NVIDIA's New Hotfix GPU Driver Targets Voltage Caps, Crashes And Gaming Bugs
It took a few attempts, but NVIDIA's latest driver release for GeForce GPU owners is polished and properly optimized for Resident Evil Requiem. The caveat is that you have to install a new hotfix, which is technically beta software, though it purportedly stomps out several bugs that were introduced with the latest Game Ready release.
The saga began a week ago when NVIDIA issued and then pulled its 595.59 WHQL driver that coincided with the latest and hotly anticipated installment in the long-running Resident Evil franchise. Following the driver's release, users began complaining of quirky fan control and clock speed issues. NVIDIA quickly followed up saying it had "discovered a bug" in both the Game Ready and Studio branches, and advised users who were experiencing issues to roll back to the 591.86 WHQL driver.
Then a few days later, NVIDIA released a 595.71 WHQL driver package with the same optimizations for Resident Evil Requiem, this time without the fan glitch. However, it resulted in a fresh set of complaints over a new issue that, on some overclocked GPU configurations, was capping the voltage and subsequently restricting overclocked settings.
That still remains the latest Game Ready driver release, but for users experiencing issues, there's now a 595.76 hotfix driver available that lifts the voltage cap and crushes a few other bugs. According to the release notes, it addresses the following issues...
- When the graphics card is overclocked, GPU voltage may become capped, preventing it from boosting to expected levels
- [Resident Evil Requiem] White glowing light/dots may appear in game when Subsurface Scattering is enabled
- Improved path tracing performance in Resident Evil Requiem
- [Star Citizen] Game client crashes when launched
- Intermittent application crash or driver timeout may be observed when playing multi-key DRM content in a browser on HDCP 1.x monitors
NVIDIA's GPU hotfix releases are basically out-of-band driver updates targeting specific issues that may warrant a more immediate fix, as opposed to waiting for the next mainline WHQL release. In this case, the 595.76 drive is based on the 595.71 release, but with the aforementioned fixes and tweaks in place.
If you're not experiencing any of the issues outlined in the release notes, then there is no benefit to installing the hotfix. That includes FOMO, as the same fixes and optimizations will be rolled into the next WHQL driver release anyway. However, if you are experiencing issues addressed in the hotfix, it's generally safe to install the driver. Just be aware that it's beta software.
