Why does having an out-of-date graphics driver cause crashes in older games?

[Atriox]

I notice that whenever NVIDIA release new drivers, old games tend to start having crashes. Is there a reason for this? I never understood why this happens, because surely old games shouldn't be affected by a new driver update?

[C1REX]

Originally posted by Atriox:

I notice that whenever NVIDIA release new drivers, old games tend to start having crashes. Is there a reason for this? I never understood why this happens, because surely old games shouldn't be affected by a new driver update?

Can you confirm that the new drivers cause crashes in these games for everybody? Or just for you?

New drivers should be universally better without any compromises.
Maybe try completely uninstalling the drivers using DDU and installing them again?
Also don't forget new motherboard drivers from their website as chipset drivers may affect stability.

[nullable]

Originally posted by Atriox:

I notice that whenever NVIDIA release new drivers, old games tend to start having crashes. Is there a reason for this? I never understood why this happens, because surely old games shouldn't be affected by a new driver update?

I haven't noticed this, it could be confirmation bias. You've made that correlation and you make note of it whenever you believe it hits, and ignore it any time there isn't an issue. So you end up with this perception because you count the "hits" and not the misses (where everything works)

Although whether a specific driver affects a specific game is going to be a case by case basis. Most of the time I'd say probably not, no affect, but edge cases and exceptions will exist.

So do you have any particular games and driver versions to test and prove this out. Because as is, one persons "feeling" may not be very good data to base the entire premise on.

[Atriox]

Originally posted by C1REX:

Originally posted by Atriox:

I notice that whenever NVIDIA release new drivers, old games tend to start having crashes. Is there a reason for this? I never understood why this happens, because surely old games shouldn't be affected by a new driver update?

Can you confirm that the new drivers cause crashes in these games for everybody? Or just for you?

New drivers should be universally better without any compromises.
Maybe try completely uninstalling the drivers using DDU and installing them again?
Also don't forget new motherboard drivers from their website as chipset drivers may affect stability.

I probably should've worded my post better. What I meant to say is why do old games start crashing when I don't update my driver to the latest version.

I've been getting crashes in old games relating to out-of-date drivers, but I couldn't understand why it should affect old games too.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

That shouldn't be the case as long as you're using a driver version above the minimum that the game calls for. If so then it's probably not the driver at fault but something else.

[A&A]

I don't understand the part why they have to crash. I would love to hear examples of games where this happens.

[Atriox]

Originally posted by A&A:

I don't understand the part why they have to crash. I would love to hear examples of games where this happens.

Not all of them crash, just certain games. It started happening to me whilst playing Mordhau and Batman: Arkham city.

Batman could just be my own fault though because I’m running the game at 240fps, which it probably doesn’t like.

The Mordhau error code I was given says that the cause is likely because of an out-of-date driver.

[Raoul]

Never had this happen not even once and I even test older drivers sometimes with no issues. Some updates have optimisations and fixes for newer game releases but with no difference to older games. You can check driver release notes to see what is different.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Games crashing and pointing to the gpu driver is simply because even when the gpu or gpu driver was not at fault, other real culprits can cause the actual crash. Such as Power Supply, RAM, etc.

[Carlsberg]

Don't just focus on gpu, update all drivers. Chipset, sound etc. 'Out-of-date-driver' is a bit generic.

[_I_]

newer drivers are more optimized for newer gpus
they quit making the driver better for previous gen gpus

it really depends on the gen of the gpu you have
older gpus do better with the latest driver released at the next gen gpus release
newer driver versions will support the older gpu, but also offer more commands and features the old gpu does not support

[Midnight Aurais]

long story short no a new driver does not cause a older driver to not function

fact is you can run off the driver windows installs another fact is you could block windows and run without any drivers other then it recognizing your videocard and run bare bone would still be able to game you are just missing out on optimizations and features the driver might give that includes crash/bug fixes

- videocard : new driver fixes/optimizes something in the game you are interested/playing then update

- chipset : always update if on amd there often performance gains from using these

- audio : for the majority the driver windows installs is enough only bother updating if you run into actual issue or there is a feature in the update incase you got some audio issues in games make sure to set it to 48khz and turn on stereo mix in recording tab if you then still have problems try k-lite codec just get the mega as it doesn't hurt also it includes windows media player classic which barely uses any ram and can make a difference on very old machines https://www.codecguide.com/download_kl.htm

- network driver : now this one is a double edged sword and i don't know why it has to be like this but i highly suggest if it ain't broke don't fix it because so many fricking times the newest version makes it worse from dropouts to lower internet speed to flat out no internet ughem atheros drivers what fixed that was a realtek driver

- bios : if on a older pc only update if you really need to like say it fixes a problem you have for newer system's update these days updating the bios is not as risky anymore worst thing you could do is cut power during the process

it is recommended to check your bios version once you assembled your system because you could still receive a first month of release motherboard and often these days it became more of a norm to update the bios due to instability/ram/asus screwing up their voltages ughem 7000 series

also avoid updating the bios through a software like msi dragon center which actually screwed up my old motherboard pretty bad i tried to fix it with installing the bios through the actual bios but the damage was done it eventually bricked itself it was also vengeful as hell because one of the last things it did was screwing up the voltages and it murdered 4 ram sticks and a processor at least the videocard was not screwed i was stupid to not update the bios through the actual bios

but hey maybe your experience is different just that if it could happen to me there is a chance that software screws you over aswel at least i learned not to trust software even if it belongs to the vendor of your motherboard to update your motherboard

always install through your motherboard support page avoid other sites when its not needed unless you know what your installing is a safe source

[Iron Knights]

You don't need "a new driver" unless yours got corrupted and re-installing, still say use the best & most compatible driver with all the games you play. Stop the "update" addiction & frenzy.
There is nothing wrong with the driver that came WITH your GPU.

[_I_]

Originally posted by Iron Knights:

You don't need "a new driver" unless yours got corrupted and re-installing, still say use the best & most compatible driver with all the games you play. Stop the "update" addiction & frenzy.
There is nothing wrong with the driver that came WITH your GPU.

this is completely wrong
the driver shipped on disc with the gpu is older than the gpu
if its a new gpu, always get the latest one from amd/nvidia/intel sites
later drivers from when the gpu is still current gen do have improvements for them

[Bad 💀 Motha]

New Drivers contain everything from all the old ones, but with various fixes along the way being included in the latest drivers. Yes sometimes the latest driver is not always best. But your OS does not store and fetch data from multiple drivers for a single device. The new driver over-writes the old. But again the new has everything the old ones had as well.

[Midnight Aurais]

Originally posted by _I_:

Originally posted by Iron Knights:

You don't need "a new driver" unless yours got corrupted and re-installing, still say use the best & most compatible driver with all the games you play. Stop the "update" addiction & frenzy.
There is nothing wrong with the driver that came WITH your GPU.

this is completely wrong
the driver shipped on disc with the gpu is older than the gpu
if its a new gpu, always get the latest one from amd/nvidia/intel sites
later drivers from when the gpu is still current gen do have improvements for them

why are you installing from the disc that was supplied with your gpu windows has likely a way newer version preinstalled for you

at what part was he wrong? because as far as i see hes partially wrong in the way that he might be missing out on optimizations but that is it games still run most definitely anything before the release of that card

do you install the latest bios just because it says there are optimizations and stability for the processor? likely answer is no partially due to the risk in bios updates but ow no by your standard your fancy new processor is now only running sub-par performance

what is important is do the games run do the games run optimally and is there a reason to update or are the updates for games you don't play which in that case you don't need unless it comes along with a new feature for the videocard you want to try

there is this thing called "if it ain't broke don't try to fix it"