Can I mess up my computer by updating my graphic card drivers after 9 years?

[redstar.igor]

Hi guys, I know this is kind of weird question and you must think Im an idiot for not doing this a while back, but I havent used my PC for gaming in a while and heard of graphics card driver updates in the past few months for the first time. Also my PC is kind of old but the graphics card is the oldest thing on it... I have an ATI Radeon X1950 and it says the last update was on the 14th of july 2009. Can you help me, would me updating it now do anything bad to my PC also if yes can I somehow get it back to the old version.
Im not really good on computer stuff so thanks for understanding and hope you can help me!

 

[smorizio]

with a gpu that old you may not be able to find any driver for that gpu. i did a quick search and the driver not listed on amd web page. i would leave the driver alone on a gpu that old. if your getting back into gaming i would buy a newer gpu that does driect x 9 and 10 support.

 

[rcald2000]

redstar.igor The last drivers I see for your x1950 are revision 10.2, dated 2/24/2010. There are drivers for both Windows XP and Vista.

https://www.amd.com/en/support/graphics/legacy-graphics/ati-radeon-x-series/ati-radeon-x1xxx-series

If you wouldn't mind, could you run the speccy utility, just to feed my own curiosity? I've linked it below. Simply load the page, click "Download Latest Version". I wonder what the rest of your specs are. What's interesting is that I used to personally own the x1950 Pro, over 13 years ago. It was a good card, but honestly the integrated graphics of a new CPU would be more powerful, and even that would be insufficient to play a modern title.

https://filehippo.com/download_speccy

 

[redstar.igor]

Thanks for the fast reply guys. Does that also work for Windows 7?

Operating System
Windows 7 Ultimate 32-bit SP1
CPU
Intel Core 2 Duo E7400 @ 2.80GHz 39 °C
Wolfdale 45nm Technology
RAM
4,00GB Dual-Channel DDR2 @ 333MHz (5-5-5-15)
Motherboard
Gigabyte Technology Co. Ltd. EP31-DS3L (Socket 775) 34 °C
Graphics
ASUS VW193D (1440x900@60Hz)
256MB ATI Radeon X1950 Series (Microsoft Corporation - WDDM) (Gigabyte)
ATI Radeon X1950 Series Secondary (Microsoft Corporation - WDDM) (Gigabyte)
CrossFire Disabled
Storage
69GB Western Digital WDC WD740GD-00FLC0 ATA Device (SATA ) 36 °C
149GB Western Digital WDC WD1600AAJS-00PSA0 ATA Device (SATA ) 36 °C
Optical Drives
PLEXTOR DVDR PX-810SA ATA Device
NKD JCXE3S927C SCSI CdRom Device
Audio
High Definition Audio Device


Also some parts like the Motherboard and RAM were replaced recently, but I dont think I changed anything else to it in a while really. Mostly use it for college stuff and some older games.

 

[rcald2000]

To answer your direct question, yes it's possible that you'll mess things up by attempting to update your drivers. You won't physically damage anything but my fear is that the "newer" drivers might recognize that your OS doesn't not meet the level of Windows 7. The slight benefit of marginally newer drivers, isn't worth the risk of not having compatible drivers installed at all.

new-used build on the cheap
If you want to game on modern games, as a reasonable cost, you could buy a 4 year old HP or Dell desktop off Ebay for about $125 USD, including shipping. For that level of money, it should have an core i5 cpu / 8 GB DDR3 RAM / 500 GB HDD. Then you could invest another $150 into a GTX 1050 Ti. It is important that the card be powered exclusively by the motherboard's PCIe slot, and not require a 6 pin PCIe cable connector directly from the power supply. The EVGA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti Gaming / SC Gaming, both fit this requirement.

upgrade
While it's possible to upgrade the CPU and GPU of your system, I think that it would more trouble than you're prepared for and with a very limited payoff. Your RAM is already maxed out to 4 GB. Your PCIe is only version 1. Your SATA is v2 (3.0 Gbps).


* notes *

https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GA-EP31-DS3L-rev-21#sp

http://www.crucial.com/usa/en/compatible-upgrade-for/GIGABYTE/ga-ep31-ds3l-%28rev*-2*0%29

 

[redstar.igor]

Thank you very much for the detailed response. I won't try anything better off as is, can run some games I used to play back in the day. Will probably see to invest in a good PC in about a year or two when I finish my college. Thank you again and all the best!