vulkan-1.4.340-Descriptor-Heap

[3] https://developer.nvidia.com/vulkan-driver