should I update to newest NVIDIA driver whenever it comes out?

[simonz93]

I usually subscribe to the belief of "don't fix what ain't broke", especially considering that Drivers frequently break something, often small (like the most recent NVIDIA driver breaking the Pip-boy color for Fallout 4) but sometimes big.

But "update your GPU driver" is almost always the number one advice whenever you report a problem/seek performance boost. Why would driver update improve the performance of a particular game, since it is, 9 times out of 10, not aimed at doing that? And even when there is nothing wrong with your game or performance, Nvidia still recommends users to update their drivers as soon as new ones come out.

So what's the reason behind this? Do you do it? Why or why not?

 

[leo2kp]

You could check the patch notes to see if the update resolves any issues you are having, or if it introduces any new "known issues" with games you already play. Update as necessary.

 

[Samat]

Driver are usually released to fix bugs, improve performance or bring support for latest games. If you are not getting that new game on day one that just got driver support or you have no problems with the games you are playing currently then there is no reason to install every driver update there is. This is especially true if you have a bit older card since those optimizations might not be for your model anyway.

Personally I sometimes skip driver releases and/or wait a bit to see if people have problems with the new driver before updating.

 

[junkeymonkey]

ya , just because its a new driver don't mean its a better driver for sure .

also look at driver feed back forums like nvidias

https://forums.geforce.com/default/topic/960821/geforce-drivers/official-372-70-game-ready-whql-display-driver-feedback-thread-released-8-30-16-/

I still use driver 355.xx on this 980ti but I also download newer and older drivers to try out and see ,then like I said I'm still running 355 [lol]

I like to try them and see then if I like them I save then to file for any future use if needed

it comes down to try them out and see what drivers ''you'' find works best for your card / system and needs is all

 

[James Mason]

No, you shouldn't unless a new game is out and the driver mentions it has performance improvements for that game, and you feel the game isn't performing good enough.

GPU driver updates can cause problems if you do them carelessly, and unless you encounter a problem with your current driver, there's little reason to update it.

 

[engineer5261]

I know what you mean. I would update drivers more often if I have a current (1000-series as of writing this) card because performance tweaks and updates are focused at the current gen. I had a 680gtx up until a few months ago, and I found that sometimes with new driver updates I lose performance/fps in a certain game.

With that being said, the good (or bad?) thing about Nvidia is that they have a very active liaison team that communicates with developers and tries to iron out potential issues/problems with new software/games.

With my experience in a design/development role I can tell you that nothing is perfect, there is always room for refinement and your company does not want you to spend a lot of time in trying to design the perfect product. Your company wants you to take minimum time - design with cheaper parts and get the thing out the door with maximum profit margins ... add to that a chance of engineering design mistakes/errors because nobody's perfect

Now with Nvidia, I can see how it may be very difficult to write firmware for a device which has millions and millions of transistors. No they wont get it right the first time, yes they will have unutilized devices/transistors/interfaces in place for future updates. They will have to tweak their firmware to provide support for a major title coming out because a lot of their customers will want to play that. Along those updates, with so many transistors sometimes a unique or unreproducable situation can occur.

It's not that they mess it up .... its a major feat integrating such large scale electronics together working in teams of hundreds. Especially considering how they keep shrinking transistors so that they can pack more of them on a given silicon wafer. Mistakes will happen, but hopefully they will learn from their mistakes and get better ... and try not to make the same mistakes .... and try to better understand the systems and platforms that they develop on.

 

[junkeymonkey]

seems lately NVidia starting to make AMD look good - like one guy said it seems they tend to brake more then they fix