The latest Nvidia driver, version 531.18, appears to have a bug that causes increased CPU usage after exiting games, which is when CPU usage should drop. It HAS been NVIDIA itself that has admitted that the problem exists.
It is to be hoped that Nvidia will publish a hotfix or already a new version of the driver that will solve the annoying bug. At least they themselves are aware of the problem, and by providing the drivers for their graphics cards, they are ready to try to fix the problem.
Drivers 531.18 consume more CPU due to a bug
It turns out that Nvidia's Display Container Service causes high CPU usage 10-15% higher after closing a game. This has been verified by using the Windows Task Manager. Some Reddit users believe that the bug is caused by version 531.18 of Nvidia's Game Session Telemetry Plugin. Its file name is NvGSTPlugin.dll.
Not all systems with such a plugin are affected by the bug. Some users have tried to replicate it, but it could not be reproduced, so it is likely that it depends on some component of the equipment with which the NVIDIA 531.18 plugin and driver does not get along.
Some Reddit users suggest to block or remove NvGSTPlugin.dll to fix the problem manually. Although it is not recommended to do it without having made a backup of the operating system before because it is not known what side effects this remedy can cause. The easiest solution is use the older 528.49 WHQL driver, which while it may not be compatible with some of the latest games, allows it to run without significant CPU issues.
Although Nvidia formally admits the issue, the company has not revealed when it plans to release a hotfix or a new version without the bug. In the meantime, since the bug is quite annoying, Nvidia is likely inclined to release a hotfix sooner rather than later, so it might make sense to wait a bit before rolling back to an older version of Nvidia's driver.
