Best Nvidia Drivers

[Luisflo]

I'm still having performance issues with stuttering after reinstalling DCS completely from scratch. I've started testing, starting the SIM with nothing plugged in, no HOTAS, no displays, no extra modules, no mods of any kind other than DCS. In other words, bare-metal DCS.
The version I currently have of the Nvidia drivers, with an Asus TUF RTX3080 OC, is 580.88.
When I start the FA-18 in this configuration, it runs smoothly and perfectly without stuttering. The moment I connect the WINWING MIP, the full HOTAS and nothing else, the moment I get into the runway with the plane and begin to climb, the stuttering starts, making it impossible to fly, let alone complete a mission. I'm reinstalling everything in slow motion, due to work, absences, family, etc.

Everything was working fine until the update in middle march. After that is a nightmare. 

After reading threads like this one: https://forum.dcs.world/topic/369884-choosing-the-right-nvidia-driver-is-the-latest-version-always-the-best/?_fromLogin=1
Could you give me your opinion on which are the best versions of the NVIDIA drivers for DCS? That thread is from earlier this year, and some changes may have occurred regarding the versions.

 

dcs.logdcs.log.old

Thank you very much.

Edited August 8 by Luisflo

[diego999]

I'm using 572.42. No problems on my end and I won't update until the newer version offers some significant improvements.

[Czar]

13 hours ago, Luisflo said:

The moment I connect the WINWING MIP, the full HOTAS and nothing else, the moment I get into the runway with the plane and begin to climb, the stuttering starts, making it impossible to fly, let alone complete a mission.

• Keep your control panel options default. Exceptions are: fps limiter.
• Turn up your pagefile to 30gb on a fast drive (SATA or NVME SSD). Your DCS log pointed at 9gb pagefile.
• Run DCS from the 'bin' folder. Your DCS log points at the .exe inside 'bin-mt' being run. That was for the times where Multi Threading was being tested optionally.
• You don't need to crank up the preload radius. You can give it a try on 60k to 80k range.

I find strange to be mandatory a large custom pagefile if you want to run DCS, but it has been the standard practice if encountering stutters on a good system like yours.

Edited August 9 by Czar66

[will-]

"stuttering" can mean too many variables, would just try testing and hope u get whats causing this fixed.  i got stutters and the game felt unplayable w/ a i9 5090 ddr5.  randomly tried "unparking cores" and instantly all stuttering was gone. i believe this was only a intel issue, when this came about, im not sure.  i personally leave all pc settings stock, pagefile let windows manage it and just keep hardware firmware updated, bios etc.

[Luisflo]

hace 6 horas, Czar66 dijo:

• Keep your control panel options default. Exceptions are: fps limiter.
• Turn up your pagefile to 30gb on a fast drive (SATA or NVME SSD). Your DCS log pointed at 9gb pagefile.
• Run DCS from the 'bin' folder. Your DCS log points at the .exe inside 'bin-mt' being run. That was for the times where Multi Threading was being tested optionally.
• You don't need to crank up the preload radius. You can give it a try on 60k to 80k range.

I find strange to be mandatory a large custom pagefile if you want to run DCS, but it has been the standard practice if encountering stutters on a good system like yours.

Thank you Czar66, I will try to do it ASAP. I´ve been checking many different option and I´ll try to put all of them in place, one by one, double check. I´m on leave, but next week I´ll do it.

hace 7 horas, diego999 dijo:

I'm using 572.42. No problems on my end and I won't update until the newer version offers some significant improvements.

I was with 566.36, but DCS is not the only thing I play, MCFS 2024, ARMA 3, Diablo IV, Stalker 2 and a few more. I will revert to 566.36. Thank you Diego999

[LucShep]

You'll get different replies and experiences.

I test drivers every release, with same games on same areas to check for microstuttering, looking at frametime graphs and 1% / 0.1% lows.

In my own personal experience, the Nvidia's driver 537.58 are still notoriously the best for all RTX30-series GPUs, with 566.03 being a close second.
Tested with different systems, with RTX 3090 24GB, RTX3080 10GB, RTX3060Ti 8GB, RTX3060 12GB and diferent CPUs (12700K, 12600KF, 10700K, 11400F, 5600X).

Especially if it's a "clean" driver, it'll further increase such differences, as these are lighter and have all unnecessary bloatware removed from the official ones. 

• There is a "Clean Version" driver (already debloated) of the mentioned 537.58 in HERE.
   
• If you really want the fully bloated "official" default version of 537.58, then it's HERE.

Matter of opinion but, I would not recommend installing drivers after 566.36 on RTX 30 and RTX 40 series, where problems start to increase exponentially.
But if you're one of those guys/gals that "have to have the latest driver" but just want a clean version, there's a fella doing them and are usually all up-to-date, with every new official Nvidia drivers release, in HERE.

Or, you can debloat the official drivers all by yourself, by using NVCleanstall (link here).
If you never done this, there's a video tutorial here (there may be others around) to see how it's done.

Lastly, and as side note, never ever upgrade Nvidia drivers if the reason is only to get newest DLSS version, because you can download/install whatever DLSS version regardless of Nvidia driver version in use (drop the desired DLLs in same folder location where the game executable is):

• NVIDIA DLSS DLL --------------------------- https://www.techpowerup.com/download/nvidia-dlss-dll/
• NVIDIA DLSS Frame Generation DLL -------- https://www.techpowerup.com/download/nvidia-dlss-3-frame-generation-dll/
• NVIDIA DLSS Ray Reconstruction DLL  ------ https://www.techpowerup.com/download/nvidia-dlss-3-ray-reconstruction-dll/
   

Edited August 25 by LucShep

[Luisflo]

 

En 21/8/2025 a las 11:17, LucShep dijo:

You'll get different replies and experiences.

I test drivers every release, with same games on same areas to check for microstuttering, looking at frametime graphs and 1% / 0.1% lows.

In my own personal experience, the Nvidia's driver 537.58 are still notoriously the best for all RTX30-series GPUs, with 566.03 being a close second.
Tested with different systems, with RTX 3090 24GB, RTX3080 10GB, RTX3060Ti 8GB, RTX3060 12GB and diferent CPUs (12700K, 12600KF, 10700K, 11400F, 5600X).

Especially if it's a clean driver, it'll further increase such differences, as these are lighter and have all unnecessary bloatware removed from the official ones. 

• There is a "Clean Version" driver (already debloated) of the mentioned 537.58 in HERE.
   
• If you really want the fully bloated "official" default version of 537.58, then it's HERE.

Matter of opinion but, I would not recommend installing drivers after 566.36 on RTX 30 and RTX 40 series, where problems start to increase exponentially.
But if you're one of those guys/gals that "have to have the latest driver" but just want a clean version, there's a fella doing them and are usually all up-to-date, with every new official Nvidia drivers release, in HERE.

Or, you can debloat the official drivers all by yourself, by using NVCleanstall (link here).
If you never done this, there's a video tutorial here (there may be others around) to see how it's done.

Lastly, and as side note, never ever upgrade Nvidia drivers if the reason is only to get newest DLSS version, because you can download/install whatever DLSS version regardless of Nvidia driver version in use (drop the desired DLLs in same folder location where the game executable is):

• NVIDIA DLSS DLL --------------------------- https://www.techpowerup.com/download/nvidia-dlss-dll/
• NVIDIA DLSS Frame Generation DLL -------- https://www.techpowerup.com/download/nvidia-dlss-3-frame-generation-dll/
• NVIDIA DLSS Ray Reconstruction DLL  ------ https://www.techpowerup.com/download/nvidia-dlss-3-ray-reconstruction-dll/
   

LucShep, thank you very much for your help. A really great answer from your side!. I´m thinking about changing the RTX 3080 by a RTX 5080 Super when it will come, let´s see what happens next...

Anyway, I will make a clean installation with 537.58 by now, or 566.03. Again, thank you very much for your support.

[Luisflo]

I've made the changes, and it still doesn't work. Now, a Winwing SimAppPro warning appears in the lower left corner saying "MFD Display Warning."

It's frustrating. Not flying since april.....

More tomorrow.

Edited yesterday at 07:25 PM by Luisflo

[HUZARN]

On 8.08.2025 at 14:56, Luisflo said:

Nadal mam problemy z wydajnością i zacinaniem się po całkowitej reinstalacji DCS od podstaw. Zacząłem testować, uruchamiając kartę SIM bez niczego podłączonego, bez HOTAS, wyświetlaczy, dodatkowych modułów, żadnych modyfikacji poza DCS. Innymi słowy, DCS bez żadnych dodatków.
Wersja sterowników Nvidii, którą obecnie posiadam, z kartą Asus TUF RTX3080 OC, to 580.88.
Kiedy uruchamiam FA-18 w tej konfiguracji, działa płynnie i idealnie, bez zacinania się. W chwili, gdy podłączam WINWING MIP, pełny HOTAS i nic więcej, w chwili, gdy wchodzę na pas startowy samolotem i zaczynam się wznosić, zaczynają się zacinać, uniemożliwiając lot, nie mówiąc już o ukończeniu misji. Instaluję wszystko w zwolnionym tempie, z powodu pracy, nieobecności, rodziny itp.

Wszystko działało dobrze aż do aktualizacji w połowie marca. Potem nastąpił koszmar. 

Po przeczytaniu wątków takich jak ten: https://forum.dcs.world/topic/369884-choosing-the-right-nvidia-driver-is-the-latest-version-always-the-best/?_fromLogin=1
Czy mógłbyś podzielić się swoją opinią na temat najlepszych wersji sterowników NVIDIA dla DCS? Ten wątek pochodzi z początku tego roku i mogły zajść pewne zmiany dotyczące wersji.

 

dcs.log 77,62 kB · 11 pobrań dcs.log.stary 2,18 kB · 10 pobrań

Dziękuję bardzo.

If a new version of the drivers has appeared, we would have to test how it looks in DCS  581.15

[Luisflo]

hace 14 horas, HUZARN dijo:

If a new version of the drivers has appeared, we would have to test how it looks in DCS  581.15

I've also tried them without any positive results. I suspect it's a resolution issue. The main display is 4K with G-Sync at 144Hz, and the MFDs have a 1024 resolution. I don't know if there's some kind of conflict.

I´m thinking about a conflict between G-Sync and MFDs. I´ll try to change to 4k, 60hz, no G-Sync this evening and see what´s happen.

Edited 10 hours ago by Luisflo

[Luisflo]

And, in the end, it worked.

After much testing this afternoon/ evening, the solution was to disable G-Sync completely, as simple as that. Even so, I still have to do some testing, because when I open the map (F10) in the Kola scenario, as an example, it freezes for 20 seconds aprox., but after a while, everything works correctly again.

One step has been taken, but now I have to get all the peripherals and consoles working, one by one, until they all work together as before.

Thank you very much for the help. In any case, in the corresponding section, I suggest to the administrators that, if possible, a tutorial could be created to configure DCS from scratch, with Windows settings, with adjustments in the simulator settings, etc. It's very negative that in the end we'll spend more time configuring the equipment than actually flying. I'm aware that there are 1,000,000 different computers due to their components and OS versions, but I'm sure, a permanent post can be made with these things, updating them at the pace of the administrators or as needed. "Parking cores", "not running in administrator mode", "no game bar", "G-Sync stuff", "V-sync off", etc, etc., etc. 

A list of recommendations to ensure that installing DCS will not be unfriendly. When everything works fine, there's no problem. When you suddenly update and everything stops working, it drives you crazy. What I discovered today about G-Sync is just one of the 10 or 15 things I've had to change in the process. 

 

Thanks again!.

Edited 3 hours ago by Luisflo