Graphics Display Drivers (Links)

[Rodney]

In all but the rarest occasion graphics glitches can be resolved by installing a current/updated driver from the graphics card manufacturer (or third party rising to the challenge).

 

For those currently experiencing display issues, let's get those drivers updated, regressed to an earlier/better state or into whatever configuration needed to maximize performance and stability.

 

Official sites for driver downloads:

 

AMD / ATI
http://support.amd.com/en-us/download

 

Intel

http://www.intel.com/support/graphics/detect.htm

 

nVidia

http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx

 

3S Graphics

http://www.s3graphics.com/en/drivers/index.aspx

 

Want to try out beta drivers? Sites such as http://www.guru3d.com/ post recent releases.

 

Interesting factoid:

Without drivers, you will default to a software version of OpenGL 1.1 (on Win98, ME, and 2000), a Direct3D wrapper that supports OpenGL 1.1 (WinXP), or a Direct3D wrapper that supports OpenGL 1.1 (Windows Vista and Windows 7). None of these options are particularly fast, so installing drivers is always a good idea

.

 

Source: http://www.opengl.org/wiki/Getting_Started

[Rodney]

I didn't think I needed to update my driver but because I'm suggesting others should do that I figure I should follow my own advice as well.

 

I wasn't experiencing any issues so I was a little hesitant to update.

It may be just my imagination but the display in A:M (and Windows in general) does seem to respond faster.

 

Another thing this appears to have resolved was a continuous recycling of my system to want to update Java.

Installing the updated graphics driver failed the first time because of that and in fixing that first I don't see that problem happening.

Sometimes tweaking things to better optimize A:M will yield other advantages.

 

Edit: I'm definitely seeing some improvements here.