Game developers warn GeForce RTX 4000 and 3000 owners to roll back Nvidia drivers

[ChipBoundary]

Nvidia market their drivers as Game Ready and list optimisations for individual games along with specific performance profiles for each new driver.

I’ve got used to installing the new driver each time but one of the issues that has arisen recently is that the newest DLSS model (transformer model over the older cnn model) is only available with the new drivers. It doesn’t exist in the drivers that these developers are recommending and the new model improves image quality and is compatible with older series.

But I got the black screen a couple of times on my 4070 ti super and ended up going back a couple of driver revisions. It isn’t good. And nvidia are in damage control. Or just not saying anything and hoping it goes away. Who knows. Be interesting to see if those expensive 6000 cards going in the AI datacentres have issues with their power connectors.

4080 here, latest drivers, no issues. It's almost as if...*gasp* it is an entirely per individual basis and your experience is completely useless to everyone else! Who could have possibly imagined such a circumstance...oh wait.

 

[ChipBoundary]

It's not a conspiracy theory, which is a derogatory term. Just a theory. I've personally experienced it first hand enough times over the last 20 years with Nvidia GPUs to take it as fact, though.

Many times, updating a driver brought me worse performance across most games (I.e. 3 - 10 fps on average, more in a few games). Uninstalling the driver and rolling back to the version I was previously using, always restored performance back to what it was. This, of course, has always happened with outdated GPUs. Never happened with current gen GPUs at their time.



If you want proof / evidence in shape of an actual investigation and test with benchmarks by some independent review site such as TS or some Youtuber, I don't know of any. Only anedoctal evidence. However if you search around in forums, Reddit, etc. I'm far from being the only person who has experienced and noticed this. It's an issue that's been discussed plenty of times over the last 20 years in several forums and communities, over several generations of Nvidia GPUs. People have been noticing and discussing this since the Geforce 4 Ti/Geforce FX days.

But, anyone who has never heard about this, feel free to think I'm just full of s***.

Literally never once had to happen, not a single time. Rocking a 4080 here and literally just updated my driver's yesterday, FPS still pegged at max like always. Never once seen or experienced that issue, ever. Now, as an industry professional, I could hypothetically see it happening from time to time in the name of driver stability over performance, but that would be an extremely rare circumstance, and it would most likely be in an individual game or games with a shared engine/development cycle, rather than across the board.

Rule #1 of working with computers, never trust software developers. They understand NOTHING of how hardware works. If a game developer tells you to do something, it is because there's an issue in their software that they're unaware of or don't want to bother fixing. They want hardware people to find a solution for them... because their software is perfect and never at fault. Twenty years in the industry has shown their thinking and mindset to be concrete and unmoving.

The tens of thousands of times I've had to deal with software support over the years it is ALWAYS something else's fault. Their support goes...reinstall. That didn't fix it? Reinstall your OS. That didn't fix it? Replace your hardware.

 

[arrowflash]

Literally never once had to happen, not a single time. Rocking a 4080 here and literally just updated my driver's yesterday, FPS still pegged at max like always. Never once seen or experienced that issue, ever. Now, as an industry professional, I could hypothetically see it happening from time to time in the name of driver stability over performance, but that would be an extremely rare circumstance, and it would most likely be in an individual game or games with a shared engine/development cycle, rather than across the board.

You have a high-end GPU that remains well over recommended specs for the newest games. Depending on the games you play, resolution and settings, it's possible that even with an unoptimized driver, a 4080 remains more than capable to brute force its way to your target fps, for the time being. You should also check if GPU/CPU % usage remains the same after driver updates, and run games with uncapped fps, for a proper comparison between drivers in a more powerful GPU.

Besides, the RTX 5000 generation launched just 2 months ago. It's not as if there's a rule set in stone that the earliest driver released after a new generation launches will already be intentionally unoptimized by Nvidia for previous GPU generations (though I usually recommend not updating past the latest driver before a new generation). Especially with a semi-paper launch as the RTX 5000 series. But let's see after 6 months to 1 year.

Rule #1 of working with computers, never trust software developers. They understand NOTHING of how hardware works. If a game developer tells you to do something, it is because there's an issue in their software that they're unaware of or don't want to bother fixing. They want hardware people to find a solution for them... because their software is perfect and never at fault. Twenty years in the industry has shown their thinking and mindset to be concrete and unmoving.

The tens of thousands of times I've had to deal with software support over the years it is ALWAYS something else's fault. Their support goes...reinstall. That didn't fix it? Reinstall your OS. That didn't fix it? Replace your hardware.

This I can fully agree with, my experience working with software developers has always been the same, haha.

 

[kiwigraeme]

First, no they don't. Second, you're full of crap and making things up. Third, I have a 4080 on the latest drivers, with zero issues and zero reduction in performance. I'm just going to say this bluntly, get the hell out of here with your brand hatred, made-up bullshit. I have no loyalty to any particular brand, but I do oppose when people make stuff up.

I have seen no evidence people making stuff up. People like Nvidia enough to buy one.

Your example of yourself is not too relevant .
Most MS updates go fine for most people.

One think you probably know if gamed for a long time . I have seen lots of posts to run that 3d party uninstaller, to clear up messes

If you probably have a main MB , one C drive, pretty std memory , not too many usb things attached , not too make codec/render apps etc, Chances are pretty good no problems.

Given the near infinite permutations , it's no wonder some people have problems, Same for MS updates going pear shape. Bios setting who knows
However black screens widely reported , I myself have problems with Chrome,/black screen so turned off GPU rendering in Chrome ( from search , seems to have worked )

 

[EvilRebar]

I've only had one issue with a 4080S! Indiana Jones stuttered for one driver version.

Meanwhile AMD fixed an issue with my 7900XTX - crashing in WoW Classic - a year+ after I bought it. And BG3 was creating for at least s month until AMD patched, but techspot didn't get an article about it.

I'm never going back to AMD drivers, regardless of how many reddit threads techspot reads.

 

[yukka]

4080 here, latest drivers, no issues. It's almost as if...*gasp* it is an entirely per individual basis and your experience is completely useless to everyone else! Who could have possibly imagined such a circumstance...oh wait.

You are a nice person aren’t you. This is almost like you are saying “it hasn’t affected you so it can’t affect anyone”. Actually no that’s exactly what you are saying.

So many combinations. Motherboards. PSUs. Ram. CPU. But mine and yours are exactly the same. Our driver versions. Our bios versions. Chipset revisions. Resizable bar. Every other bios setting. Our storage drives. Every single minute detail. Amazing. The brother I never knew I had.

And every single 50 series card (which nvidia have admitted have had black screens etc) are affected in exactly the same way. Every single one. They all black screen in unison like a million people cried out and were suddenly silenced. And every single reviewer has said they are affected. At exactly the same time. You’ve seen that haven’t you. Or no you haven’t because that’s not right either.

No. No they didn’t. Silly whoever you are. Now I have to adult, go to bed and do another day of my 20 year so far IT career. But please continue to try to convince me with your bold take of “my 4080 isn’t affected so your 4070 ti super must be user error”. Luckily we both got the same manufacturer and the same memory clock etc on the go. looking forward to our annual relax at Xmas bro.

 

[Bamda]

I was told that Nvidia never has issues with their drivers. Another Nvidia lie? Like the 5070 beats a 4090?

 

[Yppah]

I thought everyone knew to NEVER update Nvidia drivers for their previous gen GPU after new generation GPUs launch, unless you really need to (I.e. if some new game or software refuses to run demanding a newer driver, even then have a rollback procedure ready). Because Nvidia deliberately nerfs performance of old gen GPUs in newer drivers. This has been known since the 2000s.

Hilarious! The conspiracy! Disproven time after time over time. By us 40y/o+ folks here that were playing DOOM, Duke Nukem and C&C when they released. And many of us still use older G cards in side builds, like in media servers etc. They work fine on on the last Driver rolled out for it. Nerfed? Maybe not optimized as previous drivers. But that older card isnt the target of the optimization. So is less tested with the newer drivers. An older driver most certainly can work better on older G cards. Because that driver was aimed and optimized for that card! Lol. Nerfed! Like they all of a sudden drop massive FPS!

 

[arrowflash]

Hilarious! The conspiracy! Disproven time after time over time. By us 40y/o+ folks here that were playing DOOM, Duke Nukem and C&C when they released.

Soooo, folks like me? Hehe. Nvidia Riva 128 was released in 1997 btw. When these games you mention were released Nvidia consumer GPUs didn't even exist yet.

And many of us still use older G cards in side builds, like in media servers etc. They work fine on on the last Driver rolled out for it.

I know, I have a small collection of older graphics cards myself. Some testing I did on them over the years helped prove my point.

Nerfed? Maybe not optimized as previous drivers. But that older card isnt the target of the optimization. So is less tested with the newer drivers. An older driver most certainly can work better on older G cards. Because that driver was aimed and optimized for that card! Lol. Nerfed! Like they all of a sudden drop massive FPS!

Now you're basically agreeing with my original statement and arguing semantics. But it's damn convenient for them, right? And it's funny how AMD and Intel often can keep their drivers performing the same on older GPUs.

 

[Loadedaxe]

It's not a conspiracy theory, which is a derogatory term. Just a theory. I've personally experienced it first hand enough times over the last 20 years with Nvidia GPUs to take it as fact, though.

Many times, updating a driver brought me worse performance across most games (I.e. 3 - 10 fps on average, more in a few games). Uninstalling the driver and rolling back to the version I was previously using, always restored performance back to what it was. This, of course, has always happened with outdated GPUs. Never happened with current gen GPUs at their time.



If you want proof / evidence in shape of an actual investigation and test with benchmarks by some independent review site such as TS or some Youtuber, I don't know of any. Only anedoctal evidence. However if you search around in forums, Reddit, etc. I'm far from being the only person who has experienced and noticed this. It's an issue that's been discussed plenty of times over the last 20 years in several forums and communities, over several generations of Nvidia GPUs. People have been noticing and discussing this since the Geforce 4 Ti/Geforce FX days.

But, anyone who has never heard about this, feel free to think I'm just full of s***.

I get where you are coming from. It’s true that over the years, many users have reported similar experiences, especially on older GPUs that seem to magically perform worse after driver updates. Whether it’s intentional or just a side effect of optimizations for newer hardware, it’s a pattern people have noticed for a long time.

Anecdotal evidence alone doesn’t prove causation, but it does highlight a trend worth reporting, as usually they at least investigate it if enough reports come in.

Without proper benchmarks and controlled testing, it's hard to say definitively whether it's deliberate performance degradation, unintended side effects, or just newer drivers being optimized for newer architectures at the expense of older ones. That being said, I don't believe, that AMD or Nvidia would do it deliberately to cause people to go buy a new GPU.

However, derogatory or not, it is a conspiracy theory.

Definition of CONSPIRACY THEORY

a theory that explains an event or set of circumstances as the result of a secret plot by usually powerful conspirators; also : a theory asserting that a secret of great importance is being kept from the public… See the full definition

www.merriam-webster.com

 

[Yodaman]

Couldn't be, AMD is the company with the trash drivers not Nvidia!

Sounds like NDS, Nvidia Derangement Syndrome

 

[GodisanAtheist]

Sounds like NDS, Nvidia Derangement Syndrome

- Damn, sounds like you have a bad case of NSH Syndrome.

I'll pour one out for my No Sense of Humor homies...

 

[All2surreal]

Can confirm that rolling back to 566.36 fixes the stuttering in TLOU2. I played for nine hours with stuttering, rolled back, now have zero issues with stuttering within the game. I rolled back in hopes that it would fix a crashing problem at a specific moment in the game, sadly it did not. However, I'm very glad it fixed the stuttering. Just wish I did it before I even started the game. Oh well.