Rastalovich
New member
This comes up time and time again on many forums. Games give the advice in their support sections... "have the most up to date drivers..." whenever an issue is initially thrown out.
Well let me share a little rule of thumb that has been the case with nVidia drivers since.. well as far back as I can remember. **
The latest drivers from nVidia will always be the feature filled, talk of the town, favorite release, often concentrating on new things, newest cards, newest games.
Indeed, for atleast 2 generations back, the nVidia driver download section will point the user to the most current drivers available. This is where their thoughts are concentrated and to expect customer-support for any issues regarding old drivers - in the main, it aint gonna happen.
nVidia Driver Download page (this is the UK page, country selection is at the top)
Now here`s the thing. Although this is the case, u have to draw urself to the "supported cards" list within the download information section of the drivers. This will have in it practically all the cards nVidia have out for sale, and a few older ones. The destinction here is the term "supported".
This means that, although the card is expected to work with these drivers, to an extent, this could be purely outputing the desktop, output tv, but `can` be limited in other ways. The limits can be how well the card will perform in games, even to the point where.. well they could crash all the time to be frank. (no I don`t know who Frank is)
** There are 3 sets of important drivers for any1 to be aware of, the hundreds of others can be forgotten as far as they`re concerned.
1. The current lastest, newest drivers. This is the set u should always keep in mind when playing newer games.
2. The drivers that came with the card. These are ones that were made available at the time of packaging ur card when it was new - and it`s key in terms of a reference for knowing the ideal driver designed specifically for ur card.
3. The assumed best driver for ur card. The one nVidia spent the most time on getting correct when ur card was `new`. Before this driver they were either ironing problems out, after this driver version they were more interested in the card that just made urs old
The driver release will be labeled 180.xx, 177.xx, 94.xx etc, the .xx aint that important, often they're the number the beta was at b4 it went live or was ratified (ofc there's more detail that goes into the build numbers, but afaic it's irrelevant to the user).
To explain how to establish the 3 drivers.
Easiest is going to be the one that came with ur card, 2. Doubly important these days as, for example, a 8800 card isn't always the same gpu or crucially, generation. nVidia, for reasons only they can explain, marketing mainly, kept the same main-name for gfxcards but put different gpus in them. So a 8800GT is most definately not the same, driver-wize, as a 8800GTX. Same can be said for the 9 series and so on. As far as the owner is concerned, they can't necessarily, as a 8800 owner ask another 8800 owner what drivers 'came' with their card. It could be a GT, GTS, 320m, 512m, and it goes on - there can be a generation gap which is important. What u received on the driver cd that came with ur card is that version for 2.
Next easiest I guess are the current most up to date ones, 1. Now these are going to be dedicated mainly to 'the' new cards of the moment. That said, they will offer some fixes or patches that are relevant to new games also. So u have 2 situations here, they can fix a game issue, but then they are necessarily meant for ur card (if it's not new, i.e. present generation). Here u are using them on an experimental basis. If they work - excellent. If they work, but have a lower fps - but essentially the game ur playing is stable - great again. But this is the deal with using them, they can fix things, and break things, or perhaps lessen performance in some cases. Ofc these are always coming out, always appearing on the nVidia site. The key can be, if again ur card is older, that if the driverset works 100% take note of it. If the next new one comes out and doesn`t work as well, disregard it. It's a strange game to play, and it means alot of trying, installing, often with issues of it's own.
3. These are the drivers best for ur card. When nVidia thought ur card was the best one at the time. It should give the best performance. The way to work this one out is, as I mentioned, knowing what number 2. are. If for example, ur card (doesn`t matter which card) came with 69.24 - the best driver should be 74.xx. Similarly if u had 169.25, ur best driver will be 174.xx the pattern is seeing the 4, whatever revision u received on the cd, the next 4 up from it should be the best one. The next 5, 175.xx etc, will be focused on the next generation. The new cards to come might not even be in the list due to cloak-and-dagger release info reasons. * Do be aware that u dont stick with 174.25 and a 174.66 comes out, in this cas the .xx is of importance, obviously.
But the driver version is ancient compared to the latest driver version ?!" - well truth is m8, so`s ur card nVidia have moved on. Doesn`t mean u have to upgrade necessarily, 8800GTX cards still kick mucho-butt, it just means ur not flavor of the year in the dev department.
U have to remember here that this isn`t a set-in-stone rule as laid down by nVidia, this is merely taken from experience down the years.
To summarize.
1. Latest available for download.
2. The ones on ur cd/dvd.
3. The next driver with a 4 that follows 2.
Rule I use - If u have system problems, install 3. If u have game problems, `try` the 1. of the moment. 2. are just a reference.
Biggest key is, if u find a driverset that works 2000%, keep them. Don`t necessarily use them forever, but keep them somewhere. If u ever have a problem, u can resort back to them.
Re-installing drivers: (I'm not going to tell u how to do it, I'm off home in a minute, but here's something to point out to u if u have uninstalled properly)
It's pretty simple, u bring up the nVidia control panel. In the bottom left is a System Information link, click it. Then click on the component tab. It will list the versions of all the driver parts on ur pc. U can disregard the bottom section marked for the control-panel-components, they're designed differently and have different versions. (Indeed they can be installed seperately) But the versions above should all be the same. If there is one different then ur uninstall process hasn`t worked properly or the new install hasn`t forced itself over the old version. Try again.
(this is mainly so I can link to it when people post about drivers, but hopefully it`ll help in reference too)
Well let me share a little rule of thumb that has been the case with nVidia drivers since.. well as far back as I can remember. **
The latest drivers from nVidia will always be the feature filled, talk of the town, favorite release, often concentrating on new things, newest cards, newest games.
Indeed, for atleast 2 generations back, the nVidia driver download section will point the user to the most current drivers available. This is where their thoughts are concentrated and to expect customer-support for any issues regarding old drivers - in the main, it aint gonna happen.
nVidia Driver Download page (this is the UK page, country selection is at the top)
Now here`s the thing. Although this is the case, u have to draw urself to the "supported cards" list within the download information section of the drivers. This will have in it practically all the cards nVidia have out for sale, and a few older ones. The destinction here is the term "supported".
This means that, although the card is expected to work with these drivers, to an extent, this could be purely outputing the desktop, output tv, but `can` be limited in other ways. The limits can be how well the card will perform in games, even to the point where.. well they could crash all the time to be frank. (no I don`t know who Frank is)
** There are 3 sets of important drivers for any1 to be aware of, the hundreds of others can be forgotten as far as they`re concerned.
1. The current lastest, newest drivers. This is the set u should always keep in mind when playing newer games.
2. The drivers that came with the card. These are ones that were made available at the time of packaging ur card when it was new - and it`s key in terms of a reference for knowing the ideal driver designed specifically for ur card.
3. The assumed best driver for ur card. The one nVidia spent the most time on getting correct when ur card was `new`. Before this driver they were either ironing problems out, after this driver version they were more interested in the card that just made urs old
The driver release will be labeled 180.xx, 177.xx, 94.xx etc, the .xx aint that important, often they're the number the beta was at b4 it went live or was ratified (ofc there's more detail that goes into the build numbers, but afaic it's irrelevant to the user).
To explain how to establish the 3 drivers.
Easiest is going to be the one that came with ur card, 2. Doubly important these days as, for example, a 8800 card isn't always the same gpu or crucially, generation. nVidia, for reasons only they can explain, marketing mainly, kept the same main-name for gfxcards but put different gpus in them. So a 8800GT is most definately not the same, driver-wize, as a 8800GTX. Same can be said for the 9 series and so on. As far as the owner is concerned, they can't necessarily, as a 8800 owner ask another 8800 owner what drivers 'came' with their card. It could be a GT, GTS, 320m, 512m, and it goes on - there can be a generation gap which is important. What u received on the driver cd that came with ur card is that version for 2.
Next easiest I guess are the current most up to date ones, 1. Now these are going to be dedicated mainly to 'the' new cards of the moment. That said, they will offer some fixes or patches that are relevant to new games also. So u have 2 situations here, they can fix a game issue, but then they are necessarily meant for ur card (if it's not new, i.e. present generation). Here u are using them on an experimental basis. If they work - excellent. If they work, but have a lower fps - but essentially the game ur playing is stable - great again. But this is the deal with using them, they can fix things, and break things, or perhaps lessen performance in some cases. Ofc these are always coming out, always appearing on the nVidia site. The key can be, if again ur card is older, that if the driverset works 100% take note of it. If the next new one comes out and doesn`t work as well, disregard it. It's a strange game to play, and it means alot of trying, installing, often with issues of it's own.
3. These are the drivers best for ur card. When nVidia thought ur card was the best one at the time. It should give the best performance. The way to work this one out is, as I mentioned, knowing what number 2. are. If for example, ur card (doesn`t matter which card) came with 69.24 - the best driver should be 74.xx. Similarly if u had 169.25, ur best driver will be 174.xx the pattern is seeing the 4, whatever revision u received on the cd, the next 4 up from it should be the best one. The next 5, 175.xx etc, will be focused on the next generation. The new cards to come might not even be in the list due to cloak-and-dagger release info reasons. * Do be aware that u dont stick with 174.25 and a 174.66 comes out, in this cas the .xx is of importance, obviously.
But the driver version is ancient compared to the latest driver version ?!" - well truth is m8, so`s ur card
nVidia have moved on. Doesn`t mean u have to upgrade necessarily, 8800GTX cards still kick mucho-butt, it just means ur not flavor of the year in the dev department.U have to remember here that this isn`t a set-in-stone rule as laid down by nVidia, this is merely taken from experience down the years.
To summarize.
1. Latest available for download.
2. The ones on ur cd/dvd.
3. The next driver with a 4 that follows 2.
Rule I use - If u have system problems, install 3. If u have game problems, `try` the 1. of the moment. 2. are just a reference.
Biggest key is, if u find a driverset that works 2000%, keep them. Don`t necessarily use them forever, but keep them somewhere. If u ever have a problem, u can resort back to them.
Re-installing drivers: (I'm not going to tell u how to do it, I'm off home in a minute, but here's something to point out to u if u have uninstalled properly)
It's pretty simple, u bring up the nVidia control panel. In the bottom left is a System Information link, click it. Then click on the component tab. It will list the versions of all the driver parts on ur pc. U can disregard the bottom section marked for the control-panel-components, they're designed differently and have different versions. (Indeed they can be installed seperately) But the versions above should all be the same. If there is one different then ur uninstall process hasn`t worked properly or the new install hasn`t forced itself over the old version. Try again.
(this is mainly so I can link to it when people post about drivers, but hopefully it`ll help in reference too)
