NVIDIA’s recent GPU driver updates have been stirring up trouble for users of GeForce RTX 40 series GPUs, as well as some older models, and so far, NVIDIA hasn’t tackled the issue head-on.
Reports Highlight Driver 572.XX Disruptions in RTX 40 Series
Ever since the RTX 50 series debuted in January, NVIDIA seems to have turned a blind eye to the RTX 40 series when it comes to resolving glitches. It’s understandable for a company to prioritize its latest offerings, but despite the RTX 50 series also facing its share of issues like blue screen errors, the RTX 40 series GPUs were running smoothly with earlier driver versions. That changed with the introduction of RTX 50-compatible drivers, which began causing significant problems for RTX 40 users.
A Redditor going by the name u/Soctty1992 shared his firsthand experience with the 572.XX driver, highlighting several overlapping bugs that others have encountered as well. These problems range from severe system crashes and black screens to other display anomalies, issues that weren’t common before the release of the 572.XX version.
PSA: Nvidia Widespread Black Screen or Hard OS Crash Issues on 4xxx (or older) Series Cards Need To Be Widely Known & Fixed. — u/Scotty1992 in hardware
Interestingly, many users reported that reverting to the 566.XX drivers, which were available before January 30th’s release of the 572.16 driver for RTX 5090 and RTX 5080, solved their problems. The RTX 50 series came with a suite of new features such as DLSS 4, Multi-Frame Generation, and DLSS Override. While enabling these features isn’t always the root cause of the issues, it’s a complex mix of factors that need thorough examination.
One user mentioned that when playing Cyberpunk 2077 on an RTX 4080, the game would crash at startup, a problem that was resolved by going back to pre-572.XX drivers. Similarly, an RTX 4090 owner reported encountering black screens, freezes, and completely unresponsive monitors, all of which were fixed by reverting to the 566.XX drivers.
To the frustration of many, NVIDIA has largely overlooked these bug reports that users have been voicing since late January. The company’s focus was primarily on remedying the blue screen issues for RTX 50-series devices, and even that took weeks to resolve. Many owners of RTX 40 series cards find themselves rolling back to older drivers, which unfortunately means losing out on recent driver perks, including the Transformer Model for DLSS 4, enhanced Ray Reconstruction, and a broader selection of games supporting DLSS.
