Gamers celebrate 50% performance gains following Nvidia hotfix driver — patch fixes October Windows 11 cumulative update that broke performance in some games

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This problem doesn't affect all games, but in the games that are affected, performance regressions can be massive.

GeForce RTX 5090 Founders Edition
(Image credit: Nvidia)

Nvidia released a hotfix driver recently that fixes performance issues in games, as a result of a buggy cumulative update Microsoft released for Windows 11 24H2 and 25H2. A few X posters, including Sebastian Castellanos, have published benchmark results showing almost a 50% performance boost in games from the new Nvidia hotfix driver in some titles.

The performance issues from Microsoft's latest update are likely far more egregious than most people were expecting. Sabastian saw a whopping 47% improvement in average FPS in Assassin's Creed Shadows from Nvidia's last outgoing stable driver 581.80 compared to its latest 581.94 hotfix driver. Similarly, 1% lows were 46% better on the hotfix driver as well.

Another X poster, Daniel Nowak, also shared similar performance behavior in the same game, but his comparison was made with a slightly older driver. Daniel saw a 65% performance improvement going from driver 581.57 to Nvidia's new hotfix driver. These performance regressions are massive, but only affect certain games according to Nvidia, so it might not be worth upgrading to 581.94 if you are not experiencing any noticeable performance drops. The 581.94 hotfix driver is considered a "beta" driver, so there may be additional bugs introduced by installing it.

Performance issues started cropping up with Windows 11 24H2 and 25H2 October 2025 update KB5066835, which introduced a bug that could reduce FPS in certain circumstances. This bug has yet to be fixed by Microsoft and is the reason why Nvidia is now stepping in to fix the issue for themselves, at least for Nvidia GPU owners. Sadly, AMD and Intel GPUs are also affected by this bug, but no new drivers have come out yet from either vendor to fix the issue.

This latest hotfix update is quite different from what we are accustomed to seeing Nvidia fixing with these drivers. Earlier this year, most (if not all) of Nvidia's hotfix drivers were dedicated to fixing issues surrounding RTX 50 series GPUs, including crashes, clock speed issues, and display-related problems. With driver 581.94, Nvidia is fixing an issue that was caused by Microsoft, not itself.

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Aaron Klotz
Aaron Klotz
Contributing Writer

Aaron Klotz is a contributing writer for Tom’s Hardware, covering news related to computer hardware such as CPUs, and graphics cards.

10 Comments Comment from the forums
  • _Shatta_AD_
    Wow the title made it sound like you got a free 50% boost in performance from the hotfix when in fact, this is to cover the lost in performance that should’ve been there to begin with.
    Rather than saying a ‘performance boost’, they should’ve said ‘performance recovery’ or something along that line.
    Reply
  • King_V
    Yeah, upon seeing this, my immediate question was "but what's the performance relative to the performance BEFORE that Windows update?"
    Reply
  • Zaranthos
    Nvidia and Microsoft neglect the GPU drivers of the users gouged by inflated GPU prices as they race to focus on fortifying the crumbling walls of the AI bubble.

    There, fixed the title for you.
    Reply
  • das_stig
    and if you want it .. https://international.download.nvidia.com/Windows/581.94hf/581.94-desktop-notebook-win10-win11-64bit-international-dch.hf.exe
    Reply
  • RodroX
    lol, the articule made it sound like ngreedya was a great Knight riding a white horse, to the rescue of the poor gamer, when in fact if they were able to fix the issue, they are at least half guilty of it.
    Reply
  • valthuer
    Somewhere between Windows updates, drivers, and sacrifices to the FPS gods, Nvidia decided to fix Microsoft’s mistakes. When a hotfix gives you +50% performance, it’s not just a ‘patch’—it’s a miracle, like ‘here, have some extra frames to survive.’ Meanwhile, AMD and Intel GPU owners are staring out the window, waiting for their own heroes. And the rest of us? We’re just wondering how much longer gaming can survive before officially filing a complaint against Windows for abuse.
    Reply
  • thestryker
    Where's the evidence about this affecting AMD and Intel?

    I'm so tired of the awful reporting going on here.

    There have not been reports about AMD/Intel having issues that I've been able to find. The only place I've even seen mention of the issues with Assassin's Creed Shadows was HUB where they said it was only affecting their nvidia cards. So perhaps before parroting a single unsubstantiated report from another website maybe do some actual research and if you're not going to do that just leave the claims out.
    Reply
  • Elusive Ruse
    I immediately felt the performance hit after the update, every time I see the orange dot on the shutdown/restart button I brace myself for carnage.
    Reply
  • WINTERLORD
    I would very much like to know how this update affects amd gpu's like is there a percentage or somthing
    whan i used ai it said amd gpus wernt affected by this just nvidia's I was going to get one but after seeing this prolly stick with nvidia

    And i wonder if tomshardware actually reads comments on the news as while its a great site to read I dont see anyone answering the questions people have
    Reply
  • Elusive Ruse
    WINTERLORD said:
    I would very much like to know how this update affects amd gpu's like is there a percentage or somthing
    whan i used ai it said amd gpus wernt affected by this just nvidia's I was going to get one but after seeing this prolly stick with nvidia

    And i wonder if tomshardware actually reads comments on the news as while its a great site to read I dont see anyone answering the questions people have
    A Windows update could affect any hardware manufacturer, whether it’s SSD makers or GPU makers. Your buying choice should be based on the independent reviews, performance benchmarks, quakity of the manufacturer’s own drivers and ultimately your budget.
    As far as Windows goes, all components which rely on the OS for their performance are at its mercy.
    Reply