Nvidia driver 595.71 reportedly limits overclocks on some GeForce GPUs, but not all — troubled driver release seems to stifle voltages on RTX 40- and 50-series cards

Source: Tom’s Hardware

Image credit: Nvidia

Nvidia’s latest 595.71 driver release has reportedly introduced new problems not seen in last week’s highly problematic 595.59 driver—a release so troubled that Nvidia had to pull it a few days ago (Tom’s Hardware report). Several user reports, and at least one YouTuber, have discovered that release 595.71 is limiting GPU overclocking on many RTX 40‑ and 50‑series graphics cards. The most highly impacted models are said to be losing around 200 MHz of overclocking headroom compared to previous releases.

Reported Overclock Limitations

• RTX 5080 – Users note that the GPU previously reached 3,100–3,200 MHz with older drivers but caps at ~2,955 MHz with 595.71.
• Performance drop – One RTX 5080 owner posted 3DMark scores comparing driver 591.86 (with a 450 MHz GPU overclock) to 595.71, showing the newer driver runs the GPU ~300 MHz lower and draws 43 W less (403 W → 360 W).

Video Demonstration

Watch on YouTube

Models Apparently Unaffected

• Gigabyte Aorus Master RTX 5090 – Three commenters reported no restrictions.
• PNY Epic OC RTX 5090 – Max overclock of 3,157 MHz achieved with 595.71.
• RTX 5070 – Both an Asus variant and an MSI Gaming Trio OC showed no issues.

It is possible that these owners simply received silicon with more favorable voltage‑frequency scaling curves, making them immune to the apparent bug.

Possible Causes

Some community members blame AI‑generated code for the regression (Tom’s Hardware article on AI code). Nvidia has not officially acknowledged the issue, and the patch notes for 595.71 do not mention any new voltage limits. The artificial voltage caps appear to be a bug rather than an intentional change.

Outlook

The driver issue has generated a lot of angry commentary from gamers. We will have to see whether Nvidia releases a corrective hotfix or a subsequent driver version that removes the unintended voltage limits and restores full overclocking headroom.