Seneleron
Active Member
You should, now and always if possible, download the latest drivers from the hardware OEM [Nvidia in this case] The only reason NOT to is in cases like the original Surface Book, when you literally have no other choice.
Nvidia drivers
- Thread starter gman713
- Start date
You should, now and always if possible, download the latest drivers from the hardware OEM [Nvidia in this case] The only reason NOT to is in cases like the original Surface Book, when you literally have no other choice.
chekhonte
Member
I want to back up seneleron's point. I've been using graphics cards since the early days. Every time something has gone wrong in the graphics department, it's been due to me not updating my drivers. It can be annoying since nvidia rolls out on a semi regular basis but in my experience it's worth it. They are constantly optimizing them. Granted 99 percent of their updates are for newly released games they do optimize the speed of filters in photoshop. It' very useful for immediately applying things like blur effect. Same goes for rendering effects in and processing video. Developers of these programs work with nvidia to optimize their programs for the latest drivers.
I used the illumishield 2 pack protector from Amazon for $12. It goes on dry and seems pretty good so far. There was one defect on the protector where there was a slight crease in the film but it's only on the very far left of my display and not obstructing the screen. It wasn't enough for me to replace it with the 2nd protector included in the package.
I also installed the GeForce experience app and so far there are no issues that I'm aware of.
I also installed the GeForce experience app and so far there are no issues that I'm aware of.
On that same note, does installing the latest Nvidia drivers impact battery life? Should I have stuck with what MS updates only? If so, how would I go back to MS drivers? Do I have to start clean or is there a way to remove the latest drivers that Nvidia provides? I won't do anything if someone tells me there is no hit to battery life.
starcrusader
New Member
I just used GeForce Experience, and let it install the correct drivers. Seemed to work fine.
wynand32
Well-Known Member
If you could do a test on Recommended as well, that would be helpful. That would tell us if there's a way to ramp down performance in the event someone doesn't want to hit the battery due to the power supply issue.
I think the power supply concern isn't a big deal. I was playing the Witcher 3 on the Best Performance setting and my battery only dropped 2% over an hour of playing.
wynand32
Well-Known Member
This was with the Nvidia drivers installed?
Generally, I'm torn on whether this power supply thing is a big deal. On the one hand, you're correct, you really need to burn the CPU and GPU to discharge the battery. It's not just gaming -- I've seen it when encoding video using Adobe Premier Pro and accesing the GTX 1060 (oddly enough, when apparently Premier Pro won't use the dGPU for other video editing tasks). But I can't say it uses a ton of battery life in such instances because I simply haven't tested it that long.
On the other hand, what concerns me most is that discharging the battery even slightly means extra charge cycles over the long term and a shorter battery lifespan. Someone who is constantly churning through tasks the cause discharge is going to see their battery die much sooner.
