Summary
- Nvidia’s latest drivers result in inaccurate GPU temperature readings
- Users report low temperatures even during gaming sessions
- Fixes are available, but Nvidia’s code must be updated for accurate polling
What better way to get your GPU’s temperature than from its manufacturer’s software? I mean, they made it, right? So surely their app would be the most reliable way to get readings. Unfortunately, it seems that’s currently not the case with Nvidia’s software. The company has been having a real time trying to make its drivers behave, and the latest bug ruins the accuracy of the temperature sensor. As such, if you’re thinking of doing some stress-testing with your GPU to see how it holds up, you may want to hold off or use a third-party app.
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The newest Nvidia drivers are causing strange temperature readings
As spotted by Neowin, users are reporting issues with GPU temperature readings on the Nvidia forums. People are reporting that, after booting Windows, Nvidia’s software will poll the GPU once at startup and then maintain that temperature reading. This leads to Nvidia reporting seriously low temperatures, even during intense gaming sessions.
Fortunately, people have been posting fixes for this issue; however, they’re more band-aids for issues in Nvidia’s code and shouldn’t be relied on for accurate polling until the issue is fixed:
RTX 5080 here. If you uninstall MSI Afterburner and restart Windows (11) driver 576.02 should work fine with the GPU fans working automatically when set to automatic in the NVIDIA app. GPU Temperature readings also seem to be working again, Task Manager reads gpu temps normally it seems. The fan problem(s) with this driver seems to be related to MSI Afterburner. Still a bit nervous about this whole thing.. Edit: First I did a rollback to driver 572.83 but GPU fans still didn’t work, yes with manual setting in Afterburner but every time I switched to automatic GPU fan control in Afterburner fans went to 0. Uninstalled MSI Afterburner and after that reinstalled driver 576.02 and restarted. Now everything seems fine with driver 576.02 without MSI Afterburner.
Nvidia’s drivers have been full of flaws lately, from black screen issues to game crashes, to the point where they’ve been branded “absolutely abhorrent.” However, some people are reporting that the new drivers are actually a blessing for their performance stats.
