WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.320 If you open up Device Manager in Windows, you'll see a huge number of hardware components 00:00:04.320 --> 00:00:08.880 that make up your PC, and the vast majority of them require drivers. 00:00:08.880 --> 00:00:12.960 Those pieces of software that sit between your components and your operating system 00:00:12.960 --> 00:00:19.880 so that software can talk to your hardware correctly. And you've likely been told that it's very important to keep your drivers updated. 00:00:19.880 --> 00:00:24.400 But is that really necessary considering just how many components need them? 00:00:24.400 --> 00:00:28.600 I mean, that sounds like a lot of work and you've got better things to do anyway. 00:00:28.600 --> 00:00:36.040 Let's break it down, starting with your GPU. If there's only one driver you ever bother updating on your PC, it should probably be 00:00:36.040 --> 00:00:40.960 this one. As game developers keep trying to make their titles look more impressive by adding support 00:00:40.960 --> 00:00:46.000 for newer technologies, having the most recent GPU drivers can make a real difference in 00:00:46.000 --> 00:00:49.480 both your game's appearance as well as your frame rates. 00:00:49.480 --> 00:00:54.080 This can include enabling or enhancing support for features like NVIDIA's DLSS on certain 00:00:54.080 --> 00:00:59.800 titles and G-Sync on certain monitors, or AMD's Super Resolution and FreeSync if you 00:00:59.800 --> 00:01:06.320 have a card from Team Red. Even if you're just using your processors built in graphics, driver updates can still 00:01:06.320 --> 00:01:11.200 boost performance in certain games and enable greater control over your display settings, 00:01:11.200 --> 00:01:15.800 as well as fix weird graphical bugs that don't have an obvious solution. 00:01:15.800 --> 00:01:20.080 You know the ones. But what about the rest of your system? 00:01:20.080 --> 00:01:23.600 There are a few cases in which it's a good idea to make sure you're downloading the 00:01:23.600 --> 00:01:28.680 specific drivers for that component from the manufacturer rather than using the default 00:01:28.680 --> 00:01:34.240 Windows drivers, but it might not be as important to continually update them. 00:01:34.240 --> 00:01:41.240 One good example is your chipset. This is a chip that handles much of your system's input, output, or I.O. 00:01:41.240 --> 00:01:45.920 Without correct chipset drivers, you may find that some of your ports or onboard devices 00:01:45.920 --> 00:01:52.520 don't work quite as intended. Sometimes they'll show up as components with error notifications on them in Device Manager, 00:01:52.520 --> 00:01:57.800 for example. Over the years, Windows has gotten better about auto-installing drivers for the chipset, 00:01:57.800 --> 00:02:03.240 but even now, you'll definitely want to pick up the official chipset driver from AMD, Intel, 00:02:03.240 --> 00:02:07.960 or your motherboard's manufacturer to ensure all your components are enabled properly. 00:02:07.960 --> 00:02:12.800 Chipset drivers can even offer added functionality, such as the different power options AMD provides 00:02:12.800 --> 00:02:20.260 with chipsets for its Zen 2 CPUs. And the good thing is that after you do this once, updating it again isn't as critical 00:02:20.260 --> 00:02:25.600 as it is with the GPU. Another driver that you might want to take a few minutes to install yourself is the audio 00:02:25.600 --> 00:02:31.040 driver. These days, those real-tech chipsets that come integrated into motherboards play along 00:02:31.040 --> 00:02:34.920 just fine with the default Windows drivers, but custom drivers from your motherboard 00:02:34.920 --> 00:02:39.920 manufacturer can give you other features that are really useful, such as controlling amplification 00:02:39.920 --> 00:02:45.200 levels or allowing the front and back audio ports to be treated as two separate devices. 00:02:45.200 --> 00:02:48.760 Really convenient if you like to leave your headphones plugged in, but still use the desktop 00:02:48.760 --> 00:02:54.000 speakers. And of course, you'll definitely want to install custom drivers if you've splurged on 00:02:54.000 --> 00:03:01.520 an expensive add-in sound card. Finally, any other components that might not be an integral part of the standard PC will 00:03:01.520 --> 00:03:09.600 benefit from having the official drivers installed. I'm talking about webcams, AIO liquid coolers, and anything that uses RGB. 00:03:09.600 --> 00:03:14.080 Official drivers will again give you greater control, such as focus options for a camera 00:03:14.160 --> 00:03:21.800 or custom fan curves for a cooler. But unlike with graphic drivers, it isn't super critical that you update chipset, audio, 00:03:21.800 --> 00:03:28.160 or peripheral drivers religiously. That being said, if you're experiencing issues with any of these components, or if there's 00:03:28.160 --> 00:03:32.880 news of a security hole, definitely check for an updated driver, as there's at least 00:03:32.880 --> 00:03:38.640 a decent chance a recent driver release will contain bug fixes and security patches. 00:03:38.640 --> 00:03:45.200 And we'd be remiss if we didn't mention firmware. While firmware and drivers are two different things, it can still be important to update 00:03:45.200 --> 00:03:48.640 your system firmware in certain circumstances. 00:03:48.640 --> 00:03:52.920 Probably the best known example of computer firmware is the BIOS, which is the basic code 00:03:52.920 --> 00:03:56.880 that your motherboard needs to start up and communicate with the other components. 00:03:56.880 --> 00:04:01.400 While it typically isn't crucial to grab every BIOS update as soon as it's released, it can 00:04:01.400 --> 00:04:07.040 be a good idea to do the update if it's necessary for upgrading to a new OS or processor to fix 00:04:07.040 --> 00:04:10.320 the security vulnerability or to unlock a new feature. 00:04:10.320 --> 00:04:14.840 As we've seen on recent motherboards that support resizable BAR for graphics cards, 00:04:14.840 --> 00:04:19.840 for example. Other components also contain firmware, notably discrete graphics cards and SSDs. 00:04:19.840 --> 00:04:23.880 Again, firmware updates for these components can fix bugs and sometimes even improve performance, 00:04:23.880 --> 00:04:27.920 but I wouldn't lose sleep if you haven't installed the latest version recently. 00:04:27.920 --> 00:04:33.480 TLDR, keep your GPU drivers up to date, install the official drivers for your other components, 00:04:33.480 --> 00:04:37.920 and just check back for a new version if you're having a problem or need a feature update. 00:04:37.920 --> 00:04:42.960 But don't expect new drivers to perform miracles like expand the capacity of your RAM. 00:04:42.960 --> 00:04:46.760 There's a special download link for that. 00:04:46.760 --> 00:04:51.000 So thanks for watching guys. If you liked this video, hit like, hit subscribe, and hit us up in the comment section with 00:04:51.000 --> 00:04:53.480 your suggestions for topics that we should cover in the future.