GeForce Graphics Cards: Nvidia's Driver 595.71 Also Has Problems

The GeForce driver 595.71 apparently continues to have problems. Reports indicate unusually strict limits on GPU voltage and maximum power consumption (power limit). This, in turn, reduces GPU clock frequencies by several hundred megahertz in some cases.

According to this, GPUs are limited to voltages below one volt; in some cases, the GPU voltage drops by over 100 millivolts. In extreme cases, the maximum power consumption drops by 25 percent or more. This corresponds to reductions of 100 watts or more. In games, this can noticeably reduce the frame rate. Some reports mention over ten percent fewer frames per second (fps). Corresponding reports are accumulating, for example, in the official Nvidia forum and on Reddit.

In some cases, users also report game crashes and blue or black screens. Even indie game developers have spoken up with reports of crashing render APIs. However, this could be a separate issue.

Bugs in 595 driver branch

Nvidia quickly pushed out version 595.59 for the GeForce driver 595.71. This driver had a significant bug where graphics card fans rotated too slowly or not at all. However, version 595.59 already seemed to have problems with voltage and power limit. An Nvidia employee wrote about this version that the company could not reproduce the error internally.

If you are experiencing performance issues with the current GeForce driver 595.71, you should revert to a version before the 595 branch, such as 591.86. Nvidia continues to offer older versions for download. The only downside is the lack of optimizations for new games like “Resident Evil Requiem”, although their benefit is questionable anyway in the case of stability issues. Other performance issues with Nvidia graphics cards and the current driver in “Resident Evil Requiem” seem to have been resolved by a game patch, at least.

(mma)