After replacing Nvidia GeForce Experience, Nvidia's new app for gamers is here, and it's already causing a stir for those using it to enhance their PC gaming experience. In fact, the Nvidia app is reducing the performance of popular PC games instead.
As tested by Tom's Hardware, the Nvidia app is dropping frame rates by up to 15% in several titles, such as Baldur's Gate 3, Black Myth: Wukong, Flight Simulator 2024, Stalker 2, and more. As the report states, the issues come from using the app's new AI-powered RTX game filters — even when not being actively used.
Even when using the Nvidia app's default settings once installed, results show an average 6% drop in performance when playing on medium settings at 1080p and a 2.5% decrease at 1440p (this depends on the game being played).
Testing was done using an RTX 4060, and while the framerate drops could be less than 15% with varying CPUs and GPUs, it's still a huge impact for those who opted to use the Nvidia app.
Fortunately, Nvidia has confirmed the problems with the app and is "actively looking into it," according to the report. The option causing issues is Game Filters and Photo Mode.
Fixing Nvidia app performance issues
If you're running into similar issues, a workaround involves turning off the Game Filters and Photo Mode feature — even if it's not being used.
Nvidia suggests heading into Nvidia App Settings > Features > Overlay > Game Filters and Photo Mode and turning off Game Filters. Then, relaunch your chosen game to get it running as usual.
The Nvidia app comes with updates for Nvidia drivers, meaning many PC gamers are likely to have downloaded it. However, the app isn't necessary to install, as users can uncheck a box when updating Nvidia drivers if they don't want to bother with the Nvidia app.
Despite the drop in performance, Nvidia is working on fixing the issues. The app acts as a unified place to update video card drivers, optimize game settings based on PC specs, configure displays, tune a GPU's performance and more. By turning off Game Filters and Photo Mode, PC games should work as usual, so it's worth giving the app a try if it makes fine-tuning your gaming experiences easier.
By turning off Game Filters and Photo Mode, PC games should work as usual, so it's worth giving the app a try if it makes fine-tuning your gaming experiences easier.
More features are expected to come, as a Nvidia blog post states more Control Panel options such as Surround and Multiple Display Mode will arrive, as well as "new features and further enhancements." Here's hoping these "enhancements" also fix its performance issues.
With Nvidia RTX 50 series GPU leaks coming out of the woodwork, it appears we'll be seeing Nvidia's next-gen graphics cards at CES 2025. And, with the new Nvidia app now in place, we're sure to see the app take advantage of the upcoming GPUs.
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