New
#281
I don't update the GPU driver unless there is a compelling reason to do so as I think Nvidia updates are far too frequent and one can end up spending literally their entire computing time running all the updates that come out (whether it be OS updates, driver updates, app/software updates, updates for a person's mobile devices etc etc).
But I was curious, should I decide to update my Nvidia drivers, what is the best practice? Do people download and install the latest driver over the top of the previous Nvidia driver - Or do people uninstall the previous driver (which seems a lot more long winded and laborious) and then install the newest? My preference would be for over the top if feasible.
I have no interest in downloading Geforce experience so any updates I would do will not involve using this.
Cheers,
Wayne
@Scottyboy99
When I install mine, I always use the customize option. And I use my installed version to update itself. During the update, Nvidia deletes the old driver 1st, then installs the updated driver.
Ok thanks for feedback guys. It's useful info if I need to update. At the moment I am on a October 2015 driver - can't remember the version number 355.xxxx or something along those lines. At the moment what few games I have run very nicely and everything works perfect so I will carry on with it until there is a compelling reason for change. Mine is just a single nvidia 980ti - I've never been into SLI much and I get the impression most of the issues / fixes are focused on SLI. On my old laptop I had Radeon 6970m gpu and I used the same driver for about 4 years and never ran into a game where I needed a newer driver so am hoping the same principle can be used for the current machine. I just hope Windows update doesn't try and thrust a newer driver at some point at some unexpected juncture! I'd like to be in control of when I decide to update a driver!
i see reference to 'DDU' quite a bit when mentioning gpu driver updates. At the risk of sounding a bit dense what does DDU mean?
cheers, Wayne
Driver Deletion Utility, or something close. Running it puts your system into safe mode and deletes everything associated w/Nvidia. When it reboots you then install the new driver. Lots of people swear by it, but just doing a clean install using the Nvidia installer works fine for me.
Display Driver Uninstaller.
Official site: http://www.wagnardmobile.com/?q=disp...installer-ddu-
I've found there's no need to manually uninstall the previous driver first. When I download the latest version and start installing I always select Custom and then perform clean installation. Unfortunately, this will also reset all your NVIDIA control panel settings to default, but will ensure there's no conflicts between driver releases.