GPU driver upgrade recommended?

If I own a sager np2096 with default drivers, it is worth it to upgrade to the newest set of drivers released by Nvidia?

 

Welcome to the forum

Yes, it is. I recommend the 186.03 driver from Nvidia. Very good driver.

 

thanks. any other opinions?

 

welcome to nbr.
^^agree above. 186.03 are the best ones so far. get them HERE
what graphics card have you got?

 

it's a Nvidia 9600M GT

 

186.03 all the way then.

 

Updating to the most recent graphics drivers are usually a no brainer but just bare in mind that some older drivers occasionally give better performance in certain games. Newer isn't always better.

 

I'd say that "if it ain't broke, don't fix it".

Every time there is a new driver, I read that it promises "up to 50% performance increase in X game." Let me tell you straight away, that is pure bull. Maybe it gives you 3-4 FPS more, but that comes at a price. And that price is often increased stuttering or other things like decreased graphic quality.

At least this is my experience.

And if you HAVE to update, at least do NOT update to the 185-series of nVidia drivers. They are absolutely terrible.

 

I`d say: "Do not listen to Cockie".

What do you do when the vents are clogged by dust? It would not go under your definiton of broken. Use it till it starts burning and send it to rep?

Trying new drivers are maintenance too, in my book.

Why spend a little fortune on something and not use it at its full potential? Of course, if you are lazy as hell, then don`t.

Not all driver gives a performance boost, thats true.

Some of the newer games require a new driver to perform well.

But, the 186.03 is by far the best driver I`ve had. No stuttering and great FPS.

 

As I said that is just my experience. Every man to himself.

I prefer to not mess around with drivers, because I've had lots of issues with them, ranging from BSOD to random stuttering in games to my screen going completely black. And that has happened even with official nVidia drivers. Maybe I'm just unlucky, I don't know. But no matter what, I prefer to play it safe.

 

person 1234567

(please note, I know they're on a different site (LV2G), so if there is an infraction here... then please mods, fix it as fit... but here goes.

I'm a big fan of Dox's Laptopvideo2go modded nVidia Drivers. I have used them since the 160 series, and I have never had a problem with them. I get 4 to 5 fps more playing games such as NFS:C on my xp-loaded XPS m1710 and I'm in the works of getting more games for it, and seeing what it does with vista-64 and win 7 laden np8662 when it gets here. What's nice about the DOX drivers is that a lot of the bugs inherent in the standard laptop drivers are fixed out, including the stuttering, and occasional choppy graphics, and in turn you get better fps performance and it runs a little cooler according to i8kfangui. If you're going to upgrade the GPU drivers, you have to remember to do the following:

1. Go to "control panel" in the windows menu
2. Find "Add or Remove Programs"
3. Find the Appropriate nVidia Driver (and applicable PhysX demos if they're there too)
4. Hit 'Remove' and let the uninstaller do its thing
5. Download CCleaner from www.ccleaner.com
6. Download the new driver from either nvidia, or www.laptopvideo2go.com and look for Dox's Modded drivers
7. Pick the applicable driver for your OS and bit-amount
8. restart the computer
9. run ccleaner to clean up unused temp files, AND run the registry cleaner, and make sure to delete EVERYTHING it finds.
10. install your new driver from nvidia or Laptopvideo2go
11. if using Dox's, make sure it's set to "TWEAKED" in the installation process
12. finish all steps of installation, and hit RESTART now
13. if everything looks the same as it did before, check your display properties... if it comes up with the new driver, or LV2G has "dox" in it... congrats!
14. you can verify this by checking ccleaner when it opens, or display properties... it's also easy if everything looks puny again and not HUGE.

I know I made it look complicated, but even after you uninstall something, you can still have registry entries leftover post uninstall. This is why CCleaner is necessary. It scans for, and discovers all the un-necessary registry entries, and lets you clean them out. No harm in giving yourself a performance boost in the process by giving the registry less un-needed entries to sift through. There are other programs out there that can do the job of CCleaner, but CCleaner is free, effective, and recommended almost universally by computer nerds for doing a good job of what it's supposed to do. (It's also very easy to use and much of the functions are self-explanatory).

If you need further clarification, feel free to ask / PM away

Jason

Sources:
Drivers (Dox's):
185.85: http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=24003 (vista32 and 64, and win7-32 and win7-64)
185.68 http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=23676 (vista32 and 64, and win7-32 and win7-64 are here... this is the latest driver Dox makes for XP though)
(note: Dox is only at 185.85, as he is taking the summer off, search for the latest of his drivers based on your OS... I think though he is answering his tech questions though)

Drivers (nVidia Stock):
Vista64: http://www.nvidia.com/object/geforce_notebook_winvista64_186.03_whql.html
Vista32: http://www.nvidia.com/object/geforce_notebook_winvista_186.03_whql.html
WinXP: http://www.nvidia.com/object/geforce_notebook_winxp_185.85_whql.html
Win7-32: http://www.nvidia.com/object/geforce_notebook_win7_186.03_whql.html
Win7-64: http://www.nvidia.com/object/geforce_notebook_win7_x64_186.03_whql.html

CCleaner: http://www.filehippo.com/download_ccleaner/

Once again: if you have any further questions, feel free to ask

 

I recommend using Driver Sweeper in safe mode after uninstalling any graphics drivers because they always leave something that shouldn't be there.

 

I've used it, and CCleaner... both seem to do equally well (at least for me), however +1 rep for an alternative idea

 

wow thanks guys for the ideas. I mainly play newer games, such as Crysis, Fallout 3, DMC4, Bioshock, Far Cry 2, CoD4 etc. I play SupCom FA sometimes.

I've had a BSOD one time when running a MMORPG and then opening Far Cry 2 at the same time. Other than that, I don't think I've really had any troubles with my GPU, although I do wish I could squeeze more performance out of it.

So DOX drivers over Nvidia Drivers?

 

I do like DOX` drivers, but he have not modded the 186.03 driver? 186.03 from Nvidia is very good and there a plenty of users here thinking the same.

 

Why mod what you can't improve?

 

DOX is taking the summer off... he says so on his forum at LV2G in "news".