Hi everyone. I need some advice. My notebook is plenty of years old by now, but several components have been upgraded and it is still running really quite well on Windows 10 64-bit. When I inspect the driver for my CPU in Device Manager, though, things look a little odd/dated:
Now, I don't believe all of that can be accurate, especially the date, since this CPU model was first produced in 2014. I'm also pretty sure that the last driver update came through Dell SupportAssist, so I'm not sure why Microsoft is the signer, but it's possible that I'm remembering an Intel HD Graphics driver update instead.
Looking at Dell's list of drivers offered for my system, I find the following:
Now this appears to be the tiniest update to their previous release, which was 10.1.1.18, A04 on 02 Jun 2016. Oddly, neither of these are being suggested by Dell's SupportAssist update tool, and the very same webpage that shows me their driver list where I copied the above from, also tells me "Your system is up to date - No driver updates found. Your system has the most recent updates".
Meanwhile, checking on Intel's website, the only drivers offered for the i7-4810MQ are related to Intel Graphics: Intel® Graphics Driver for Windows* [15.40]
To compare this to the situation on the GPU front, the latest AMD Radeon driver Dell is offering dates from 2015. I have long since switched to getting the drivers from AMD directly, and I still receive regular updates, with no issues thusfar from using the generic drivers instead of Dell's. Considering that Dell realistically will not be working on any new updates for this system, I will likely have to switch to generic drivers for most components as time goes on.
So what do I do? Keep it as is, since I'm not experiencing any issues? It concerns me slightly, though, that what is available through Dell seems severely dated, and unlikely to be updated (fair enough). Do I maybe just do the slight update to 10.1.18121.8164 , even though that is not currently being suggested by Dell's tools? At least it's still through Dell, so it should be stable on my system (but do I need to worry about the 32-bit part, or that just the installer?)
Or do I keep looking for a more recent driver directly from Intel, or is that risky, since it's a Dell motherboard? Or do CPU drivers not really need updating after the first stable release, for the most part?
And what about the Intel Graphics? It looks like I have two rather confusing options - the version numbers bear no correlation to the release dates:
So many questions. Perhaps I worry too much. But to conclude, I have always coped pretty well on updating and maintaining my systems myself, but I find the latter-day trend of manufacturers customising everything and breaking compatibilities to lead to a bit of a confusing situation, where you really start needing in-depth knowledge to just do basic maintenance, especially when one reaches the end-of-life phase. So any advice you may have on this front, aside from the obvious "buy a new system", will be much appreciated.
A few specs, in case it's needed:
| Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4810MQ CPU @ 2.80GHz | |
|---|---|
| Driver Provider: | Microsoft |
| Driver Date: | 21/04/2009 |
| Driver Version: | 10.0.19041.546 |
| Digital Signer: | Microsoft Windows |
Now, I don't believe all of that can be accurate, especially the date, since this CPU model was first produced in 2014. I'm also pretty sure that the last driver update came through Dell SupportAssist, so I'm not sure why Microsoft is the signer, but it's possible that I'm remembering an Intel HD Graphics driver update instead.
Looking at Dell's list of drivers offered for my system, I find the following:
Now this appears to be the tiniest update to their previous release, which was 10.1.1.18, A04 on 02 Jun 2016. Oddly, neither of these are being suggested by Dell's SupportAssist update tool, and the very same webpage that shows me their driver list where I copied the above from, also tells me "Your system is up to date - No driver updates found. Your system has the most recent updates".
Meanwhile, checking on Intel's website, the only drivers offered for the i7-4810MQ are related to Intel Graphics: Intel® Graphics Driver for Windows* [15.40]
To compare this to the situation on the GPU front, the latest AMD Radeon driver Dell is offering dates from 2015. I have long since switched to getting the drivers from AMD directly, and I still receive regular updates, with no issues thusfar from using the generic drivers instead of Dell's. Considering that Dell realistically will not be working on any new updates for this system, I will likely have to switch to generic drivers for most components as time goes on.
So what do I do? Keep it as is, since I'm not experiencing any issues? It concerns me slightly, though, that what is available through Dell seems severely dated, and unlikely to be updated (fair enough). Do I maybe just do the slight update to 10.1.18121.8164 , even though that is not currently being suggested by Dell's tools? At least it's still through Dell, so it should be stable on my system (but do I need to worry about the 32-bit part, or that just the installer?)
Or do I keep looking for a more recent driver directly from Intel, or is that risky, since it's a Dell motherboard? Or do CPU drivers not really need updating after the first stable release, for the most part?
And what about the Intel Graphics? It looks like I have two rather confusing options - the version numbers bear no correlation to the release dates:
- 20.19.15.5063, A10 (19 Feb 2019) from Dell
- 15.40.48.5171 (2 May 2021) from Intel
So many questions. Perhaps I worry too much. But to conclude, I have always coped pretty well on updating and maintaining my systems myself, but I find the latter-day trend of manufacturers customising everything and breaking compatibilities to lead to a bit of a confusing situation, where you really start needing in-depth knowledge to just do basic maintenance, especially when one reaches the end-of-life phase. So any advice you may have on this front, aside from the obvious "buy a new system", will be much appreciated.
A few specs, in case it's needed:
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