[SOLVED] Manufacturer's drivers versus Windows 10/11 drivers?

[Vox]

Hey there,
I just installed an ASUS Prime B365M-A mobo and Windows installed all drivers it needed. Everything works fine so far, no unknown/messed up devices in Device Manager. I also updated the bios already.
I'd like to know if I could gain any improvements by downloading the chipset/lan/vga/etc drivers from the manufacturer's page although I know these pages are often outdated. Manufacturers tend to update the downloads for few-to-several months after the release of the mobo then stopping the updates.

PRIME B365M-A｜Motherboards｜ASUS Global

ASUS Prime series is expertly engineered to unleash the full potential of AMD and Intel processors. Boasting a robust power design, comprehensive cooling solutions and intelligent tuning options, Prime series motherboards provide daily users and DIY PC builders a range of performance tuning...

www.asus.com

So how do I know if a specific motherboard driver from the page is newer or older than the installed one by Windows? Afaik, they have whole different version numbers as they're different products so I can't compare them.
Also, I'm not sure if the driver labelled "Chipset" contains the USB3 drivers as there's no standalone driver for USB3 in their list.

Thanks!

 

[Koekieezz]

Hey there,
I just installed an ASUS Prime B365M-A mobo and Windows installed all drivers it needed. Everything works fine so far, no unknown/messed up devices in Device Manager. I also updated the bios already.
I'd like to know if I could gain any improvements by downloading the chipset/lan/vga/etc drivers from the manufacturer's page although I know these pages are often outdated. Manufacturers tend to update the downloads for few-to-several months after the release of the mobo then stopping the updates.

PRIME B365M-A｜Motherboards｜ASUS Global

ASUS Prime series is expertly engineered to unleash the full potential of AMD and Intel processors. Boasting a robust power design, comprehensive cooling solutions and intelligent tuning options, Prime series motherboards provide daily users and DIY PC builders a range of performance tuning...

www.asus.com

So how do I know if a specific motherboard driver from the page is newer or older than the installed one by Windows? Afaik, they have whole different version numbers as they're different products so I can't compare them.
Also, I'm not sure if the driver labelled "Chipset" contains the USB3 drivers as there's no standalone driver for USB3 in their list.

Thanks!

well install the manufacturer listed driver as per what you need. sometimes windows does only use old drivers.

 

[Deleted member 14196]

Yes install ONLY the chipset, lan and gpu drivers. Make sure you do a custom install and disselect everything that doesn’t say driver only as well else they’ll be eating up all your band with doing diagnostics on you without you knowing

 

[Vox]

Yes install ONLY the chipset, lan and gpu drivers. Make sure you do a custom install and disselect everything that doesn’t say driver only as well else they’ll be eating up all your band with doing diagnostics on you without you knowing

well, thank you. Although I still don't know how to compare the Asus' / Win10 drivers to find out which is newer. I don't want to rollback drivers just because Asus didn't update theirs. Or vice-versa.

Edit:
All of those drivers you mentioned made in 2019. You still advice to install them? Is it possible that Microsoft doesn't use any updated drivers since then?

 

[Lafong]

Do you want newer drivers purely because they are newer?

Or to eliminate issues of some kind?

 

[Vox]

Do you want newer drivers purely because they are newer?

Or to eliminate issues of some kind?

That is pretty much the main question of this topic:

Everything works fine so far, no unknown/messed up devices in Device Manager. I'd like to know if I could gain any improvements by downloading the chipset/lan/vga/etc drivers from the manufacturer's page although I know these pages are often outdated.

 

[Lafong]

That is pretty much the main question of this topic:

There's 2 schools of thought:

1; don't change drivers if all appears OK and no issues

2; change to new drivers habitually, as a matter of course.

It's discussed quite a bit and I don't think many minds have been changed.....like talking about AMD versus Intel or Ford versus Chevrolet.

Two orthodoxies. Pick one.

 

[Vox]

It's discussed quite a bit and I don't think many minds have been changed

I read through many old topics here before I asked it.
I still asked this question because I still can't see clear in this.

Some people say manufacturer's drivers often provide additional codes that may positively impact performance / speed compared to the Windows' stock drivers even if they're newer. Some people say this is not the case anymore so purely so the newer driver is better. Obviously, it depends on product and/or the factory itself too so I also provided these data, hoping there are some people with experience so they can advice me to stay with Win10 drivers or roll on manufacturers' drivers for more performance. So it's clearly not a Ford versus Chevy case.

 

[Lafong]

Yep.

Some people say X and some people say Y.

You can of course change drivers at will and note any performance changes and then draw conclusions as you see fit.

 

[Colif]

Only update if you have problems or if its new hardware that can benefit from newer drivers. Otherwise you can cause errors you didn't have before. Don't fix something that works.

You probably only need chipset drivers. Rest would be included in win 10 by now. Given drivers on Asus website are from 2019 except a few.

On new hardware, go to motherbaord makers website. AS PC gets older, the chances MB makers update drivers starts to fade, and Asus only really do the ones that are updated by the chip makers on baords, mostly LAN and Audio. Or their utility software all boards get. Eventually Windows should have all the drivers you need for old boards.

 

[Wolfshadw]

Outside it's own operating system, I wouldn't trust Microsoft to install a light bulb. Whenever I do clean install (doesn't matter if it's a new build or just flushing an old install), I'll always go to the manufacturer's site for drivers. For the motherboard, I will always install the latest (certified) LAN, Audio, and chipset drivers, even if those things are working at the end of the OS install.

-Wolf sends

 

[Vox]

Yep.

Some people say X and some people say Y.

You can of course change drivers at will and note any performance changes and then draw conclusions as you see fit.

Some people say X some say Y but facts remain facts about what a specific driver contains. I'm interested in the impact of these facts instead. So I still don't see why a question like this can't be here.

Anyway, thank you for your input.

 

[Vox]

Don't fix something that works.

I'm not after fixing, I'm after improvement.

You probably only need chipset drivers.

Thank you. Do you know if these chipset drivers contain drivers to USB3 too? I could use some speed buff to these ports.

 

[Deleted member 14196]

usb is as fast as it gets. Leave it alone

 

[Colif]

usb 3 and earlier is part of windows, if its windows 10 you don't need those. The usb drivers are only for win 7 as it doesn't include them by default.

 

[RodroX]

Motherboards maker drivers usually don't get update that often (if ever). But as you have an intel chipset and Im guessing you are using the igpu, you can always go to intel web and download the lastest drivers from there too.

Then again as others pointed out already, if everything is working then theres no much need to do what I wrote up there.

 

[Colif]

if you want to make sure you have newest lan drivers, I would go to realtek for your board - https://www.realtek.com/en/componen...0-1000m-gigabit-ethernet-pci-express-software

 

[ex_bubblehead]

Hey there,
I just installed an ASUS Prime B365M-A mobo and Windows installed all drivers it needed. Everything works fine so far, no unknown/messed up devices in Device Manager. I also updated the bios already.
I'd like to know if I could gain any improvements by downloading the chipset/lan/vga/etc drivers from the manufacturer's page although I know these pages are often outdated. Manufacturers tend to update the downloads for few-to-several months after the release of the mobo then stopping the updates.

PRIME B365M-A｜Motherboards｜ASUS Global

ASUS Prime series is expertly engineered to unleash the full potential of AMD and Intel processors. Boasting a robust power design, comprehensive cooling solutions and intelligent tuning options, Prime series motherboards provide daily users and DIY PC builders a range of performance tuning...

www.asus.com

So how do I know if a specific motherboard driver from the page is newer or older than the installed one by Windows? Afaik, they have whole different version numbers as they're different products so I can't compare them.
Also, I'm not sure if the driver labelled "Chipset" contains the USB3 drivers as there's no standalone driver for USB3 in their list.

Thanks!

Microsoft does not write any of the drivers shipped with Windows. The drivers are written by the very same manufacturers from which you download more up to date drivers later. The default drivers are submitted in accordance with Microsoft's specifications that the drivers be only what is necessary for basic functionality. As long as those drivers provide that functionality there's no reason to update them. If you want bells and whistles you get the full featured drivers from the manufacturer.

 

[Colif]

The drivers on the installer are basic drivers, yes.

But in most cases, once the PC is fully installed, Windows update will look for newer drivers and if either motherboard makers, or the other companies that make parts that are on motherboards (like Realtek for instance), have given drivers to Microsoft for signing, the drivers will be on the windows update catalog and PC will download and install them.

Some motherboard makers give driver packs to Microsoft so when you install windows on PC it downloads the pack. I know Asus do that (or used to). It makes sense as most people don't know to go to the motherboard makers website to get drivers, this makes it easier for them.

 

[Vox]

Thank you guys. So it seems I'm not really getting my computer faster by updating the current windows 10 drivers with the ones provided with the motherboard. They mostly seem to be a rather bloated versions of sole drivers and I don't need that at all.

Thank you all for explaining.

 

[MartinX2]

But how to install these manufacturer drivers?
1. Disconnect internet connection before windows setup to prevent automatic driver installation by windows.
So after the first boot up there will be no drivers and I can manually install OEM drivers from USB. After that connect to the internet and update rest of the drivers through windows update.

or

2. Install windows with internet connection, after the first boot up let windows do the work (let windows install all drivers and updates) and after that download all OEM drivers and install them on top of already installed drivers.