Getting the latest graphics drivers

While we certainly attempt to have your system's drivers relatively up to date, and your system should also aim to keep you all the way updated when connected to an internet connection, sometimes you might have to get the very latest drivers yourself. The best place to get them? Directly from the source.

Nvidia

Click the link to go directly to Nvidia's driver download page, covering both GeForce and Quadro cards. Once there, fill out the drop downs accordingly for your system, then click Search and then Download on the resulting page. Nvidia's drivers are usually pretty robust in that they seem to have one driver to cover all recent Quadro cards across Windows 10 & Windows 11 in one package, and similarly one driver for all recent GeForce cards across Win10 & Win11. This may change in future, so fill out the dropdowns as best you can for best results!

AMD / Radeon

Click the link to go directly AMD's driver download page. They have an auto-detect tool which you can use, but it appears to be limited to those running Windows 7 or Windows 10 right now, and the tool may want to do a little more than just find the right graphics drivers for you. A little lower down on the page though, you can select the appropriate options to find drivers for your system. AMD's drivers appear to suit all recent graphics cards, but as always, being more accurate doesn't hurt, so be sure to select the appropriate options to find the most suitable driver for you.

Uninstalling drivers

It shouldn't always be necessary to completely uninstall the graphics drivers before installing the latest ones and instead you can just install the new ones straight away, or use the automatic update tool... but on occasion it might be helpful or even necessary.

Disconnect from the internet to avoid Windows automatically picking up that you're missing graphics card drivers and installing something a little outdated, so if you are uninstalling drivers via either method below, have your new drivers ready to go before disconnecting your PC from the internet.

Uninstall via Add or remove programs

Built into Windows is the Control Panel's Add or remove programs tool which you can use to view installed programs, and also uninstall them.

Click the Start Button (or press the Windows key on your keyboard) and then type "Add or remove programs" and click the result. Scroll through the list to find the result(s) you're after:

• For Nvidia, look for results starting with NVIDIA - some options you might see are NVIDIA Control Panel, NVIDIA Graphics Driver, NVIDIA HD Audio Driver, and NVIDIA PhysX System Software - some of these will have varying version numbers at the end which is to be expected
• For AMD, find the option titled AMD Software

Uninstall the results as required, and you're done! You can now install whichever drivers you need to.

Uninstall via Display Driver Uninstaller (DDU)

Word of warning from Evatech, despite what DDU says: We wouldn't exactly encourage the use of this option, as it's well documented that it's not to be used on a whim or as the default method of uninstalling drivers, and instead are only suitable when really trying to solve a problem that you think might be due to a graphics driver corruption and aren't willing to reinstall Windows without trying this method first. If it goes pear-shaped or doesn't fix the problem, reinstalling Windows is the next step anyway, so be prepared.

DDU can be found to download and use for free via this link. The instructions provided on when and how to use the tool are pretty clear, and since they may change over time, we don't want to repeat the info here in case our advice ends up being outdated.