Bug in NVIDIA Game Ready Driver 531.18 Causing High CPU Utilization

[Fouquin]

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.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site | Source

 

[Tsukiyomi91]

NVCleanstall is the way to go to circumvent this bug.

 

[Space Lynx]

NVCleanstall is the way to go to circumvent this bug.

w1zz for the win!

 

[GeZorTenPlotZ]

NVCleanstall is the way to go to circumvent this bug.

No, it isn't.

 

[Space Lynx]

No, 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.

 

[W1zzard]

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.

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: https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/..._nvgstplugin-dll-after-driver-install.305517/

 

[GeZorTenPlotZ]

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

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.

 

[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

 

[tabascosauz]

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: https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/..._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

 

[W1zzard]

but disabling telemetry seems to work so far

right .. maybe that ensures the DLL never gets loaded

 

[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.

 

[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.

---

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.

 

[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.

 

[Deleted member 211755]

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.

 

[P4-630]

No issues sofar here, intel/nvidia.

 

[Daven]

No issues sofar here, intel/nvidia.

No issues so far here too, amd/amd.

 

[P4-630]

No issues so far here too, amd/amd.

AMD has it's own issues.

AMD’s latest drivers are causing havoc on Windows PCs | Digital Trends

AMD’s latest driver has finally touched down after a two-month wait, but has apparently been causing Windows PCs to crash and even suffer boot problems.

www.digitaltrends.com

 

[Space Lynx]

AMD has it's own issues.

AMD’s latest drivers are causing havoc on Windows PCs | Digital Trends

AMD’s latest driver has finally touched down after a two-month wait, but has apparently been causing Windows PCs to crash and even suffer boot problems.

www.digitaltrends.com

eh, overblown. works fine for me, and one of the major problems in that article is for people who use a frame limiter CapFrameX, yawn, use RTSS or go home noobs

 

[P4-630]

eh, overblown. works fine for me, and one of the major problems in that article is for people who use a frame limiter CapFrameX, yawn, use RTSS or go home noobs

BSODS are more worse than a driver causing ~10% more CPU usage in my book....

 

[Space Lynx]

BSODS 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.

 

[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?

 

[tabascosauz]

No issues so far here too, amd/amd.

AMD has it's own issues.

AMD’s latest drivers are causing havoc on Windows PCs | Digital Trends

AMD’s latest driver has finally touched down after a two-month wait, but has apparently been causing Windows PCs to crash and even suffer boot problems.

www.digitaltrends.com

This thread is for the CPU usage bug in 531.18. If you have nothing relevant to contribute, move along. Last warning.

 

[Legacy-ZA]

This is probably a residual thing left behind, while they are trying to fix the DPC latency.

 

[TheDeeGee]

NVCleanstall is the way to go to circumvent this bug.

The container process is part of the basic driver, you can't remove it.

 

[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!