Install nVidia drivers?
- Thread starter baydude
- Start date
Orlbuckeye
Active Member
The Nvidia card for the Surface Book was specifically designed for the Surface. That's why they don't list it as a specific Nvidia mainstream card. Just as with OEM graphics drivers of other laptops the best source for drivers is from the OEM. Microsoft is the OEM so they would be the best source for both the Intel and Nvidia graphics drivers. I know after the SB was first released there were some Intel Beta drivers going around that limited the errors with the integrated card. Those errors have been pretty much corrected now.
It's always better to get the SB drivers from MS.
Seneleron
Active Member
If you're just looking to keep it up to date, Windows Update will take care of everything for you already.
HOWEVER: There is a way to install Nvidia WHQL drivers [updated mainstream drivers from Nvidia] onto the Surface Book. People claim better performance, YMMV, perform at your own risk, and ALWAYS make sure to set a system restore point prior to making any driver modifications.
Surface Book: How to install updated NVIDIA drivers • /r/Surface
I'm just gonna leave this link below. It's custom hardware, but it's still designed to Nvidia unified driver architecture specifications IIRC. The mainstream WHQL drivers TYPICALLY work just fine. Of course it also shifts all liability onto the customer, which is why I don't necessarily DISAGREE with your statement, but as written it's a little vague
NVIDIA® Unified Drive | NVIDIA
HOWEVER: There is a way to install Nvidia WHQL drivers [updated mainstream drivers from Nvidia] onto the Surface Book. People claim better performance, YMMV, perform at your own risk, and ALWAYS make sure to set a system restore point prior to making any driver modifications.
Surface Book: How to install updated NVIDIA drivers • /r/Surface
I'm just gonna leave this link below. It's custom hardware, but it's still designed to Nvidia unified driver architecture specifications IIRC. The mainstream WHQL drivers TYPICALLY work just fine. Of course it also shifts all liability onto the customer, which is why I don't necessarily DISAGREE with your statement, but as written it's a little vague
NVIDIA® Unified Drive | NVIDIA
JaeMelo
Member
Id totally be with you on this one until I ran into this machine -_-. I purchased my surface book about a week ago and did all the updates the day I got her. Fast forward a few days into owning it I noticed some applications that I had specified to used the dGPU would crash upon launching. Read about this on reddit and someone mentioned doing the device manager update and walla. It started updating the display adapter driver to a later version than what was supplied in the 2/17 update.If you're just looking to keep it up to date, Windows Update will take care of everything for you already.
HOWEVER: There is a way to install Nvidia WHQL drivers [updated mainstream drivers from Nvidia] onto the Surface Book. People claim better performance, YMMV, perform at your own risk, and ALWAYS make sure to set a system restore point prior to making any driver modifications.
Surface Book: How to install updated NVIDIA drivers • /r/Surface
I'm just gonna leave this link below. It's custom hardware, but it's still designed to Nvidia unified driver architecture specifications IIRC. The mainstream WHQL drivers TYPICALLY work just fine. Of course it also shifts all liability onto the customer, which is why I don't necessarily DISAGREE with your statement, but as written it's a little vague
NVIDIA® Unified Drive | NVIDIA
There are two video drivers installed because there are two GPU's. An Intel and a NVIDIA variant. One of them is technically an APU. APU = CPU + GPU. The intel 520 iGPU is apart of the intel i3/i5/i7. Every computer needs a CPU so if the dGPU is offered in the base how do you suppose the clipboard is to still function upon detaching?! There needs to be a second piece of hardware to drive the display hence the second set of video drivers.
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So the Surface keyboard needs to be attached in order to game w/ the NVIDIA GPU? Why couldn't they just build it w/ the NVIDIA GPU attached to the tablet?
JaeMelo
Member
Becuase there is no space inside the table portion to include the dGPU also in addition to the already intel CPU that is needed to run the machine... Thats like trying to fit two car engines under the hood of a car its just not possible. Remember the only reason why the tablet portions intel variant can fit is because its an APU so its like a 2 for 1 deal in that thin tiny space. To have the intel APU with its fan and heat sink with another GPU with another fan and heatsink to cool it down also would be impossible to fit in that tiny screen. They'd have to be impractical and make the table portion of the laptop thicker to fit all of that in there which would make the thing not only hideous but unreasonably top heavy.
Click here to get an idea what's exactly inside both the table portion and the base so you can see how cramped it is... It'll give you an idea why everything simply couldn't be put into the screen.
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Seneleron
Active Member
Space and heat dissipation. Having the DGPU in the base is actually an asset, as it does not share heat and heat dissipation with the CPU. It's not uncommon for one chip to help heat soak the other in an ultra-thin notebook design [think Razer Blade or GS60 Ghost Pro]
Edit: Sorry for the semi necro, it was worth answering and the quote was stuck in my inbox
