Report: NVIDIA's re-released 595.71 driver now causing serious performance drops

Users of NVIDIA graphics cards are experiencing a real rollercoaster with the latest drivers, as the company seems to be struggling with basic quality control. Less than a week ago, NVIDIA released a problematic driver 595.59 WHQL, then pulled it, and re-released it under version 595.71 WHQL. The driver solved the initial problem, where the GPU fans would randomly stop spinning, but it seems to have done so by severely throttling voltage and core clock speeds, resulting in performance drops of up to 16% for some users.

The issue was tested by tech YouTuber Bang4BuckPC Gamer, who noticed that their high-end RTX 5090 was suddenly pulling less than 1V and dropping well below 3,000MHz after installing the 595.71 update. Other users quickly chimed in, confirming that the throttling is also affecting other cards in the lineup.

Right now, the throttling seems to mostly happen for users with overclocked graphics cards. We still don’t know how severely the update impacts factory-overclocked cards or those in their default states, but the risk of installing this update, if you haven’t already, is simply not worth taking.

Losing that much of your performance could be the difference between an enjoyable experience and an unplayable game. As someone who’s battled NVIDIA’s drivers for the past couple of years, I can attest that these mishaps are happening more often than they should.

If you already downloaded version 595.71, you can use a tool like MSI Afterburner to check the voltage and clock speed of your graphics card, as well as the FPS in games. If you notice a significant drop in performance, perhaps the best option is to completely roll back your GPU driver to a stable 591 variant, such as version 591.74 or 591.86. However, rolling back GPU drivers isn’t always straightforward, so make sure to do proper research for your particular NVIDIA GPU model before rushing to downgrade.

Via: Sebastian Castellanos (X)

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Posted Wednesday 4 March 2026 at 11:51 am AEST (my time).

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