Question Windows 10 and drivers

Turbonium

Platinum Member
Mar 15, 2003
2,157
82
91
Correct me if I'm wrong, but on a fresh install, Windows 10 seems to detect all devices, and install any necessary, and updated versions, of drivers (which I find rather incredible, as things have come a long way).

Still, is it recommended to manually download and install drivers off manufacturer websites? Say, for a GPU, for example?

I'm just not used to this ease-of-use with Windows.
 

mikeymikec

Lifer
May 19, 2011
20,001
14,332
136
If the manufacturer of a given piece of hardware has released a Windows 10 driver, I would probably use it.

If there's nothing particularly special in the machine and it's from an era older than Windows 10, I think Win10 can be relied upon to get reasonably decent drivers the vast majority of the time.

Another thing to bear in mind that if the GPU is a few years old, even if the manufacturer shows a newer driver, it doesn't necessarily mean it's better. IIRC my R9 380X stopped getting better+newer drivers a couple of years ago; they (AMD) still release new drivers but it's not like anything is changing for an older graphics card usually, maybe if a new game doesn't work properly then maybe a driver fix will become available, but in terms of general performance/stability improvements, probably not.