NVIDIA's Latest Driver Update Boosts Performance for GeForce RTX 50 Series GPUs
NVIDIA recently released the GeForce 576.02 WHQL driver on April 16, providing support for the GeForce RTX 5060 Ti. This update has resulted in unexpected performance improvements for several "Blackwell" GeForce RTX 50 series GPUs in UL's 3DMark Steel Nomad benchmark. Users in the ComputerBase community who own RTX 5070, 5070 Ti, and 5080 GPUs have reported score increases ranging from three to eight percent after installing the update. To verify these claims, ComputerBase conducted independent testing under controlled conditions.
Their testing confirmed that the RTX 5080 saw a performance boost from 8,094 to 8,550 points (a 5.6 percent increase), the RTX 5070 Ti improved from 6,463 to 6,932 points (7.3 percent), and the RTX 5070 jumped from 4,838 to 5,242 points (8.4 percent).
On the other hand, the flagship RTX 5090 only saw a slight increase from 14,032 to 14,117 points, which falls within the standard test variance. The RTX 5060 Ti's performance remained relatively unchanged at around 3,530 points, likely due to it already having an up-to-date driver upon launch.
When testing other popular UL benchmarks such as Speed Way and Time Spy, ComputerBase did not observe any significant performance improvements with driver version 576.02. In fact, some Time Spy runs even showed a slight decrease, indicating that the performance boost is specific to Steel Nomad's workload.
It is important to note that while synthetic benchmarks can provide insights into performance, they may not always directly translate to in-game experiences. Historical data from ComputerBase's GPU suite suggests that Blackwell cards may sometimes outperform their synthetic gains in actual game titles, although results can vary based on the game engine and title.
In addition to the support for the RTX 5060 Ti and the unexpected performance boost, the 576.02 WHQL driver update also addresses various game-specific crashes, stutters, aliasing, and stability issues in titles like Fortnite, Overwatch 2, Hellblade II, Control, and more.
