I have a couple of general questions:
I have a GeForce 9500GT video card
1) Is it recommended to keep up with the latest driver? Mine is ~12 months old.
I recently got an ntdll.dll error that could have been driver related??
2) When Windows offers an optional video driver update I'm having difficulty finding out what specific driver version is being offered. I click on "more information" and don't get very far.
The standard answer is, if you are not having any problems or are not comfortable performing an update then leave things alone.
However, most the regulars on this site, including myself would say get the latest and greatest directly from the NVIDIA website Drivers - Download NVIDIA Drivers and don't use Windows update for getting your graphics drivers.
I'm one that usually updates the driver when a new release is available, but sometimes I feel it unnecessary, since the majority of the improvements deal with games, and then usually just the latest games. I'm not much of a game person anymore, so I often look over the changelog to see if anything might be more relevant to my particular usage.
Also be careful as I have a Nvidia 9800GT and twice in the last year have downloaded latest drivers from the Nvidia site, had problems and had to revert back to the prior driver. I agree with the other posters, if it aint broke, leave the bugger alone.
Hi mjf,
Understand that Windows Update doesn't seek out the latest drivers. Instead, it relies on manufactures to submit drivers. I can recall many instances where users were given outdated, and at times corrupted, drivers by Windows Update only because those were the only drivers in the Update store. For this reason it's always better to go directly to the manufacture's site.
This is going to be true for any device driver in your system. The only reliable "latest" drivers from Windows Update are going to be Microsoft drivers... which are seldom, if ever, needed.
The drivers that are on windows update are also minimal packages and may not contain all the features of the full driver set from the manufacturer. I.e. minmal gui/options... They are there for usefulness, to get you going right off the install disk or when updating to fix bugs, but MS has heavy restrictions about limiting the package sizes that go on WU or on the install disk, the real driver set from the manufacturers website is ususaly what you want.
I have a 260 GTX and run W7 x64. I always get the latest drivers from the Nvidia site. Haven't had any real problems doing this and sometimes I've seen an improvement in performance.
The latest ones seemed to have upped my temperature a couple of degrees but nothing to worry about.
I've always done this. With my previous card, an 8800GTS, driver updates drastically improved it's performance over it's lifetime.
Quote