GeForce Experience replaces "NVIDIA Update" as graphics driver standard

NVIDIA's GeForce Experience isn't a baby anymore – several months in and 2.5 million downloads since this system's introduction and eventual public beta release, this game optimizing control center will replace the company's "NVIDIA Update" system as the standard. In each driver package included with a GeForce graphics card, the GeForce Experience will be packaged, starting this week with the R320 GeForce GTX 780 launch driver.

The NVIDIA GeForce Experience will be released in version 1.5 this week as well, bumping the number of games supported to 70 and ushering in support for the newest graphics hardware on the market with the GTX 780. This release will be the first in which the GeForce Experience is packaged with a driver, but will be retro-fit to all systems supported being released in the future – where applicable.

The GeForce Experience is now well out of beta, acting as both a user interface through which a gamer's check and update to the newest GeForce drivers is made simple and providing a place where games can be optimized instantly.

The big deal with the GeForce Experience is the gamer's ability to one-step optimize their game settings to the best they can be given their computer's abilities. This system is made for two kinds of people playing games:

1. Users who know what some of the setting available to them are, but not the whole lot, and want to optimize their gaming experience.

2. Users who want to optimize their gaming experience and have no idea what the vast majority of the settings are – or mean – in each game.

For each of the 70 games optimized uniquely by NVIDIA graphics and performance specialists, maximizing image quality "while maintaining great performance" is literally as easy as clicking the button "optimize."

NVIDIA has also let it be known that they'll be releasing new features for the GeForce Experience later this summer, one of them being Optimal Playable Settings (OPS) Customization – this means you'll be able to bump up a setting here, knock another down here, and the system will compensate and act accordingly. More than just "this is best" will be available to you once this customization feature is released.

This summer users will also see support for NVIDIA SHIELD. This little mobile device will have its own connection on your PC, rather than having its own Android application, this allowing you to optimize the full-powered network-streamed games it's capable of playing straight from the source – but optimized for SHIELD. Further details surrounding unique SHIELD options will be coming soon.

Finally there's ShadowPlay, another "later this summer" update. This release is essentially "TIVO for games", as one NVIDIA representative puts it, allowing you to record video of your system constantly and select segments you'd like to save. ShadowPlay will use Kepler graphics driver technology to record 20 minute segments at a time, allowing you to keep what you want and toss the rest – all through the GeForce Experience.