XPS l502x drivers: recommended update source? Intel/Nvidia? Dell?

What's recommended for updating drivers?

For Intel stuff, do you grab what's at Dell.com, or the more recent ones offered by the automatic detection at http://downloadcenter.intel.com/ ?
Intel offers Intel Processor Graphics 3000 and is version 15.22..., whereas what came with my XPS 15 is version 8.15... .
In fact, what's available from Dell.com is older than what's already on my XPS 15.

What about Intel drivers for WiFi and Wired Networking, which the auto detector says are unknown or unsupported and to contact manufacturer.

Do you accept the Realtek Audio update offered by Windows Update?

What about NVIDIA? Is it best to take what Dell has, or to let Nvidia.com auto-detect recommended update?
I don't even know how to compare Dell's versus Nvidias: Dell.com has version 8.17.12.6830, while Nvidia.com auto-detect offers version 285.62, which seems an entirely different numbering scheme.

Dell.com also shows drivers for AVerMedia-Driver, and I don't even know what that is, and there are other drivers listed that I don't recognize.

How can you tell what you need to download? Dell.com lists multiple items in each category, but some are for various brands (e.g. multiple different types of DVD drive). Is there some easy way to know what's in the laptop and to know what to download?

What about other drivers?

 

The only two drivers I got from Dell are STaccelerator (useless anyway) and Renessas USB 3.0
Everything else is from Intel (chipset, iGpu, wireless), nVidia (dGpu), Realtek (lan, audio) and Synaptics (touchpad).
Avermedia is for the TV tuner I think...

 

Man...you hit the jackpot with this question. I imagine this sort of thing has Mac folks saying, I told you so. When I got my computer this past spring, I thought great...got the latest, greatest, and am going to keep it up to date.

My first head scratching moment came out with the NVIDIA. From what I can gather, the version numbers are that you take the last 5 digits. So Dell offers version 268.30 and NVIDIA offers 285.62.

After further "research," Dell posts driver versions that are Dell "verified/modified/accepted" to work with the hardware that Dell has said that it would work. I've ignored the Realtek audio update from MS.

So after all that, I take the long view. I'll take what Dell says works on my laptop and recall the old adage, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it."

 

I'm back on this page/site again - struggling with an unstable nvidia (ongoing optimus saga)

i'm trying to use hdmi (exclusive FS apps like XBMC + RockSmith lead to crash)...

re "only use dell for drivers for motion sensor", I tried various intel/nvidia drivers... the only working setup I've detected so far is with dell's (intel) hd graphics (R302134) and dell's (nvidia) graphics 347.09 - by working, i mean gpucapsviewer detects CUDA, physx and opengl tests work....