Missing cufft64_12.dll After CUDA 12.8.1 Install (RTX 5080 + Windows 11 Pro)

Accelerated Computing CUDA CUDA Setup and Installation
1

Hi everyone,

I’m very new here, just got my first rig and very fresh to this. I’m running into an issue after installing CUDA 12.8.1 on my new system and would really appreciate any help or insights.

My System Setup:

  • GPU: NVIDIA RTX 5080 (Blackwell architecture, Compute Capability 9.0)
  • CPU: Intel Core i9-14900K
  • OS: Windows 11 Pro 24H2 (Build 26100.3775)
  • RAM: 96GB DDR5
  • Storage: WD_Black SN770 2TB SSD
  • Driver: NVIDIA Driver 576.02 (confirmed)
  • CUDA Version: 12.8.1 (installed using cuda_12.8.1_572.61_windows.exe)

Problem:
After a clean install of CUDA 12.8.1:

  • The file **cufft64_12.dll** is missing
  • Instead, only cufft64_11.dll is present, which seems to belong to CUDA 11.x, not CUDA 12.x.

What I’ve Tried:

  • Fully uninstalled CUDA using the NVIDIA Cleanup Tool.
  • Freshly reinstalled CUDA 12.8.1 (default options, only skipped driver install since I have a newer driver).
  • Verified that CUDA_PATH and PATH environment variables are correctly set.
  • nvcc --version confirms CUDA 12.8.1 is installed.
  • No installation errors or missing package warnings were shown during setup.
  • I am not using WSL — this is native Windows.
  • I need cufft64_12.dll specifically because my application (XGBoost with GPU support) depends on it.

My Goal:

  • I need cufft64_12.dll so that I can properly build XGBoost with GPU acceleration enabled.
  • If CUDA 12.8.1 truly doesn’t include cufft64_12.dll anymore, I would appreciate any official clarification.
  • If it should be there, I would like advice on how to get a clean install with the correct version of cuFFT libraries.

Additional Notes:

  • My current CUDA folder only contains cuFFT DLLs for version 11 (not 12).
  • I have also noticed that Conda’s cuda-toolkit-12.8.1 package incorrectly included libcufft-11.3.3.83, which caused earlier issues.
  • This is blocking me from proceeding with GPU acceleration in machine learning workflows.

Questions:

  • Should cufft64_12.dll still exist in CUDA 12.8.1 under Windows 11?
  • If yes, is there a known workaround to reinstall or manually retrieve it?
  • If no, does NVIDIA recommend reverting to CUDA 11.8.0 for applications like XGBoost that expect cuFFT libraries?

Thanks in advance to anyone who can help. I really appreciate it.

2

I have no practical experience with cuFFT, but all I can offer, having looked at the Release Notes for Cuda Toolkit 12.0, 12.6.3 and 12.8.1, they all contain cuFFT 11.X.

Was there ever a 12 version?

3

Thank you, that actually helps a lot. I didn’t even notice that .