11 Drivers for Games Hardware

Drivers for Games Hardware

Intro

    As discussed within the hardware sections of this blog we have talked about the various forms of hardware which is required to help your computer display graphics, play sound connect to the internet etc. But, although the hardware is responsible for this functionality within the OS they rely upon drivers to help understand what it is that is connected and how the OS can interact with it, add and fix known software issues or add new additional and useful features which can drastically upgrade it. So, in this section of the blog we will be talking about some of the popular types.

Sound-card Drivers

    The drivers for a sound-card enable the operating system to understand what the sound-card is and how it is able to interact with the OS. So for example when you look at the volume properties in your computer you are interacting with your sound-cards drivers as they allow the computer to understand what bit-rate and bit-depth the sound-card is able to handle along with whether it is able to record and it's latency and how many I/O slots there are. Drivers are also able to be downloaded to patch or add new features to the actual sound-card through software.

Graphics Card Drivers

    In an extremely similar to sound-card drivers graphics cards make use of drivers so that the operating system is able to actually register and use the graphic card within the OS and in practical scenarios. Along with this the driver also helps tell the computer what resolutions it is capable of running along with how much power it will use and in what it will function with the OS whether it will be used exclusively for games or whether it will be used for the GUI's of the OS itself. New driver updates also allow for higher resolution rates and more optimized algorithms for rendering along with new updates to help add support for newer shading methods available to the commercial market along with standard bug fixes to help fix issues.

NIC Drivers

   Finally we have Network Interface Controllers or NIC's as they are known. These are network cards which allow the computer to access the internet through the use of Bluetooth, wi-fi or Ethernet sources. The drivers for this card function the same again as the previous two by allowing the computer's OS and motherboard to understand what it is and how it will function within the OS. In this case it tells the computer how to access the internet through the varying sources at it's disposal. Newer driver updates may add support for newer data encryption types such as WPA-2 the latest wi-fi securing method for wi-fi hubs along with faster data methods for handling the data being sent to the NIC. There will also be bug fixes as this is an area of the computer which is susceptible to virus's.