Nvidia rushes out a GPU fix, blaming Windows 11's October update for sluggish performance in games

• Nvidia GPUs have been suffering since the Windows 11 October update
• The Microsoft patch meant some PC games ran slower than expected
• Nvidia has deployed an emergency hotfix to resolve these issues

Nvidia GPU owners who've been having problems with sluggishness affecting some games in the past month now have a fix for these performance woes in Windows 11.

Windows Latest reports that Nvidia just released a hotfix – outside of its normal stream of graphics driver updates – which resolves "lower performance" levels with some games after Windows 11's October patch (codenamed KB5066835).

Now, this is only happening with some games, and Nvidia is keeping things vague here, in terms of "lower performance" and exactly what that might mean – presumably slower frames rates, and less-than-smooth gaming as a result.

Clearly, for an emergency fix to be rushed out like this, Nvidia must regard this as a pressing issue.

If you've encountered problems with PC games running more slowly since last month's Windows 11 update (or maybe even this month's), you might want to pounce on this patch – but there are caveats attached to a hotfix, as I'll discuss below.

Analysis: patch now or wait?

As Nvidia makes clear, a hotfix is rushed out for a tricky bug that's causing misery for gamers with a GeForce GPU, and as such it has a much shorter run of testing and QA. In other words, it could be problematic, just like any beta update (such as a Windows 11 optional update).

This fix will be included in Nvidia's next full driver release in a more fully tested form, so if you aren't really noticing any major trouble with your games and Nvidia GPU then your best bet is just to wait for that driver. It won't be too far away, after all.

However, if you're running into performance glitches that are causing you serious grief, then yes, the hotfix is likely the right move. Even if there are unintended side-effects from this patch, odds are they probably won't be as bad as serious frame rate hiccups.

Early feedback on Reddit suggests this fix has indeed remedied lower than expected frame rates with some games (Assassin's Creed Shadows is mentioned), but it hasn't done anything for reported issues with the monitor flickering (the screen going black for a second or so), which is presumably a separate bugbear.

There may also be other spanners in the works in terms of game-related performance hitches with this Windows 11 update, as Windows Latest notes that AMD and Intel PCs have also encountered issues. The October update also torpedoed the Windows Recovery Environment (which helps to attempt a recovery from a boot failure) and Microsoft itself deployed an emergency patch to resolve that bug.

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