Should you always update Nvidia graphics card drivers right away?

[TYTSoldier]

I have a GTX 1080 TI, but don't tend to buy games until they're at least several months to a year old. Just wondering if it's important to always update or if it's ok to do so once every month or two. The reason I ask is because now there are bandwidth caps that don't last long if you download large games and watch 4k content.

 

[atomicWAR]

I wait on updates for at least a few days to a week to see if anything bad comes of it (nvidia has been hit and miss as of late). If after a decent time frame has passed and the review sites/forums are quiet I make the plunge assuming I am not needing a game ready driver for any reason.

 

[ThatVietGuy]

For the last 2 years I've been updating my Nvidia drivers (for a GTX 970, 980 ti, and now a 1080 ti) on the day or day-after release and have had zero issues.

Obviously mileage varies with people, but I just like getting it out of the way.

 

[atomicWAR]

Plenty of peeps don't have issue that is certain. I just like to be a little cautious so I don't end up as one of those who do. Nvidia has botched a few releases in the last 12 months.

 

[k1114]

I hardly update every couple of months but I'm not playing the latest games for it to matter.

 

[mwryder55]

I have had problems with the NVidia updates only once. That was when one of the updates wouldn't work with Skyrim and I had to go back to an older version. Since then they have fixed that problem but I am more cautious about updating now.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

Our approach has always been ... stay off the bleeding the and let others do the bleeding. I remember an OS update (XP SP2 IIRC) fudged AutoCAD's licensing utility and engineering firms has engineers and CAD techs sitting at the desks twiddling thumbs because they couldn't launch. My phone was ringing all day from folks trying to access their drawings.

The driver updates aren't that much of a risk, but all should remember Win 10's disaster after launch when every time you installed an nVidia driver, Win 10 would immediately uninstall it and if you had SLI, it was broken. reinstall the driver again to fixed but the OS would then go back and uninstall again. Best thing for OS is to not allow it to install any hardware drivers.

See sevenforums or tenforums if ya need to find out how.

As for driver update utilities, WTH they dont offer menu option: "If I don't tell ya otherwise, install drivers after X days" and you get to pick the number

 

[atomicWAR]

^ best advice, anecdote and rant I have seen this week on tom's.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

Classic horror movie theme ... when the grouped trapped in the big house is wondering if the monster is in a certain room, my money is not gonna be on the guy who is the 1st one who walks in

 

[atomicWAR]

@jackNaylorPE I know we don't always agree on advice (more frequently we do though, PSUs seem to be our hang up lol) but some of your posts crack me up.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

Gotta try and put a lil humor in everyone's day ... pay it forward/

 

[dontlistentome]

If your system is working fine and you don't need any new features or fixes new drivers might offer, there's no reason to install new drivers right away. Unless there's some kind of security issue resolved by installing new drivers, you might not need to ever update the drivers.

You'll know when you need them, you'll get a message from some game or other software saying there's a problem.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

Most GFX card drivers include performance tweaks for newer games, add SLI profiles and things like that ... mot of the time it's going to affect you with tweaks rather than bug fixes.