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Does updating Graphic Card drivers make a difference to your fps?

RedRizla
Honored Visionary
Quick question. I have a Geforce 2080ti and wondered if updating your graphic drivers really makes such a huge difference to your fps? I ask because I have a 3D projector and since Nvidia decided to stop supporting Nvidia 3D, it has left me not being able to update to the current Nvida driver, unless I want to give up on 3D, which I don't want to do. Stability wise my drivers seem fine because I haven't had any crashing in the games I play, but I'm more interested to know if I will be losing out on higher fps? I did do a search and I saw that some people said the latest Geforce 2080ti drivers actually made their fps worse by 3 or 4 fps.
So are we just talking about a few fps here and there or can a driver boost fps by say more then this? Really pished off that Nvidia has stopped supporting 3D.
25 REPLIES 25

RuneSR2
Grand Champion
Had that discussion last year with some dude thinking that during the years 2016-2018 his gtx 1080 had become much faster. But performance was exactly the same in several synthetic benchmarks like 3D Mark comparing with early 2016 results. 
Maybe in some specific games performance has improved, more often I think Nvidia has just fixed errors. But if you don't experience specific errors or problems, upgrading a fully functional driver may not do much and can be a source of new errors. Valve recently recommended Forceware 417 for the Index just as an example that newer isn't always better.

Oculus Rift CV1, Valve Index & PSVR2, Asus Strix OC RTX™ 3090, i9-10900K (5.3Ghz), 32GB 3200MHz, 16TB SSD
"Ask not what VR can do for you, but what you can do for VR"

ohgrant
Superstar
 I've never seen a huge notable difference in graphics driver updates. With that said I think the big danger for us 3D vision users in the future, is that Oculus will require a higher driver than 3D vision supports.
 Fortunately for now the 3D vision community has come up with a fix to keep 3D vision and still update your graphics driver. If you install the 3D fix manager, you will get the option to upgrade your driver. http://fixmanager.rentus.de/
 
Gigabyte  AB350 Ryzen 2700x, 32gb ddr 4 3200, 2080ti. HP Reverb G2, Index controllers, Quest 1 and 2x Quest 2. 65" 3DTV HD3D DLP projector.

RedRizla
Honored Visionary

ohgrant said:

 I've never seen a huge notable difference in graphics driver updates. With that said I think the big danger for us 3D vision users in the future, is that Oculus will require a higher driver than 3D vision supports.
 Fortunately for now the 3D vision community has come up with a fix to keep 3D vision and still update your graphics driver. If you install the 3D fix manager, you will get the option to upgrade your driver. http://fixmanager.rentus.de/
 


@ohgrant - How does this fix the latest Nvidia drives that don't have the option to install Nvidia 3D vision in them? Just checking -Are you sure this works and how does it work if it's not included in the latest drivers?

ohgrant
Superstar
 Yea, it works for most that I read about. It works on my win 10 machine. There is a complicated way to do it manually, I believe it started here.  https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/forums/3d-vision/41/299949/the-way-its-meant-to-be-played/ 
 But the update in the fix manager will be automatic with the same results. There are many games that are really optimized well that were just OK before with the fix manager too, I highly recommend trying a few of their game fixes too.  When the fix manager handles it, it will connect online and find the latest driver and give you the option to install. If I remember correctly, you will need to go to NV control panel and enable 3D again.   
  Some other exciting news is Helix is working on a 3D Vision VR app and looking for names. Might be a bit of life left in 3D Vision https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/forums/3d-vision/41/306960/please-help-us-with-a-name/
Gigabyte  AB350 Ryzen 2700x, 32gb ddr 4 3200, 2080ti. HP Reverb G2, Index controllers, Quest 1 and 2x Quest 2. 65" 3DTV HD3D DLP projector.

Digikid1
Consultant
No it doesn't work that way at all.  Drivers just control how the card is OPTIMIZED.  ONLY FOR CERTAIN GAMES will this increase FPS but only a little amount.

@RuneSR2 your friend is hilarious.  I wish it worked that way.  LMAO!!!!!!

RuneSR2
Grand Champion

Digikid1 said:

No it doesn't work that way at all.  Drivers just control how the card is OPTIMIZED.  ONLY FOR CERTAIN GAMES will this increase FPS but only a little amount.

@RuneSR2 your friend is hilarious.  I wish it worked that way.  LMAO!!!!!!


Exactly, often I get the impression that the very early drivers may be slightly faster than newer, maybe because for example Nvidia knows the cards are going to be tested all over the world by Anandtech, Tom's Hardware etc. But mostly I think Nvidia is pretty good at maintaining similar performance through the years. Often I use the Unigine Heaven benchmark, if I observe any difference with new drivers it's typically less than 1 %, and not necessarily an increase  :# But I did get similar results using 417 compared to older drivers from 2017. Not changing to newer drivers before I really need to.

Oculus Rift CV1, Valve Index & PSVR2, Asus Strix OC RTX™ 3090, i9-10900K (5.3Ghz), 32GB 3200MHz, 16TB SSD
"Ask not what VR can do for you, but what you can do for VR"

Rosgillies
Adventurer
IMHO, drivers sometimes give a small fps benefit but mainly stability improvements are the most important, and that is what I`ve experienced most of all over the years. Currently on 436.02 WHQL.

RedRizla
Honored Visionary


IMHO, drivers sometimes give a small fps benefit but mainly stability improvements are the most important, and that is what I`ve experienced most of all over the years. Currently on 436.02 WHQL.


Not always the case because I just saw a YouTube video where someone bench tested a game and the latest drivers were worse then the previous driver. For some reason he got 3fps less with the latest driver in the game called "The Division".
I also found the last driver that included Nvidia 3D vision made my 3D videos stutter, so I had to choose an older driver to stop this happening.

ohgrant
Superstar
  One common thing I keep coming across when reading the 3D vision forums is the Win 10 1903 update, breaking support for the fix. If you don't mind being behind in Win updates, I'd defer all big Win updates for a while.  I also have read on the MTBS forums, that a windows 10 update has already broken the activation's for Tridef 3D. I have a strong feeling that when 3D vision no longer works, it will be because of a Windows update.
  Good news for now though, Nvidia 3D vision is coming to Steam VR via the Helix fix Aug 30  https://store.steampowered.com/app/1127310/HelixVision/
Gigabyte  AB350 Ryzen 2700x, 32gb ddr 4 3200, 2080ti. HP Reverb G2, Index controllers, Quest 1 and 2x Quest 2. 65" 3DTV HD3D DLP projector.