The best Phantom Blade Zero NVIDIA driver right now is 617.42, not the newer 621.01, according to S-GAME. In a launch letter on Steam, creative director Soulframe Liang said the studio saw “performance instability” on 621.01 and that 617.42 “currently offers the best experience.” If you’ve been playing since the October 28 unlock and the frame rate feels off on a GeForce card, this is the first thing to try.
What S-GAME found
The odd part is that 621.01, released October 21, is NVIDIA’s Game Ready driver for Phantom Blade Zero. S-GAME’s own testing still came out ahead on 617.42, the October 6 driver. The studio asks NVIDIA players on anything newer than 617.42 to roll back with a clean install and stay there until NVIDIA’s next driver, which it expects “soon.”
That includes NVIDIA’s 621.12 hotfix from October 27. It’s newer than 617.42, and its fix list covers an RTX 50 video freeze and an Unreal Engine 5.8 crash, not Phantom Blade Zero.
| Driver | Released | S-GAME’s take |
|---|---|---|
| 617.42 (WHQL) | Oct. 6 | Recommended for Phantom Blade Zero |
| 621.01 (Game Ready for Phantom Blade Zero) | Oct. 21 | Performance instability in S-GAME’s testing |
| 621.12 (hotfix) | Oct. 27 | Newer than 617.42, so roll back from it too |
How to roll back to 617.42
- Download 617.42 from NVIDIA’s driver page. It supports GeForce cards from the GTX 16 series up through the RTX 50 series.
- Run the installer and choose Custom (Advanced).
- Tick “Perform a clean installation,” which is the option S-GAME asks for, then finish and restart.
- If the NVIDIA App offers 621.01 afterward, skip it until NVIDIA ships the next driver.
The rollback still covers two other big October games, since 617.42 was NVIDIA’s Game Ready driver for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 and STAR WARS: Galactic Racer. 621.01 added Game Ready support for NBA 2K27, Cyberpunk 2077 and Crimson Desert’s Charting the Unknown update, so if one of those runs worse after the rollback, you’ll have to pick which game matters more this week.
Everything else on PC
S-GAME’s day-one patch is about 5 GB and improves ray tracing and path tracing performance, so make sure Steam finished it. The studio also says it tested the game on mid-range and lower-end PCs and handhelds. It didn’t give any driver advice for AMD or Intel cards, and none of this applies on PS5.
When NVIDIA’s next Game Ready driver lands, update and check S-GAME’s Steam news page in case the advice changes.