According to the latest reports, Windows 11 brings several quality improvements to PC gamers, and Nvidia is now preparing official drivers for the upcoming operating system version. Windows 11 as a service is updated frequently, but major feature updates are released annually. The next big release is “Release 22H2”, which will be released in the fall of 2022.
Windows 11 22H2 won’t be officially released until October 2022 (references point to a late September or October launch). However, Microsoft has confirmed that Build 22621 is an RTM build, and any user can download and install the update to help with testing. Nvidia wants to help those users testing the update.
The Windows Insider Program is very active, and many users are already using Windows 11 22H2, which means that official driver support will help improve performance and address potential compatibility issues. By providing new drivers early, Nvidia and Microsoft can identify potential performance issues with Windows 11 version 22H2.
Nvidia is rolling out version 516.25 of its RTX and Quadro drivers, which are typically used in enterprise environments. The consumer-focused GeForce and Studio drivers currently do not have official support for Windows 11 22H2, but they have been updated to support WDDM 3.1.
In the release notes for Nvidia driver version 516.25, the company confirmed “support for the Windows 11 22H2 operating system” and a slew of other fixes, including a fix for an issue affecting Tensor Cores performance improvements when zooming in on photos.
It’s important to note that Windows 11 22H2 introduced WDDM 3.1, but we don’t know what’s new with this release. While Intel is waiting for version 22H2 to enter the release preview channel, AMD recently released a new driver based on WDDM 3.1, as shown in the image below.
That’s because there are already a lot of users using the 22H2 build, which makes official driver support for anyone helping test the OS.
A quick look at the most important features of 22H2
The first feature update for Windows 11 is obviously big. While it doesn’t have a ton of new features, there are several quality improvements.
Here is a list of all major changes:
- Force Microsoft account sign-in: Microsoft will start enforcing Microsoft accounts on Windows 11 Pro for personal or family use.
- New Task Manager: The Task Manager has a new look. Additionally, it has gained support for Application Efficiency Mode.
- Smart Application Control: A new feature that warns before running potentially malicious applications.
- Drag and Drop: The drag-and-drop feature of the taskbar is making a comeback.
- New window management tweaks, such as the ability to create snapshot layouts from the top of the screen.
- The Start menu gets some small improvements, including app folder support.