Doubt in updating drivers on Windows

[ZLRK]

I think I asked this once long ago, and also in the IRC channel. However, not sure why (whether I was unable to explain myself, people simply don't like me -not surprising anymore-, etc), but gotten advises have still not been able to help me take a definite choice.
So if not bothersome I'd like to try again.

In the past, I learned drivers provided by Windows Update were a no good, for they were generally outdated, had performance/compatibility issues with the hardware, instalaltions were incomplete as in lacking some "features", etc.

But recently I've heard from Windows 10 users that MS's drivers -through Windows Update- have turned to be not bad, just somewhat outdated compared to Nvidia's upstream drivers.

Out of experiences I had in the past, I'm still reluctant in taking their word, but on the other hand I know some of MS's *automatic* updates are important, such as security bug fixes, Defender definitions, etc. Thing is, updates include drivers whenever available as well...

To make things slightly more complicated, Nvidia's automatic updater now is part of GFE, which demands an Nvidia account to be used, policy I disagree with for personal reasons.

So, asking for some advise, which is the preferable way to update Nvidia drivers on Windows 10? Nvidia installer or Windows Update? Or is it that it became a mere matter of tastes?

If choosing Nvidia installer, how could I proceed? Letting WU to first install its driver, then using Nvidia installer to update/reinstall it? Or using group policy editor to block driver updates so I can manually update Nvidia drivers whenever I feel like that?

And on a final small offtopic query, what about the other drivers (network, wifi, audio, BT, etc)?

Thanks beforehand for your advise.

[mbc07]

Well, installing the driver through Windows Update only get you the bare minimum (e.g. no PhysX). What I did (don't do anymore since my NVIDIA GPUs doesn't receive driver updates anymore) was manually downloading the NVIDIA Installer from time to time (a good hint is when new AAA games releases, that means new driver update). During the install, I selected everything except GeForce Experience and that was it...

[DrHouse64]

Isn't GeForce Experience needed for shadowplay ? I find the automatic game configuration useful to quicly setup your games to what your GPU can do (then I manually adjust details I'm not happy with). I guess it's up to anyone uses.

Anyway, yes W10 update drivers are good most of the time, except for the GPU if you want the most recent one. If you feel something on your hardawre isn't working correctly, you can always check for drivers in the constructor website.
What you want is a computer that run correctly for your needs, not one that have the best drivers ever, I think it's overkill to make them a big deal.

[Helios]

Kind of. OBS can use nvenc and configure a replay buffet, effectively doing what shadow play does with more flexibility. I think shadow play has a better game capture method that is more reliable but I haven't had issues with OBS capture methods

Also I just use this for checking for updates. Fuck GFE.

https://github.com/ElPumpo/TinyNvidiaUpdateChecker

[NaturalViolence]

OBS has actually been far more reliable for me than shadowplay. I just use geforce experience for updates. It doesn't use much system resources.

[mbc07]

(09-27-2018, 05:35 PM)DrHouse64 Wrote: I find the automatic game configuration useful to quicly setup your games to what your GPU can do (then I manually adjust details I'm not happy with).

I tried to use that feature sometimes and for me it was pure garbage. It ALWAYS pushed unrealistic and super high settings as recommended (and that my GPU obviously couldn't handle but had no issues maintaining a steady 60 FPS if manually set to medium settings) and it was also prone to override my game settings even through I explicitly had set GeForce Experience to not mess with my games. I heard that recent versions even force you to login with an NVIDIA account in order to use it, so just burn it in the hell...

On the rare occasions I needed to record something, I just used the built-in Game DVR in Windows 10, it doesn't have a lot of settings but it simply works, no frills. Funny that I could even use the replay buffer feature and it apparently could offload encoding to the GPU (as I didn't notice any impact in my frame rates, even on games I had to dial back to medium settings to prevent FPS drops when not recording) even through Shadowplay refuses to work with Fermi GPUs saying they aren't supported...

[Admentus]

Last time I tried recording with Game DVR from Windows 10 it recorded no sound... NVidia Shadowplay works fine. OBS is suitable too for it's job. I would like to use Game DVR instead... If it just worked...

I never use NVidia Experience to provide me the recommended settings (which just provide me with horrible suggestions each time, I can do better myself), neither do I use it to update the driver. I just check the GeForce page once a month (or unless I am absolutely sure there is a new game I have that benefits from a driver update). I usually don't want to take the risk with broken drivers. Let the internet test them for a few days... I got lucky a few times for waiting patiently. I guess NVidia Experience can be handy in a pinch to measure the FPS... If it works...

I run a clean install each time I am updating my NVidia driver. Why not.

[DrHouse64]

(09-28-2018, 05:58 AM)mbc07 Wrote: I tried to use that feature sometimes and for me it was pure garbage. It ALWAYS pushed unrealistic and super high settings as recommended (and that my GPU obviously couldn't handle but had no issues maintaining a steady 60 FPS if manually set to medium settings) and it was also prone to override my game settings even through I explicitly had set GeForce Experience to not mess with my games.

That's unfortunate. It's pretty accurate on my side. Sometimes "Recommended" setting aims for 30-40 FPS, I have to slide it 2 or 3 steps over Performance to get 50-60 FPS.

[Der Siebte Schatten]

It highly depends on games on my side. Some settings are fine and work great, like Dead by Daylight or the Need for Speed games, and some other are just unplayable, Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon being the best example (barely 10 fps with automatic settings). I don't know how they decide of the configuration, but I think they're missing a thing or two when establishing their optimal settings...

[ZLRK]

First, I apologize beforehand if this is bad necroposting.
I had read that this is sometimes "allowed" if it adds something relevant to the thread (specially if still unresolved and message is by OP hirself).

Some months ago I had an experience of clean installing Win10 on a pal's slightly old PC, which among other things it had a Nvidia Geforce GT 730.
So went to mobo's website and downloaded latest drivers. For the GPU I tried downloading latest driver from the website, and surprise: card was not even recognized, and I double checked I picked the right model. Solution was letting Windows Update to take care: it installed an older version of the driver, but at least it was left well functional. Perhaps due to the old GPU model?

But curious stuff didn't end here. When running Windows Update I noticed it still downloaded updates for the drivers I had already installed.

I checked driver details in Device manager. I noticed some few drivers were signed by Microsoft, but several others (including the Nvidia GPU itself) were signed by their corresponding manufacturer.

Now I still don't have a recent rig, but this experience revived my doubts. Maybe times changed again recently?
In recent PC/laptop models, are newest device drivers now available at Windows Update if clean installing Windows 10 from scratch?
Or should I still get all drivers from the corresponding manufacturer websites?
If the later, how can I cope with Windows Update? There will be a point where it automatically installs the driver even without me realizing, and I'll not always be able to prevent this!