How do graphics card drivers work?

[dcgreen2k]

I was just about to update my Nvidia drivers to the newest one, and noticed that it was over 500MB, so I want to know what kind of code or instructions the driver contains that make the file size so large and how it actually works. Does it provide information on how the computer can use the card? If it does just that, then how can it be so large?

[PineyCreek]

Companies that have a massive line of products usually have a very slimmed down set of driver packages.  Intel, AMD, nVidia.  In nVidia's case, there's all the potential drivers and configuration/installation data for several years' worth of GPUs plus all the bundled software.  That's why you can go in after the install with something like...I don't know...CCleaner or some other HDD cleanup utility and it'll find a bunch of leftover crap from driver installs that it can delete.  Not to mention a lot of those installers will just decompress on your drive in a directory and sit there forever otherwise after installing.  The drivers and software are already installed in their appropriate places (program files, then windows/system, etc.) but the installers are still sitting taking up space for no good reason aside from an uncompressed backup).

 

As to how drivers work in general, they're a communication layer.  A middleman that lets the OS talk to the hardware and vice versa. 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Device_driver

[dcgreen2k]

11 minutes ago, PineyCreek said:

Companies that have a massive line of products usually have a very slimmed down set of driver packages.  Intel, AMD, nVidia.  In nVidia's case, there's all the potential drivers and configuration/installation data for several years' worth of GPUs plus all the bundled software.  That's why you can go in after the install with something like...I don't know...CCleaner or some other HDD cleanup utility and it'll find a bunch of leftover crap from driver installs that it can delete.  Not to mention a lot of those installers will just decompress on your drive in a directory and sit there forever otherwise after installing.  The drivers and software are already installed in their appropriate places (program files, then windows/system, etc.) but the installers are still sitting taking up space for no good reason aside from an uncompressed backup).

That makes sense. I'm guessing something like an RTX-specific driver for one GPU model would be larger and more complex than a regular GTX driver as well?

[PineyCreek]

54 minutes ago, thegreengamers said:

That makes sense. I'm guessing something like an RTX-specific driver for one GPU model would be larger and more complex than a regular GTX driver as well?

Very likely considering the RTX cards have a different chip architecture and added features.  Not necessarily larger, but likely more complex.