Thursday, October 15th 2015
NVIDIA Prepares a Controversial Change to its Driver Update Distribution
NVIDIA is preparing a major change to the way it distributes driver updates. You now get new versions of NVIDIA GeForce drivers by either downloading them from the company's websites (NVIDIA.com and GeForce.com), or use GeForce Experience to download and install (update) them for you. NVIDIA plans to change this such, that the latest driver updates will be only available through GeForce Experience, while standalone installers that are downloadable from the website will slow down to a quarterly update cadence.
NVIDIA is currently rolling out new drivers on a monthly basis, sometimes even twice a month, predating major AAA game releases, under its "Game Ready Driver" moniker. If you want the latest drivers to keep up with new game releases, then NVIDIA expects you to use GeForce Experience to update your drivers. Those without Internet connections or building offline (eg: system integrators, first-time installations), will have to use stale drivers from the website (which will be on a slower update cycle), and then update them to the latest using GeForce Experience. NVIDIA's justification for this move is that it finds that 90% of the driver updates are going through GeForce Experience. The part that's controversial about this is that it makes GeForce Experience an app gamers can't do without (and will probably stay loyal to the NVIDIA brand). This change will take effect this December.
Source:
AnandTech
NVIDIA is currently rolling out new drivers on a monthly basis, sometimes even twice a month, predating major AAA game releases, under its "Game Ready Driver" moniker. If you want the latest drivers to keep up with new game releases, then NVIDIA expects you to use GeForce Experience to update your drivers. Those without Internet connections or building offline (eg: system integrators, first-time installations), will have to use stale drivers from the website (which will be on a slower update cycle), and then update them to the latest using GeForce Experience. NVIDIA's justification for this move is that it finds that 90% of the driver updates are going through GeForce Experience. The part that's controversial about this is that it makes GeForce Experience an app gamers can't do without (and will probably stay loyal to the NVIDIA brand). This change will take effect this December.
173 Comments on NVIDIA Prepares a Controversial Change to its Driver Update Distribution
And South Sudan is it's own country now. Or am I behind on that?
I take exception for you apologizing on behalf of our government and it's sanctions against Sudan. I know you said on behalf of our "often extremely stupid corporations" but they are just complying with our government's orders so it's the same as apologizing on our government's behalf.
You don't speak for the majority of Americans so don't apologize on our behalf please.
AMDs Twitter response
I don't speak for the majority of americans (I've known this for a while believe me) but I can speak for myself and I personally do apologize for what I view as a frivolous waste of resources embargoing basic tech items.
Perhaps I could have phrased it better. However:No, the post I replied to indicated the sanctions are lifted, so they aren't.
I suggest we stop this here though. I really didn't mean for it to upset anyone, and admit my phrasing of my opinion was very poor.
I've gone months at a time without updating and it has always honored my wishes.
The whole point is that people like me prefer downloading the up-to-date version manually and performing a clean install rather than updating the driver through a utility they never use. You can put your tin foil hat back on now. I'm done.
Forgot to mention, that old desktop had a GeForce 7300 LE up untill 2013 when it died(i kinda tortured it).
Nice memory bro =] ...
It's likely however the driver will have a check for GFE being on your PC and an online element to prevent it. But I highly doubt they count get it.
Oh right, drivers, because they want to screw everyone more.
Excellent work.
Guess you can do things like this when you own the market.
Because today, even these regular users update their drivers here and there because they see something in some news about performance boost or new features. Registration is just too much hassle, especially for non-English users. I know that from another program that also has mandatory registration with e-mail and it's already too complicated for a lot of users...
Also, the regular users seem to have accepted GFE by and large, and thanks to that, it would seem most are now getting notifications for new driver releases as a result, which eventually turns into 90+% of users using GFE, because a large (I think it's large based on how I get informed of new releases - RSS feeds in my case) number of users now get informed that there are updated drivers at all.