Preferred notebook brand drivers vs. latest drivers?

By kiddingguy
in Hardware Hangout

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Grand Master

kiddingguy

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I have a new notebook; MSI Raider 16 Max HX B2W.

From MSI are the latest drivers installed, also updatable via MSI Center.

However, in some cases parties like Intel etc. bring drivers sooner to market than MSI (or other notebook makers).

Like in my case now:
image.thumb.png.3fb0826c1147f43dc3f9918243d1a8a9.png

What is wise? Install the latest released, not yet-available-maybe-not-ever, drivers and/or software by its hardware partners (Intel, nvidia, Realtek and alike)?
Or just let the drivers installed via MSI Companion "just be"?

In most cases the MSI Companion has the best (tested) drivers for the system, and the question remain is newer drivers are 'better'.
Yet, in some cases they might fix bugs already present or, in case of GPU-drivers, add the latest games and have some optimizations?

What do you recommend? Stay with MSI vendor's pick, or be 'exploratory' to the latest hardware-drivers? It there a difference in "driver-type" (e.g. yes to GPU, no to bluetooth)
Or, is it ain't broken, don't fix it, right?!

Grand Master

goretsky Supervisor

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Hello,

I always start with a drive wipe and fresh install of the manufacturer's preload since that allows me to verify the recovery media works correctly.  I always buy the smallest RAM/SSD offering, and replace them with less expensive offerings from third-parties since manufacturers typically overcharge for those.  Then it is a matter of running Windows Update plus the manufacturer's driver update software to get the machine up to date.  At that point, if there are newer drivers from various silicon manufacturers (AMD, Intel, Nvidia, Realtek, etc.) I will go ahead and install those.

 

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky
 

Grand Master

kiddingguy

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  • Author
Posted

I think I will update only the nvidia and Intel drivers, and let the rest be managed by MSI Center because of optimalization on CPU, NPU and other built-in hardware.

So no “stock drivers”.

Grand Master

kiddingguy

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On 19/04/2026 at 12:05, binaryzero said:

Far out man, just use the pc…

Inb4 in six weeks time you start a thread telling us that something isn’t working.

Well, the GPU drivers are mainly to be update-to-date with bugfixes for games and all that.

The rest is handled by the PC/MSI Companion.

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