Driver 610.88 active; manual user test failed

17 September 2026 result update: following the user's explicit approval of the prepared 610.88 comparison without a Windows restart, the driver is now independently confirmed active and the user's current-build test failed again with a GPU reset. First OS error: 01:29:52.3631892 CEST, nvlddmkm 14/153 (UCodeReset TDR), followed by a new Windows LiveKernelEvent 117. nvidia-smi reports KMD 610.88, the GPU query reports 610.88, PnP reports 32.0.16.1088 / oem227.inf, and the primary agent's preserved Player.log independently identifies that version for the game. Boot time remains 16 September 22:40:30.500 CEST; no Windows restart occurred. Complete OS evidence.

The failing manual launch was the current Builds/Windows-ForwardCandidate-20260916 EXE, build GUID 863b7c4dc60d4b53971aa9bc445b51e2, D3D11, alps-02 / Low / Rain / seed 9909140, with three race starts and no Forward or isolation switches. This is not a matched repetition of the earlier automated Forward baseline. It establishes that 610.88 did not repair this observed user configuration; it does not establish comparative failure rates or a driver-only cause. Installer Finish and optional-component changes were not independently observed and must not be inferred from active-version confirmation.

The subsequent read-only profile comparison confirms the four previously recorded overrides unchanged in Base and CurrentGlobal, including Prefer Maximum Performance. No profile matched the queried Rampage executable names/paths in the lookup summary. This is a specific before/after check, not a guarantee that every NVIDIA setting or App option was preserved.

The user also clarified that the existing C:/Unity Projects/Rampage66 copy contains older game content. Its previous Unity 6.6 failure is not a controlled comparison of the current project and cannot rule out an upgrade of the current content to 6.6. The driver change was evaluated with the current build first. The primary agent has now prepared a fresh snapshot of the current project's 1,116 files for a separate Unity 6.6 migration. It contains no files from the old Rampage66 copy; its build/run result is still pending.

Raw selected INF lines, line numbers, model-section context, hashes and device evidence are retained in subsystem-and-restore-evidence.json. During that preparation stage no NVIDIA executable was run, no driver-store export was made, and no full archive extraction was performed. Those timestamped preparation records are historical; the primary agent has now opened the installer under the subsequent user authorization. The restore installer is preserved in the workspace independently of NVIDIA App cache retention. This reversible local copy required no separate system-change approval. Its verified presence is not a tested restoration.

The authorized comparison plan and its actual limits are:

1. The verified 616.92 workspace copy and current configuration evidence are already retained. The separate user authorization now covers installing the prepared 610.88 driver and the comparison, with no Windows restart. If the installer requires a reboot to complete activation, do not restart; record that requirement and leave the comparison pending until the active driver is usable and verified within the authorized scope.
2. Install only the prepared official 610.88 notebook driver for the comparison; preserve NVIDIA profile settings. Do not introduce a clean-install reset, DDU, Windows-update changes or TDR-registry changes into this comparison.
3. Active version 32.0.16.1088 is now verified. The actual result was a manual current-build user test with normal render flags, not the planned identical automated Forward scenario. The normal user configuration failed; no matched duration/failure-rate comparison is claimed. A short clean run would also be insufficient: earlier failures appeared as late as roughly 328 seconds.
4. Record the result, including failure or inconclusive duration. If restoring, use the preserved 616.92 package and verify active version 32.0.16.1692; the unverified stored oem6.inf / nvamsi.inf 577.00 package is not a substitute for this exact restore option.

The installation method is the interactive NVIDIA installer, opened from the exact prepared 610.88 EXE. NVIDIA documents launching its installer as administrator, accepting Windows UAC when prompted, temporary extraction, component/installation choices, and restarting after installation. The current user authorization expressly excludes that restart step. NVIDIA also explicitly supports standalone driver downloads without the NVIDIA App. These are documented UI workflows; no silent, forced-downgrade or command-line switches are prepared. Sources: NVIDIA manual installer guidance and standalone GeForce drivers.

For this comparison, prefer Custom (Advanced) to review the component list and retain existing settings, with Perform a clean installation left unchecked; avoid adding or updating the NVIDIA App or unrelated optional components if the actual dialog permits a driver-only choice. This selection is our diagnostic choice to limit additional changes: the linked troubleshooting article instead describes a clean install after installation failure, which is not the current problem. Express is the simpler alternative but offers less control over included components. NVIDIA's GeForce installer guide, printed page 12 documents Express preserving settings and Custom exposing component and clean-install choices; that guide is historical, so the actual 610.88 dialogs must be reviewed before proceeding. No automatic acceptance, undocumented downgrade behavior, or successful preservation/restoration is assumed. If the installer refuses the older package, record that result and stop rather than forcing replacement.

Historical GBV output identifies 577.00 before its root-CBV bounds errors. Those errors predate 616.92; a comparison therefore cannot be framed as reverting a proven 616.92 regression. The current capture's 10,137 checked root-CBV bindings, including 29 indirect dispatches, were valid within that capture's limited scope; this neither validates every frame/resource lifetime nor identifies a driver defect. The reviewed official release notes and Windows evidence document no matching guaranteed fix. The user reports other games work correctly, and no hardware defect has been established.