I never used laptops to play/develop games that much before, but know I'm interested in knowing how often do manufacturers update laptops GPU drivers and do they stop updating older laptops drivers?

I recently bought a new Asus laptop with a nVidia GeForce GT 555M and it has the driver 268.74 installed. But nVidia is distributing 280.xx+ drivers... so mine is getting old

I never used laptops to play/develop games that much before, but know I'm interested in knowing how often do manufacturers update laptops GPU drivers and do they stop updating older laptops drivers?

I recently bought a new Asus laptop with a nVidia GeForce GT 555M and it has the driver 268.74 installed. But nVidia is distributing 280.xx+ drivers... so mine is getting old

Why not just download the new drivers from nVidia's website?

Why not just download the new drivers from nVidia's website?

Is it ok? I read that I should only update laptops with manufacturers drivers...

[quote name='cowsarenotevil' timestamp='1317850569' post='4869562']
Why not just download the new drivers from nVidia's website?

Is it ok? I read that I should only update laptops with manufacturers drivers...
[/quote]
You should also have your auto mechanic replace any car parts with official OEM parts, including OEM branded motor oil. And when your printer runs out of ink, always replace it with genuine OEM cartridges and not the store brand.


There was once a time when laptop manufacturers needed to customize hardware for everything to get it into the box and prevent it from overheating. The Micron brand chip would be slightly different from the Toshiba brand chip, which would be slightly different again from the Dell brand chip.

That was a long time ago. These days (almost) everything is stock because that is cheapest. Occasionally you will find a non-standard part or connection but it is extremely rare.

The only difference between the "Asus official" and the latest nVidia drivers is that Asus QA didn't validate them with your notebook.

I just downloaded the drivers from nVidia website and tried to install them, but I got an error saying that the installer didn't found supported hardware (I looked in the supported products of the driver and 555M was there)...
My guess is that the laptop is using Intel HD graphics instead of nVidia GPU when it is not running games... so how do I make it always use the actual GPU so the driver installer will be able to run?

I just downloaded the drivers from nVidia website and tried to install them, but I got an error saying that the installer didn't found supported hardware (I looked in the supported products of the driver and 555M was there)...
My guess is that the laptop is using Intel HD graphics instead of nVidia GPU when it is not running games... so how do I make it always use the actual GPU so the driver installer will be able to run?

Graphics cards don't work like that.

Verify the actual hardware in your box. It is using EITHER the nVidia card OR the intel card. Not both active and interchangable. If for some bizzare reason they installed two video cards in your box you will need to find a bios setting to switch it and using some voodoo rewire the screen to the other card. I really doubt this is the case.

If, through some very weird situation, you have managed to run the intel drivers on the nVidia chip, you could uninstall the intel drivers and install the nVidia drivers.

You probably need custom Hybrid GPU drivers that include both Intel and Nvidia drivers, as well as the "magic" to switch between the two. Good luck. I know your pain, being a Sony Z12 owner.

frob, haven't you heard of modern laptops that switch between low power (Intel) and dedicated (Nvidia or ATI) graphics card? There's Optimus, and some custom implementations by Sony and other companies. It's not unusual that with such a laptop, you really do need the drivers from your manufacturer, cuz only they know how to make it all work. This is pretty much the reason I don't like Windows laptops these days.