The Nvidia App leaves beta. Goodbye, GeForce Experience

Nvidia has been trying all year to get its users onto the beta version of the Nvidia App, its new omnibus app for drivers, settings, and promos. This move might finally do it, though: the Nvidia App is now out of beta and ready to retire its predecessor.

While GeForce Experience will still work if you have it installed, it’s no longer being bundled with Nvidia’s frequent GPU updates, and it probably won’t be long before the program is put out to pasture.

If you haven’t tried it, the all-in-one Nvidia App is pretty good. It combines features from GeForce Experience and the seldom-used Nvidia Control Panel into a unified interface, including driver updates, system-wide and per-game graphics settings, monitor and video tweaks, and Nvidia’s promotional goodies (like some free in-game currency and goodies for Throne and Liberty).

It doesn’t do everything, though. More advanced tools, like GeForce Now game streaming and Nvidia Broadcast, are linked and open in separate windows. And there are still a few small tools that aren’t in the UI yet, as Nvidia admits in its announcement post, like Nvidia Surround that can span virtual spaces across multiple monitors for playing games on two or three displays at once.

Like GeForce Experience before it, the Nvidia App isn’t strictly necessary, and you can install drivers for your GeForce GPU using a separate, standalone process on both laptops and desktops. And Nvidia also gives you the option of running the App and downloading drivers without logging into an account, which is something I appreciate. Gotta keep that taskbar notification area lean!

Further reading: Important Nvidia App tweaks for GeForce gamers

Author: Michael Crider, Staff Writer, PCWorld

Michael is a 10-year veteran of technology journalism, covering everything from Apple to ZTE. On PCWorld he’s the resident keyboard nut, always using a new one for a review and building a new mechanical board or expanding his desktop “battlestation” in his off hours. Michael’s previous bylines include Android Police, Digital Trends, Wired, Lifehacker, and How-To Geek, and he’s covered events like CES and Mobile World Congress live. Michael lives in Pennsylvania where he’s always looking forward to his next kayaking trip.

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