A graphics driver is a software component that enables your computer’s operating system to communicate with your graphics card or integrated graphics chipset. It is responsible for displaying images, videos, and other graphical elements on your computer screen. Keeping your graphics driver update is important to ensure the optimal performance and stability of your system. Outdated drivers may cause graphical glitches, slow performance, and even system crashes.
To update your graphics driver, you should first identify the make and model of your graphics card or integrated graphics chipset. You can usually find this information in your computer’s documentation or by opening your device manager and looking under the display adapters section.
Once you have this information, you can visit the website of your graphics card manufacturer or your computer manufacturer’s support page to download and install the latest graphics driver for your system.
It is also recommended to periodically check for driver updates, as new updates may be released to address issues or improve performance. Many operating systems have an automatic update feature that can check for and install driver updates automatically.
What do Graphics Drivers do?
Graphics drivers are responsible for translating information from code into something usable by the GPU (graphics processing unit). They control everything from how pixels should be rendered to how textures should look like. The driver is also responsible for taking input from programs such as games or image editing tools and feeding it to the CPU which then tells the GPU how to render those images on screen.
Graphics drivers are essentially what make this all possible in one convenient place! If you take a look around your computer, you’ll find that there are two kinds of graphics drivers, software and hardware.
The most important part about graphics drivers is that without them, your computer’s graphics card would be essentially useless! You need them to run programs since they are what allow the CPU to communicate with the GPU.
Without up-to-date drivers installed on your system, you may have trouble running newer games or even being able to open the file in an image editing tool which means everything from creating new business cards for work or touching up old family photos can become impossible.
Don’t neglect installing proper driver updates on your system! Using outdated version of these files will compromise performance since they’re no optimized for use with the latest operating systems like Windows.
How to update graphics driver on Windows?
Following are the simple steps to update graphics driver in Windows 10 & 11:
Windows 10
- Turn on your Windows 10 or you can press the Windows key.
- Click on the Settings option or you can also open the settings by pressing the Win + I key.
- Now, click on the update & security option and then on the optional updates option.
- If it shows you the clickable link then click on it.
- In the list of graphics driver update, you’ll see the graphics updated driver.
- Select it and then click on the update option.
- Wait until the procedure is completed.
- Once the updating procedure is completed click on the Finish option.
Windows 11
- Turn on the desktop windows 11 and click on the windows icon.
- Click on the Settings option and click on the windows update option.
- Click on the Advance option shown at the right side of the screen.
- On the right side of screen you’ll see the graphics driver update option click on it.
- Click on the expand graphics driver update and it will open the driver list.
- If you find any graphics driver then select it.
- Click on the update option.
- It takes sometime in completing the updating procedure.
How to update graphics driver on Mac OS X?
For doing graphics driver update in Mac follow the steps:
- Click on the Apple menu in the upper left corner of your screen and select “About This Mac”.
- In the Overview tab, click on “System Report”.
- In the left-hand column, select “Graphics/Displays”.
- Locate the graphics card or integrated graphics chipset you want to update and note down the model name and identifier.
- Go to the website of your graphics card manufacturer or your computer manufacturer’s support page and locate the latest driver for your graphics card.
- Download the driver to your computer.
- Double-click on the downloaded driver file to extract its contents.
- Follow the instructions in the installer to install the updated driver.
- After the installation is complete, restart your computer to ensure that the changes take effect.
- It is recommended to periodically check for driver updates and install them to keep your system running smoothly. Some graphics card manufacturers may offer automatic driver update tools that can make the process easier.
Updating Graphics Drivers Automatically in Windows
Windows operating systems offer an automatic update feature that can help you keep your graphics driver update. Here’s how to enable it:
- Open the Start menu and search for “Device Manager”.
- In the Device Manager window, expand the “Display adapters” section.
- Right-click on your graphics card and select “Properties”.
- In the Properties window, select the “Driver” tab.
- Click on the “Update Driver” button.
- In the next window, select “Search automatically for updated driver software”.
- Windows will now search for and download the latest driver for your graphics card.
- Alternatively, you can also use a third-party tool like Driver Booster to automatically scan your system for outdated drivers and update them with just a few clicks. These tools can save you time and effort in finding and installing the latest drivers for your system.
How to Reinstall your Drivers?
Uninstalling your graphics driver is a reasonably straight-forward process:
- Access the Device Manager from the Control Panel, or start Device Manager by pressing the Windows key and letter R at the same time to open the Run window.
- In the program to run, key devmgmt.msc, which will initiate the Device Manager.
- Locate the Display adapters, and double-click that icon to expand the devices included in that category.
- Right-click the device you want to uninstall the driver for, and then use the option to Uninstall device. You will get a confirmation box for the uninstall option.
- Check the Delete driver software option, then check the uninstall function. This may prompt you to delete the driver package. If not, just select the uninstall function for the driver.
What can happen if you don’t install graphics drivers update on your system?
Using out of date or even uninstalled graphics drivers can cause some very big problems. There’s really no reason not to upgrade to the latest version, so it’s definitely worth your time to do so, so you don’t run into any issues!
Outdated graphics drivers can prevent new games from being played which means that you’ll never get to enjoy your favorite new titles on your computer either at home or at work. So its beneficial to have graphics driver update.
Even though some updates may be optional, stick with Windows Update first before trying anything manually! A failed installation could leave you without a working graphics driver and unable to start up your system which basically makes it useless since you won’t be able to use it for anything.
If you don’t have the latest updates for these drivers, then you won’t be able to open any graphics-heavy programs like image editing software or watch videos online (or stream them on Twitch!) either. Many playback errors are due to outdated drivers which is why it’s important to keep everything up to date!
Graphics drivers might not be the most exciting part of your computer but they’re definitely necessary parts that need regular attention in order to function properly.