Advice Request Are manufacturer-provided Drivers better than Windows Drivers?

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voyes

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Dec 26, 2018
106
I've always installed the Windows drivers, but this time I've downloaded the chipset from ASUS (which is older than the one provided by Windows) and it somehow feels faster than Windows drivers. So is it better to download the older drivers?
 

jogs

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Nov 19, 2012
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Its really difficult so tell which one is better and whats going to work and what not.
I will tell you my experience.
Long time ago when I was using XP ( the good old OS), I bought a new board, but then I found that it the CD didn't have the drivers for XP. So, I thought of giving Win 7 drivers a try and it worked. I actually used those drivers for quite long until I upgraded to Win 7 and now it runs Win 10. The board manufacturer doesn't provide any driver but Win 10's driver works flawlessly.
So, my advice is, if your device is working properly then there's no need to change any thing.
But then there is lots of fun in experimenting. :p
 

Vasudev

Level 33
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Nov 8, 2014
2,224
I've always installed the Windows drivers, but this time I've downloaded the chipset from ASUS (which is older than the one provided by Windows) and it somehow feels faster than Windows drivers. So is it better to download the older drivers?
Have you checked Station-drivers.com for bleeding edge driver releases? If a driver has lot of stars then its good and tested, otherwise No.
 

Thirio

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Mar 3, 2017
126
In my experience windows does not provide all the drivers automatically. They only provide the bare minimum outdated drivers to get you up and running. They never install the on-board audio driver for my motherboard I have to go searching for it to get good sound on my headphones. The chipset drivers are also more than a year old and so are the graphics drivers. I play FPS games where a bad driver could mean the difference of 100 fps or 150 fps and I can tell you first hand that the drivers windows provides give you worse performance than the manufacturer drivers.
 

voyes

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Dec 26, 2018
106
When I download the audio drivers from ASUS, I only hear the Sound on 1 Site. With Windows drivers I hear normally, can someone help me there?
 
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Vasudev

Level 33
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Nov 8, 2014
2,224
Windows 10 changed the way drivers are supplied, they are highly customized based in devid(manufacturer or vendor) and vendors submits those drivers to MSFT since it helps alleviate some development costs for older hardware. Driver quality is very good and not barebones anymore.
 

TairikuOkami

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May 13, 2017
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Windows still often installs generic, rather than device specific drivers for things like storage controllers and audio devices.
True, for example, Windows uses Realtek LAN driver from 2015, Asmedia USB 3.0 version 1.0 provided by MS, SATA driver version 1.0 provided by MS instead of AMD SATA driver, etc.
 
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anniyan

Level 1
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Mar 26, 2015
34
When I download the audio drivers from ASUS, I only hear the Sound on 1 Site. With Windows drivers I hear normally, can someone help me there?
does your manufacturer (ASUS) provide a software for driver updates and other software updates? for example dell machines come installed with a software called supportassist, and hp machines come installed with a software called support assistant. such software analyses the custom hardware of the system and provides the appropriate drivers accordingly. IMHO, manufacturer's drivers are better than windows' drivers
 
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DeepWeb

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Jul 1, 2017
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Depends on how closely the OEM works with Microsoft. HP for example works very closely with Microsoft and pushes drivers through Windows update and it's not the latest drivers. I've noticed HP and Microsoft are sending the most stable drivers rather than the latest which suggests that they get it.
 

SumTingWong

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Apr 2, 2018
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True, for example, Windows uses Realtek LAN driver from 2015, Asmedia USB 3.0 version 1.0 provided by MS, SATA driver version 1.0 provided by MS instead of AMD SATA driver, etc.

But it is best to use manufacturer drivers for performance and stability and support. You wouldn't want to use Microsoft generic SATA driver on your gaming PC or custom build PC.
 

roger_m

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Dec 4, 2014
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Not anymore, I found yesterday that my sister's AMD driver was updated to Radeon Crimson Generic WHQL driver w/o any issues.
I was not talking about drivers for all devices and the examples I gave were audio drivers and storage controllers. Windows will install device specific drivers for most devices - just not all.
does your manufacturer (ASUS) provide a software for driver updates and other software updates?
ASUS laptops include their Live Update software to update drivers. While I have used it to check for updates on a number of ASUS laptops, it only found driver updates on two of them. What I found surprising was that while two laptops I used it on were basically the same laptop, just with different screen sizes, tt found a number of updates on one computer and none on the other.
 
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Vasudev

Level 33
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Nov 8, 2014
2,224
I was not talking about drivers for all devices and the examples I gave were audio drivers and storage controllers. Windows will install device specific drivers for most devices - just not all.
They've all kinds of drivers, firmware updates etc.. in here Microsoft Update Catalog
If you use windows to browse the above site then usually the first driver or second driver is best match since they read Devid correctly. I have a old laptop with audio driver made for Win 7 and on W10 it wasn't working. I came across update catalog and searched for the driver with model name and the first one was certified for v1809 and above, downloaded it and everything is fine. It was from Lenovo and again the same driver grabbed from lenovo didn't work since my model was removed from inf and in MSFT site, the same driver was signed by Lenovo as certified and shipped with Dolby Audio Control panel just like w7 driver.
 

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