Indiana University
University Information Technology Services
  
What are archived documents?

For Windows, where can I find drivers for video cards?

Video drivers are available from a variety of sources. The first and best source is your computer's operating system. Current versions of Windows come with a large variety of graphics drivers, and all operating systems including Mac OS X and the X Window graphic interfaces for Unix/Linux (Xorg and XFree86) can generally detect and install the appropriate drivers for common, hardware-compatible cards. Especially with Windows XP, Vista, and later, it's usually better to accept the driver your operating system automatically installs than to try to override its selection.

However, if Windows doesn't recognize the video card or chipset, or you want additional features, you may need to look for alternate drivers. These are often available from the manufacturer of the computer, the motherboard (if the video adapter is built in), the video card (in some cases), or the video chipset (in most cases). The information below may be useful if you seek drivers from any of these sources.

On this page:

Background information

Definitions

  • Chipset: A chipset is a group of integrated circuits designed to work together to perform a single function. In the case of video cards or built-in video chipsets, these draw the image on your computer screen. The chipset is also known as the GPU (graphics processing unit).

  • Adapter: In this document, "adapter" is an interchangeable term for "card", i.e., a circuit board that can be plugged into or built onto a motherboard to provide a function. A "video adapter" would be such a board containing a graphics chipset.

  • Driver: The driver is a program that handles how hardware works in an operating system. For detail, see In Windows, what are device drivers? and the Wikipedia entry on device drivers.

Locating drivers

To locate an appropriate driver, you often need to know the chipset or GPU of the video adapter, and whether to obtain the drivers from the manufacturer of the video card, the motherboard, or the chipset. In general, for built-in (aka integrated) video chipsets, you should visit the motherboard manufacturer's web site. However, you may need to investigate all the possibilities, as no general rule exists for where to find drivers.

For example, PNY and Asus make motherboards with graphics adapters built in; the chipsets are made by ATI or NVidia, and in most cases, you'd get the driver from either ATI or NVidia. Asus also makes motherboards with a built-in Intel video chipset, but for those you'd usually get the driver not from Intel, but from Asus directly. Because of difficulties like that, it's often best to let Windows automatically detect the hardware and select the appropriate driver. In many cases, overriding the driver selected by Windows is a task for advanced users.

Detailed information for advanced users

You can normally ignore third-party video card drivers (i.e., those that do not come from the manufacturer of either the chipset, the video card, or the motherboard). For Windows, such drivers are extremely rare.

Generally, driver suites from chipset, motherboard, or video card manufacturers include not only the driver, but also advanced controls beyond what Windows offers. This is one reason that you might want to upgrade your drivers from the Windows default drivers.

Rather than provide model/GPU specific drivers for their products, NVidia and ATI have developed unified driver packages that cover a wide range of their products, normally the most publicized, popular, and common chipsets they manufacture. For NVidia, this is called ForceWare; for ATI, Catalyst. The creation of single driver suites for their popular product lines saves you from having to look up individual drivers for specific chipsets. However, if you are using a less common product, use a model-specific driver rather than the common driver suite.

Common video chipsets

Following are some common chipsets currently in use:

  • NVidia:

    • Products in the NVidia GeForce line use the ForceWare for NVidia GeForce GPUs drivers:

      • GeForce 8 series:

        • GeForce 8800GTX and GTS

      • GeForce 7 series:

        • GeForce 7950GX2 and GT
        • GeForce 7900GTX, GT, and GS
        • GeForce 7800GTX 512, GTX, GT, and GS
        • GeForce 7600GT and GS
        • GeForce 7300GT, GS, LE, and SE
        • GeForce 7100GS

      • GeForce 6 series:

        • GeForce 6800, 6800 Ultra, GT, and GS, and XT
        • GeForce 6600 GT, 6600, and LE
        • GeForce 6500, 6200, 6200 LE (despite the different numerical designation, NVidia considers them the same model line)
        • GeForce 6150 with nForce 430 motherboard chipset (motherboard-integrated video chipset only; not available as separate plug-in AGP or PCI-X video card)
        • GeForce 6100/nForce 430 (also motherboard-integrated only)
        • GeForce 6100/nForce 410 (also motherboard-integrated only)

      • GeForce FX series:

        • The Performance line: GeForce FX 5950 Ultra, 5900 Ultra, 5900, 5900XT, PCX 5900, 5700 Ultra, 5700, 5700LE, and 5750
        • The Mainstream line: GeForce FX 5200 Ultra, 5200, 5500, and PCX 5300

      • GeForce MX series:

        • GeForce 4 Ti NV 28 (this was an AGP 8x card), 4 Ti NV25 (AGP 4x)
        • GeForce 4 MX NV19 (PCI Express), GeForce 4 MX NV18 (AGP8x card), 4 MX NV17 (AGP 4x)

          Note: The GeForce 4 MX series were GeForce 2 Ti GPUs with different memory controllers. While they are classified by NVidia as GeForce 4 GPUs, their performance and much of their architecture is actually in the GeForce 2 class.

    • Products in the NVidia GeForce Go line use the ForceWare for NVidia GeForce Go drivers:

      • GeForce Go 7 series:

        • GeForce Go 7950 GTX, 7900 GTX, 7900 GS, 7800 GTX, 7800
        • GeForce Go 7700, 7600 GT, 7600
        • GeForce Go 7400, 7300

      • GeForce Go 6 series:

        • GeForce Go 6800 Ultra, 6800
        • GeForce Go 6600, 6600 TE (TE version was not available as a retail product, but as OEM equipment for computer system builders only)
        • GeForce Go 6400
        • GeForce Go 6200, 6200 TE (TE version was not available as a retail product, but as OEM equipment for computer system builders only)

      • GeForce FX Go series:

        • GeForce FX Go5700
        • GeForce FX Go5650, 5600
        • GeForce FX Go5200, 5100

      • GeForce4 Go series:

        • GeForce4 4200 Go, 460 Go, 440 Go, 420 Go

    • Products in the NVidia Quadro line use the ForceWare for NVidia Quadro drivers:


    • Discontinued NVidia GPUs tended to use the Detonator drivers, with some exceptions; for example, when the GeForce4 Go GPU's first came out, the Omega drivers were available, a rare example of third-party drivers.

      • GeForce3 series:

        • GeForce3 Ti 500, GeForce3, GeForce3 Ti 200

      • GeForce2 series:

        • Geforce2 Ultra, Ti, Pro, GTS, MX 400, MX, MX 200, MX 100, Go

      • GeForce 256 series:

        • GeForce 256 DDR, SDR

      • Riva TNT2 and TNT (aka Vanta) series:

        • TNT2 Ultra, Pro, M64, TNT2
        • Vanta LT, Vanta

      • Riva 128 Series, 128ZX, and NV1 Series. These chips predate even the discontinued Detonator software, requiring their own individual drivers. The Riva 128 and NV1 are so old, NVidia no longer mentions either series on its Legacy Products page, and does not host NV1 drivers anywhere on the site.

  • ATI:

    • Products in the current ATI Radeon "X" line use the ATI Catalyst drivers:

      • Radeon X2k Series (aka R600 series):

        • Radeon X2900XTX2, X2900XTX, X2900XT, X2900XL, X2900GTO
        • X2600XT
        • X2300XT
        • Mobility Radeon X2600, X2300HD, X2300, X2100

      • Radeon X1k series (aka R500 series):

        • Radeon X1950 XTX UE, X1950 XTX, X1950 CrossFire Edition, X1950 Pro, 1950 GT
        • X1900 XTX, X1900 XT, X1900 CrossFire Edition, X19000 GT rev. 2, X1900 GT, X1900 All-In-Wonder, Mobility X1900
        • X1800 XT-PE, X1800 XT, X1800 CrossFire Edition, X1800 XL, X1800 GTO, Mobility X1800
        • Mobility X1700
        • X1650 XT, X1650 PRO
        • X1600 XT, X1600 Pro, X1600, Mobility X1600
        • X1550
        • Mobility X1450, Mobility X1400
        • Mobility X1350
        • X1300 XT, X1300 Pro, X1300, X1300 HM, Mobility X1300

      • Radeon R400 PCIe and AGP series:

        • Radeon X850 XT-PE, X850 XT, X850 Pro
        • Radeon X800 XT-PE, X800 XT, X800 XL, X800 Pro, X800 GTO 256, X800, X800 GTO 128, X800 GT 256, X800 GT 128, X800 SE, Mobility X800
        • Radeon X700 XT, X700 Pro, X700, Mobility X700

      • Radeon R300 PCIe series:

        • Radeon X600 XT, Pro, Mobility X600
        • Radeon X550, SE
        • Radeon X300Pro, X300 SE, X300, Mobility X300
        • Radeon Xpress 1150 IGP, 1100 IGP, 200 IGP

    • None of the cards in the current ATI Fire line for workstations use the Catalyst driver suite or any other universal driver suite. Download a model-specific driver from ATI's Drivers & Software page.

      • ATI FireGL line for 3D rendering workstations:

        • FireGL V7350, 7300, 7200, 5200, 3400, 3350, 3300
        • FireGL V7100, 5100, 5000, 3100
        • FireGL X3-256, T2-128

      • ATI FireMV line for workstations without 3D capabilities:

        • FireMV 2400 PCI Express, 2400 PCI, 2250 PCI Express, 2200 PCI Express, 2200 PCI

    • Many older Radeon products (some discontinued) use the Catalyst drivers; some do not. To obtain drivers, select your model from the list on ATI's Drivers & Software download page.

      • Radeon R300 AGP series:

        • Radeon 9800 XT, 9800 Pro, 9800 SE, 9800, Mobility 9800
        • Radeon 9700 Pro/All-in-Wonder 9700 Pro, 9700/All-in-Wonder 9700, Mobility 9700. Cards were available as either regular VGA cards with no television functions (9700 Pro & 9700) or as the All-in-Wonder, which included a TV tuner. The graphics chipsets were still Radeon 9700 Pros/9700s.
        • Radeon 9600 XT, 9600 Pro, 9600 SE, 9600, Mobility 9600
        • Radeon 9550, 9550 SE, 9550 Pro
        • Radeon 9250, 9200, 9200 SE, Mobility 9200

      • Radeon R200 series:

        • Radeon 9250, 9200, 9200 Se
        • Radeon 9100 Pro, 9100, 9100 Pro IGP, 9100 IGP, Mobility 9100 IGP
        • Radeon 9000 Pro/All-in-Wonder 900 Pro, 9000, Mobility 9000 IGP
        • Radeon 8500, 8500 LE

      • Radeon R100 series:

        • Radeon IGP 340M
        • Radeon IGP 320M
        • Radeon 7500, All-in-Wonder VE 7000/VE, Mobility 7500, Mobility 7000 IGP
        • Radeon 64

      • Rage series:

        • Rage Fury MAXX, Xpert 2000, Xpert 128
        • Rage XL
        • Rage LT Pro, LT
        • 3D Rage Pro
        • 3D Rage II, IIc, II+, II+DVD
        • 3D Rage

      • Early, obsolete GPUs:

        • Rage 128 GL, 128, Mobility 128
        • Rage Mobility M4
        • Rage Mobility
        • Mach64
        • Mach32
        • Mach8
        • EGA / VGA Wonder

  • Intel:

    • Intel Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA). These GPUs do not use a unified driver suite; you must download a model-specific driver. Also, Intel GPUs are integrated into motherboard chipsets, and never sold as stand-alone PCI, AGP, or PCI Express cards. Therefore you must locate and download chipset drivers as opposed to graphics-only drivers. Those downloads will contain the graphics driver along with all the other code for controlling motherboard hardware.

      • GMA X3000, which is integrated into the G965 Express chipset
      • GMA 950, integrated into the following chipsets:


      • GMA 900, integrated into the following chipsets:

This is document agtb in domain all.
Last modified on July 08, 2008.
Please tell us, did you find the answer to your question?