Question Do I Need to Manually Install Drivers for Best Performance?

[Nheox]

Hello, good day. I recently installed Windows 11 on my PC and have Windows Update up to date. I was told I should install drivers manually even though I’ve already installed the minimum necessary, because the ones installed by Windows 11 may not be the most up-to-date. The problem is that I'm new to computer hardware and software, so I don’t know which drivers I should install. I'd also like someone to clarify if it's really necessary to do this, as I’m afraid of installing them incorrectly and something going wrong with my system. The only drivers I've installed so far are for the graphics card. Thanks.

 

[Lutfij]

Welcome to the forums, newcomer!

Not just for best performance, but for a stable system. Windows has been known to download and install drivers it think is right for your platform which often times is not what is necessary for your platform.

the ones installed by Windows 11 may not be the most up-to-date.
Look through our forums and the www, you'll see updates and drivers the OS thought were meant for your device either broke the OS or the device or threw a multitude of BSoD's.

Chipset drivers can be found off your motherboard or chipset manufacture's support site, audio and networking drivers can be found off your board maker's support site, while GPU drivers can be found from GPU chip manufacturer's support site.

If you need a tailored answer on where to source drivers, please pass on the specs to your build like so:
CPU:
CPU cooler:
Motherboard:
Ram:
SSD/HDD:
GPU:
PSU:
Chassis:
OS:
Monitor:
include the age of the PSU apart from it's make and model. BIOS version for your motherboard at this moment of time.

 

[Nheox]

Welcome to the forums, newcomer!

Not just for best performance, but for a stable system. Windows has been known to download and install drivers it think is right for your platform which often times is not what is necessary for your platform.

the ones installed by Windows 11 may not be the most up-to-date.
Look through our forums and the www, you'll see updates and drivers the OS thought were meant for your device either broke the OS or the device or threw a multitude of BSoD's.

Chipset drivers can be found off your motherboard or chipset manufacture's support site, audio and networking drivers can be found off your board maker's support site, while GPU drivers can be found from GPU chip manufacturer's support site.

If you need a tailored answer on where to source drivers, please pass on the specs to your build like so:
CPU:
CPU cooler:
Motherboard:
Ram:
SSD/HDD:
GPU:
PSU:
Chassis:
OS:
Monitor:
include the age of the PSU apart from it's make and model. BIOS version for your motherboard at this moment of time.

Thank you for the response. So far, I haven’t had any blue screens; could installing new drivers manually cause blue screens? My specs are:
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600X
CPU Cooler: Deepcool AG400
Motherboard: Gigabyte B550M DS3H AC Rev. 1.4
Ram: 2x8GB Kingston Fury Beast 3600 MT/s
SSD: Western Digital SN850X 1 TB
GPU: NVIDIA RTX 3050 8 GB VRAM
PSU: Seasonic S12III 650 (i bought it a month ago)
Chassis: MSI Mag Forge M100A
OS: W11
Monitor: Samsung Essential Monitor LS22C310EALXZS
BIOS version: FB

 

[Lutfij]

Motherboard: Gigabyte B550M DS3H AC Rev. 1.4
+
BIOS version: FB
https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/B550M-DS3H-AC-rev-14/support#support-dl-bios
I would flash the BIOS to the latest version, i.e, FFc

Download the latest chipset driver for your platform from here;
https://www.amd.com/en/support/downloads/drivers.html/chipsets/am4/b550.html

Download the latest GPU driver from here;

Driver Results | <dd~ProductName> | <dd~OSName>

Lookup results for <dd~ProductName> product and Operating System <dd~OSName>

www.nvidia.com

Audio, LAN, WLAN as well as Gigabyte's Control Center can be downloaded from here;
https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/B550M-DS3H-AC-rev-14/support#support-dl-driver-audio

PSU: Seasonic S12III 650 (i bought it a month ago)
This is a bad unit, if I were to buy a PSU, I'd pick up something reliably built.

 

[Nheox]

Motherboard: Gigabyte B550M DS3H AC Rev. 1.4
+
BIOS version: FB
https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/B550M-DS3H-AC-rev-14/support#support-dl-bios
I would flash the BIOS to the latest version, i.e, FFc

Download the latest chipset driver for your platform from here;
https://www.amd.com/en/support/downloads/drivers.html/chipsets/am4/b550.html

Download the latest GPU driver from here;

Driver Results | <dd~ProductName> | <dd~OSName>

Lookup results for <dd~ProductName> product and Operating System <dd~OSName>

www.nvidia.com

Audio, LAN, WLAN as well as Gigabyte's Control Center can be downloaded from here;
https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/B550M-DS3H-AC-rev-14/support#support-dl-driver-audio

PSU: Seasonic S12III 650 (i bought it a month ago)
This is a bad unit, if I were to buy a PSU, I'd pick up something reliably built.

Thanks.

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

Seasonic S12III 650 , is not even made by Seasonic.

 

[Nheox]

I didn’t ask about my setup, I asked about drivers.

 

[Lutfij]

We tend to spot mistakes...comes with experience, please don't blame us for warning you in advance. In case you don't understand why, go here, scroll down to Tier E and then you'll see your PSU.

 

[Nheox]

We tend to spot mistakes...comes with experience, please don't blame us for warning you in advance. In case you don't understand why, go here, scroll down to Tier E and then you'll see your PSU.

Ok, I understand, thanks.

The drivers I need to install are for the chipset, GPU, audio, LAN, and WLAN, right? I’ll skip the BIOS update. On the AMD page, it says 'AMD RAID Installer' and 'StoreMI'—should I download and install these too? What are these? Any tips for a clean driver installation? Thanks!

 

[ubuysa]

IMO you've done exactly the right thing, it's what I do.

The drivers installed by Windows are the real vendor supplied drivers, they're not something that Microsoft have created. Hardware vendors test new and updated drivers using the Windows Hardware Quality Labs (WHQL) toolset and once they have recived WHQL certification they are uploaded to Microsoft for inclusion in the next Windows Update run.

When hardware vendors upload their drivers to Microsoft the vendor marks them as either 'automatic' or 'manual'. Automatic drivers are installed by Windows Update automatically, these are drivers that the hardware vendor knows are applicable to any system using that hardware device and which must be installed by everyone to fix bugs or to close a vulnerability. Manual drivers are not downloaded or installed but are listed in the Optional Updates section of Windows Update. These are drivers that the user must select for installation, they are drivers that the vendor knows may not be applicable to every user using that hardware device, but are needed only in certain circumstances. It's up to the user to research optional update drivers to see whether they are applicable to their system before installing them.

If Windows installs the wrong driver it's because the hardware vendor fouled-up, wither uploading the wrong driver to Microsoft or marking a driver as 'automatic' when it's not applicable to everyone. With third-party drivers Windows Update just does what the hardware vendors have told it to do.

The reason we recommend manually installing graphics drivers is because they change very frequently, often more than once per month, so the graphics driver installed by Windows Update may not always be the latest driver available for the graphics card.

The only time I install other drivers manually is if (on first installation of Windows) Device Manager shows devices without drivers (a yellow triangle containing a black exclamation mark) or if I am experiencing problems with a device. In those circumstances I would first check Windows Update Optional Updates for suitable drivers or look at the motherboard or device vendor's website for updated drivers.

The one thing you should never do is to use a third-party driver search and install tool (such as DriverEasy) to install drivers. You have no idea with these tools whether they have selected the correct driver (and they do get it wrong) nor where the driver being installed has come from.

 

[Nheox]

IMO you've done exactly the right thing, it's what I do.

The drivers installed by Windows are the real vendor supplied drivers, they're not something that Microsoft have created. Hardware vendors test new and updated drivers using the Windows Hardware Quality Labs (WHQL) toolset and once they have recived WHQL certification they are uploaded to Microsoft for inclusion in the next Windows Update run.

When hardware vendors upload their drivers to Microsoft the vendor marks them as either 'automatic' or 'manual'. Automatic drivers are installed by Windows Update automatically, these are drivers that the hardware vendor knows are applicable to any system using that hardware device and which must be installed by everyone to fix bugs or to close a vulnerability. Manual drivers are not downloaded or installed but are listed in the Optional Updates section of Windows Update. These are drivers that the user must select for installation, they are drivers that the vendor knows may not be applicable to every user using that hardware device, but are needed only in certain circumstances. It's up to the user to research optional update drivers to see whether they are applicable to their system before installing them.

If Windows installs the wrong driver it's because the hardware vendor fouled-up, wither uploading the wrong driver to Microsoft or marking a driver as 'automatic' when it's not applicable to everyone. With third-party drivers Windows Update just does what the hardware vendors have told it to do.

The reason we recommend manually installing graphics drivers is because they change very frequently, often more than once per month, so the graphics driver installed by Windows Update may not always be the latest driver available for the graphics card.

The only time I install other drivers manually is if (on first installation of Windows) Device Manager shows devices without drivers (a yellow triangle containing a black exclamation mark) or if I am experiencing problems with a device. In those circumstances I would first check Windows Update Optional Updates for suitable drivers or look at the motherboard or device vendor's website for updated drivers.

The one thing you should never do is to use a third-party driver search and install tool (such as DriverEasy) to install drivers. You have no idea with these tools whether they have selected the correct driver (and they do get it wrong) nor where the driver being installed has come from.

Good, thanks. You've told me things I didn't know about drivers. I'll stick with what Windows Update provides unless I run into issues, though I haven't had any problems.