[SOLVED] Nvidia driver updates

[Bob1nba]

Since I built my PC about a year ago, I've been consistently updating my nvidia GeForce drivers pretty much as soon as a newer version has come out. This has usually been at least once a month or whenever they come out. I've heard that it isn't always necessary to download new drivers evertime because most of the time its for optimizing a game you may not even be playing.

Is there any harm to installing a new driver as they come out? Is it a good method to clean install or even use DDU every now and than to kind of keep video drivers clean?

 

[jay32267]

"Is there any harm to installing a new driver as they come out? "
Generally no.

" Is it a good method to clean install or even use DDU every now and than to kind of keep video drivers clean? "

I wouldn't do it if I didn't have a problem.

I update my GPU drivers about once every 6 months and that's enough for me. I could probably go less. I have two machines that have been running for years this way.

 

[Crowii]

Usually doesn't hurt to update, but also a bit unnecessary most of the time unless you're always playing the latest and greatest AAA game.

If you hit a problem after installing a new driver, then it's usually recommended to just roll back to a stable version. If it's broken even then, that's where you use DDU. If you're a bit of a fanatic and just want to run DDU all the time, then there shouldn't really be an issue with it, but I also think the chances of that doing something useful is pretty damn low.

 

[hotaru.hino]

I've heard that it isn't always necessary to download new drivers evertime because most of the time its for optimizing a game you may not even be playing.

Correct. NVIDIA's good about releasing notes about what the driver is actually doing. Unless there's a note in there that specifically caters to what you want, there's no real point in always staying up to date.

Is there any harm to installing a new driver as they come out? Is it a good method to clean install or even use DDU every now and than to kind of keep video drivers clean?

Generally there's no harm in doing so. Also there's no point in using DDU unless you have issues or are switching to AMD to give a clean slate. If you poke around in the unpackaged driver folder, you'll find the drivers are the same name. So updating drivers is literally overwriting the file with a new version.

Also note from DDU's official page:

-DDU should be used when having a problem uninstalling / installing a driver or when switching GPU brand.
-DDU should not be used every time you install a new driver unless you know what you are doing.