Nvidia's desktop software situation has felt disconnected for some time. There's an Nvidia Control Panel that controls many of the default display settings, but it's separate from GeForce Experience, which requires an Nvidia account to download driver updates and automatically optimize game settings to your performance goals.
Starting today, all of this changes with the new Nvidia app, which unifies the control panel and GeForce Experience into one, as well as connections to other Nvidia apps and features. The user interface appears to have been completely redesigned, and perhaps most importantly, you no longer need to log into your Nvidia account to receive driver updates through the app. Nvidia says signing in is now optional and is for users who want to redeem bundles and rewards.
The most interesting part is the integrated GPU control center of this new Nvidia app. It natively integrates GeForce Experience optimal game settings with Nvidia's separately controlled games via the Control Panel app. This means you can now edit game settings and driver settings from a single location, or set up a global profile for all your games and apps.
Nvidia says it will eventually integrate all features of the Nvidia Control Panel, including display and video settings, into this new app. “In addition, we will add several features of GeForce Experience and RTX Experience, including GPU overclocking and driver rollback,” Nvidia said.
However, not all features are converted. Nvidia removes broadcasting to Twitch and YouTube, image and video sharing to Facebook and YouTube, photo mode 360, and stereo capture.
The GeForce Experience performance overlay has also changed. The statistics overlay shown in the screenshot below not only tracks a variety of rendering metrics, but also tracks both the game's rendering latency and overall PC latency. Nvidia previously tracked some of these metrics in the GeForce Experience overlay, but now they appear to be fully customizable, allowing you to display the exact statistics you want to see, just like third-party frame rate apps.
Users can download other Nvidia apps from within. that much Nvidia apps like Nvidia Broadcast, Nvidia Omniverse, and GeForce Now. Additionally, if you have an RTX graphics card, you can use AI-based Nvidia Freestyle game enhancement filters, such as the RTX Dynamic Vibrance feature, which has been moved over from the old Nvidia Control Panel.