Do driver updates improve hardware performance?

[FishmanGeertz]

I recently updated my Radeon HD 5870 (crossfire) drivers to the latest version, how do I benefit from this? Does it improve performance in any way? I also updated my creative soundblaster x-fi drivers, what did that do?

[JaredJames]

It depends what the update was for. The manufacturer website should list what they do.

It could be anything from stability, compatibility or even security updates.

[Mark44]

One potential benefit is that a bug in an older driver is fixed so that it doesn't crash the computer any longer.

I ran into a problem a couple of weeks ago in which a video driver was causing my computer (running Win XP) to reboot when I attempted to open one specific Web page. The adapter (Radeon of some kind, if I recall) was built-in to the motherboard, and the driver was about 5 years old. After looking at the crash dump, the problem seemed to be a video driver that wasn't handling alpha values correctly. I found a new driver and installed it, after uninstalling the older driver. Problem solved.

Updating the video driver improved the performance in a binary fashion (from not working at all on selected sites, to working). It's possible that the newer version contained some performance enhancements over and above the bug fixes.

[KrisOhn]

Driver updates provide improvements in all the ways suggested above, but they also have the ability to improve raw performance of what the driver is running on. I know that video card drivers can unlock pipelines in the card which can increase performance and could do other things, such as change voltages even.

It is a good idea to update your drivers even when you're not sure they're going to do anything since not every problem in the hardware comes along in normal use.

[FishmanGeertz]

Driver updates provide improvements in all the ways suggested above, but they also have the ability to improve raw performance of what the driver is running on. I know that video card drivers can unlock pipelines in the card which can increase performance and could do other things, such as change voltages even.

It is a good idea to update your drivers even when you're not sure they're going to do anything since not every problem in the hardware comes along in normal use.

So newest video drivers = greater efficiency, less bugs and crashes, and slightly improved performance?

Off-topic, but what are the latest ATI Radeon HD 5870 (2-way crossfire) drivers? How do I check what version I am currently using?

[KrisOhn]

So newest video drivers = greater efficiency, less bugs and crashes, and slightly improved performance?

In most cases yes, however occasionally you will get a driver that creates more bugs and glitches than it solves, for these rare cases I keep a copy of my previous driver backed up.


Off-topic, but what are the latest ATI Radeon HD 5870 (2-way crossfire) drivers? How do I check what version I am currently using?

I know it has something to do with Catalyst Control Center, but I can't really help you, I've never used ATI before.

[jhae2.718]

For ATI it should be Catalyst Control Center. If you open CCC you should be able to get the version number.

You can find the latest drivers on ATI's site.

[FishmanGeertz]

For ATI it should be Catalyst Control Center. If you open CCC you should be able to get the version number.

You can find the latest drivers on ATI's site.

It says my Catalyst version is 11.3

[jhae2.718]

That's up-to-date, from my checking of the ATI website.

[russ_watters]

Note, they are typically released monthly and are labeled by year and month...

[moogoomonkey]

Do you mean you are running your graphics in Crossfire or the update was crossfire? Crossfire means that you are running two graphics cards in your rig. If it was the update, it means that you can now run your 5870 with a friend (I'm not sure but do they need to be the same GPU anyone in the know?)