The Nvidia GeForce RTX 50 series is on the fritz again, as well as the RTX Spark, following yet another problematic driver update, which sees black screens make a return on the graphics cards as well as video playback freezes. Thankfully, a hotfix is now available to download if you don’t fancy rolling back to a prior version.
Game Ready Driver 621.01 launched on October 21, bringing support for Advanced Shader Delivery, optimisations for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, and Cyberpunk 2077. However, it sadly didn’t take long for reports of black screens and freezing to emerge on the Nvidia forums, first seen on a GeForce RTX 5080.
NVIDIA GeForce/RTX Spark Hotfix Driver v621.12 is now available. This update resolves the following:
✅Fixed an issue where video playback may freeze or black screen on some GeForce RTX 50 Series GPUs/RTX Spark after updating to GRD 621.01.
✅Unreal Engine 5.8 may crash when Ray Lighting Mode is set to Hit Lighting
✅[RTX Spark] HDMI monitor connected to StarTech Thunderbolt 3 to HDMI 2.0 adapter may show corruption
✅[MSI N16 Flip] Intermittent flickering may be observed⤵️Learn more:
https://t.co/jHa1ODZzHqSelect Download:
Windows 10/11 (x64) – https://t.co/tR77EHsntDWindows 11 (ARM64) – https://t.co/jToDZYO7gU
— NVIDIA Customer Care (@nvidiacc) October 27, 2026
Come October 27, Nvidia released GeForce/RTX Hotfix Display Driver version 621.12. The update’s release notes specifically call out to the aforementioned problems: “fixed an issue where video playback may freeze or black screen on some GeForce RTX 50 Series GPUs/RTX Spark after updating to GRD 621.01.”
The remainder of the hotfix’s changes are far less wide reaching, with fixes for Unreal Engine 5.8 developers, RTX Spark owners with a StarTech Thunderbolt 3 HDMI adapters, and those using an MSI N16 Flip. You can read the full release notes, and download the driver, here.
Display issues like this have intermittently plagued Nvidia’s latest graphic cards since launch. We shared our experience of black screens following our GeForce RTX 5090 and 5080 reviews. The firm initially promised fixes via BIOS updates, but the RTX 5060 saw similar problems, with the bug rearing its ugly head again now.
While Nvidia deserves some credit for promptly responding to these problems, eventually rolling the changes into full GeForce drivers, it’s becoming difficult to ignore recurring problems in the company’s software stack. After all, we’ve seen multiple other hot fixes and driver problems over the past 12 months, including colour banding, voltage problems, screen flickering, and more.
In any case, we recommend downloading the hot fix if you’re running a GeForce RTX 50 series graphics card. These problems don’t seem to affect prior generation pixel pushers, so there’s no need to rush an installation if you’re on an older model.
