Question Questions about build 1903 and DCH Nvidia drivers

[Frag Maniac]

I recently finally updated from 1809 to 1903, after being reluctant due to seeing talk of freezes and crashes in games on 1903.

When I did the update I was still on Nvidia's standard drivers, and recently I read you need DCH drivers on 1903. I've even read standard drivers supposedly won't install on 1903.

Well, that hasn't been the case for me. Not only did I get verification 1903 installed successfully with standard drivers, whenever there's a driver update, the standard drivers are still installing.

I tried installing a DCH driver yesterday though, and it said it won't over a standard driver.

The reason I'm bringing this up is 1), are there benefits other than driver security to use DCH (eg performance, stability, etc?), 2) can using standard drivers on 1903 cause freezing, crashing, etc, in games?, 3) is my entire system at any security risk using standard drivers, or are DCH just for added protection against driver corruption?

The other reason I'm asking this besides reading it shouldn't even be possible to run standard drivers on 1903, is I've had freeze and desktop crashes in the 2 games I've been playing since updating to 1903. These happen to be games known for such bugs though (Mafia 3, Wolfenstein Youngblood), so I'm not sure if it's 1903, the standard drivers, or the games.

I'll be testing other games today, but meantime I'd like to know if I can install DCH drivers by first uninstalling the standard driver? I already tried that via Nvidia's "Perform clean install" option, which didn't work. Do I have to boot into safe mode or use a driver cleaner before installing DCH drivers?

Also, I've read DCH drivers and installing them is a bit more complex. Do I have to use any hex editing or command lines (not great at that kind of thing)?

 

[Colif]

Some info on the subject from Nvidia - https://nvidia.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/4777/~/nvidia-dch/standard-display-drivers-for-windows-10-faq

It appears that 1903 can run either standard or DCH snce it has to be backwards compatible with what came before. DCH is a new way of doing it so they will give driver makers a few versions before they crack down on it.

you need to use DDU to uninstall standard and swap to DCH

 

[Frag Maniac]

Yeah it appears there's a lot of false information going around about this, not only regarding what OS build version it started with, but a lack of accuracy on being able to choose which type of driver.

I'd read the bit about using a driver uninstaller, but it's said to disable your net connection to avoid Windows automatically installing the same type driver after you do. I also read about DCH being made for OEM PCs after posting this thread, so it appears it's not really designed for custom built PCs.

The thing that kinda makes it all obvious is the FAQ on the topic via clicking the ? next to the driver type selection on Nvidia's driver page says to just chose the driver type you're already running for the type of PC you have.

Furthermore, so far in my testing, the freezes and crashing don't happen in RAGE 2, but of course I'll keep testing other games. It appears my worries were due to Mafia 3 and Wolfenstein Youngblood being unpolished. I have found though that the freezes and crashes to a large degree can be avoided by knowing what actions in game causes them.