Nvidia Driver 595.71 Causes Performance Drop in RTX Cards

Nvidia's latest driver update, version 595.71, released on 2026-03-02, is causing significant performance issues for RTX 5090 users. The new driver, intended to fix previous fan control problems, now limits core clock speed and voltage, leading to up to a 16% performance drop.

Performance Metrics

Tech YouTuber Bang4BuckPC Gamer demonstrated that the RTX 5090's core clock speed decreased from over 3,100 MHz to under 3,000 MHz, with voltage dropping from about 1.050 V to under 1.0 V after installing driver 595.71. This resulted in a frame rate reduction from 171 fps to 144 fps in the Unigine Heaven benchmark. WCCFTech confirmed similar findings, and users have reported that the RTX 5070 Ti is also affected.

Overclocking and Workarounds

The issue predominantly affects users employing manual overclocking tools like MSI Afterburner, where adjustments to core clock and voltage no longer yield expected results. The impact on factory-overclocked or default settings remains unclear. As a temporary solution, users are advised to roll back to earlier driver versions, such as 591.74 or 591.86.

Update: 17 Jun 2026