NVIDIA pushed out one of its first DirectX 12 Ultimate Developer Preview drivers to its NVIDIA Developer ecosystem. The version 450.82 drivers ship with all the ingredients needed for DirectX 12 Ultimate logo certification: software for DXR 1.1 ray-tracing, Variable-rate shading (VRS, tiers 1 and 2), Mesh Shaders, and Sampler Feedback. All NVIDIA GeForce RTX 20-series and Quadro RTX graphics cards already meet DirectX 12 Ultimate requirements. "This preview driver is intended for developers testing their applications with DirectX 12 Ultimate. This driver supports DXR Tier 1.1, Sampler Feedback, and Mesh Shaders," reads the brief description of the drivers.

NVIDIA does not intend these drivers for public use, but rather members of its NVIDIA Developer Program. Use of the software comes with no warranties. The driver isn't listed in the GeForce drivers pages, not even as a beta, and on the NDP page, the download links spawn a login gate. Apparently anyone can sign up for the NVIDIA Developer Program and download these drivers. The version numbering of the preview drivers suggests that NVIDIA's R450 public release drivers will bear the DirectX 12 Ultimate logo, enabling all API features on GeForce and Quadro hardware that support them.

DOWNLOAD: NVIDIA DirectX 12 Ultimate Developer Preview Driver 450.82
Note: NVIDIA Developer Program account required (anyone can sign up)