The video card is the “holy of holies” for many modern users, since the performance of the computer in the latest game blockbusters depends on its characteristics. Yes, and many programs of recent years to a large extent use its resources to free up the power of the central processor.
It is not surprising that many are wondering how to update the video driver on their computer. This is due to the fact that a new version of the driver often adds performance to the entire system, eliminating old errors in the code. First, consider how to install a new version of the program, if you recently turned out to be the owner of an equally new video card.
Using the installation disk
Of course, the time of widespread distribution of CD-blanks has long passed, but manufacturers of video cards often record all related programs on them. In the end, not everyone has the Internet and not everywhere.
If you have such a carrier, there will immediately be less problems. To update the video driver with it, you need to insert the disk into the drive, and then wait for the automatic installation program to start. As a rule, there you will need to click on the “Next” button a couple of times so that the driver on your machine becomes the newest.
What to do when no dialogs appear? Open "My Computer", look for the desired drive there (as a rule, it’s all the same one), and then open its contents by double-clicking the left mouse button.
At the root of the disk should be the file “Setup.exe” or something similar. Run it, again, double-clicking the left button of the manipulator, and then thoughtfully click on the "Next" buttons.
Updating an existing version of the program
All this is good, but what if you need to update the video driver when its predecessor is already on the computer? Do not be afraid. There is also nothing complicated.
Download from the official site
Here you will need to find out which manufacturer had his Chinese hand in the process of creating your video card. Do not worry: at this moment you have a 100% chance to meet the products of only two companies - ATI and NVidia. Sites of both of them are easily “googled” in the very first line of the search, and therefore you should not have problems downloading installation files.
To update the video driver, just run it. Previously, it was universally advised to delete the old version before installing a more recent version, but today it is not necessary to do this: as a rule, the “Installation Wizard” will perform all the required actions.
If there is no suitable driver version
Alas, this also happens. There are cases when users who are not too happy in their hands have a computer of almost double release, whose video card manufacturer is already unrealistic to find. In these cases, we can only rely on the Windows Update service.
How to run it? Of course, you can just try to perform a standard search for updates, but in our case the situation is more delicate. For the normal passage of the process, you must right-click on “My Computer”, and then select “Properties” in the list that opens.
A dialog box opens, in the left part of which we are interested in the link “Device Manager”. In it you should be attracted to the item “Video adapter”. If there is an exclamation mark next to it - so much the better! This indicates that you must necessarily update the video driver. NVidia is still releasing their older versions, while ATI has not been caught. If you are the owner of the first, you can try to find "firewood" on the official website.
Are looking for? Are looking for!
So, having found the name of your adapter in the list, right-click on it. A dialog box will open in which you should select the item “Update drivers”. Select "Automatic search for updated drivers", in which it will be performed on the Internet. If you are lucky, the system will be able to detect even the old AMD, updating the video driver for which, at best, is quite problematic.
We use utilities for diagnostics
If you are not familiar with the manufacturer of the video card, and the system cannot find a driver for it, we suggest using the utilities specially created for diagnostics.
The best of them is rightfully considered the AIDA64 Extreme Edition program. How to determine with its help the manufacturer and model of the video card? All this is not difficult to do. After starting, open the "GPU" section, from which you can find out all the necessary information about your own video adapter.
The list will include not only the model of the graphic professor and manufacturer, but also the detailed characteristics of the RAM on the board, the manufacturing process and other information.
Another similar program is SiSoftware Sandra. It has been known since the "prehistoric" times, contains information about thousands of models of the most diverse computer hardware. After its launch, look for the item “Video adapter” in the list, which also contains detailed information about your equipment.
The only drawback of the applications described above is that they are all paid. But only with their help it is really possible to update the video driver on a laptop when you do not even know its model.