Today I updated my EVGA 3080 Ti FTW3 Ultra to the latest 526.47 NVIDIA driver, and I keep EVGA's Precision open in the background to keep fan curves running so it was running during the driver update. So after I updated, I noticed sub 30 FPS after the driver update, which was jarring. This was in all games, so I rolled back the driver, and the issue still occurred on the old driver. 
 
After asking around on Reddit I found out this is an issue that occurs if EVGA Precision is running during an NVIDIA driver update. 
 
When you install a driver update while precision is still open the power target can be decreased to minimum because its wrongfully checks against an invalid / null value in the period where the driver is unloaded and transitions to the new driver.
 
This occurred to me today but also it has happened to other users with previous installs:
Game Ready Driver 511.17 Unofficial FAQ/Discussion - Only works with 3080 12GB : nvidia (reddit.com)
 
Sure enough, after checking the power target it was set to the lowest, raised it back to 100, and it worked great. 
 
Can EVGA either kick this information to NVIDIA to fix this, or is this something EVGA needs to update the Precision X1 software to prevent?
 
Any help would be appreciated, and I would love to see this addressed.

the_Scarlet_one
Close precision when you update drivers.

 
Surely you can understand why this isn't helpful to someone completely unaware? 
 
I thought the card was bricked or damaged after rolling back to the previous driver, and it still exhibited the same issue.
 
Had that single random Reddit post not existed, I would still be dealing with this issue, as it is not mentioned anywhere else. I came to the forums here to bring this up with the team at EVGA to help everyone out and know this issue exists.
 
This is not an issue that owners are warned about while installing EVGA's Precision X1 at all. As a software developer myself, this can literally be an automated thing that when it detects an NVIDIA update running, it can disable Precision X1 until being rebooted. 

Unlox
 
Surely you can understand why this isn't helpful to someone completely unaware? 
 
I thought the card was bricked or damaged after rolling back to the previous driver, and it still exhibited the same issue.
 
Had that single random Reddit post not existed, I would still be dealing with this issue, as it is not mentioned anywhere else. I came to the forums here to bring this up with the team at EVGA to help everyone out and know this issue exists.
 
This is not an issue that owners are warned about while installing EVGA's Precision X1 at all. As a software developer myself, this can literally be an automated thing that when it detects an NVIDIA update running, it can disable Precision X1 until being rebooted. 

Closing software for the driver you are updating applies to all software, not just precision. Precision likely leverages some of the driver controls, and when you leave software open while doing the driver update, you are removing something the software is using and reinstalling without the software knowing what is happening. This is a standard across the industry,

Afterburner is GPU control software just like Precision: https://www.reddit.com/r/...pp&utm_name=iossmf

Check out that thread. That’s from 2015. That was a 2 second google search about GPU drivers and overclocking software.

Hope this helps in the future.

What's crazy is that I had this happen to me updating to 526.98, and it also stopped PX1 from auto starting with OS after a reboot.  I was so confused on why my FPS went from 144 to 5-70.  I submitted a tech support ticket, and was offered an RMA to send me a replacement 3080 without doing any additional troubleshooting beyond removing drivers with DDU and reinstalling then.  Never touched PX1.  I didn't see this forum post or the nvidia post anywhere until now.  I did however find that PX1 power limit was set to 26 when I finally got it up and going and that was the issue.  Installing nvidia drivers.  In the past 20+ years I've never closed GPU software to update GPU drivers, and I've never had this problem.  I even submitted a question to EVGA in my account after figuring this out on my own to remove my RMA request, and in their reply, it appears as if they were unaware of this issue as well.  I was told they would forward my info to the dev/engi team and try to recreate the issue to tell if it's a problem with PX1 or a problem with the Nvidia driver update.