FPS Drop and Stuttering After NVIDIA Driver Update (FIXED)

[BrainDead]

Before updating my NVIDIA graphics driver, The Last of Us Part 1 was running perfectly fine—smooth gameplay, no stuttering, and I was averaging 120 FPS on High settings at 144Hz. However, after updating my driver, I’m experiencing:

Noticeable FPS drops & stuttering that weren’t there before.
Frame rate no longer stable, even though I have changed the display and graphics settings since I updated it yet all my settings were at default before updating.
I can’t roll back the driver because the older version isn’t available anymore.

My system specs:

Alienware Aurora R9
CPU: Intel i7-9700
GPU: NVIDIA RTX 2070 SUPER
RAM: 16GB
Storage: 1TB HDD + 256GB SSD
Monitor: 144Hz
I’ve already tried:
✅ Checking if my monitor is plugged into the GPU (it is).
✅ Lowering graphics settings.
✅ Disabling fullscreen optimizations.
✅ Using a different cable/port.
✅ Checking temperatures & power limits (no major issues).
✅ Reinstalling the game & verifying Steam files.

Nothing has worked so far. Has anyone else had this issue after updating their drivers? Is there a fix, or should I try a completely clean driver reinstall?


UPDATE:Thank you all for the input—I really appreciate it! I finally managed to fix the issue by installing an older driver update, version 566.14. Everything is now back to normal, and my FPS is stable again!

[Sam]

Download DDU(Display Driver Uninstaller), boot in safe mode, then remove the Nvidia GPU software. Restart and install an older driver version.

Back story: 572.16 is really bad, many users are reporting a swath of issues ranging from performance, to monitor sleep glitches, game crashing and even BSOD crashing related to nvlddmkm.sys.

[ViktorReznovTR]

yes. I think this version is problematic 572.16

[Ludicrits]

Started getting random crashes just out of nowhere after latest driver update as well. No set point where it happens. Just can be playing just fine and normal and boom, crash to desktop.

Did all of your checks, and also used DDU and reinstalled the drivers. Issue persists.

9800X3D/4090.

Game was running fine before the driver update. Only thing thats changed.

[Raider Deci]

Originally posted by BrainDead:

RAM: 16GB

This is a problem. The game eats about +15gb ram even in 1080p on high settings. If you update to 32gb you will notice improved stability

Also since you also are on the 2070, the driver-update is just useless. Unless it's game-specific it doesnt really do anything worthwhile, better to just stay at a stable version, at best it wont brake stuff. It's there for the newer cards.

Im assuming you are playing with DLSS, which the update did to some shenanigans to, no way you are getting those fps with native frames on high settings (because of vram, depends a little on which settings though)

[ercrack]

I got some random stutters i didnt have before, locked fps at 60 and it worked for me for some reason