Nvidia crushes CPU-gobbling bug with new GeForce driver

Typically new graphics drivers are supposed to make your computer go, in the parlance of the common man, faster. But anyone who’s been a PC gamer long enough knows this isn’t always so. Take the last Game Ready Driver from Nvidia, which had the unintended effect of spiking some users’ CPUs even after they’d closed their games. According to Nvidia representatives, the issue has been patched out in the latest version of the driver, which you can download now. We’re already seeing it automatically offered via GeForce Experience.

For the sake of reference, the problem driver was 531.18, released on February 28th, which got an initial hotfix in version 531.26 a week later. The latest update is version 531.29, which takes things a step further by fixing two more recently-discovered glitches: stability issues on some laptops with older GTX graphics cards, and stability for Adobe software from the initial February update. (And since Creative Suite programs aren’t the most stable tools at the best of times, I’m sure it’s much appreciated.)

Anything that even marginally slows down your computer tends to get the attention of PC gamers, but this sort of hiccup in gradual driver improvements isn’t unusual. AMD recently had a much bigger if less widespread issue, when drivers for its new RX 7900 series of cards started blowing up whole Windows installations. Thankfully that, too, was resolved.