Display driver crash to black screen

I just started having this issue within the last few weeks.  A friend of mine is reporting similar issues using the 3D Blender app that started around the same timeframe.

System works fine on most applications for hours.  But select 3D applications cause inconsistent display driver crashing.  Screen goes to black with no signal from the display port.  Audio still runs in the background.  Cannot recover via ALT+TAB, task manager, or WIN+CTRL+SHIFT+B.  Have to power off the machine to have a chance to recover.

What's odd is that a hard restart of the computer only occasionally resolves the issue.  Sometimes the display driver never recovers on reboot.  Sometimes it crashes to black during the display of the Windows sign in screen.  Sometimes it recovers completely.  In the worst case, I couldn't see the BIOS boot but could still hear the windows bootup chimes.  So the system was booting up to the windows sign in screen.  I disconnected the NVIDIA card and tried the integrated graphics port with the same result.  After many restarts it recovered "magically" back to working with the NVIDIA card.

Once the issue is recovered then the system is stable until I try one of the offending apps again.

I've experienced this with Mechanicus II, Crimson Desert (played 100+ hrs before this issue started), Kingdom Come Deliverance II.  Have experienced the crash anywhere between the initial splash screen, in ui menus, and during 3d play.  Other 3d games still work.

In terms of troubleshooting, I've completely uninstalled (using DDU) and reinstalled the GeForce driver many times, including trying at least 4 distinct version from April and May of 2026.  Stress testing the graphics card (run NVIDIA optimizer) runs fine, no temp or voltage issues.  Other apps work indefinitely.  So I don't think it's a hardware issue.  No reported issues on dxdiag.

My best guess is a Windows<>GeForce Driver bug.  Possibly related to Windows update 2026-05 .NET Framework Security Update (KB5087051).  At least that matches the timing of when I started having the issue.   I only changed driver versions after I started experiencing the issue.  This sounds like a similar issue though it's a different update # --  https://www.pcworld.com/article/3137675/windows-11s-april-update-is-now-causing-pc-crashes-and-visual-glitches.html

Operating System: Windows 11 Pro 64-bit (10.0, Build 26200) (26100.ge_release.240331-1435)

System Model: Z590 AORUS PRO AX

Card name: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080