Tuesday, March 7th 2023

Bug in NVIDIA Game Ready Driver 531.18 Causing High CPU Utilization

Updated by
Fouquin
 Discuss (40 Comments)
Last week's release of NVIDIA's Game Ready Driver introduced a new bug with the NVIDIA Display Container process that increases CPU usage by as much as 15% after closing a game. NVIDIA has recently confirmed the bug on their forum in a feedback thread and assigned it a bug track ID of 4007208. The problem appears to stem from a telemetry service known as NvGSTPlugin.dll, or Game Session Telemetry Plugin, which is loaded by NvidiaContainer after a game has been run. Some users are reporting that completely removing the offending .dll solves the problem entirely and a guide on how to do so has been posted on the r/nvidia subreddit in a thread about the release. If that sounds like far too much hassle then the prevailing advice is to simply remain on driver version 528.49 until the issue is resolved. NVIDIA is expected to release a hotfix driver as early as tomorrow to address this and possibly other issues.

Update Mar 7th: NVIDIA issued a hotfix driver release for this bug.
Source: Tom Warren (Twitter)

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40 Comments on Bug in NVIDIA Game Ready Driver 531.18 Causing High CPU Utilization

#1
Tsukiyomi91
NVCleanstall is the way to go to circumvent this bug.
Posted on Reply
#2
Space Lynx
Astronaut
Tsukiyomi91NVCleanstall is the way to go to circumvent this bug.
w1zz for the win! :rockout: :toast:
Posted on Reply
#3
GeZorTenPlotZ
Tsukiyomi91NVCleanstall is the way to go to circumvent this bug.
No, it isn't.
Posted on Reply
#4
Space Lynx
Astronaut
GeZorTenPlotZNo, it isn't.
haven't tested it myself, but technically it should be. its a telemetry container bug. and w1zz's clean installer makes it so there is no telemetry installed.
Posted on Reply
#5
W1zzard
Space Lynxhaven't tested it myself, but technically it should be. its a telemetry container bug. and w1zz's clean installer makes it so there is no telemetry installed.
NV Container still gets installed by default, it's required for the control panel to work. You can remove it through NVCleanstall Tweaks, but then the control panel will stop working

There's a suggestion thread that tracks removal of that DLL as new feature: www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/feature-request-deleting-_nvgstplugin-dll-after-driver-install.305517/
Posted on Reply
#6
GeZorTenPlotZ
W1zzardNV Container still gets installed by default, it's required for the control panel to work. You can remove it through NVCleanstall Tweaks, but then the control panel will stop working
This!
And it's not just the control panel itself. Applied settings like gamma or color won't get applied if display container sevice is disabled.
Posted on Reply
#7
Stephen.
I have run into the same issue on 4 separate days since last week.

I haven't launched any game for over 2 weeks.

The issues starts after I have used handbrake or davinci resolve.

I have been remedying the issues by simply restarting my PC and the issue goes away for the rest of the day
Posted on Reply
#8
tabascosauz
W1zzardNV Container still gets installed by default, it's required for the control panel to work. You can remove it through NVCleanstall Tweaks, but then the control panel will stop working

There's a suggestion thread that tracks removal of that DLL as new feature: www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/feature-request-deleting-_nvgstplugin-dll-after-driver-install.305517/
I had the bug earlier on a normal install of 531.18 but disabling telemetry seems to work so far, and does not break NVCP because it's not removing Container entirely.

I'll keep monitoring it

Posted on Reply
#9
W1zzard
tabascosauzbut disabling telemetry seems to work so far
right .. maybe that ensures the DLL never gets loaded
Posted on Reply
#10
NRANM
I'm experiencing the issue as well, ~4% CPU usage. I simply restart the NVIDIA Container service, does the job without having to reboot the entire system, at least for me.
Posted on Reply
#11
Prima.Vera
The culprit appears to be 'Nvidia Game Session Telemetry Plugin version 531.18 (NvGSTPlugin.dll)' which is loaded by the Nvidia Display Container service.

Blocking/removing that DLL (_NvGSTPlugin.dll) permanently resolves the issue if the stop then restart method isn't helping.
[/HR]
To remove the Telemetry plugin, with administrator privileges delete OR move the _NvGSTPlugin.dll found in the Nvidia Driver folder after stopping NVDisplay.ContainerLocalSystem service:

Locate the folder containing the _NvGSTPlugin.dll by issuing the following at a Command Prompt (cmd.exe)

DIR "%WINDIR%\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\*NvGSTPlugin*" /S

the generic path is

%WINDIR%\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\nv_dispig.inf_amd64_[UNIQUEVALUEHERE]\Display.NvContainer\plugins\Session\_NvGSTPlugin.dll

however other paths for vendor specific INFs may vary.

Once the path for _NvGSTPlugin.dll has been found, open an Administrative Command Prompt (cmd.exe)
  1. Stop the NVDisplay.Container service
  2. Delete _NvGSTPlugin.dll
  3. Restart NVDisplay.Container service
Example:

sc stop NVDisplay.ContainerLocalSystem
DEL /Q "%WINDIR%\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\nv[INFNAMEHERE].inf_amd64_[UNIQUEVALUEHERE]\Display.NvContainer\plugins\Session\_NvGSTPlugin.dll"
sc start NVDisplay.ContainerLocalSystem

NOTE: [INFNAMEHERE] and [UNIQUEVALUEHERE] should be replaced with the value specific to your system
Garbage telemetry by nGreedia.
Confirmed that the above fix solved the issue.
Posted on Reply
#12
jjxaker
And also, RTX 3x lost access to power limit management.
I had to roll back to the old driver, since I need a reduction in PL RTX3060 and 3070Ti (laptop) for less heating.
Posted on Reply
#13
Unregistered
It's true what some are saying; you can if you want circumvent this bug by using NVCleanstall.
It's just that you need to go to advanced settings and check "disable telemetry (experimental)".

I never did that because of the 'experimental' part, but I have a small, good firewall that blocks nvidia container.

I am on the newest drivers and I never experienced this bug because the firewall blocks all internet access to that process.

The connection is never established so the module in fault never leaves its dormant state.
#14
P4-630
No issues sofar here, intel/nvidia.
Posted on Reply
#15
Space Lynx
Astronaut
P4-630BSODS are more worse than a driver causing ~10% more CPU usage in my book....
i think the nvidia one is overblown too. i upgraded to new drivers on launch day, and have had 0 issues and played a few games already.
Posted on Reply
#16
Tsukiyomi91
NV Control Panel works fine for me. Maybe it's because I clean install each driver is why I don't have such issue?
Posted on Reply
#18
Legacy-ZA
This is probably a residual thing left behind, while they are trying to fix the DPC latency.
Posted on Reply
#19
TheDeeGee
Tsukiyomi91NVCleanstall is the way to go to circumvent this bug.
The container process is part of the basic driver, you can't remove it.
Posted on Reply
#20
R0H1T
You can simply disable it as a service, enable when you need to open the Nvidia control panel. You don't need to run it to enable the display driver, in fact it's one of the most disposable component from the driver package!
Posted on Reply
#21
TheDeeGee
If everyone is going to disable this telemetry because they're paranoid, then Nvidia drivers will sure go to hell quality wise.
Posted on Reply
#22
trparky
TheDeeGeeIf everyone is going to disable this telemetry because they're paranoid, then Nvidia drivers will sure go to hell quality wise.
You act like they aren't already.
Posted on Reply
#23
Unregistered
R0H1TYou can simply disable it as a service, enable when you need to open the Nvidia control panel. You don't need to run it to enable the display driver, in fact it's one of the most disposable component from the driver package!
You can just block it with your firewall and be done with it. That's why I never experienced this bug. No connection, no telemetry sent.
TheDeeGeeIf everyone is going to disable this telemetry because they're paranoid, then Nvidia drivers will sure go to hell quality wise.
There are people like me who block a lot of stuff not cause of paranoia,
but just because we want all the bandwidth we can get.
#24
Luke357
spanjamanYou can just block it with your firewall and be done with it. That's why I never experienced this bug. No connection, no telemetry sent.

There are people like me who block a lot of stuff not cause of paranoia,
but just because we want all the bandwidth we can get.
What are the addresses to block?
Posted on Reply
#25
Unregistered
Luke357What are the addresses to block?
Block the process entirely; no need to block specific ports or address spaces.
No part of the driver other than the telemetry needs internet access
and telemetry not communicating won't break your drivers or anything like that.
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