Santa Clara, California – NVIDIA recently released driver version 576.02, bringing relief to users facing issues with their RTX GPUs. While the main focus was on fixing bugs, the new driver also delivered significant performance enhancements for the GeForce RTX 50 series.
One notable improvement was seen in power-efficiency, with the RTX 5070 and RTX 5060 Ti GPUs experiencing reduced power consumption in idle mode. The 576.02 driver resulted in the RTX 5070 running at 22 MHz, a significant drop from its previous 180 MHz idle mode speed. Similarly, the RTX 5060 Ti saw a substantial decrease in power consumption to just 7W.
Users also reported a boost in performance, particularly with the RTX 5080 GPU. In benchmark tests like 3DMark Steel Nomad, some users saw a 4.3% increase in scores with the latest driver. Real gaming tests, such as Marvel Rivals, demonstrated improvements in frame rates, with the RTX 5080 delivering over 150 fps compared to 140+ fps with the previous driver.
The performance gains were not limited to the RTX 50 series, as some users of the RTX 40 series also reported improvements. The latest driver update seemed to address a driver issue that had been throttling the performance of RTX GPUs. Some users even mentioned unlocking higher VRAM clocks with the new driver, resulting in further performance enhancements through manual overclocking.
While some hardware issues with the RTX 50 series GPUs remain unresolved, the software side of things appears to be more manageable. The release of driver version 576.02 has provided much-needed fixes and optimizations for NVIDIA GPU users, addressing some of the persistent issues that have been plaguing the RTX series in recent weeks.