RTX 5090 GPUs Are Failing After Latest Driver Update – What’s Going On?

Agencies Ghacks
Feb 4, 2025
Games, Hardware
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NVIDIA’s latest RTX 5090 and RTX 5080 graphics cards have had a rough launch, and now, new reports suggest that some RTX 5090 units may be failing after updating to the latest NVIDIA drivers. Users across Chinese forums, including Baidu and Chiphell, as well as Reddit, have reported issues where their GPUs are no longer detected by Windows after installing the latest driver update, which includes support for DLSS 4.

Specifically, owners of the RTX 5090D, a variant for the Chinese market, appear to be struggling the most, with reports of affected units from brands like Colorful, Gigabyte, and Manli. However, the problem may not be exclusive to this model, as at least one RTX 5090 Founders Edition user has reported similar issues on the r/ASUS subreddit.

One possible cause could be PCIe 5.0 compatibility. Hardware reviewer der8auer noted that his RTX 5080 Founders Edition experienced frequent crashes and black screens when using PCIe 5.0, an issue that disappeared when switching to PCIe 4.0 in the motherboard’s BIOS. While Windows Central Senior Editor Ben Wilson tested the RTX 5090 successfully on PCIe 5.0 using pre-release drivers, the issue may be affecting only certain hardware configurations.

The timing couldn’t be worse for early adopters, who are already facing stock shortages and steep scalper prices. With standalone RTX 5090 and 5080 cards almost impossible to find, encountering critical issues right after spending $2,000 or more on a GPU is the last thing buyers expected.

For now, NVIDIA has yet to acknowledge the issue, and there is no official fix. If you own an RTX 5090 or 5090D and are experiencing problems, rolling back to an earlier driver version or switching to PCIe 4.0 in your BIOS settings might be temporary workarounds. With the RTX 5070 Ti and 5070 launching next month, and AMD’s next-gen RDNA GPUs coming in March, those still waiting to upgrade might have dodged an expensive headache.

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Comments

  1. Allwynd said on February 4, 2025 at 6:53 pm
    Reply

    Maybe they will be good and stable after they are 2-3 years old. They release too fast and in a sloppy state so maybe they will stabilize the drivers in several years. Besides, I’m on Linux Mint, so currently my nVidia driver is version 550, which is pretty outdated, but it’s the newest and recommended one on the built-in Driver Manager utility, so I’m not in a hurry. From what I know, they use older drivers, which are proven to be stable and working and what I’ve learned through the years is you don’t really need the most cutting edge technology, both software and hardware and my excitement about staying on the bleeding edge has faded as the years went on.

    I think people are just too impatient and irrational about all this, sure nVidia is also to blame for not providing the support they should for their flagship product and that can’t be denied, but it’s also a mistake for people to jump on the cutting edge bandwagon and then complain about it after seeing this has been the case for 10+ years – they keep making the same mistake over and over and still get upset about it and not learning from multiple past mistakes. What does that make them – stupid, and I don’t even feel bad for calling people that, because this is a fact in life – if you make the same mistake over and over and never learn a lesson from it, you are just stupid and you should live with the consequences.

    I still have GTX 1650 which is the GPU I bought with my PC in 2019. It still works and I don’t play brand new games so I bet it can last me for 5+ years more. I don’t think I will upgrade the GPU or that PC at all. When the right time comes, I will just get a laptop since I don’t have one at the moment and it will be something in the mid class. Could have RTX 2090 or something if they are still sold 1-2 years from now. I don’t really need a laptop, I just might get one for the portability luxury, because doing everything on a phone is not ideal.

    I also don’t play games as much as much as I used to except some old games that by no means require even RTX 2090, I only really care about what the CPU, storage unit and RAM are at this point. GPU is out of the equation for me.

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