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.
Before Update 55 fpsAfter Update 91 fps I had used x4 generation DLSS because I think that 5080 can't handle that UbiGame xD pic.twitter.com/NlJp9XgenKNovember 21, 2025
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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