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How often do you upgrade your graphics card drivers?

Cromulent

Cromulent

Cromulent

Soldato
Joined
1 Nov 2007
Posts
7,118
Location
England
I just bought a new game (Ashes of the Singularity Escalation) and it told me to update my graphics card drivers but unless a game specifically mentions it I rarely keep my graphics card drivers up-to-date. Especially as I tend to play older games. I have an Nvidia 980Ti.

I hear that when a new popular game comes out it is a good idea to update your drivers then but most of the games I play don't get special game ready drivers so the developers just work with what has been released.

I'd say at most I update my graphics card drivers twice a year. So how often do you update your graphics card drivers? Are there people that always have the latest drivers on their system?

It is such a pain to download Display Driver Uninstaller, reboot in safe mode, uninstall them and then reboot again to install the latest version and then a final reboot to make sure everything is working correctly.
 
Normally just get the latest. Why do you go through that whole process of getting Display driver, safe mode etc?

Normally just download latest, when installing, just do a custom install and set it to perform a clean install, job done.
 
Radox-0 said:
Normally just get the latest. Why do you go through that whole process of getting Display driver, safe mode etc?

Normally just download latest, when installing, just do a custom install and set it to perform a clean install, job done.
Click to expand...

Just to be on the safe side really. I've had driver problems in the past and it is a pain in the arse so I'd rather do it properly.
 
I usually wait a few days after they come out, to see if there is(n't) a "AMD/Nvidia sux, I'm never buying their **** again" whine thread with patch, before updating.
 
Mostly ASAP, but I'm going to give them a few days before downloading just incase. Touch wood, most drivers I've had have been fine.
 
I always just grab the latest version when AMD Crimson tells me it's available. I only do a clean install if I see issues or swap GPUs out.
 
More frequently since I gave up on the whole 'completely strip them off as if you were installing a new card and then install from fresh' routine. Been using GeForce Experience at whilst I might be sacrificing a little bit of performance somewhere, i'm happy to trade that off against the ease of letting something sort it out for me really.
 
I used to only update them now and again, but having said that the frequency of the updates was less, IIRC. These days, I tend to update when a new one comes out, though it isn't out of necessity. It's more of a habit. :)
 
I used to update all the time a new one came out, but i don't bother now, as got sick of them breaking things that previously worked, so having to roll back all the time, so im still on the 16.3s from last March, as having no problems at all with them.

I'll only update now, when i come to something that i'll need to update for (has problems on the drivers im on), or when i get a new card, which won't work on older drivers
 
Nowadays its whenever I get a popup saying there is an update available, because it is quick and convenient. Prior to that I only used to upgrade them if I encountered issues.
 
Cromulent said:
Just to be on the safe side really. I've had driver problems in the past and it is a pain in the arse so I'd rather do it properly.
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DDU actually makes Windows less reliable. its a force hack at best. Steer clear.

you dont need to Uninstall. Nvidia/AMD already do it for you the correct way
 
smogsy said:
DDU actually makes Windows less reliable. its a force hack at best. Steer clear.

you dont need to Uninstall. Nvidia/AMD already do it for you the correct way
Click to expand...

Really? I thought DDU was the recommended way of doing things? So you recommend just downloading the latest drivers and installing them without even bothering uninstalling the old ones first? If so that'll make things much easier.

When I changed my GPU from AMD to Nvidia I was told about DDU and it worked great so I just thought I'd use it for all my driver upgrades.
 
Only a couple of times a year as i am on older hardware (GTX980) and the improvements that come from new drivers are going to be marginal at best
 
Cromulent said:
Really? I thought DDU was the recommended way of doing things? So you recommend just downloading the latest drivers and installing them without even bothering uninstalling the old ones first? If so that'll make things much easier.

When I changed my GPU from AMD to Nvidia I was told about DDU and it worked great so I just thought I'd use it for all my driver upgrades.
Click to expand...

DDU is just a myth. its like Registry cleaning you shouldn't do it, you can break more than you fix.

Random people on internet say you should do it that way So everyone copied. 0 point.

if you want to clean install click custom on NV/AMD they give you a clean install option.

ON w10 you can actually make Windows Default driver get stuck & not be able to install any driver
 
Usually a couple of days after a driver is released to see if there are any bugs. If there are no bugs I download the driver, tick custom install, select just the actual gpu driver and physx driver and install over the top. Every now and then I will do a clean install but I have never had any problems with either method. I don't need or want GFE or any of the other bloatware so they don't get installed.
 
smogsy said:
you dont need to Uninstall. Nvidia/AMD already do it for you the correct way
Click to expand...

This, ive never used it, and ive never had a problem, even when going from one brand to the other, which some say is best to use DDU for, otherwise you'll get problems if theres still traces of the other brands drivers on, as no you won't, as been able to have both sets on at the same time since XP, and with Win 10 and Dx12 now, you can use an AMD card, and a Nvidia card together for a performance increase, in multi-gpu, which you'll need both on for.
 
Completely disagree about DDU being a "myth".

I have had a few issues in the past both with nvidia and AMD, doing a DDU has sorted the issues...


I used to install drivers every single time they came out but now I don't bother unless I need to, also because the 17.x.x/relive drivers have caused a few issues for me on my current/main system.
 
Nexus18 said:
Completely disagree about DDU being a "myth".

I have had a few issues in the past both with nvidia and AMD, doing a DDU has sorted the issues...
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+1.
I just cannot be botherd updating anymore unless I have to. If I do update I just install over the last, if a problem happens use DDU.
 
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