Driver Dance

[xane]

The news reports on the impending "driver dance" you get from updating nVidia video drivers.

However, whilst running the regular Windows Update tool (XP Pro), to get the fix for the MSBlast worm, I noticed you can update the nVidia drivers via Microsoft.

Has anyone tried this method yet ?

 

[Cdr]

ummm I think its been recommended not to get the gfx card drivers from there - dunno whether this still applies now.

I think you're best off getting them from the nVidia site

 

[Clowneh!]

what's a driver dance?

 

[Cdr]

Think I saw it on Wildlife On One last night...........


....or was that the scorpion.

 

[Scooba Da Bass]

The drivers from MS are always way behind the latest Nvidia's as they wait for WHQL certification.

 

[Xavier]

Originally posted by Scooba Da Bass
The drivers from MS are always way behind the latest Nvidia's as they wait for WHQL certification.

All the drivers which appear as full releases on NVIDIA.com and ATI.com for retail products are WHQL certified. Occasionally you can get these drivers before the manufacturer release because a lowly peon at microsofts certification labs will accidentally hit the wrong switch and make them visible ahead of schedule.

With any new GPU launch, such as when the FX began to trickle through into production earlier this year, other beta drivers are sometimes offered to test new engines and codebases alongside WHQL certified options for any product with retail presence.

The major difference is that ATI/NVIDIA drivers from windowsupdate will sometimes not carry the control panel applications as they're not part of the driver per-se and the Microsoft releases will have things such as coolbits (optional registry keys to allow hidden panes within the control panel for overclocking core/memory) stripped out.

Nowadays the GPU manufacturers do most of their WHQL testing inhouse with Microsoft only doing final certification which technically amounts to little more than a rubber stamp.

Xav