The documentation details that Nvidia drivers caused 479,000 crashes out of a total of 1,663,748 logged by Microsoft across an unspecified period in 2007. Microsoft's own drivers followed at roughly 18%. Rival video card manufacturer ATI clocked in at fourth with 9.3%, and Intel at fifth with 8.8%.

The information was found within 158 pages of internal emails made public as part of an ongoing lawsuit against Microsoft for their hand in alleged artificial inflation of computer prices during the 2006 holiday season.

Numerous reports of users experiencing difficulties with Nvidia drivers on Vista had surfaced at the time of its debut, leading many to label the operating system as a buggy or unstable system. The revealed statistics represent the first publicly available hard data on the root cause of Windows Vista instability.

Microsoft recently released Vista Service Pack 1, which reportedly boosts gaming performance on the platform.