"There is no other product that updates as many drivers as Driver Easy. Why?

""I've used a few different driver update programmes. While Driver Easy is scanning drivers, I receive a message indicating that all drivers are up to date. While scanning my drivers with another driver update tool, e, I receive a notice indicating that nine of my drivers are out of date. Not sure which is correct?""

This article explains why this happens.

Each driver updater employs a unique algorithm.

To determine whether to recommend a driver update, each driver updater has a unique set of logic and algorithms.

In general, there are two factors to consider:

• Compatibility
• Recency

Continue reading to learn more about each of them.

Compatibility

Driver compatibility is determined by examining the device's hardware identifiers.

Devices have a short and a long hardware identifier:

• The short hardware ID identifies the model of the device (e.g. NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050Ti)
• The long hardware ID identifies the exact device (e.g. NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050Ti for specific Dell computers only).

When a hardware manufacturer releases a driver, the manufacturer specifies the hardware identifiers the driver supports. They may specify a short hardware ID (for example, to specify that the driver is compatible with all NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050Ti cards) or a long hardware ID (e.g. to indicate that the driver was developed specifically for NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050Ti cards in certain Dell computers).

What is the distinction? When a driver is developed specifically for NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050Ti cards installed in certain Dell computers (we'll refer to this as a'specific' driver), it may include additional functionality (for example, support for your graphics card's power saving strategy and LED lamp beautification) and provide the optimal balance of power consumption and performance. When a driver is designed to work with any NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050Ti in any machine (let us refer to this as a 'generic' driver), it often covers just the most basic functions and is unlikely to achieve an optimal balance of power consumption and performance. For instance, you may obtain much higher performance benchmark scores while using the specific driver.

Driver Easy has an unwavering preference for'specialized' drivers (i.e. it uses the long hardware ID). It will not substitute a new generic driver for an older specific driver. It will only replace an older version of a given driver with a new version of that driver. e.g. If your existing graphics driver was customised for your specific hardware configuration, Driver Easy will not replace it with a generic driver, even if the generic driver is newer.

We will recommend updating to a new generic driver only if the existing driver is also a generic driver and there is no more appropriate specific driver available.

So in summary:

• We're going to swap out an old specific driver for a new specific driver.
• We're going to swap out an old generic driver for a new particular driver.
• We'll replace an out-of-date generic driver with a generic driver (if no more suitable specific driver exists).

The majority of driver updaters do not operate in this manner. They'll replace an older specific driver with a new generic driver to provide the appearance of frequent driver updates. (They are aware that clients will exclaim, "Wow! This utility identified ten out-of-date drivers that Driver Easy overlooked. " However, the disadvantage of this technique is that you will likely miss out on a number of the benefits associated with using drivers that were designed expressly for your hardware. (For example, energy conservation, LED lamp beautifying, and power-performance balance).

To summarise, Driver Easy recommends the most appropriate drivers, not always the most recent, because our goal is for you to receive the greatest performance possible from your devices.

Recency

A component of our job is to determine which drivers are the most recent. This may appear straightforward: You simply compare the accessible driver's version number to the installed driver's version number, correct? Wrong.

Comparing the version numbers of both drivers is sufficient if they were developed by the same manufacturer. However, when comparing drivers from different manufacturers, each manufacturer's version numbering conventions will be used.

Thus, rather of comparing version numbers, we examine the release dates of both drivers and propose the most recently released one. This ensures that you always have the most up-to-date driver.

Regrettably, many driver updaters do not comply with this requirement. They simply look at the version number and conclude that because 3.09 is more than 2.10, it must be a newer driver. However, that is an incorrect assumption. Dell could have created version 3.09 in 2020, but version 2.10 could be an entirely new Acer driver.

Questions?

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