no matter what I change in nvidia control panel, in-game settings or different drivers it still locks to 50. I've messed with the max fps slider and turned v-sync off and on and still get 50 fps. I have a 144hz monitor and a RTX 4070 so I've almost given up on trying to make this game work

Two possible fixes that I have read about:

When reinstalling the graphics driver do a clean install as sometimes nVidia keeps some older files, routines or settings.

If using the nVidia control panel then disable the low latency setting.

No issues here, but I'm using an AMD 6800XT, so I'm not of much help. Sorry.

I can just change the fps in the game settings ? Keeping it at 60 fps though because I dont think even more does anything.

Made an experiment yesterday and lowered the fps to 30. It wont actually go lower than that.

I noticed no difference at all.

I can see how some people would want higher fps. If you play against other people, say in the battle royale game "Player Unknown's Battle Grounds" (PUBG), higher fps means your brain can see things quicker after all and even milliseconds can matter in such games and decide between life and death of your character.

But in NMS you can just disable PvP and you're golden.