Does updating drivers increase gaming performance?

For the record, every gaming enthusiast is always in a bid to increase their system’s performance for a better in-game experience. You probably do that ‘cause you have a hard time dealing with system slowdowns and lagging time very often. 

Well, we recommend you check if your drivers are updated. Outdated drivers are a common reason for such technical issues. This is what we will be discussing today, “does updating drives increase gaming performance?” Stick around to find out the truth!

If your drivers are outdated, updating them can actually increase gaming performance. But, don’t expect some extraordinary benefits. New drivers will come with bug fixes and some software improvement. Especially the graphics card drivers need to be updated. Otherwise, there is no serious impact on updating drivers and gaming performance.

What are drivers?

Drivers or better understood as GPU drivers, aid in establishing proper communication between different devices. To put it simply, a driver can be best described as a software that allows different hardware to know the details of your system like the system type and the kind of OS you are using. 

Owing to that, installing or updating a driver may allow you to enjoy improved gaming performance. Moreover, it allows you to get rid of all possible technical issues. All in all, the primary purpose of utilizing graphics drivers is to have a well established line of connection while working simultaneously with multiple devices.

Why should you update your drivers?

Though drivers do nothing extraordinary to your system, you should still consider updating them on a regular basis. Also, they don’t affect the speed as much, but more crucial are the issues they might fix in some situations. These especially include helping you get rid of bugs from your system.      

If you are skeptical about updating drivers, don’t hesitate. Trusted names like Nvidia and AMD are responsible for bringing in new driver updates that can effectively increase your performance speed is some casesl. So we can say, they aid in an enhanced gaming experience besides contributing to bug fixes. 

Another great bit about updating drivers is that they prevent game crashes. Gamers know the pain going through program crashes right in the middle of the fight. Driver updates can work well to help you in such situations. 

Moreover, you might experience the above-mentioned problems to a greater extent if you are using outdated graphics drivers. So, we highly recommend you update your drivers on a regular basis!

Do driver updates affect performance?

The answer to this question is dependent on a plethora of factors. A GPU driver is more likely to work well with newer games and applications. You can’t expect the older games and programs to get a speed boost just by updating your drivers. With that said, you will certainly feel the performance boost of the games they are specifically designed and developed for.

Also, you can overcome lagging issues with such driver updates. Outdated drivers might cause unnecessary problems and hinder an ideal gaming experience. Also, it can be responsible for sudden freezes during playtime. Other similar technical issues can also be overcomed with the perfect set of updated GPU drivers.

Do driver updates affect fps?

The short answer is Yes! 

Updating your GPU drivers may significantly increase your system fps, aka frames per second if you were playing games with an outdated graphics card driver previously. Other drivers may not impact the FPS as such. As you probably know, outdated drivers might be the reason for occasional system crashes. If this continues, gradually it might even hinder the basic functioning of your laptop/PC. 

For instance, outdated drivers might be responsible for the inefficient working of your CPU. Such a problem can be the laying foundation of tons of other bottleneck issues to come. 

It is crucial to keep your drivers updated because it will lead to an increased framerate of your system, and the fps will enhance generously. Although driver updates don’t directly influence the fps, they are the reason behind winning over technical issues that might eventually impact the fps negatively.

How to install a driver manually on your system?

Now, what about those important drivers which missing from your system. For starters, it is possible to install any new version of a driver from scratch. In case you want to know how, do consider the steps below:

Step 1: Visit the website of the manufacturer of the driver you wish to install on your system.

Step 2: Select the option for downloading the driver from the website.

Step 3: Now, double-click on the icon to install the driver application on the computer or laptop.

You would notice that when you install a new version of a particular driver on your system, it will override any previous older versions you might have installed for the same driver. 

How to update your drivers on your PC or laptop?

Here, we have discussed the steps required to perform a driver update on your PC or laptop. Consider the steps below for a successful driver installation.

Step 1: Head on to the Settings of your system. You will find it in the Start section on a Windows OS.

Step 2: Once you see the settings window, click on Connected devices or Printers & Scanners, whichever is available.

Step 3: Select the option for Device manager. You will find it in the category of Related settings.

Step 4: In the Device Manager window, you will find an entire list of the devices that you are working with on your computer. There are heads of different kinds of devices. You can click on each of them individually to see the expanded list of devices. Now, right-click on a device or a driver. You will see if it asks for an update. The ‘Update driver’ option will show up if it needs any update.

Step 5: Click on the option of Update driver.

Step 6: Repeat the above steps for every other driver that needs an update.

Using third-party driver updaters

If you don’t find the above idea of performing a driver update all by yourself to be convinient, don’t worry. You can always opt for a third-party driver updater tool to do the work for you. These tools are specifically designed to perform updates for drivers. Yes, it’s that simple!

Wrapping up

So this was our take on whether you should keep your drivers updated regularly. For the record, you should certainly consider driver installation and updates for your system frequently. If not, it might be the cause of a plethora of issues you would find difficult to handle later. So better get to updating your drivers today!