Upgrade drivers or not

[Natton18]

Hello,

I have a one-year old HP desktop PC (Windows 7) in which I recently upgraded the graphics card to a GTX460 for gaming. I keep its driver regularly updated via the Nvidia website.

Should I be updating the other PC drivers however, particularly the Realtek audio driver, if the various online driver updating software (Driver Alert, Driver Boost, etc.) tell me they’re out of date? Or is it a case of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”?

And how reliable are the results of the updating software in matching the newer driver versions to your particular PC?

Realtek advises on their website download page that you should download the latest High Definition Audio drivers from your system/motherboard manufacturer's website, not theirs. In my case this website lists, for the most part, only the original drivers.

And to add to the confusion, the Windows Update feature in my PC’s Device Manager tells me all is already updated.

This all came up because I am about to install a Logitech 5.1 speaker system on my PC. And I may yet get a sound card for it.

Any advice? Thanks.

 

[kajabla]

there's no reason not to keep updated. if it ain't broke in some way, why would they be updating it? the updates for sound and stuff probably won't affect performance (unlike the graphics driver, which will), but they probably deal with bugs that you haven't run into yet but may some day.

 

[das_stig]

Nah, if Windows 7 Update finds an updated, then let it upgrade, if a problem arises, you just roll back the driver and block that update.

For the GTX460, just visit nvidia at the end of each month, most updates are game tweaks.

 

[omnipanzer]

"Realtek advises on their website download page that you should download the latest High Definition Audio drivers from your system/motherboard manufacturer's website, not theirs."

They do that in case of conflicts and to keep their customer service out of the loop. It should not cause issues to update your audio drivers if need be.

 

[RetiredChief]

A lot of times drivers are updated to fix specific problems, which may or may not apply to your system. What I try to do is look for the "what was fixed" list. If it does not apply and I'm not having a performance issue, I normally skip. Sometimes the Listings do not include (a) minor performance improvements and or Bug fixes they do not want to advertize - So 50/50, but again unless you have a performance issue, not a biggy if you skip on it.

Concur with das_stig on driver updates from Microsoft.