New Nvidia drivers improve performance in benchmarks, but crashes and gaming issues remain

[Daniel Sims]

Recap: Nvidia's RTX 50 series has arguably been another forgettable and disappointing GPU launch in recent memory. Issues with the new graphics cards include underwhelming gen-to-gen performance improvements, melting power cables, stingy VRAM allocation, near-nonexistent launch inventory, missing ROPs, and software stability problems. While Nvidia has attempted to address bugs and crashes with recent driver updates, user complaints appear to persist.

Users on the ComputerBase forums report that Nvidia's graphics driver version 576.02 noticeably improves performance in 3DMark's Steel Nomad benchmark. However, Reddit users have also disclosed degraded performance in several recent major titles.

ComputerBase confirmed that the RTX 5090, 5080, 5070 Ti, and 5070 see performance gains between 6% and 8% in Steel Nomad. Users on the site's forums and Reddit have shared screenshots showing score increases of up to 2,000 points after installing the new driver.

However, their results for 3DMark's Speed Way and Time Spy tests show unchanged performance or a slight 1% decline. Furthermore, Reddit users report continued crashes in titles such as Black Myth Wukong, Assassin's Creed: Shadows, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, and Monster Hunter Wilds. The errors in Rebirth and Monster Hunter appear to occur during shader compilation.

If the new crashes are widespread, they represent a potentially serious setback to Nvidia's efforts to fight bugs that first emerged with the RTX 50 series launch. For months, users have reported frequent game crashes and instances where Windows boots into a black screen after installing drivers intended for the new GPUs.

Patch notes for several driver versions released since February claim that Nvidia has addressed these problems. However, some developers have advised users with RTX 40 or 30 series cards to stick with driver version 566.36, released in December.

These ongoing glitches only add to the RTX 50 series' mounting challenges. Critically low stock at launch made MSRP listings almost mythical, though availability has improved slightly in recent weeks.

Additionally, most new GPUs have delivered only modest performance gains over their RTX 40 series counterparts. The RTX 5070, in particular, has drawn sharp criticism for performing nearly identically to – or sometimes worse than – the 4070 Super, while facing stiff competition from AMD's Radeon RX 9070 and 9070 XT.

Nvidia's 576.02 driver introduces support for the newly released RTX 5060 Ti, which, as our review shows, offers a decent improvement over the 4060 Ti as long as users choose the 16GB variant. The company withheld 8GB variants from reviewers, likely to avoid backlash from releasing yet another 8GB GPU in 2025.

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New Nvidia drivers improve performance in benchmarks, but crashes and gaming issues remain

 

[noel24]

How was It going? "The more You buy, the more You save." Yeah, if You got nVidia card, don't forget to save a lot, because, You know, crashes... ;-)

 

[yRaz]

This has to be the worst launch of any tech product I've seen. Bad drivers, lack of availability, no MSRP(they start at 50% over MSRP) and the performance gains are basically within the margin of error of the 40 series.

Although, there are reports of the 5070 selling for below MSRP. I'd argue it was never worth more than $400 with only 12GB of VRAM. Also, even WITH inflation, an 8GB shouldn't be more than $300 these days

 

[Jim Lahey]

nVidia would seem to be in an enviable position, with so much demand that they can sell an underwhelming product at these prices.

I cannot fathom the disdain that they must have for the segment (computer gaming) that made them who they are today.

I’m not anti-capitalist, they should be able to sell their products for healthy margin that allows for R&D etc. however what I see in the PC gaming space since 2020 is pretty awful.

I don’t pretend to know how to fix it, but I hope something gives.

 

[yannus]

Ngreedya is pushing a new trend : more crashes per dollar. Paying premium and getting faulty hardware / software. It seems that being the most profitable corporation doesn't allow them to make quality products.

 

[Nobina]

Nvidia might only start caring when AMD catches up to them in ray tracing performance and upscaling tech. Until then, Nvidia can inflate benchmarks by using ray tracing and frame generation, both of which nobody ever uses in real world, and appear way ahead of AMD.

 

[yRaz]

Nvidia might only start caring when AMD catches up to them in ray tracing performance and upscaling tech. Until then, Nvidia can inflate benchmarks by using ray tracing and frame generation, both of which nobody ever uses in real world, and appear way ahead of AMD.

There are like 5 RT games worth paying attention to and all but one of them(CP2077) are really only used for benchmarking RT. Even 2077 is in question at this point because everyone has already played it several times because of how long it has been out.

 

[OortCloud]

Upgrading to the latest driver caused a black screen on my PC. I only got things working again by booting to save mode, deleting everything with DDU, reinstalling the graphics card driver (still in safe mode) then finally rebooting back to normal. What a sh1t show.

 

[Ohnooze]

Because AI has become their main focus and it's obvious.

 

[umeng2002]

As some have also theorized, I wouldn't put it past nVidia using AI to help code their newer driver, which might be causing these odd issues.

 

[scavengerspc]

It looks like just enough was done to keep their zombie eyed fans buying.
Nvidia could put a dead rat in a bag and slap a $1200 price tag on it and it would sell out.
Then their drones would go home and start telling people that it is by far the BEST dead rat in a bag anywhere.

 

[SAYEDMOHD]

Thank you AMD for stability

 

[mayurace123]

We do not need another generation of Nvidia GPU's
Rather an RTX 4060 or 4060 ti with 16 GB VRAM would server us better.
save your R&D money and pass on the benefit to customers by giving above SKU's at reasonable prices

 

[KingKappa]

I purchased the 4090 two years ago and it's been performing good on an older set of drivers.

It's a shame there's no AMD-card that even competes with the 4090, there's hardly one that comfortably beats the 4080, let alone the 5080/5090 cards in terms of raw power..

I hope by the time the 6000-series releases, AMD will have cards in the same performance range or better but at lower wattage.

 

[Beerfloat]

Nvidia's customers are mostly quite pleased. Despite the best efforts of the cottage industry of perpetually miserable Youtube influencers and the small but extremely vocal AMD fanbase, a satisfied customer is a repeat customer.

 

[Beerfloat]

It's a shame there's no AMD-card that even competes with the 4090, there's hardly one that comfortably beats the 4080, let alone the 5080/5090 cards in terms of raw power..

A fine example of the really terrible job tech reviewers have been doing over the last few years. The 4080 saw a number of relatively poor reviews, with several reviewers urging consumers to hold out for some future alternative with better value.

As it turns out, that first worthwhile alternative ended up being the Super, which brought a price drop of about $200 for those who wanted to wait a year and a half for essentially the same performance. And now we are coming up on another year and a half, and the 4080 remains a better card than anything AMD has to offer.

 

[vicsrealms]

AMD needs to thank nVidia. Between losing EVGA, price to performance, and your driver issues. I made my first AMD GPU purchase with 7900 XT a little over a year ago.

 

[DasLooney]

There's also a HUGE problem with recording and saving Highlights using Shadowplay while gaming, probably because of a flaw in the Nvidia App. All videos, instead of being saved in a specified directory by the user instead of saved on the C: drive no matter what you do. C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\FortniteGame\. Complaints on Nvidia's forums, reddit, chats etc have been going on for over a month and 2 app versions with no response from Nvidia

 

[LimyG]

Nvidia might only start caring when AMD catches up to them in ray tracing performance and upscaling tech. Until then, Nvidia can inflate benchmarks by using ray tracing and frame generation, both of which nobody ever uses in real world, and appear way ahead of AMD.

What you say makes sense, and I would fully agree with you if it were any other company in any line of business.

But I think NV just don't care. They are fully invested in A.I. which earns them big profits, massive profits.

The 5xxx series and drivers are such a let down it seems NV didn't really want to continue with GPUs.

It seems like all their great engineers and techies have been moved to the booming A.I. sector.
They left interns running the GPU side of things.

I wonder if they will even bother with a 6xxx series. Maybe, out of a sense of guilt as GPUs are what got the company going and they used to make the best. In particular the GTX1080ti, but not only that card.

The whole 5xxx release, with too many issues to list, is a joke.

With their current attitude to GPUs they should focus only on A.I. They clearly have no interest in the GPU segment anymore. Sad thing is they will always sell regardless if it's garbage or not.