NVIDIA has launched the 595.45.04 beta driver for Linux, introducing new Vulkan extensions and DRI3 version 1.2 support. The update includes fixes for gaming stability and improvements in power management. It also raises minimum requirements for Wayland and glibc.
NVIDIA announced the release of its 595.45.04 beta driver for 64-bit Linux systems on March 5, 2026. This update focuses on enhancing graphics performance and stability, particularly for Vulkan-based applications and gaming.
Key additions include support for the VK_EXT_descriptor_heap and VK_EXT_present_timing Vulkan extensions. The VK_EXT_descriptor_heap extension may improve performance in games running via Proton, which translates DirectX to Vulkan, though full integration in Wine, Proton, DXVK, and VKD3D-Proton is still needed. Performance of recreating Vulkan swapchains has been improved to reduce stuttering when resizing application windows.
For gaming, the driver fixes a bug causing GPU hangs and Xid errors in Black Myth: Wukong. It also resolves issues where Vulkan swapchains stop presenting new frames on X11 and hangs occur with NVIDIA Smooth Motion enabled in applications using VK_KHR_present_id2.
The release adds support for DRI3 version 1.2 and enables the nvidia-drm.ko module's modeset=1 parameter by default. Minimum supported versions are now Wayland 1.20, glibc 2.27, and X.Org xserver 1.17 (video driver ABI version 19). A bug preventing the PowerMizer preferred mode dropdown from working in nvidia-settings on Wayland has been fixed, along with adaptive sync displays blanking when connected via active USB-C-to-HDMI adapters.
Power management improvements allow nvidia.ko to handle video memory preservation with open kernel modules when NVreg_UseKernelSuspendNotifiers=1 is enabled. For proprietary modules or disabled notifiers, the /proc/driver/nvidia/suspend interface is used. NVIDIA-smi can now reset GPUs with nvidia-drm loaded and modeset=1 enabled, provided no processes are using the GPU. A new application profile, CudaNoStablePerfLimit, permits CUDA applications to reach the P0 performance state.
Some changes, such as the Wayland and glibc minimums, originate from a prior version (590.48.01), but the overall update promises better Linux compatibility. Users can download it from NVIDIA's site, though as a beta, it is not recommended for production environments.
