Should I restart PC after Graphics driver update?

[Braiboo99]

Like I would with any other driver should I restart my computer after updating graphics driver through geforce experience?

[_I_]

7-10 do the same method, all built around the same os nt core

[Shaggin'Wagon]

引用自 _I_：

7-10 do the same method, all built around the same os nt core

No they do not. Windows 7 can not unlock files in use during a video driver install while both Windows 10 and Windows 11 can. It IS different.

Before you comment and respond again: Do you actually have a computer running Windows 10 or Windows 11 yourself? Have you tried updating the video card drivers for AMD or Nvidia (WITHOUT uninstalling the old drivers first)?

[_I_]

引用自 Shaggin'Wagon：

No they do not. Windows 7 can not unlock files in use during a video driver install while both Windows 10 and Windows 11 can. It IS different.

Before you comment and respond again: Do you actually have a computer running Windows 10 or Windows 11 yourself? Have you tried updating the video card drivers for AMD or Nvidia (WITHOUT uninstalling the old drivers first)?

you are the one spewing nonsense
quite giving horrible advice

reboot on a newish pc should take <15sec, if you cant afford that much time, take a break from your pc every once in a while

[Shaggin'Wagon]

引用自 _I_：

you are the one spewing nonsense
quite giving horrible advice

reboot on a newish pc should take <15sec, if you cant afford that much time, take a break from your pc every once in a while

That's completely irrelevant to this entire discussion. It doesn't matter how fast or slow a reboot is. That's not the point of this thread at all. The OP here asked if a reboot is necessary. You tried to tell them we have to reboot. That is not true and false. We do not have to reboot windows after installing video drivers.

You're the one giving horrible advice. You actually expect people to completely uninstall their entire video drivers, wipe all customizations, all custom game profiles, everything, reboot to safe mode and run DDU and then reboot back again to windows with no drivers installed, install drivers, then reboot AGAIN (multiple reboots) then spend all the time to re-set all the settings in the drivers again and re-set all custom settings for all games to re-create all custom game profiles again ... all of that just to upgrade the video drivers.

That's completely whacked and nonsense. No one ever needs to do any of that. Just run the installer and go play games. No reboots necessary. It's very simple.

[_I_]

if you need to reinstall drivers, odds are something is wrong with the settings
ddu will clear all settings and when the driver is installed it will be defaults, fixing any previous problems

drivers are not something that need to be updated every day
esp with older gpus, the newer drivers have more commands and optimizations for new hardware, if anything the larger menus will make it run slower with older gpus that dont support all the commands

[Shaggin'Wagon]

引用自 _I_：

if you need to reinstall drivers, odds are something is wrong with the settings
ddu will clear all settings and when the driver is installed it will be defaults, fixing any previous problems

No one said anything about reinstalling the drivers. I would suggest you go read the first post of this thread at the top. The OP specifically asked about UPDATING drivers. Which is not the same thing as "a complete driver re-install". For UPDATING the drivers none of that is necessary.

Updating video drivers is a very simple and completely trivial thing. Download installer. Install it. Go play games. Have fun. No extra steps are necessary.

[_I_]

updating is reinstalling
and gfe forcing update to the latest every day is just stupid, you dont want to be the beta tester for every gpu driver

amd and nvidia have both pushed bad versions of drivers
nvidia had one that disabled all fans in the past, that killed gpus

[Shaggin'Wagon]

引用自 _I_：

updating is reinstalling

NO! It is NOT the same! I'm not sure why you keep trying to push this but you are wrong.

We can upgrade our video drivers WITHOUT completely uninstalling/re-installing the old ones. In fact people SHOULD NOT be completely re-installing unless they actively have an actual problem right now. As long as everything is functioning normally and they only need to update the driver then they should never uninstall anything. Only run the installer and update it. Nothing else.

[_I_]

引用自 Shaggin'Wagon：

引用自 _I_：

updating is reinstalling

NO! It is NOT the same! I'm not sure why you keep trying to push this but you are wrong.

We can upgrade our video drivers WITHOUT completely uninstalling/re-installing the old ones. In fact people SHOULD NOT be completely re-installing unless they actively have an actual problem right now. As long as everything is functioning normally and they only need to update the driver then they should never uninstall anything. Only run the installe rand update it. Nothing else.

what do you think updating is, if its not removing the old driver first?

[zywoo prime]

brabo

[Shaggin'Wagon]

引用自 _I_：

what do you think updating is, if its not removing the old driver first?

Yes the software installer should do that (if necessary) on it's own automatically. What you are talking about is MANUALLY uninstalling the old drivers first. As in go to the apps in settings and actually uninstalling the drivers first before running the new installer. THAT is not what anyone should ever do. THAT is completely unnecessary.

Everyone should only download the driver installer. If it needs to uninstall previous drivers then it the program do it on it's own automatically. If it doesn't need to do it then it won't do it.

Also people also should remember DO NOT click on "Perform a clean install" either unless they have serious problems with their computer and they are trying to run the driver installer to fix something. If everything is working fine and people are just upgrading the drivers then DO NOT CLICK CLEAN INSTALL. Clean install will erase all settings in the control program. That's a big no no.

[_I_]

since when has windows done a good job at cleaning up after itself?
ddu cleans up everything for the gpu drivers
look at the root of your os drive, odds are there is an nvidia or amd folder leftover from the previous gpu drivers installer, and many other things you installed

cleaning settings is fine, if there was a problem before the defaults will work
and if you know how to change the settings you want, it will not take much time to do it

[r.linder]

DDU is suggested and used all of the time, there’s always problems arising from video driver updates so some people always wipe previous drivers when they do update, for an intentional clean slate

[Bad 💀 Motha]

People with private profiles shouldn't be allowed to speak on here.

BTW there is a difference between a suggestion and plain incorrect info.

If anyone is doing a blind follow-through with a suggestion-as-facts without their own confirmations, that's on them really.

It's like when you go to a doctor and what they are saying is alot to take in, and you want a 2nd or 3rd opinion from other doctors. To just go along with the one doctor without asking around could more/less be my own fault right? Let's be real here.

Half the stuff on this forums is utter non-sense that the OP could have actually answered themselves by entering a question into an online search engine, or an AI assistant app/engine. Since for years now, you can input a search on places like Google in the form of a question. Nothing wrong with asking on here as well though. But there is no reason to go around jumping down people's throats that they are wrong with their suggestions just because you happen to see a thread and happen to not like some of the suggestions.

[_I_]

引用自 Shaggin'Wagon：

引用自 _I_：

what do you think updating is, if its not removing the old driver first?

Yes the software installer should do that (if necessary) on it's own automatically. What you are talking about is MANUALLY uninstalling the old drivers first. As in go to the apps in settings and actually uninstalling the drivers first before running the new installer. THAT is not what anyone should ever do. THAT is completely unnecessary.

Everyone should only download the driver installer. If it needs to uninstall previous drivers then it the program do it on it's own automatically. If it doesn't need to do it then it won't do it.

Also people also should remember DO NOT click on "Perform a clean install" either unless they have serious problems with their computer and they are trying to run the driver installer to fix something. If everything is working fine and people are just upgrading the drivers then DO NOT CLICK CLEAN INSTALL. Clean install will erase all settings in the control program. That's a big no no.

even automatically or manually, 'update' its removing the old driver and installing the new one

the op asked 'Should I restart PC after Graphics driver update?'
the answer is 'YES'
not 'NO you never need to restart your pc ever', which is just bad advice

the 'clean install' just resets some driver settings to defaults, it does not wipe all previous drivers, settings or anything else

if you dont know anything about how a pc or drivers work then you should not be giving support on them