The Consensus Driver 581.94 To Fix Windows 11 Performance Bugs Has Just Been Launched by Nvidia
Nvidia has released this hotfix driver v581.94 to fix the severe performance regression only in certain games. This is a problem due to a bug from Microsoft's latest cumulative update for Windows 11 versions 24H2 and 25H2 (KB5066835), not from a fault in Nvidia's prior drivers.
Performance Gain Significantly Reported
Users who tested the newly launched hotfix reported large increases in frame rates, mostly in games like Assassin's Creed Shadows. Benchmarks shared by the users on X (formerly Twitter) give a scale of how much has recovered
- Sebastian Castellanos a 47% increase in average FPS and a 46% rise in 1% lows when comparing the stable driver 581.80 to the new 581.94 hotfix.
- Daniel Nowak a 65% performance jump from old driver 581.57 to brand new hotfix.
Kudos to NVIDIA for cleaning up Microsoft's mess by working around an OS tweak the latter company did with Win 11 update KB5066835 that greatly reduced performance in Assassin's Creed Shadows & Digital Combat Simulator. My testing confirms that this Hotfix Driver fixes the issue. https://t.co/EEqLW3lt5m pic.twitter.com/KNIBqVOXtF
— Sebastian Castellanos (@Sebasti66855537) November 20, 2025
Context of the Issue
The performance degradation started around the October 2025 Windows update. Unlike other Nvidia hotfixes earlier this year, which were focused on more specific issues related to the RTX 50 series like crashing or boost clock errors, this time it is an immediate effect from a bug on the Microsoft operating system.
While Nvidia was quick to release a fix for GeForce owners, the Windows bug is still very much affecting AMD and Intel GPU users, with no drivers from those vendors yet to resolve this issue.
Should You Install This Driver 581.94
Nvidia states that this regression is controlled for certain titles only. Since the driver 581.94 is a sort of "beta" hotfix, there may be other bugs that are still unresolved. If users notice no apparent performance loss for their particular games, they may wish to wait for the release of a fully certified "Game Ready" driver.
