How would I go about updating my Video Driver and will it help me play games that I otherwise wouldn't be ale to play currently (or do I need a video card for that). Would someone be kind enough to explain to this poor soul the difference between a video driver and a video card and what each one does? Also, how do I know which video driver that I need to use and which to download? I'm sorry for being ignorant lol.

what kind of video card do you have?

the basic thing between the card and the driver is this.
one is the actual hardware, and the other is the software.
the driver makes the hardware run and interface with your operating system.
updating your driver is beneficial, but can only go so far.
companies update their drivers b/c they constantly improve the computing language needed run the piece of hardware. they also update to get rid of bugs.
updating your driver should make your video card run smoother, but that is about all it does. the driver can not tell the video card to say run faster when your video card is physically limited.

Your video card driver is probably up to date and working fine. What games are you trying to run? we can help you decide on a new card here.

Windows Button + Pause > Device Manager > Display Adapters.

This will show your card. Right click on it and goto properties.

Then goto Driver. you will see a version number and a date.

If you tell us what card you have we can tell you what drivers will be best, as having the "latest" drivers does not mean having the best performance. Some cards work better on specific driver versions.

If you tell us what card you have we can tell you what drivers will be best, as having the "latest" drivers does not mean having the best performance. Some cards work better on specific driver versions.


Very true, can't tell you how many times I've had to roll back a driver. Actually had to do it with the most recent driver for the GeForce 8 series.