The bug, first introduced in driver 576.02, froze temperature monitoring across a range of graphics cards by breaking Nvidia’s own “NvAPI_GPU_GetThermalSettings” API. It typically struck after waking a PC from sleep mode, but for some, the readings locked up as soon as the system booted. The glitch rendered popular tools like MSI Afterburner and FanControl useless, with the GPU temperatures stuck at a single value no matter the workload.

GeForce Hotfix Driver 576.15 finally addresses the issue, with Nvidia admitting that “GPU monitoring utilities may stop reporting the GPU temperature after PC wakes from sleep.”

The fix means fans can now respond correctly to rising temperatures instead of sitting idle while the GPU quietly cooks itself during a heavy gaming session or rendering task.

This thermal snafu wasn’t the only casualty of the 576.02 release. The hotfix sorts out a shadow flickering and corruption problem in several games, along with crashes in Lumion 2024 whenever users entered render mode. Shader compilation errors in some titles have also been resolved, and the black screen issue on RTX 50-series laptops when resuming from Modern Standby has finally been put to rest.

SteamVR users dealing with micro-stuttering when using multiple displays should see relief, and the update brings back proper idle GPU clock speeds, which had been oddly reduced after the botched 576.02 release.

There’s no official word yet on when these patches will make it into a full WHQL-certified driver, but for now, anyone experiencing these headaches should grab hotfix 576.15 directly from Nvidia’s support site. Until then, best keep an eye on your thermals—or at least trust that your card finally can.