How to Update Video Card Drivers in Windows 11?

Everyone loves vibrant screens while working on laptops or PCs; be it while playing games, watching movies/videos, editing photos, or just doing any random work, the screen should be smooth and should be colorful without any grey shadows. This is where your video card driver came into play. These are also known as graphic drivers, most commonly. Let us know more about these in this blog.

Video card/ Graphic Driver

It is basically a software that converts your digital codes (zeros and ones) into graphics, videos, and pictures. Understand it as an example that one of the major graphics driver providers is Intel, which you can see in most of the computers or laptops. It is the chip provider for most prominent brands for graphics cards and drivers to run. 

These drivers are manufactured periodically with updates. For updates, you can find free driver updater for Windows 11 (latest) and for other Windows versions online. Update helps to provide processing power to the finest and enhance efficiency. And sometimes it can also provide protection to your device’s graphics card from malware/viruses.

Identify your graphics driver

For the graphics driver, Windows Device Manager helps you to find it. It includes brand, model number, and date of installation. To find the graphics driver, follow the given steps:

• Press the Windows key and the R key to open the Run box.
• Type: devmgmt.msc and Enter.

If your device does not have a Windows key, then follow these steps:

• Click window Start icon
• Type: Device manager and select it from the menu.

Once you open the device manager, 

• Look for Device Adapters and click on it.

It will expand and show you the card that is inserted in that device.

• Right-click or double-click on the graphics card and select Properties.

Importance of updating drivers

Keeping your system updated helps in giving the best performance and fixing bugs. Like this, updating your graphics drivers gives quality visuals on your screen, whether it is a video or a picture. Through the updates, you will get more enjoyment from games with eye-popping graphics. Here are more reasons that explain why you should keep your driver up to date:

• Fix graphical error: bugs or hardware quirks cause improper display. By updating your drivers, these issues can be fixed and provide a better experience. 
• Improved game performance: updated drivers increase frame rate, which makes gameplay smooth and improves responsiveness.
• Solve compatibility issues: outdated drivers may cause crashes and critical errors like black screens. Updates ensure hardware and software are working, maintaining performance and stability.

Updating Graphic Drivers

Once you know about your graphics card and drivers through the above steps, you will know if it needs to be updated or which version is running. An updated graphics driver helps in top performance and clear, crystal images on screen.

Graphics Drivers Update Manually

Windows Device Manager may help in upgrading to the latest graphics card manually. But it is advised to create a system recovery/backup point before doing a manual upgrade. After creating a backup, follow the given steps to upgrade:

• Find Device Manager in the menu and click Open.
• Click Display Adapters, then right-click on it, and select Update Driver.

These steps may be different in other windows.

Graphics Drivers Update Automatically

Use Windows Update (the default option).

Updating Windows can automatically update the drivers with the help of its built-in systems. It also includes updating network adapters, graphics cards, and storage devices. It helps in keeping systems’ performance and security, and mostly comes up with new features. 

For automatic update of Graphic Drivers, follow these steps:

• Open the Start Menu and type “Check for updates.”
• Click on it to open Window Settings.
• There will be an option showing “Check for Updates.”
• Select “Get the latest updates as soon as they are available.” It helps you to be notified about the latest updates of your device, as well as graphic drivers, as soon as they are available, without following these steps.

If you are using a Mac, there is no need to update the graphics drivers manually or automatically. It is solely handled by Apple. The updates, like graphic drivers and others, are included in macOS system updates, which ensures that your device stays updated and compatible. It does not require any extra process from your side.

Timings to update Graphic Drivers

If you manually update your device, then check at least every two months or more frequently for updates. Consider updating if you face any issue in graphics or if you just want better graphics performance. Here are more cases in which you should go for updates:

• Experiencing graphical issues without any reason, like flickering of the screen or lagging, or games or apps unexpectedly crashing, then check for updates.
• System showing exclamation (!) mark in your device: if (!) this sign appears in device manager near your graphic drivers’ name, then it needs to be updated or checked.
• You want your graphics to run faster and better: updating drivers provides a better experience in gaming, videos, and pictures. It also boosts performance significantly.

Given methods help in boosting your devices’ graphic performance, which provides a better experience. Follow these steps for updates in Windows 11. It is better to enable automatic updates to save time in multiple clicks and ensure timely updates without delay.