Importance of updating video card drivers.

For general Photoshop (CS6) and bridge use, are the latest video card drivers necessary/important? I do no gaming. For some reason that seems to be prevalent on line at least, I cannot update the drivers from Nvidia's site, no matter what I try. I get "failed to install" notices.  I have a Windows based system with plenty of everything. The computer is about a year old. The graphics card is a Geforce GTX 750 Ti. Many thanks.

Go into nvidea's site and see if there is a way for auto updates...mine is set for auto and I am updated constantly. Drivers are put out separately for the user (the screen on updates will show the drivers and give you what is the latest # that is supported). Check your firewall settings.

You can simply download the drivers yourself and do the update like many do to update other programs of theirs. This way of upgrading has been working for years. I do it this way when other way doesn't work for some reason. Sometimes the auto way doesn't work that well.

Usually updated drivers are more important for video games. You can use older drivers if you're not playing games. You don't need auto-update. And you do not need to install every darn thing that comes with the drivers. I don't.

With Nvidia, the drivers and updates are separate.

In general you do want to update the drivers because Adobe often makes little changes that require an updated driver to work as more stuff gets offloaded to the GPU.

You can easily install an nVidia app to your PC that will automatically do it, or let you know when new drivers are available - your choice.  I'm traveling and don't have a Windows PC with me so I can't tell you right now how or what it's called but I've had it installed for years.  I beleive it may be an option to install this when you install the latest drivers.

Update is an action and a device driver is a computer program If all you need is the drivers, just install the drivers for the video card. I also use Nvidea (and the other guy previously). If you install the drivers manually, try to do a clean installation. No difference than installing any other program.

Like I said, the auto way sometimes just doesn't work. If you need the driver, why let the failed auto-update stop you just because you that way doesn't work? It was not automatic before and people - especially gamers - have been updating their drivers manually frequently without failure.

Next time you get an auto update, check your driver #s, I think you will be surprised. I know I was, thinking that updates should take care of it. I don't even know what is put unto my machine, normally something for a new game is all that is mentioned.

You don't know what's put unto your machine likely because you choose to let nvidia do it automatically for you. I always choose custom installation instead of auto or express installation even though the update notification is automatic. If you choose auto/express installation, nvidia will install a 3D and audio drivers plus a couple more in addition to the graphic drivers. Of the package that the auto downloaded to your computer, there's only a couple of items that you need if all you need is to graphic display. If you choose custom installation, you will see that list and can pick the one you need to install.

Most of the time gamers are the ones who need their graphic drivers up-to-date because if they don't, they could find their games don't run smoothly immediately. The few times that I did not have the graphic drivers up-to-date, all my adobe programs still run fine and smoothly. I doubt Adobe's programs demand as much from the GPU as the latest games do. Yes, it's all for gamers.

If a driver install does not elevate itself to admin privileges (at the user AND program level) you at least may need admin rights on the versions of Win starting at 7 and later.

Some Win 7 and later versions require a certificate verification to install. It also is a check that Microsoft it has verified it as compatible and if not to search MS for the latest update. There should be an option to install it anyway.

A good site I use for video drivers and related forums is http://www.guru3d.com/. You want WHQL certified drivers, not beta. A second information source is http://www.tomshardware.com/t/graphics/ .