Phantom Blade Zero devs say roll back to Nvidia driver 617.42 for now
Phantom Blade Zero is finally out, and its developer has an unusual tip for anyone on an Nvidia card: skip the newest driver. S-Game says version 617.42 gives the best experience right now, which is a quick fix worth doing before you sink an evening into the game.
- S-Game recommends Nvidia driver 617.42 over the latest 621.01, using the clean install option
- Stay on 617.42 until Nvidia's next driver, which the studio expects soon
- A 5 GB day one patch is out, and the team says handhelds and mid-range PCs are worth a try
What changed and why it is odd
Nvidia's Game Ready Driver 621.01 arrived on Wednesday, October 21, with bug fixes and better DLSS and RTX support for games like Phantom Blade Zero. Before launch, S-Game had pointed players toward the newest drivers.
Now the studio has reversed that. Its new Steam post says that, based on its own testing, 617.42 runs the game best, and anyone on a newer version should roll back with a clean install. It doesn't say what goes wrong on 621.01, but telling players to downgrade is not something a studio does lightly. The same post asks everyone to grab the 5 GB day one patch and encourages people on handhelds and lower-end or mid-range PCs to give the game a go.
How to roll back
The easiest route is the Nvidia App: open Drivers, scroll to 617.42, click the three dots next to it and install. No Nvidia App? Open Device Manager, expand Display Adapters, right-click your GPU, choose Properties, and use Roll Back Driver on the Driver tab.
If you aren't starting the game this week, you can simply wait, since S-Game expects Nvidia's next driver soon and says to stay on 617.42 until then. On steamplayti.me, about 25 people have already played it.
Phantom Blade Zero on steamplayti.me
about 25
Players so far
all of them new here this week
over 120 h
Hours played
across everyone, first day of data
about 5 h
Time per player
on average
about 3.5 h
A typical day of play
Figures are aggregated from the day-by-day Steam playtime of steamplayti.me players, a self-selected group of people who track their playtime, not all of Steam. No individual profile is shown or identifiable.
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