Windows 7 and chipset drivers

[nodle]

Do any of you ever bother to install the Intel chipset drivers on a system running windows 7? I mean if you not running raid or anything do you just leave it alone? None of my drivers are missing or anything I was just wondering if they are a good thing to install anyways and if there are any benefits of it. Normally I don't on windows 7, but I was just wanting to see what people say. Thanks for the input.

 

[prime2515102]

I run the inf update utility but not the Matrix or RST drivers if I'm not running RAID. I really don't know why though. I don't notice any performance increase (I don't bench general performance much anymore, just graphics) and it's already as stable as can be on a fresh install of Win7. Then again I'm still running on a P45 board so maybe that's why.

 

[bigdogchris]

I'm on Windows 7 x64.

I haven't in the past installed any chipset drivers for any OS except for some Nvidia boards where the SMBUS driver never seems to install w/o them. Recently though I did install chip set and sata drivers on my last install on my GA Intel board. I did this because I switched to AHCI mode. Last time I used AHCI I kept having all of these weird crashes and programs locking up and I couldn't find out for the life of me what was going on. So far everything is great except I have a couple processes that start up for my Intel AHCI manager that I don't really care about running but it's only around 16MB of memory so it's not that bad but I do not like installing stuff that has start-up services. I also isntalled the latest drivers so that it would remove my AHCI drive from the 'Safely Remove Hardware' list.

One other thing I noticed is the audio driver quality, at least for me. I installed the latest Realtek HD audio driver and the sound quality was quite inferior to previous releases. I went back to an old Vista driver from late 08 (like around 1.8 or 1.9) and the audio quality was noticeably better. I've done this twice now over the past 6 months and both times tested both drivers and the AQ is much better with the old driver (when I enable the built in EQ, without the EQ on the audio is about the same but I always use the EQ)

I decided to go for absolute stability over performance. I only say this because in 08 or early 09 I benchmarked several games with and without the latest chipset/sata/ide controller drivers installed. There was a few % difference across the board of FPS loss with everything installed. Now, this was with Nvidia chipset and everyone knows how lousy Nvidia's chipset and drivers are.

 

[OldMX]

For my wife's computer I install the latest Intel Chipset Driver, with the -OVERALL parameter so everything intel gets updates, never had a single problem this way, on Vista or 7.

 

[bigdogchris]

Keep in mind the Intel Chipset Installation Utility is only an information file that helps identify the motherboard components. The drivers still come from Windows or from Windows Update. The storage, video and audio drivers are separate though.

Nvidia forceware does includes drivers though since Windows has poor OOBE for Nvidia boards.

 

[nodle]

Ok thanks guys I think I won't install them then.

 

[DeaconFrost]

Keep in mind the Intel Chipset Installation Utility is only an information file that helps identify the motherboard components.

You're thinking of the Identification Utility, not the Installation Utility.

Ok thanks guys I think I won't install them then.

What's the harm in installing them? Have you ever done so before? The installer checks the files that are currently installed, and only updates if necessary. There's absolutely no harm in running the installer.

 

[Bahamut]

I was curious about that - meaning if the Chipset Software Installation utility - does install new(er) drivers or not, so I tested it. While the "driver" details change in Device Manager from 6.1.1 or whatever dated 6/2006 to 9.1.1.1016 dated 9/2009 the actual driver files themselves are exactly the same - the still maintain the build number of Windows 7 itself (6.1.7600.16385) - nothing changed after the Chipset Software Installation so, in essence, that utility didn't install new drivers, just .inf files updating how best to access/control the drivers and devices, I suppose.

It is highly recommended to use that Chipset Software Installation utility, however, even in spite of the drivers remaining the same. Those drivers came from Intel anyway (with respect to Intel, if you have an AMD/ATI/Nvidia chipset I would guess the same thing applies) so, it's a non-issue in the long run.

Windows Update will probably never ever do such updates of the .inf files so, it most certainly can't hurt (at least I hope not). I'd suggest always keeping the chipset software/drivers/etc as updated as you can, but it's eventually up to the OP/whoever to make that decision.