What are NVIDIA drivers and how do you download them?

One of the things to know about computers is that you should always update your drivers. With new games being released and new technologies being introduced by the manufacturer, there are also new updates being released for your graphics card. These updates will either be iterative or major, but updating drivers for your graphics card will significantly improve the performance.

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In addition to bringing access to new technologies and improving performance, updating drivers can also fix any known security issue or other widely reported issues. NVIDIA, one of the major players in the computer graphics segment, has made it relatively easy to update drivers. Here is everything you need to know about NVIDIA drivers and the process to update them.

What is NVIDIA driver and how to update it

An NVIDIA driver is a software program that establishes communication between your computer and the NVIDIA graphics card installed on your computer. This driver is used to ensure that the graphics card from NVIDIA works as intended and delivers top performance with the latest games, software, and applications.

When you up  date your drivers with a certified NVIDIA driver on your system, you will not only ensure that your computer is running the most up-to-date version of the driver but also see improved performance. This improvement will mainly be in the form of your system taking advantage of all the new features available in your graphics system and optimising performance accordingly.

The most common benefits of getting the latest NVIDIA driver include improved frame rates in higher resolutions and better 3D graphics capabilities. Needless to say, these updates also ensure that crashes due to outdated drivers or software incompatibilities are vastly reduced. So, the obvious question is how do I update NVIDIA drivers? There are two ways to update them on your system.

The first method is through NVIDIA GeForce Experience, a companion application to your GeForce graphics card. The second method is updating NVIDIA GPU drivers manually. Let’s take a detailed look at both methods.

GeForce Experience: How to update NVIDIA drivers

This is arguably the easiest way to update your NVIDIA drivers and also the most widely used. Here’s how you can update your NVIDIA drivers using the GeForce Experience:

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Step 1: Download and install NVIDIA GeForce Experience from this link.

Step 2: After you install the companion application, you may get a notification that new drivers are ready and you will be directly taken to the download page.

NVIDIA GeForce Experience: How to manually check and update drivers

The GeForce Experience companion application often sends notifications for the availability of new drivers. However, you can also manually check for NVIDIA driver updates. Here’s how.

Step 1: Open GeForce Experience on your computer.

Step 2: Go to the Drivers tab in the top right corner.

Step 3: If you don’t already see an update queued up, click the “Check for Updates” option.

Step 4: Click “Download” next to the update.

Step 5: Choose your installation type. For most people, the express installation option will be the way forward but you can also choose to remove components with custom installation.

Step 6: Wait for the driver to install.

Step 7: Once installed, you will get a confirmation and you can safely click close.

Once the driver is installed, you will need to restart your PC for the updated drivers to take effect.

How to update NVIDIA drivers manually

While GeForce Experience is an excellent companion app, it also requires users to create an account and comes loaded with features that you may not want in the first place. In such a scenario, you can choose to manually update your NVIDIA drivers and here’s how it works.

Step 1: Go to NVIDIA’s driver download page here.

Step 2: Fill out the dropdowns to match your graphics card. Don’t forget to correctly specify whether you’re using a desktop or notebook GPU in the “Product Series” section.

Step 3: If you are a gamer then you need to select the Game Ready Driver option under the “Download Type” while artists, photographers, and creative professionals can choose Studio Drivers.

Step 4: Click Search and the website will present you with the latest available driver. 

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Step 5: Click Download and the driver update file will get downloaded to your downloads folder or the desired location.

Step 6: Open the downloaded launcher file.

Step 7: Click OK to pick the extraction path.

Step 8: Wait for the driver file to get extracted and choose whether you want the driver or both the driver and GeForce Experience.

Step 9: Once you have made the choice, click on Agree and Continue.

Step 10: Choose the installation type and again we recommend Express installation for most users. Click Next to continue.

Step 11: Wait for the installation to complete.

Step 12: Restart your PC to finish installing the latest NVIDIA drivers.

The above steps are the most effective ways to download and update NVIDIA drivers on your computer. Next time if you are experiencing any issue with your graphics card, use either of the two methods to check for driver update and get the latest version to ensure undisrupted gameplay and content creation for you and your family.