RTX 5090 and RTX 5080 users complain about black screen issues; drivers likely to blame
Not too long ago, there were reports of GeForce RTX 5090D and RTX 5080 GPUs in China getting bricked due to driver issues. Some regular RTX 5090 users experienced it, too, but not as many. Now, the two Blackwell GPUs are giving users (H/T @Zirkoz1 on X) another headache, right after they went through a dozen-odd hoops to buy one. One user's Reddit post describes the following predicament:
I've acquired an RTX 5090 Gaming Trio yesterday. I tried running 3DMark Time Spy and I have the weirdest problem. When the loading bar finishes, the screen goes into full screen color red, and keeps cycling through blue, white, green, black and red again, non-stop, while the benchmark is still running in the background. And then it stops and shows the loading for the next test (Graphics test 1, Graphics test 2 and CPU test).
Another one complained about a black screen issue, but the post has now been deleted from r/Nvidia. Some users on Hardwareluxx's forums are also experiencing similar issue on their systems.
Hi, I continue to fight with the problems with my MSI 5090 Gamaing Trio OC. Would be really grateful for a help, slowly the ideas go out to me. Force if in games or e.g. in Bechmark z.b 3DMark (Steel Nomad) I get a black screen and the ton still jerks for about 1 min after then the PC restarts. I have a multi-boot me different windows versions, but it is at both.
While most of the problems are on a RTX 5090, at least one RTX 5080 is also affected, albeit in a much lower number. Some of the solutions include running the card on PCIe Gen4, bypassing riser cables, downgrading windows versions, and in the case of the first Reddit user, using just one monitor at 4K 60 Hz.
The number of users affected is seemingly relatively low for now. But, more should emerge once more users start getting their RTX 5090 and RTX 5080 shipments. While most of the cards seem to be from MSI, a Founders' Edition model and Gigabyte variant is also impacted.
For now, it isn't immediately clear if Nvidia's drivers are responsible for the kerfuffle or Windows updates. But, there's a good chance it the former because some last-gen cards are also acting weird following the latest GeForce Game Ready 572.16 driver update.
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