When Should You Update Your Drivers?

When Should You Update Your Drivers?

When Should You Update Your Drivers?

Software drivers might seem like a complicated and confusing thing to an average PC user. Just why a computer needs these things to work correctly? The answer is pretty simple. A software driver is like a translator between your OS (Operating System) and the hardware device. Your OS alone couldn't possibly "know" how to control all the hundreds of thousands of unique hardware available on the market, and this is where drivers come in.

Some simple devices such as a computer mouse or a keyboard usually work without any kind of special drivers (although some unique features such as programmable buttons will be disabled until you install the proper software from the manufacturer). On the other hand, most complex hardware like your video card need the correct drivers or it won't function correctly.

Once you have the software driver installed (usually these come on a CD or DVD bundled with your device) you might wonder whether you should check the manufacturer's website for a newer version or just continue using the one provided on the CD. I strongly recommend using the rule "if it's not broken, don't fix it" in this case. Your computer will run just as good with an older version, so updating your drivers is not necessary unless you are getting some stability problems or device conflicts. Here are some benefits newer drivers might have over older ones:

Minor performance increase: this is usually only applicable to gaming-grade video cards that might deliver a few percent more FPS in video games and benchmarks with newer drivers. If you are a gamer you might want to keep up with your graphics card driver versions, but otherwise it's not necessary. Bug fixes and stability improvements: hardware device drivers are thoroughly tested before release but some might still cause various stability problems or device conflicts. If your computer crashes frequently when performing specific tasks, installing newer drivers might fix this problem. New features: new driver software might enable you to do more with your hardware device (such as improved programmable macros for your fancy keyboard, or better features for your graphics tablet). If you need that new feature you will probably want to update your driver, but if you know you won't be using it then it's not necessary.

You don't have to check the websites of every hardware manufacturer for new driver versions yourself. Download a that will do all the hard work of searching for the newest correct driver version for your device, downloading and installing it automatically.

You might wonder why am I advising against updating your drivers just for the sake of having a newer version. It's true that as a gamer you might want to chase the newest versions in order to increase the performance of your computer as much as possible, but for the average user installing the newest thing not only takes time (visiting the manufacturer's site, locating the download page, downloading the driver, installing it and restarting the PC) but might actually cause various problems. You know that your computer works fine with the older version, but you can't know if the updated driver won't have any bugs, conflict with your specific hardware configuration or make your PC unstable. The old proverb I mentioned earlier applies perfectly here.

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