Nvidia driver 595.71 curtails overclocks on select GeForce GPUs, sparking user concerns

Nvidia’s 595.71 driver, released on March 4, 2026, appears to impose an artificial voltage ceiling on a subset of RTX 40‑ and RTX 50‑series GPUs, curtailing the overclock headroom that enthusiasts have come to expect. According to Tom’s Hardware, users are losing roughly 200 MHz of boost frequency compared with the previous 595.59 driver, which itself was withdrawn after widespread stability complaints. The voltage cap manifests when the core‑offset exceeds 150 MHz; at lower offsets the GPU can still reach its typical 1.060 V ceiling, but any higher offset forces the card to stay under 1.000 V, throttling performance (Tom’s Hardware, 2026).

The issue was first highlighted by YouTuber Bang4BuckPC, who demonstrated the effect on an Asus TUF Gaming RTX 5090. With the 595.71 driver, his card’s voltage dropped by 65 mV, limiting the core clock to just under 3 GHz—a loss of 171 MHz compared to the 3.165 GHz achievable with earlier drivers. Similar complaints have surfaced on Nvidia’s own forums, where an RTX 5080 owner reported a drop from 3.2 GHz to 2.955 GHz and a power reduction of 43 W (from 403 W to 360 W) after updating (Tom’s Hardware, 2026). Benchmark comparisons posted by the same user showed a 300 MHz gap in 3DMark scores between driver 591.86 and 595.71, underscoring the practical impact on gaming and compute workloads.

Not all cards are suffering the same fate. In the comments to Bang4BuckPC’s video, three owners of Gigabyte Aorus Master RTX 5090s, a PNY Epic OC RTX 5090, and two RTX 5070s (ASUS and MSI variants) reported no voltage restriction and were still able to hit clocks above 3.15 GHz. The discrepancy suggests a silicon‑lottery effect: chips whose dynamic voltage‑frequency scaling (DVFS) curves fall outside the driver’s imposed limits remain unaffected, while others are throttled (Tom’s Hardware, 2026). No official statement from Nvidia has been released, leaving the community to speculate whether the cap is a deliberate power‑management measure or an unintended regression introduced during the driver’s rapid development cycle.

The timing of the rollout is notable because it follows Nvidia’s recent scramble to replace the buggy 595.59 driver, which was pulled after users reported crashes and excessive power draw. The new limitation, while ostensibly protecting hardware, runs counter to the overclock‑friendly culture that has been a hallmark of Nvidia’s GeForce ecosystem. Enthusiasts on Reddit and X have expressed frustration, with some attributing the regression to “AI‑generated code” in the driver’s firmware—a claim that remains unsubstantiated beyond anecdotal speculation (Tom’s Hardware, 2026). Until Nvidia acknowledges the problem or issues a corrective patch, the community will likely continue to test individual cards to determine whether their silicon is immune or subject to the new voltage ceiling.