win7 drivers

[chronodekar]

My brother signed our home PC up for the public beta of Windows 7.

At the moment we've installed the latest nVidia drivers from their site. The Windows update is suggesting us to get the drivers from microsoft. What should I do?

I have an nVidia 8600 GT ( 512MB )

-cd

 

[Scali]

Stick to the latest nVidia drivers. The Microsoft drivers are generally older and less feature-rich versions of the nVidia drivers. For some reason Windows Update never detects it properly when you have newer nVidia drivers installed. I have the same problem in Windows Vista, it always wants to update my video drivers, even though I have the latest official nVidia ones, which are WAY newer than what they offer.

 

[nitromullet]

IIRC, the Win 7 RC drivers from MS or NVIDIA are the exact same driver. However, what Scali says is true, you really should always get your video drivers straight from either NVIDIA or ATI if you want to ensure you have the latest version.

 

[Sylvanas]

I think if you download any Nvidia beta drivers, MS update will keep telling you to install the latest WHQL drivers- which may be older and not as updated as more recent betas, just stick with what Nv has got on their site.

 

[chronodekar]

Thanks guys!

I think I'll stick with the nVidia drivers. I'll just mark to 'ignore' the update in the Windows Update thing.

🙂

-cd

 

[Scali]

Originally posted by: nitromullet
IIRC, the Win 7 RC drivers from MS or NVIDIA are the exact same driver.

Well, MS doesn't make its own drivers, so they do come from nVidia.
But the drivers on Windows Update are usually a few months behind what's on nVidia's website, and they are also usually 'stripped', so you don't get the whole control panel, PhysX and that sort of stuff. Just the basic driver.
The latest drivers for Windows 7 on the nVidia site (185.85 WHQL) are very, VERY good.