NVIDIA Unveils New Studio Driver with Support for 10-bit Color for Creatives

NVIDIA has just released the latest version of its Studio Driver, and creatives who use the company’s GPUS should take note. According to NVIDIA, the new driver, “delivers the best performance and reliability for creative applications via extensive testing of creator workflows” by adding support for 10-bit color for creatives who use programs like Adobe Photoshop and Premiere.

The new driver was announced at SIGGRAPH 2019, and it’s a big deal for PC users who don’t want to pony up for NVIDIA’s expensive Quadro cards. Up until now, only NVIDIA’s Quadro RTX cards supported 30-bit color (10-bits per channel) leaving users with NVIDIA’s GeForce and Titan lines of laptop and desktop GPUs limited to 24-bits (8-bits per channel).

Since the GeForce RTX cards cost about half as much, this is a welcome announcement.

As Engadget points out, the update was likely announced because some of the special “RTX Studio” laptops that have been announced don’t use Quadro cards, which would have put them at a disadvantage. The new Studio Driver will allow users of these laptops—as well as the desktop users who are using NVIDIA’s latest GPUs—to take full advantage of the high-end 10-bit photo and video editing monitors that many creatives use.

To learn more about the latest update, head over to the NVIDIA website. And if you own one of these cards, you can download the latest driver at this link.