PC gamers love performance, and that performance isn’t limited to gaming itself. So when some of them started noticing abnormally high CPU usage after the latest Nvidia GPU driver update, it threw up some red flags. After some investigation, Nvidia itself has confirmed the issue: some users are seeing inflated CPU usage after closing 3D games, which persists until a restart.
The company confirmed the issue with the latest driver update, 531.18, which was released on February 28. An updated list of open issues (including some that didn’t make it into the full release notes) was posted to Nvidia’s support forum and discovered by VideoCardz.com. Issue number 4007208 reads: “Higher CPU usage from NVIDIA Container can be observed after exiting a game.” Some users show CPU usage of up to 10-15 percent under these conditions—not enough to seriously hamper most gaming desktops, but more than enough to be annoying, especially if you’re using your PC for other intensive tasks. Like opening three Chrome tabs at once.
Currently there is no easy fix, so the immediate solution if you are affected is to roll back your driver to version 528.49 from February 8, which can be downloaded manually here. Hopefully Nvidia will be able to patch the newer driver sooner rather than later. Update: In a tweet responding to PCWorld’s coverage, Nvidia software product manager Sean Pelletier writes said the company will ship a hotfix for the issue tomorrow, March 7th.
Of course, modern GPU drivers are amazingly complex pieces of software, and Nvidia isn’t the only one dealing with bugs at the moment. AMD has a pretty embarrassing problem on its hands with the latest high-end Radeon cards, which under the right circumstances can completely tank a Windows installation. In contrast, Intel seems to be steadily improving the software side of its Arc GPUs, which are gaining surprising traction in the budget market.