Nvidia’s new GPU driver hotfix for Windows 11 can nearly double your FPS, benchmark shows
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Nvidia released a new GPU driver hotfix for Windows 11 yesterday, and it’s a valuable update for gamers. The hotfix addresses a problem that started after Microsoft rolled out a Windows 11 patch last month. The patch, released on October 14, was largely focused on security improvements. However, it ended up causing performance issues in “some games” as a side effect.
Microsoft did not acknowledge the problem, but Nvidia did. The company confirmed the issue and released a hotfix driver to address it. In the patch notes, Nvidia wrote a simple line saying that “lower performance may be observed in some games after updating to Windows 11 October 2025 KB5066835 update.” That was the only note, but the impact of the hotfix seems much bigger than expected.
Someone massively boosted their FPS in Assassin’s Creed Shadows
A user on Reddit with an RTX 5080 shared a screenshot showing just how effective the hotfix is. They compared the older 581.80 Nvidia driver with the new 581.94 hotfix. In Assassin’s Creed Shadows at 4K, their FPS almost doubled. Before the update, they were getting around 55 FPS. After installing the hotfix, the game jumped to 100 FPS, an obviously huge improvement.
The same user also showed numbers from Ghost of Tsushima. Their FPS increased from 107 to 119 after installing the hotfix, which shows that the driver is doing exactly what it is supposed to do. While the jump was not as big, it was still noticeable. Nvidia didn’t single out any particular games that benefit the most from the hotfix, but it looks like AC Shadows is one of them.
It is important to understand that your GPU is not suddenly becoming more powerful. The Windows 11 update had reduced performance, and the hotfix simply restores it to what it should have been in the first place. There is one more thing to remember. Because this is currently an optional hotfix driver, it will not appear in the Nvidia App. Instead, if you want to install it, you must download it directly from Nvidia’s official website.
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