I have actually been running a relatively old Nvidia driver set (445.87) since that happened to be the latest driver out when I was setting up my machine. I haven't had any problems with this driver set which I have used when running FSX and three other games on my RTX2060 Super.

This week, however, out of curiosity (but also because there is a game coming out down the track which will likely require me to update my drivers) I decided to try the latest version (461.72). I did a clean install and set all the parameters and settings up precisely the same as I had done for the older drivers. But I have found this latest driver introduces a micro-stutter in all four of my game applications.

At first I thought I might have done something wrong in installing them, so I tried a second time and then also tried installing the version just prior to 461.72. But I still got the same result.

Bizarrely, my Nvidia Shield TV when updated with the same February update, now also has the very same micro-stutters when I watch movies!! And of course these are completely different setups that have nothing whatsoever to do with each other. And no, there is not a problem with the network at home that is causing this because when I go back to my original 445.87 drivers, the micro-stuttering completely goes away.

So I am starting to wonder if Nivida - somewhere along the line between 445.87 and 461.72 - has made a significant change to their core GPU drivers sich that the result is a micro-stutter when trying to run vsync. As I say, it isn't just my PC - it is happening on my TV setup as well. And my Nividia Shield did not have this micro-stutter until it was updated with firmware of a similar date to these new PC drivers. I therefore wonder whether whatever new technology is used in their PC drivers has also found it's way into their streaming products since obviously the Nvidia Shield uses some sort of Nvidia GPU as well.

If I find some time I might go through all the driver releases subsequent to 445.87 to try and identify exactly when this micro-stutter was introduced, though if my PC / Nvidia Shield theory is correct, I think it might probably be a driver set introduced around late November to early December.

For the time being I am happily running the 445.87 driver since it never caused any problems on my PC to start with. However this is an issue I would like to delve more deeply into given that whenever a new game comes out, it is almost inevitable that Nvidia will have a specific update for it in a later driver.

So has anyone else noticed this on any games or even their Nvidia Shield for that matter?

So I decided to try all driver sets subsequent to the 445.81 drivers. The micro stuttering effects begin from any set with a number that begins with 45*.**. So at the present time that extends to the 46*.** series. I also noted that as the numbers got higher the stuttering effect was more noticeable - with it being worse on the two latest sets as if my writing this post.

I can only assume that Nvidia must have changed something significantly with the drivers released over the last 10 months or so. 

Oh well, luckily for me the old 445.87 set works perfectly on all my present games though perhaps for my next computer I might go to an AMD Radeon based card if I try the latest Nvidia drivers and still notice the problem.

The driver that works best for my 2080Ti is 457.30, I think that driver was the latest for the RTX 20 series cards. 

I did try those ones and from memory those were OK. But no better than the 445.87. The problem with drivers these days is some of the games I run will re-compile shaders every time there is a new driver which makes for stutters as the compilation happens for the first time. It is fine once they are compiled and can be loaded before the action begins, but pretty annoying when running a new set of drivers the first time. And with FSX I have found you really need to completely clear out the shaders folder if you change drivers and start from scratch which again causes stuttering till it builds up the cache. For that reason I would only change drivers if I really had to.

I thought it was just me but I have the same issue....only change I made was updating NVIDIA drivers from 45 to 46 and I get the same stuttering...thought my eyes were going bad...sort of feels like I lost vsync. (Using RTX 3090 on i9-10900K with 49” Samsung curved). Always been buttery smooth at Max res until this. I will try going back to old drivers of a few months ago and report back.