It’s never a dull moment when it comes to what you get after installing a new update or driver these days for users with an NVIDIA RTX GPU. It’s been a rollercoaster ride with all the ups and downs when it comes to performance issues for RTX 50 series cards for quite some time, thanks to some baffling Windows 11 updates, and now over the last couple of weeks, NVIDIA GeForce drivers as well. The first sign of trouble involving a driver update began with 595.59 WHQL. The Resident Evil Requiem game-ready driver was quickly taken down after reports from users that their GPU fans were no longer spinning up as configured. In addition, it was reported that game performance was significantly degraded, with one user noting it dropped from 133 FPS to 79 FPS at 1440p. In essence, the driver coincidentally made a terrifying change to GPUs for a horror game featuring the undead by transforming them into a zombie state.
Hahaha I just tested it myself and I can confirm that it's true:
— Sebastian Castellanos (@Sebasti66855537) February 27, 2026
– Latest NVIDIA Game Ready Driver (595.59): 79 FPS
– GRD 576.88 from July 2025: 133 FPS
Exact same scene, 1440p path tracing with DLSS SR Quality + FG 2X + RR.
What. A. Mess! https://t.co/HAkECHICe2 pic.twitter.com/YO9PJn8piC
A few days later, NVIDIA rolled out v595.71 WHQL to hopefully bring its GPUs back to life. However, it appears there’s a hidden caveat, as multiple reports have indicated that new voltage limits seem to be in place now. The ongoing theory is that this driver has implemented some sort of undervolting settings, but not everyone is happy about it due to testing showing RTX 5090 graphics cards now being unable to go above 3 GHz. Previous OC voltages for an MSI GeForce RTX 5090 SUPRIM X (via Wccftech) were said to be as high as 1.04V, but when using this latest driver had dropped to 1.00V. The fund doesn’t stop there, as VideoCardz has documented other reports indicating problems with HDR, more black screens (it seems to be never-ending for some), along with odd refresh rate changing behaviour, and even some games that use Vulkan having issues.
NVIDIA has yet to issue a statement on why the 595.71 driver has seemingly introduced undervolting, nor has it offered another driver replacement due to the aforementioned problems. There is a growing belief that the GPU manufacturer may have limited voltage for its RTX 50 series GPUs on purpose to possibly stem burning/melting incidents regarding the 12V-2×6 16-pin power connector, which has plagued many an RTX GPU owner. One thing is for certain, though, you never really know what you’re going to be in for after installing a new driver or Windows update when it comes to how your graphics card may, or may not, perform afterward. The short end of it is that if you’re using 591.86, it might be a good idea to keep using it for a bit longer.