NVIDIA's Buggy New GPU Drivers

A bug was discovered regarding NVIDIA's recently released Nvidia 196.75 GPU drivers, so if you have them, downgrade back to the 196.21 drivers, and if you didn't install them, keep it that way. The drivers originally boasted the following upgrades:

• Adds support for Next Generation ION.
• Adds support for GeForce GT 320, GeForce GT 330, and GeForce GT 340.
• Upgrades PhysX System Software to version 9.10.0129.
• Upgrades HD Audio driver to version 1.0.9.1 (for supported GPUs).
• Increases performance in several PC games from v196.21 WHQL. The following are examples of measured improvements. Results will vary depending on your GPU and system configuration:

◦Up to 13% performance increase in Crysis: Warhead with a single GPU

◦Up to 30% performance increase in Crysis: Warhead with SLI technology

◦Up to 13% performance increase in H.A.W.X with single GPU

◦Up to 15% performance increase in H.A.W.X with SLI technology

◦Up to 30% performance increase in Left 4 Dead with single GPU

◦Up to 28% performance increase in Left 4 Dead with SLI technology

• Adds SLI and multi-GPU support for top new gaming titles including Assassin Creed II, Battlefield: Bad Company 2, Command and Conquer 4: Tiberium Twilight, Grand Theft Auto IV: Episodes from Liberty City, Mass Effect 2, Napoleon: Total War, and Zombie Driver.
• Enhanced SLI support for World of Warcraft and Unigine.
• Adds Ambient Occlusion support for Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood, Need for Speed: Shift, Resident Evil 5, RUSE, and Street Fighter IV.
• Adds override anti-aliasing support for Mass Effect 2.
• Includes numerous bug fixes.

Turns out NVIDIA managed a slip up in their new drivers and it is actually more harmful than helpful to update. This particular bug has the potential to cause permanent damage to your graphics card. If you have accidentally upgraded your drivers, immediately downgrade to the 196.21 drivers, unless you want your GPU fans to slow to a crawl or stop altogether, causing the expensive video card to overheat and possibly suffer from permanent hardware failure. If you were too lazy or didn't know about the upgrade, consider this good luck. Steer clear until NVIDIA releases a fix and gives the "OK" to download newer drivers.

Nvidia's official statement regarding the issue:

We are aware that some customers have reported fan speed issues with the latest 196.75 WHQL drivers on NVIDIA.com. Until we can verify and root cause this issue, we recommend that customers stay with, or return to 196.21 WHQL drivers. Release 196.75 drivers have been temporarily removed from our Web site in the meantime.

-Nvidia PR

Furthermore, Blizzard (the game developer for titles such as the StarCraft series and World of Warcraft) issued the following warning as well:

We're getting reports where users are getting intermittent low FPS after installing these drivers. It seems that it is related to the fan control included in these drivers not working correctly and is causing the video card to overheat on 3D applications. This will affect Warcraft 3, World of Warcraft and StarCraft 2 Beta. Please uninstall the drivers and revert back to the older ones.

-Blizzard PR

If you want to downgrade back to the 196.21 drivers, you can find them at NVIDIA's driver download page. Make sure you don't fry your expensive hardware!