Nvidia has confirmed a bug in its recently released Game Ready driver version 531.18 that causes higher CPU usage. The issue has been added to the company's list of known issues, but there is no indication of when a solution will be released.

The bug can cause the Nvidia container to consume more than ten percent of the CPU after logging in or exiting games. When exiting it seems that telemetry hangs. Users can install an old driver as a temporary solution, it remains to be seen when Nvidia releases a hotfix for the problem.

if you're noticing high CPU usage from Nvidia's latest drivers (531.18) you're not alone. Seems to be a bug with the latest drivers where Nvidia container uses 10%+ CPU after logon or after closing games. Rolling back to previous drivers will fix

— Tom Warren ( @tomwarren )

Nvidia GeForce 531.18 driver bug causes higher CPU usage; company acknowledges issue