TECH NEWS – Following last week’s GPU fiasco, Nvidia made changes to its latest Blackwell architecture, including the GeForce RTX 5000 graphics cards.
A few days ago, the company released its latest GeForce Game Ready (GRD) drivers, version 595.59. The driver was intended to be optimized for Resident Evil: Requiem and included additional fixes. However, after the release, several users reported issues such as GPU fans not working, clock speeds slowing down, and significantly lower game performance compared to previous versions. Resident Evil Requiem also ran much slower on it.
Nvidia removed the 595.59 GRD drivers from its download page and asked users to revert to an older version, 591.86 WHQL. Nvidia then released a revised version of the driver, 595.71 WHQL, which resolved these issues and restored performance to an expected level.
However, it appears that the new drivers are causing a new problem with GPU voltages. The GeForce Game Ready 595.71 WHQL release appears to limit the voltage of RTX 5000 GPUs. The RTX 5090 used by the video uploader is now limited to frequencies below 3 GHz and voltages below 1 V; the same card previously operated at voltages above 1 V and frequencies above 3 GHz under 3D load. This can be seen when the video card is overclocked, indicating an artificial limitation is now in place.
WCCFTech used an MSI GeForce RTX 5090 Suprim X that previously ran on version 591.86. Nvidia recommended this driver to them for testing Resident Evil Requiem. In FurMark, the GPU runs at 1.020-1.030 V with frequencies reaching 3,015-3,030 MHz. These frequencies were achieved by manually overclocking the GPU core by +200 MHz and the memory by +2000 MHz, as well as by setting the core voltage slider to 100%. With the same settings and GPU, the card operates at frequencies below 3 GHz and voltages between 1.005 and 1.010 V in 595.71. Sometimes, the voltage is as low as 1.00 V. The card runs at higher voltages without overclocking (OC), reaching 1.015 V. However, previous drivers reached voltages between 1.03 and 1.04 V without OC. With the default settings, the RTX 5090 runs at lower voltages than before with manual overclocking.
Nvidia has therefore introduced some voltage restrictions in its latest drivers. The reason is unclear, but it is likely due to problems with the 16-pin connector that limit burnout and GPU damage cases. These voltage restrictions will likely disappoint overclockers, as they will have to work with limited voltage ranges. As for gaming performance, Resident Evil Requiem now runs better. Regardless of whether we run the GPU at stock or overclocked specifications, we won’t notice a difference due to the limited GPU voltages.
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