Nvidia enables watching UHD streams Netflix with GTX 10 cards

Nvidia has released drivers that make it possible to watch Netflix video in Ultra HD with a GeForce GTX 1050 card or higher. For now, this is a preview that is only available to Windows Insiders.

Until now, streaming in uhd from Netflix has only been possible in combination with a PC with Intel Kaby Lake processors, but Nvidia is extending this to its video cards with preview drivers. The system must then have a GTX 1050 or more powerful card of the GTX 10xx generation with at least 3GB of video memory. In addition, as a Windows Insider, the user must run a test version of Microsoft’s operating system in order to receive the drivers.

The 4k display also only works in conjunction with Netflix’s Windows apps or if the user is running Netflix in the Windows 10 Edge browser. In addition, an uhd monitor is required that supports hdcp 2.2 and the connection speed must be 25Mbit/s or higher. With the preview drivers it is not yet possible to stream in uhd with sli configuration. It is unknown when Nvidia will release the final drivers for Netflix’s UHD playback.

Netflix uses h265, or hevc, for its html5 streams through the browser and requires hdcp 2.2 support for 4k playback, which is Windows 10. To receive the UHD streams, the customer must purchase the most expensive subscription of the video service. There are also many UHDTVs and Blu-ray players that can handle Netflix in the higher resolution, as well as the Xbox One S, the Chromecast Ultra and a growing number of set-top boxes from providers.