Which newer NVIDIA driver is most stable for an RTX 3080?

September 27, 2026 4 answers
Asked by MellowCedar42
I'm using an RTX 3080 with a Ryzen 7 5700X3D, 16 GB of Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4-3200 CL16, and an ASUS TUF B550 motherboard. Newer drivers have caused stuttering, but some Unreal Engine 5 games require updated drivers. Which recent driver version has been the most stable for RTX 3000-series cards, particularly the 3080?

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QuietOrbit7
Driver 610.88 has been reliable on my RTX 3080. Iโ€™ve only had a few crashes since installing it, although monitor EDID changes may have contributed to those, so your results could differ.
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AmberKite31
The newest Game Ready Driver mentioned here is 617.14. You can also use the NVIDIA App to check available driver versions and compare the Game Ready and Studio branches.
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BlueHarbor19
596.49 is another version worth trying if youโ€™re looking for a stable driver rather than the newest release.
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CrispMango_8
You could test the Studio Driver instead of the Game Ready version. Also check your GPU core temperature versus hotspot temperature. If the thermal paste has shifted or the hotspot delta is unusually large, the card may throttle and cause stutters in demanding Unreal Engine games.

MellowCedar42: During a short FurMark CPU-burner test, the temperatures looked fairly reasonable. Is there a particular core-to-hotspot temperature difference I should be concerned about?

MellowCedar42: The in-game performance monitor usually reports both CPU and GPU temperatures around 50โ€“60ยฐC, even when Iโ€™m playing demanding games.

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