NVIDIA 615.78.08 Linux Driver Adds VKD3D-Proton Low-Latency Support

NVIDIA released Linux driver 615.78.08 on October 7, 2026 as the latest R615 New Feature Branch build. The headline gaming change is support for revision 3 of the VK_NV_low_latency2 Vulkan extension, which NVIDIA says improves latency and stutter with vkd3d-proton, particularly when Frame Generation is enabled.

VKD3D-Proton is the Direct3D 12-to-Vulkan translation layer used by Proton for many Windows games on Linux. The driver change therefore matters specifically to NVIDIA Linux systems using that path; it is not evidence of a universal frame-rate increase across native Vulkan, OpenGL or unrelated workloads.

Revision 3 support for VK_NV_low_latency2 gives VKD3D-Proton a newer NVIDIA low-latency interface to target. NVIDIA's release note describes the result as improved latency and stutter, with Frame Generation called out as a case that particularly benefits.

That wording should not be converted into a numerical performance claim. NVIDIA has not published a broad game-by-game benchmark set for 615.78.08 in the release information, and Core Tech Tips has not independently measured the driver. The useful conclusion is that the software path has changed and now exposes the newer extension revision.

NVIDIA lists a fix for blocky corruption observed while playing The Last of Us Part II. For affected players, that is a concrete reason to test the new branch rather than treating 615.78.08 only as an API-enablement release.

The fix remains narrowly scoped to the documented corruption. It does not establish that every Linux or Proton issue in the game is resolved.

On Wayland, NVIDIA fixed a path where unvalidated VkHdrMetadataEXT values could be passed into the color-management-v1 protocol and potentially cause a crash. The change is relevant to the still-evolving HDR stack on Linux, but it should not be read as a claim that all Wayland HDR compatibility problems are solved.

NVIDIA also changed suspend handling. NVreg_UseKernelSuspendNotifiers=1 is now enabled by default, and the nvidia.ko kernel module was updated to avoid an interaction with certain SELinux configurations when systemd initiates suspend with that option enabled. The release additionally fixes a failure when allocating GPU page tables larger than 2 GiB.

Linux gamers using NVIDIA GPUs with Direct3D 12 games through Proton have the clearest reason to evaluate 615.78.08, particularly when they use Frame Generation or have encountered the documented The Last of Us Part II corruption. Wayland HDR users affected by the crash path and systems that need the suspend or large-page-table fixes also have specific motivations.

Users prioritizing a longer-lived production branch should note that NVIDIA categorizes 615.78.08 as New Feature Branch software. Distribution-packaged NVIDIA drivers may also integrate better with a distribution's own update framework, which NVIDIA itself notes on its Unix driver page.