It seems like chipset drivers are needed less and less these days, which I'm okay with as long as it's true. For example before on an AMD or an Intel board I'd install the AHCI driver, northbridge/USB/whatever, or the Intel INF update, etc. Are these all just getting built in for Win8 now since I don't really see them available for download?
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Are motherboard chipset drivers a thing of the past?
- Thread starter oldpablo
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402blownstroker
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There will always be a need for drivers. If said drivers are packaged with a distribution of Windows is another question all together.
Skripka
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Also depends on the board.
When I installed my Maximus 4 Gene, Windows could not talk to the Intel NIC with any of its generic drivers...I had to install a 100MB ethernet port driver to get it to work...why a driver for something like an ethernet port is 100MB is another discussion entirely.
When I installed my Maximus 4 Gene, Windows could not talk to the Intel NIC with any of its generic drivers...I had to install a 100MB ethernet port driver to get it to work...why a driver for something like an ethernet port is 100MB is another discussion entirely.
bigdogchris
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Windows 7/8 may ship with many integrated drivers but they will not have drivers for newer technology that comes out, which is where you would need the chip set drivers. Also, many companies are also using unified driver platforms which I think leads to less need for the amount of drivers/updates, but it won't disappear.
bigdogchris
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I've never found AMD chipset drivers to be anything more than separate storage drivers and video drivers, with an occasional SMBUS driver thrown in that never seems to install.
One thing you have to understand is that new OSes often have drivers built in which were supplied by chipset and board vendors prior to the public release of the OS for beta testing and retail sales. So it isn't that they aren't needed anymore, but rather that the drivers you need are built into the operating system. Once Windows 8 comes out, hardware released after the OS hit retail will still require driver downloads in order to function properly. And as time goes on and as drivers are updated for existing hardware you may still benefit from updating drivers even when Windows has older versions included in its driver database.
Yup, thats pretty much all it is these days.
Because Asus likes to bundle a lot of crap with the driver packages. Download directly from the source (i.e. NIC manufacturer)
Windows 8 isn't out yet. 8 is built off of 7 AFAIK. Might start seeing beta drivers soon for win8 I guess. You hardly seen much win7beta drivers as most worked off vistas drivers as it hit RC.
I have the 12.4 drivers from AMD installed for AHCI, USB and such. I love how the AHCI drivers have been broken since 12.0 so it may be better to stick with windows updates drivers.
I have the 12.4 drivers from AMD installed for AHCI, USB and such. I love how the AHCI drivers have been broken since 12.0 so it may be better to stick with windows updates drivers.
Re-visiting this I am reminded of one of the examples that made me think of this. I've now come across two different AMD based netbook style systems where the manufacturer themselves don't offer a chipset driver to download. Just the GPU driver. However when you look in device manager and look at the AHCI driver you see it's a default Microsoft one, and AMD does have them available for download. But nowhere does it state specifically and clearly it's for that chipset, just "newer than the 700 series". This is for Win7 machines even. Is this an isolated event or is anyone else seeing this?