What tangible benefits do you notice after NVCleanstalling a driver?

[Coldblackice]

(tl;dr) Beyond peace-of-mind, what tangible benefits do people notice after NVCleanstalling drivers?

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I've used NVCleanstall for a long time; it's an awesome tool and I'm utmost appreciative of all the effort and time that goes into developing it. As of late, however, I've been experiencing an increasing number of issues that I've found to be stemming from use of NVCleanstall, issues ranging from the trivial:

• Driver signature failure freezing bulk machine installs

To the less trivial, like:

• EAC warnings of failed driver integrity
• GPU video renderer being disabled
• Geforce Experience features either missing or not working (despite installing all NVC recommended/required modules)
• HD Audio sleep timer tweak not applying (having to do it by hand via registry)
• Misc. software error'ing about missing Nvidia .DLLs, like EVGA Precision, having to manually download and insert these dll's myself (names currently escape me beyond "Nv*.dll"s, but I know they do get installed via full untouched driver installs).

I know this is largely on Nvidia's shoulders with the ever increasing amount of bloat being packed into driver packages, and worse, components increasingly interdependent on each other. E.g., you wouldn't think it'd be a problem to cut out "Nvidia Shield/controller" modules from your driver install, until you later find that Geforce Experience Overlay breaks without them.

After NVCleanstalling the latest driver only to find that GE features were broken despite including the req/rec'd components, I decided to experiment foregoing NVC and just install the full bloated shebang, anticipating having to clean up messes as they manifest. I haven't noticed anything crazy yet.

And so I'm wondering, for those who install more than just the base GPU drivers (which NVC can cut down perfectly), what tangible benefits do you see by using NVC? I'm genuinely interested, not trying to debate or put anyone/anything down.

EDIT:
To clarify: I'm not attacking NVC. It's worked great for a while now, it just seems we're fighting an uphill battle against software/driver bloat, updates, and telemetry. I used to fight the good fight against Microsoft's obscene (ab)use of Windows 10's updating + telemetry, until I increasingly found more and more things broken, sometimes even unrepairable if interdependent components had been held back updating and no longer had parity with their updated counterparts.

 

[R-T-B]

I've been using 1.8.0, not 1.9.0, and it seems to bypass a good number of your issues. Specifically the EAC errros don't happen with it.

 

[nguyen]

I just download and use NV driver straight from their website, still have no idea why avoiding telemetry is such a big idea in a world where people post personal info onto social media every day.

Kinda funny listening to people bragging about disabling telemetry on Reddit .

 

[Vayra86]

I just download and use NV driver straight from their website, still have no idea why avoiding telemetry is such a big idea in a world where people post personal info onto social media every day.

Kinda funny listening to people bragging about disabling telemetry on Reddit .

That, and you can still install the driver without GFE just fine through regular setup.

Ive found most tweaks are eventually maintenance heavy, so the only tine I tweak away from the norm, is when I have a specific need to do so. Performance wise or in behaviour.

Wrt telemetry... its as inconsequential here as it is with Windows. We have already seen the benefits of it. They align with user and system oriented improvements and help bugfixing. There is no personal signature involved to serve you ads or anything.

 

[jjnissanpatfan]

I had a R290 since 2015 AMD. When I first installed the Nvidia drivers everything works....but I was upset I had to create a Nvidia account to use the GForce experience. After a few weeks I needed to update the driver. I went to uninstall nvdia and had to restart 2x and soon as windows starts Nvidia is already installing un-authorized bloat. To get a clean install you must be fast then have 50 features that are useless to me. I used NVCLEAN a few times I checked some things to test and if something did not work I left it. The end result was me having control of the needed bloat. I used EVGA precision X for clock and fan control...All games I play work perfect..including hours of Warzone or Black Ops with max settings at 2160x1440 locked at 144 refresh rate...smooth gaming. AND NO NVIDIA POP UPS.

 

[GerKNG]

best case in using NVCleanstall is not having problems.

zero gains in performance, sometimes issues like for example with a 3060 at launch that was completely unstable with NVC Drivers but completely fine without.


i see no reason to use this software tbh.

 

[StefanM]

The most tangible benefit is the feature "Add Hardware Support".

• Fermi GeForce users who are stuck with 391.35 can update to latest Fermi Quadro driver (392.65 atm)
• Mobile Kepler users who are stuck with 425.31 can update to latest R465 Game read drivers.
• Users who replaced their notebook GPU with an aftermarket model or flashed a wrong system BIOS can install drivers in spite of messed up subsystem.

 

[Deleted member 205776]

Not having a bunch of NVIDIA shit I don't need or use on my system. That's the main benefit. If I install the driver regularly while unchecking everything, it still has a million different NVIDIA tasks in the background, whereas with NVcleanstall it only has like two.

I don't care if the software gives me performance gains or not. That's not what I'm after. I don't need GeForce Experience, I don't need NVIDIA Share, I have OBS for that. I only want the main graphics driver, thanks.

It's also nice to be able to enable Message Signaled Intrerrupts from within the software.

 

[PastaSource]

Literally just made an account to counter some of the BS here. There are many reasons why you'd want to use NVCleanstall instead of using the official drivers. As a producer who not only uses their computer for gaming, but for audio work, being able to strip back the driver to its bare components is essential. I've noticed considerable improvements in both audio latency and stability since using NVCleanstall. This isn't placebo, this can be measured using Latencymon to prove that it does make a difference.

 

[phanbuey]

I now have to try this for science.

 

[Vayra86]

Literally just made an account to counter some of the BS here. There are many reasons why you'd want to use NVCleanstall instead of using the official drivers. As a producer who not only uses their computer for gaming, but for audio work, being able to strip back the driver to its bare components is essential. I've noticed considerable improvements in both audio latency and stability since using NVCleanstall. This isn't placebo, this can be measured using Latencymon to prove that it does make a difference.

What's the BS you noticed then? I think the summary of this topic is that it has its uses, if you're in a specific use case with Geforce products.

But its certainly not by definition one size fits all, the original driver does that quite a lot better. Its not the intent of NVCleanstall either, so that is just fine IMHO.

For a gamer, audio processing latency for example is completely irrelevant.

 

[robot zombie]

Literally just made an account to counter some of the BS here. There are many reasons why you'd want to use NVCleanstall instead of using the official drivers. As a producer who not only uses their computer for gaming, but for audio work, being able to strip back the driver to its bare components is essential. I've noticed considerable improvements in both audio latency and stability since using NVCleanstall. This isn't placebo, this can be measured using Latencymon to prove that it does make a difference.

Makes sense to me. Ill have to give that a shot, though the bigger obstacle Ive always encountered with PC audio workstations is noise on the USB bus... Or general interference from high power stuff. Id sooner ditch the high end GPU, personally. Skip all of that. Though sometimes compromise is simply nessesary. Gotta game. In an ideal world I would have a second rig running a low power or integrated graphics solution, myself.

 

[DarkPoe]

I concur with the OP... Striping something breaks nVIDIA Filters for my Warzone (haven't tried anymore games)