Nvidia has confirmed it is investigating gaming issues linked to Windows 11's January 2026 security update KB5074109. The patch, released in mid-January, reportedly causes frame drops, visual artifacts, and intermittent black screens during gameplay.
Users across Nvidia forums, Reddit, and Microsoft's Feedback Hub describe performance losses of 10-20 FPS with 1% lows suffering even more.
Symptoms include visual corruption, momentary freezes, and short black-screen events where display output drops and recovers. Games like Forza Horizon 5 show rectangle artifacts and graphical glitches.
"Even though it started after a Windows 11 update, we are looking into it," he wrote. "As far as I know, the only way to resolve it appears to be uninstalling KB5074109."
Nvidia representative Manuel confirmed the investigation in forum posts. The investigation comes as NVIDIA continues expanding its gaming ecosystem with new cloud gaming initiatives.
The January update was intended as a minor security release with over 100 vulnerability fixes. Instead, it has triggered multiple system issues beyond gaming.
Microsoft released optional update KB5074105 to address black screens in some environments, but artifacts in games reportedly persist.
Affected users report that uninstalling KB5074109 restores both stability and lost performance. The temporary workaround comes with security compromises until permanent fixes arrive in February's Patch Tuesday update scheduled for February 10, 2026.
Microsoft has not officially acknowledged the gaming-specific issues, though the company confirmed broader problems with the January update. These include boot failures, Outlook crashes, Azure Virtual Desktop sign-in failures, and Remote Desktop connection problems.
The timing coincides with Nvidia's January driver releases (versions 582.28 and 591.86), initially blamed for the problems. Analysis now points to Windows update KB5074109 as the root cause rather than Nvidia's drivers.
AMD Radeon users have not reported similar issues, suggesting the problem affects Nvidia GPU configurations specifically.
The scope remains unclear, with no reliable estimate of affected systems or confirmation whether particular GPU generations or monitor setups are more susceptible.
This incident follows a pattern of problematic Windows updates in recent months. Microsoft engineers have reportedly shifted focus to stabilizing Windows 11 over introducing new features after repeated update-related issues affecting connectivity, Blu-ray playback, and localhost functionality.
The issues come as Microsoft continues to expand gaming on Windows 11 with native Xbox app support for Arm-based devices.
Users experiencing symptoms can uninstall KB5074109 through Windows Settings > Update & Security > Update History > Uninstall Updates. Nvidia continues investigating the interaction between its drivers and Windows' graphics stack while Microsoft prepares February's cumulative update.
