NVIDIA released driver version 616.56 for its GeForce graphics cards, bringing measurable gains to specific technical workloads. Users running path tracing or compute-heavy applications will see the most benefit from this update. The release adds support for three new titles and includes seven bug fixes to improve general stability.
Compute benchmarks show significant gains while gaming improvements remain minimal
The update targets both gaming and professional GPU acceleration tasks. NVIDIA integrated support for Star Wars Zero Company, Hell Let Loose: Vietnam, and Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy. These additions ensure the driver remains compatible with recent software releases.
Independent benchmarks highlight significant improvements in non-gaming categories. Path tracing performance in 3DMark tests improved by up to 8.1%. CUDA workloads saw gains of up to 5.5%, while OpenCL performance jumped by 21.7% in Geekbench 7 tests. Blender and Cinebench R26 also showed improvements of 6.1% and 6.7% respectively.
Gaming performance gains are much smaller and less consistent across titles. Tests in Horizon Forbidden West recorded only a 2% improvement, while Dying Light 2 saw a 2.5% increase. These marginal gains suggest the driver prioritizes compute efficiency over raw frame rates in current games. We looked at NVIDIA GeForce 616.56 Driver Adds DLSS in our earlier Nvidia coverage.
Despite the benchmark improvements, user reports indicate stability issues with the new release. Many users have experienced display flickering and black screens after installing the software. NVIDIA did not officially document these specific performance gains in the driver patch notes. The update remains available for download, but users should weigh the compute benefits against potential stability risks.
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