Nvidia confirms that the new driver is causing CPU spikes

PC gamers love performance, and that performance isn’t limited to the games themselves. So when some of them started noticing abnormal CPU usage after the latest Nvidia GPU driver update, it threw up some red flags. After a bit of investigation, Nvidia itself confirmed the issue: some users are seeing bloated CPU usage after closing 3D games, which persists until a restart.

The company confirmed the issue with its latest driver update, 531.18, which was published on February 28th. An updated list of open issues (including some not included in the full release notes) has been posted on the Nvidia support forum, and spotted by VideoCardz.com. Build number 4007208 says, “Higher CPU usage from the NVIDIA container may be observed after exiting the game.” Some users are showing CPU usage as low as 10-15 percent in these conditions – not enough to seriously hinder most gaming desktops, but more than enough to be a nuisance, especially if you use your computer for intensive tasks. other. Like having three Chrome tabs open at once.

Right now, there’s no easy fix, so the immediate solution if you’re affected is to roll your driver back to build 528.49 from February 8, available for manual download here. Hopefully, Nvidia will be able to patch the latest driver sooner rather than later. to update: In a tweet in response to PCWorld’s coverage, Nvidia software product manager Sean Pelletier He said The company will publish a hotfix for the issue tomorrow, March 7th.

Of course modern GPU drivers are very complex pieces of software, and Nvidia isn’t the only one dealing with bugs right now. AMD has a somewhat embarrassing problem with its latest high-end Radeon cards that, under the right circumstances, can completely crash your Windows installation. In contrast, Intel seems to be steadily improving the software side of its Arc GPUs, which are surprisingly gaining traction in the budget market.