Tiny App Checks NVIDIA Driver Updates

[btarunr]

A tiny open-source app named simply "TinyNvidiaUpdateChecker" by "ElPumpo" could make GeForce Experience look bulky and redundant, if all you use it for is keep up with driver updates. With practically each new AAA game release, NVIDIA and AMD tend to put out graphics driver updates. Among several useful features such as optimizing your game settings or making them portable, the GeForce Experience app keeps your GeForce drivers up to date. On the downside, it has drawn criticism over its user privacy, the need to register as a user and log-on at each system startup; and for its unnecessarily big memory footprint as the app keeps running in the background.

The open-source app, along with its source-code and a pre-compiled binary, are available on GitHub. It's a little rough on the edges, but could be worth it for its tiny memory footprint. On the flip-side, this app doesn't run on in the background, and you have to manually run it to look up updates, something you might as well look up online in your browser. The API that makes this app work could be pulled by NVIDIA any time, as it looks to promote GeForce Experience. Alternatively, you can subscribe to E-Mail notifications by TechPowerUp by clicking on the "Get Notified" button in our download pages, for your favorite driver updates. We're completely web-based and you won't need to trust apps to look up your driver updates.



DOWNLOAD: TinyNvidiaUpdateChecker by ElPumpo

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[NRANM]

this app doesn't run on in the background, and you have to manually run it to look up updates, something you might as well look up online in your browser.

This kind of defeats the purpose.

I feel it needs a command to automatically add some kind of scheduled tasks that runs the program in quiet mode. Or, better yet, a simple GUI even though this seems to be a dirty word for many developers.

 

[Ubersonic]

Awesome, I'll get that downloaded and GFE uninstalled ASAP

This kind of defeats the purpose.

Just set it to run once on startup.

 

[Vayra86]

This is pointless.

If you have a new game title you'll wait for the game ready driver anyway, if you don't, there is zero reason to even care bout it, when you run into an issue, you go look up a new driver as well.

This has even less functionality and use as GFE itself

*edit: language

 

[IceScreamer]

Wait, is GFE something that comes as another app or is that the name of the Nvidia Control Panel (none of my PCs have anything named GFE).

 

[bug]

This kind of defeats the purpose.

I feel it needs a command to automatically add some kind of scheduled tasks that runs the program in quiet mode. Or, better yet, a simple GUI even though this seems to be a dirty word for many developers.

Not necessarily. You can schedule a task to run this periodically if that's what you want. But I guess the goal was to not use any resources when not needed.

 

[Vayra86]

Wait, is GFE something that comes as another app or is that the name of the Nvidia Control Panel (none of my PCs have anything named GFE).

Geforce experience... if you want to use shadowplay etc. you'll need to use it. Yes its a separate app, that does all sorts of useless crap you really don't need the app for.

I did note that I can use Nvidia's Ansel without GFE, which is nice. Its a cool feature

 

[bug]

Wait, is GFE something that comes as another app or is that the name of the Nvidia Control Panel (none of my PCs have anything named GFE).

GFE is a different app. I've never installed it, but I'm running a pretty up to date driver all the time. I don't mind checking the website every now and then, even if selecting the right hardware and OS is more tedious than it needs to be.

Edit: Beaten to the punch...

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

This kind of defeats the purpose.

I feel it needs a command to automatically add some kind of scheduled tasks that runs the program in quiet mode. Or, better yet, a simple GUI even though this seems to be a dirty word for many developers.

Fucking pointless

If you have a new game title you'll wait for the game ready driver anyway, if you don't, there is zero reason to even care bout it, when you run into an issue, you go look up a new driver as well.

This has even less functionality and use as GFE itself

If you use windows task scheduler, it can run the app as often as you want.

 

[Vayra86]

If you use windows task scheduler, it can run the app as often as you want.

But, why? Practically the need for the newest driver exists solely when you have a spanking new game title, in which case the Game Ready driver is available days within or before its release. You get that anyway because you'll be waiting for it, and after that, you don't need updates until you run into an issue.

The trigger for updating always makes you go check for the update manually anyway. If you want every driver release, and early adopt all of Nvidia's recent fuckups, be my guest, but you're not helping anything with that

Honestly these 'useful apps' fall into the category of those parents that have planted every bit of Windows tweaking and nonsensical scanning app because the ad somewhere says it was super useful. Right now we have these conscious gamer tin foil hats that believe every bit of telemetry needs to be banished, so they install a bigger heap of bloatware and Windows tweaking apps to avoid it.

In all fairness, all of it is a massive waste of time and guaranteed to crash and burn sometime in the future as a new update or change comes around. A solid PC is supposed to save you time, not make you invest more to do the things you actually wanted to do. Maintenance it seems for some people has become a goal in itself. Weird.

 

[EarthDog]

This kind of defeats the purpose.

I feel it needs a command to automatically add some kind of scheduled tasks that runs the program in quiet mode. Or, better yet, a simple GUI even though this seems to be a dirty word for many developers.

yep.. it takes a similar amount of effort to look manually as it does to do this. Less bloat, sure... thats about it though.

 

[bug]

But, why?

There are other fixes in drivers, besides optimizations for the latest titles. Granted, most of the time they don't target both the game you're playing and the video card you have. But sometimes they do. Sometimes it's something like allowing a card to idle at lower power (actual recent fix) which don't really matter on the desktop, but may gain you some battery life on a laptop. It's not hard to come up with reasons if you want to.

 

[CrAsHnBuRnXp]

It still kinda confuses me why everyone complains about the software program being bloated and taking up system resources when everyone has such a high end system around these parts it doesnt really matter anyway.

 

[ZoneDymo]

It still kinda confuses me why everyone complains about the software program being bloated and taking up system resources when everyone has such a high end system around these parts it doesnt really matter anyway.

Well unwanted bs is unwanted bs.
Junk is junk.

If it actually influences performance to me does not matter, I dont want it.

 

[erixx]

What characterizes nVidia dirvers is that they are good and updates are not requiered unless your latest game is specifically taken into account.

I sometimes run GF Experience for the lols, and update sometimes or not.

The whole story is trivial. Just game along

 

[btarunr]

Wait, is GFE something that comes as another app or is that the name of the Nvidia Control Panel (none of my PCs have anything named GFE).

It's a separate app, which isn't part of NVCPL, and can have a 300-megabyte memory footprint.

 

[Solaris17]

It still kinda confuses me why everyone complains about the software program being bloated and taking up system resources when everyone has such a high end system around these parts it doesnt really matter anyway.

Last time I had GFE installed it liked to adjust in game Graphics settings like AMD profiles. No thanks. My system is perfectly fine at running tomb Raider at above medium settings thank you.

 

[Parn]

In all fairness, all of it is a massive waste of time and guaranteed to crash and burn sometime in the future as a new update or change comes around. A solid PC is supposed to save you time, not make you invest more to do the things you actually wanted to do. Maintenance it seems for some people has become a goal in itself. Weird.

Exactly. That's why I hardly update any of my device drivers thesedays unless absolutely necessary (e.g. fixing a BSOD bug).

 

[CrAsHnBuRnXp]

Last time I had GFE installed it liked to adjust in game Graphics settings like AMD profiles. No thanks. My system is perfectly fine at running tomb Raider at above medium settings thank you.

Ive never had that issue with my GFE. /shrug

 

[Imsochobo]

This kind of defeats the purpose.

I feel it needs a command to automatically add some kind of scheduled tasks that runs the program in quiet mode. Or, better yet, a simple GUI even though this seems to be a dirty word for many developers.

Set it as a scheduled task, It can easily be programmed to be able to add itself to a self check for updates.
but I guess people don't want it, and neither wants to go into nvidia.com to check.

I'm glad I'm in Linux and have repositories that sort everything out

 

[Prince Valiant]

But, why? Practically the need for the newest driver exists solely when you have a spanking new game title, in which case the Game Ready driver is available days within or before its release. You get that anyway because you'll be waiting for it, and after that, you don't need updates until you run into an issue.

The trigger for updating always makes you go check for the update manually anyway. If you want every driver release, and early adopt all of Nvidia's recent fuckups, be my guest, but you're not helping anything with that

Honestly these 'useful apps' fall into the category of those parents that have planted every bit of Windows tweaking and nonsensical scanning app because the ad somewhere says it was super useful. Right now we have these conscious gamer tin foil hats that believe every bit of telemetry needs to be banished, so they install a bigger heap of bloatware and Windows tweaking apps to avoid it.

In all fairness, all of it is a massive waste of time and guaranteed to crash and burn sometime in the future as a new update or change comes around. A solid PC is supposed to save you time, not make you invest more to do the things you actually wanted to do. Maintenance it seems for some people has become a goal in itself. Weird.

I have a friend that does this and wonders why they don't have much time to play anything.

My stance on drivers is that I only update when there's a problem, a game needs it, it's been months since my last update (only for GPU drivers), or there's a new feature I want or need. I always skim the release notes and check forum posts to make sure no one has had crazy issues.

 

[bug]

People seem to forget that on Win10 you get updated drivers whether you like it or not anyway. So yes, you can go for more than months and not encounter a single issue.

 

[Prince Valiant]

People seem to forget that on Win10 you get updated drivers whether you like it or not anyway. So yes, you can go for more than months and not encounter a single issue.

I'm still on 7 until I build another computer. I didn't realize Windows 10 forced driver updates, that's absurd.

 

[bug]

I'm still on 7 until I build another computer. I didn't realize Windows 10 forced driver updates, that's absurd.

It doesn't force it right away, but if you lag long enough, you'll get a newer driver. So it (more or less) takes care of the problem of drivers bricking hardware. Plus, it's a surefire way of getting just the driver with no extra nothing
Also, I know it does this for video drivers, but I'm not sure about any other drivers. I would assume it updates them, too, but I've never bothered to check.

 

[FYFI13]

People seem to forget that on Win10 you get updated drivers whether you like it or not anyway. So yes, you can go for more than months and not encounter a single issue.

No it doesn't, because:

1. I have disabled option to download updated drivers from Windows Update
2. I have disabled Windows Update completely and use WU Minitool instead.