Chipset Drivers, Fresh Install.

[Nahawand]

So yesterday I did a fresh install of Windows 8.1, previously used Windows 7. After having done everything along with installing Steam I launched Just Cause 3 and started playing and I noticed that my performance had dropped didn't pay too much attention was tired and called it a night. today I came home launched Assetto corsa now in this game I know exactly what my frame rate is around certain tracks and I noticed that I had taken a very big hit.

So this got me wondering I launched Shadow of Mordor in game Benchmark with the Very high preset because I know exactly how much I should be getting and to my surprise I averaged 56 Frames instead of 70+. so this got me thinking have I done something wrong ? surely 8.1 isn't that much of a performance drop from 7 ? should be even. so after reinstalling Graphics drivers tinkering in MSI afterburner checking CPU overclock. I remembered that I have not installed the Chipset driver. Went and downloaded the latest version installed restarted and boom, 73 Frames in Shadow of Mordor.

Now previously I never gave much attention to motherboard drivers and always threw away the disk, but damn what do these drivers even do ? and even with 8.1 being newer than my motherboard it still didn't register everything ? can someone shed some light on this.

 

[Rav3n]

Always install the most current drivers from the manufacturers website.

Back in the days us old school guys remember installing everything from scratch. The OS never searched for drivers and installed them.

Its still good practice. Don't use the media that came with the motherboard. Instead download the newest drivers directly and install them.

Without the proper drivers, Windows will use generic drivers when needed. Since your computer functions the OS will not point out that you could have better performance if you obtained an actual updated specific driver.

 

[Meeho]

Which exact drivers?

 

[Nebulous]

My method goes like so:

1) install OS
2) install nic drivers from CD only
3) download and install updated mobo drivers from mobo site
4) update winders

Most of the time windows doesn't have nic drivers, so I have to use the ones from the cd. Then when I go to the mobo site to get the latest, I also grab the latest nic drivers.

 

[Rav3n]

My method goes like so:

1) install OS
2) install nic drivers from CD only
3) download and install updated mobo drivers from mobo site
4) update winders

Most of the time windows doesn't have nic drivers, so I have to use the ones from the cd. Then when I go to the mobo site to get the latest, I also grab the latest nic drivers.

I do the same except I use a USB drive and download the most current nic drivers first. Saves having to re install them later. This assumes you have access to another computer while doing the OS install.

 

[Nebulous]

I do the same except I use a USB drive and download the most current nic drivers first. Saves having to re install them later. This assumes you have access to another computer while doing the OS install.

I did that same exact thing with win10 install. Grabbing the latest drivers from the mobo site first does save time as well.

 

[cybrnook]

DX?

 

[DenyGFX]

Always install the most current drivers from the manufacturers website.

Back in the days us old school guys remember installing everything from scratch. The OS never searched for drivers and installed them.

Its still good practice. Don't use the media that came with the motherboard. Instead download the newest drivers directly and install them.

Without the proper drivers, Windows will use generic drivers when needed. Since your computer functions the OS will not point out that you could have better performance if you obtained an actual updated specific driver.

Back in Windows 95 and 98 it was a necessity to instal chipset drivers. If you didnt have an install disc for your motherboard you were pretty much out of luck unless you had a secondary means of getting drivers through another PC.

 

[Meeho]

Now previously I never gave much attention to motherboard drivers and always threw away the disk, but damn what do these drivers even do ? and even with 8.1 being newer than my motherboard it still didn't register everything ? can someone shed some light on this.

You still haven't answered which exact drivers you've installed. "Chipset drivers" don't do anything as they are not drivers, so your case must be unrelated to their installation.

 

[Azrak]

You still haven't answered which exact drivers you've installed. "Chipset drivers" don't do anything as they are not drivers, so your case must be unrelated to their installation.

Are you being pedantic? I can't tell.

OP is referring to "motherboard chipset drivers". That is just what they are called. All motherboards have them as far as I am aware. As you allude, they are not exactly "drivers" in the normal sense, like a NIC driver or GPU driver. Chipset drivers generally contain .INF files (at least in the old days they did - not sure now) with information about how the motherboard chipset communicates with the other components (like the CPU and memory and PCIe BUS, etc.) and tell the OS about timings and operation between components in order to increase efficiency. In the old days it was information about the Northbridge and Southbridge (like the classic BX chipset from Intel), and now it's the X99 or Z170 chipset, etc.

To say that they "don't do anything" is wrong, however. The OP has clearly shown the opposite and installing them has always been the "correct" thing to do when building a new PC in order to maximize (and potentially improve) efficiency, stability and speed of the hardware.

Steam link with info:
https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=7203-MFVX-5765

 

[Meeho]

Are you being pedantic? I can't tell.

I'm trying to be factual.

OP is referring to "motherboard chipset drivers". That is just what they are called. All motherboards have them as far as I am aware. As you allude, they are not exactly "drivers" in the normal sense, like a NIC driver or GPU driver. Chipset drivers generally contain .INF files (at least in the old days they did - not sure now) with information about how the motherboard chipset communicates with the other components (like the CPU and memory and PCIe BUS, etc.) and tell the OS about timings and operation between components in order to increase efficiency.

No, they don't. They are just text files with proper names for certain components.

To say that they "don't do anything" is wrong, however. The OP has clearly shown the opposite and installing them has always been the "correct" thing to do when building a new PC in order to maximize (and potentially improve) efficiency, stability and speed of the hardware.

They do something - they correct a name. The OP hasn't clearly shown the opposite. It would be quite interesting and unusual for the INF installation to have such an effect, that is why I wanted to know what exactly he had installed.

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/20775/Intel-Chipset-Device-Software-INF-Update-Utility-

"The Intel® Chipset Device Software installs the Windows* INF files. An INF is a text file that provides the operating system with information about a piece of hardware on the system. In the case of the current Intel Chipset Device Software, that information is primarily the product name for the piece of hardware. This allows the operating system to show the correct name for that piece of hardware in Device Manager."

 

[Azrak]

They are just text files with proper names for certain components.

They seem do more than just name components.

Here is an excerpt from the Overview section of the Intel chipset drivers for my Asus Rampage IV Formula motherboard readme.txt:

The Intel(R) Chipset Device Software installs Windows*
INF files to the target system. These files outline to
the operating system how to configure the Intel(R) chipset
components in order to ensure that the following features
function properly:

- Core PCI and ISAPNP Services
- PCIe Support
- IDE/ATA33/ATA66/ATA100 Storage Support
- SATA Storage Support
- USB Support
- Identification of Intel(R) Chipset Components in the Device Manager

They do something - they correct a name. The OP hasn't clearly shown the opposite. It would be quite interesting and unusual for the INF installation to have such an effect, that is why I wanted to know what exactly he had installed.

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/20775/Intel-Chipset-Device-Software-INF-Update-Utility-

"The Intel® Chipset Device Software installs the Windows* INF files. An INF is a text file that provides the operating system with information about a piece of hardware on the system. In the case of the current Intel Chipset Device Software, that information is primarily the product name for the piece of hardware. This allows the operating system to show the correct name for that piece of hardware in Device Manager."

Reviewing some of the INF files in the motherboard drivers I have, there are PCI IDs listed, plus other DWORD settings and "include=" lines which reference other INF files. I always assumed the INF files helped Windows determine the best way to utilize the hardware it references (including drivers already included in the base Windows package), not just name the hardware.

Sure, you can get away with not installing the chipset drivers, but performance/efficiency may suffer as evidenced here. (Yes, I know you don't believe the OP only installed the chipset drivers.)

Also, there are a couple EXE and DLL files in the chipset drivers I have, but they appear to be for installation and setup only, though the DLL appears to contain strings related to driver subsystem and service configuration.

I'm not a Windows expert, but if I had to guess, the INF files are used by the Windows driver subsystem to determine which drivers are the best ones to be used with that chipset and hardware components installed on the motherboard. By "naming" or assigning PCI IDs to the components, the Windows drivers "see" the name/ID and utilize different code paths optimized for that particular component rather than the "generic" driver logic for that component.