A few years ago, Nvidia made a move that was bound to frustrate a lot of gamers. It made its GeForce Experience app, which is the easiest way to update and download Nvidia drivers, require an account. Those who just want to maintain their PC now needlessly needed to be part of Nvidia's family.
Thankfully, though Nvidia strongly pushes GeForce Experience on its GPU owners, it's possible to update them without it. The process is a bit more involved, but GTX drivers can be found on its official website for installation. Doing so will still net you the use Nvidia Control Panel, but won't come with extra fluff like desktop overlays, settings optimizers, and game recording.
Today we're going to show you how to download Nvidia Drivers without Geforce experience, as well as how to install them and check your GPU. If you want to know how to update Nvidia drivers without Geforce Experience, the manual installation of a new driver will exactly do that and replace your existing outdated Nvidia GPU driver. Let's get started:
How to Manually Update and Download Nvidia Drivers
One downside to manual drivers updates is that you need to know your hardware quite well. Though many will remember their GPU make, it can be difficult to remember the exact model. If you want to avoid the underside of your desk or have a laptop, you can check your Nvidia GPU via Task Manager. You can then proceed to check your architecture and download and install the Nvidia display driver.
- Check your Nvidia GPU
Press “Ctrl + Shift + Esc” to open Task Manager and click the “Performance” tab. Check the name underneath the GPU headings. In our case, it's two GTX 690's. You'll also see this information in the top-right of the Task Manager window when you click a GPU.
- Open System information in Windows 10 Settings
Press the “Start” button and type “about system”, then click the top result.
- Note down your System type
Before you download your Nvidia graphics driver, you'll need to know your system architecture. This can be found under the “System type” heading in the “About” interface. The relevant part is whether your system is 64-bit or 32-bit.
- Perform a manual driver search via the GeForce Drivers page
Armed with that knowledge, you can to the GeForce drivers page and perform a manual search for your graphics card. Set the Product Type to GeForce, then select your product series, product, operating system, and language and hit “Search”. You can
- Perform a manual driver search via the legacy download Nvidia drivers page
If you prefer to get away from modern Nvidia entirely, you can head to the legacy download Nvidia drivers page, making sure to enter the correct details and selecting “Game Ready Driver” or “Studio Driver” depending on whether you use the card for gaming or 3D rendering.
- Download Nvidia Drivers
The page will inform you, “This download includes the NVIDIA display driver and Geforce Experience application”. Don't worry, you choose not to install GeForce Experience in the next step. For now, just click “Download”.
- Extract the Nvidia Display Driver
Run the file you just downloaded. You should see an extraction wizard. You can choose different a location if you wish by pressing the folder icon. Once you're done, click “OK” to extract the installer files.
- Wait for the system compatibility check
Nvidia will make sure you've downloaded the right drivers for your system to prevent any issues. If you get an error, check your specs again and download the correct driver from the site.
- Choose “Nvidia Graphics Driver”
By default, Nvidia will try to trick you into installing GeForce Experience with the driver. If you don't want the software installed, be sure to tick “Nvidia Graphics Driver”, then press “Agree and Continue”. Your driver will take a little while to install, and your screen may go black for a second or two during this process as Nvidia display drivers restart.
If you found this tutorial useful, you may enjoy our guide on how to remove Windows 10 bloatware and uninstall the Xbox Game Bar.
