AMD has expanded its adrenaline driver extensively in recent years, while Nvidia focuses more on the optional additional software Geforce Experience.
When it comes to graphics card drivers, opinions differ: Some always install the latest version as soon as it is released. The others leave their driver untouched as long as the PC is running without problems.
This is exactly the topic of our new survey. For the sake of simplicity, we have deliberately left out the various reasons for a new installation in the answer options below. Instead, we’ll limit ourselves to the approximate frequency with which you install a new driver:
This is only a rough approximation, also because the frequency of a new driver installation can depend on other factors such as the release of new games. This brings us to the next point:
Many good reasons for a new driver
Installing a fresh GPU driver can happen for a variety of reasons. The top five reasons are as follows:
- It improves performance in a game you want to play
- It brings new features that you want to use (e.g. upscaling techniques like DLSS or FSR)
- It closes a security gap
- It is necessary to support a new graphics card
- It could help fix issues like stuttering, graphical glitches, or crashes
If none of these factors are present, we don’t think there is anything wrong with leaving the driver untouched. You shouldn’t expect performance improvements that are too big in games, experience has shown that they are usually in the middle single-digit range at most.
A clean uninstall can be important: It is not absolutely necessary to manually remove the old driver before reinstalling. However, if problems arise, it is worth trying to perform a clean uninstallation. Like the tool Display Driver Uninstaller
(DDU), we explain to you in the following article using Nvidia as an example:
Nvidia drivers: how to completely uninstall them and why it’s worth it
In addition to the survey, please let us know in the comments why you mainly install a new graphics card driver and how you go about it: first uninstall the old driver with tools such as DDU or use the new driver without first uninstalling it? We look forward to your answers and thank you for taking part in the survey!
