System Hard Freeze & Crash When Using Video Super Resolution (VSR)

Hello NVIDIA community,

I am writing to report a critical stability issue with Video Super Resolution. My system experiences a hard freeze when watching videos with Video Super Resolution (VSR) enabled, requiring a manual power cycle to recover. This issue started occurring recently, as the feature was working perfectly about five months ago.

The Problem:

  • When VSR is enabled in the NVIDIA Control Panel, watching videos in a web browser (e.g., YouTube) will cause the entire system to lock up.
  • The freeze is total: the screen is frozen, audio cuts out after a bit, and the mouse/keyboard are unresponsive. No BSOD is generated.
  • This happens approximately 50% of the time a video is played.
  • System stability is otherwise perfect. I can run graphically intensive games (e.g., Cyberpunk 2077, Alan Wake 2) for extended periods without any crashes or issues. The problem is isolated entirely to VSR usage.

My System Specifications:

  • GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti
  • CPU: Intel i5 8400
  • RAM: 16GB DDR4
  • OS: Windows 11 Pro 22H2
  • NVIDIA Driver Version: several tested, including the latest one and 566.36

Troubleshooting Steps Already Taken:

I have made several attempts to diagnose and resolve this issue, with no success:

  • Clean OS Reinstall: Performed a complete format and reinstallation of Windows to eliminate any potential software conflicts.
  • Driver Rollback with DDU: Used Display Driver Uninstaller (DDU) in Safe Mode to completely remove current drivers and test several older versions.
  • Debug Mode: Enabled Debug Mode in the NVIDIA Control Panel to run the card at stock clocks.
  • Multiple Browsers Tested: The freezing occurs consistently across different browsers, including Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, and Opera GX.

I am looking for any advice or potential solutions. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you in advance.