It seemed like the entire internet waited for Activision to officially release Call of Duty: Black Ops 4. The usual console players were excited, as is to be expected with a new Call of Duty release, but the addition of the Blackout battle royale mode also left many PC gamers watching Battle.net for the "Play" button to appear. Nvidia's latest driver, GeForce Game Ready 416.34 WHQL, was released to help the latter group enjoy the game.
The 416.34 WHQL driver follows several updates meant to help Nvidia prepare for the release of its GeForce RTX graphics cards, major releases like Assassin's Creed Odyssey, and the Windows 10 October 2018 Update. Now it seems the "Game Ready" designation is being used a bit less liberally; Nvidia devoted the blog post about the driver almost entirely to how people can get the most out of Black Ops 4 on launch.
That included several lists of specs based on what people expect from the latest Call of Duty. Those can be found below. We've corrected the company's flip-flopping of the CPU and GPU entries, but other than that, these are the setups Nvidia wants folks to rock in Black Ops 4:
| Components | Minimum Specs | Recommended Specs | 1080p High Refresh Rate & Competitive Tournament/Player Specs | Ultra Specs (4K) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CPU | Intel Core i3-4340 / AMD FX-6300 | Intel Core i5-2500K / AMD Ryzen R5 1600X | Intel Core i7-8700K / AMD Ryzen 1800X | Intel Core i7-8700K / AMD Ryzen 2700X |
| GPU | GeForce GTX 660 2GB / GeForce GTX 1050 2GB | GeForce GTX 970 4GB / GTX 1060 6GB | GeForce GTX 1080 | GeForce GTX 1080 Ti, or higher |
| RAM | 8GB | 12GB | 16GB | 16GB |
| OS | Windows 7 or higher (64-bit) | Windows 10 (64-bit) | Windows 10 (64-bit) | Windows 10 (64-bit) |
Someone could, of course, play Black Ops 4 with all of those specs but with an AMD graphics card in place of Nvidia's. It's also interesting that Nvidia lists "1080p High Refresh & Competitive Tournament / Player Specs" when most Black Ops 4 esports will likely be on PlayStation 4 because of the Activision-Sony deal.
Black Ops 4 isn't the only game supported by the 416.34 WHQL driver, however, with Nvidia also improving its GPUs' compatibility with GRIP and Soulcalibur VI. Combine that with the games supported by previous drivers--FIFA 19, Forza Horizon 4, and Assassin's Creed Odyssey--and most AAA releases have been covered. We'll just have to see how Nvidia responds to the release of its RTX 2070 cards and other imminent launches.
The GeForce Game Ready 416.34 WHQL driver is available now from Nvidia's website and the GeForce Experience application. The full release notes, which also identify several issues fixed with this driver as well as some known problems, can be found in the release book in PDF form. Aside from that, it's time to greet what's shaping up to be the most-hyped Call of Duty title released in the last few years.
