Beware of the Latest NVIDIA driver

Canasta

GTX 1080, upgraded from 31.0.15.1694 (21/07/2022) > 31.0.15.3623 (latest available)

ESO was constantly hitching every couple of seconds, so then tried the NVIDIA pendulum demo, and noticed hitching in that as well.
Even when it was not hitching, it kept dipping below 60 FPS.

Used the device manger roll back driver function, to go back to old driver version, straight back into ESO and the NVIDIA pendulum demo, both as smooth as butter again, didn't even reboot the computer.

Anyone else seen issues with this driver version?

SeaGtGruff

Thank you for the heads up! My desktop computer doesn't use Nvidia, but my new laptop does, so I'll keep an eye out for that.

TaSheen

My GPU is so old I never get the latest greatest - have to dig around for their "drivers for ancient GPUs". Thanks for the heads up though; I've got friends on much better NVIDIA GPUs than mine, so I'll give them all the news.

Panderbander

NVIDIA in general seems to have issues with ESO, or at least my experience with it has been really sour.

ESO is somehow the only game I own that routinely crashes my GPU driver, causing a freeze and reset of the display at seemingly random intervals, and it's done that for several patches and driver updates now.

Tandor

No need to update drivers if everything is running well. If it ain't broke, don't fix it!

My graphics drivers are usually pretty old, only updated if forced to do so by Windows Updates on my Win10 machine, and with Nvidia cards on both that machine and my Win7 machine (protected by 0patch). Both have run ESO and everything else flawlessly since launch, and I suspect tried and trusted drivers are one of the keys to that.

Zastrix

Huh I thought it was a Linux-only error. I had screen tearing and when I tried to enable/disable Vsync the game would crash (this happened in other games too). I did rollback my system (yay for rpm-ostree) but I didn't know something similar was happening on the windows side.

Deathgiggle

Radeon 4 Life!

Tenthirty2

TY for the info OP!
I saw the notif icon for new drivers earlier but since I ran into a few performance headaches with another version I never install right away anymore. Auto-update is disabled too.
Now I'll wait a couple weeks and then search online to see if there were any updates or issues.

Right now the game is working as well as can be expected, not going to muck with gfx drivers especially before the holiday weekend

Grizzbeorn

I haven't had any issues with the new driver and ESO.

Edit:
Oops, maybe not.

Jiminy Krazzmus, they've already released two more updates since the last time I updated. (May 30)

Not gonna bother if people are having issues. The May 30 update is working fine for me.

ADarklore

Tandor wrote: »

No need to update drivers if everything is running well. If it ain't broke, don't fix it!

My graphics drivers are usually pretty old, only updated if forced to do so by Windows Updates on my Win10 machine, and with Nvidia cards on both that machine and my Win7 machine (protected by 0patch). Both have run ESO and everything else flawlessly since launch, and I suspect tried and trusted drivers are one of the keys to that.

^THIS! I wish maintenance at work followed this philosophy!! "We're here to do our preventative maintenance." "WHY? Everything is running great????" PM gets completed. "Why is my machine suddenly running so bad?!? Now it's going to take weeks to get it running normal again!" Thankfully the maintenance on my shift is good about, "everything running good? Ok, we'll mark the PM complete." I've trained them well!!

N00BxV1

I just wanted to add -- If you have a pre-built PC or an aftermarket device, then do not use Windows Update or Nvidia Experience to update your drivers. Instead you should always go directly to the company that built/altered the device to get the drivers, because most of the time pre-built PCs and aftermarket devices will need specific drivers.

For example, I recently updated my ASUS ROG Strix GPU (with RGB) drivers using Nvidia Experience... I usually go directly to ASUS support for drivers but said what the heck... Well after updating the drivers the RGB software would no longer detect my GPU as an Nvidia device, so I had to do another clean install with the drivers from ASUS support site...

Sometimes the official drivers work, and sometimes they don't...

UnseenCat

Nvidia has been going through a bad stretch with drivers lately -- like the past year or more. They're fine on a lot of pre-built systems, but on custom systems and higher-end pre-builts with performance settings turned on in the BIOS including just XMP/DOCP/EOCP --things start to fall apart.

The most recent relatively stable release is 528.49, and that may still need some tweaking to get completely stable. Other stable drivers are 512.95, 517.48, 516.94, 522.25, and 526.86. Older drivers are less likely to need additional tweaking, but are also more likely to have limitations or issues with newer games. It all depends on what game you run. (In my case, I need 528.49 to address issues with Microsoft Flight Simulator.)

The general recommendations from the Nvidia user community are, first, use the Nvidia driver control panel to set the game's power option to "Prefer Maximum Performance". (Do this for each individual game having issues, not as a global default.)

If your GPU is factory overclocked, turn it down to Nvidia default using your card's preferred tool -- typically MSI Afterburner, Precision X1, or Asus GPU Tweak.

If it tests OK, use your Afterburner or whatever tool you use to return the card to its factory overclock, but then increase the card's target power input percentage to its maximum value but keep the maximum GPU temperature at its original value. (This ensures the card still safely throttles if temperature gets too high, but allows it to use all available power.)

If it tests OK now, you're good. If it's still occasionally stuttering/having driver crashes, then it gets more complicated.

You can try slightly under-clocking your GPU with MSI Afterburner or other utility. (This is the only option if you have limited BIOS controls for memory and memory controller timings.)

You can try noting all the memory settings put into BIOS when XMP/DOCP/EOCP is turned on, and then turn it off but re-enter those values manually to get the same effect. Then test. Sometimes this is enough.

If there are still problems, you'll need to slightly de-clock your memory below the XMP/DOCP/EOCP profile. Actual performance is unlikely be impacted -- you're simply seeking the maximum stable value that makes the GPU and driver happy by providing the most stable RAM-to-GPU transfer. Depending on your system and your appetite for tweaking, you may also find that carefully adjusting memory voltage and memory controller/SOC voltages and offsets can also help or be required. The "Auto" settings on most motherboards are often not sufficient for the extremely tight timings needed with modern memory and CPUs combined with the demands from the current Nvidia drivers. It gets even more squirrelly if you happen to be using all four channels of DRAM, not just two.

TL;DR version -- Always set reasonably demanding games to "Prefer Maximum Performance" in the game's power options on the Nvidia control panel. Allow the GPU to use as much power as it can get. Beyond that, you'll need to find the best way to fine-tune the relationship between your computer's RAM and the GPU. This is just the state of current Nvidia drivers. Even if your system benchmarks perfectly, real-world GPU use can reveal hidden stability issues specifically in memory-to-GPU communication.

M0ntie

A major reason for keeping your devices up to date is for security updates. This would be why your work would be regularly patching - to get the latest security fixes.

I just updated my Intel and Geforce RTX drivers and done windows updates, and (touch wood) my PC is running fine.

madman65

My PC has been running hard here lately with the Necrom and the latest Nvidia driver so I went back to an older driver and thing have settle down. I thought something seemed wrong, Thanks.

RicAlmighty

I'm using 531.68 and that's been pretty stable.

ixthUA

AMD graphics with latest drivers, no issues.

belial5221_ESO

Maybe settings in the drivers are changed or reverted.It could also be a issue with 10series chips and the driversDepends,if you do clean install you gotta adjust em again.I got no issues at all with the latest drivers.

ZOS_Hadeostry

Greetings,

After further review we have decided to move this thread to a category we think is more appropriate for this topic, as it deals with drivers.

Thank you for your understanding

jbrianj

ADarklore wrote: »

Tandor wrote: »

No need to update drivers if everything is running well. If it ain't broke, don't fix it!

My graphics drivers are usually pretty old, only updated if forced to do so by Windows Updates on my Win10 machine, and with Nvidia cards on both that machine and my Win7 machine (protected by 0patch). Both have run ESO and everything else flawlessly since launch, and I suspect tried and trusted drivers are one of the keys to that.

^THIS! I wish maintenance at work followed this philosophy!! "We're here to do our preventative maintenance." "WHY? Everything is running great????" PM gets completed. "Why is my machine suddenly running so bad?!? Now it's going to take weeks to get it running normal again!" Thankfully the maintenance on my shift is good about, "everything running good? Ok, we'll mark the PM complete." I've trained them well!!

This all does not apply if a security bulletin is attached to the driver release. At that point security->stability in a single game.

FayJolyn

UnseenCat wrote: »

The most recent relatively stable release is 528.49, and that may still need some tweaking to get completely stable.

Thanks so much @UnseenCat I've been having issues for weeks now with my game freezing up randomly. I downgraded back to this version and I can finally alt-tab again or close the game again without fear of freeze issues. I always thought it was better to immediately update my Nvidia drivers when they release but I'll now be more careful with that! Thanks again!!!

Troeca

Has anyone figured out a reliable solution?

I tried updating from driver version 512.95 to the latest one 560.94 and the stutters came back immediately just as they were a year ago.

Every five seconds framerate drops from whatever it is to 50 FPS. It doesn't matter if the framerate tops at 144, 100, 85 or 60, after a while the game starts to stutter like crazy (dropping to 50 at certain intervals and then instantly coming back up).

Nothing else here seems to work but reverting back to year old drivers and that might not be the most safe thing to do.

ZOS_Bill

As this discussion is over a year old, we've decided to close the thread. If you still need assistance, please go ahead and start a new thread in the PC Support forum.