How to Update Nvidia Drivers (The Safe Way That Doesn’t Break Your PC)

Your game keeps crashing. FPS is dropping. Something feels off after a Windows update.

The first thing I tell clients to check is their Nvidia driver.

I’ve optimized 3,000+ PCs at ASB Gaming, and outdated or badly installed drivers are one of the most common causes of crashes, stutters, and random issues. The good news is that fixing it takes about 10 minutes. The bad news is that most people update drivers the wrong way.

Let me show you the right way.

Method 1: Update through the Nvidia app (easy, but not recommended)

You can update your drivers through the Nvidia app. Open the app, go to the Drivers tab, and click Download, then Install.

It’s easy. I’m still not going to recommend it.

Warning: I’ve had many clients come to me after updating through the Nvidia app. During the installation, the screen went black, and it just stayed black. No desktop, no signal, nothing. These were normal gaming PCs that worked fine five minutes earlier.

It doesn’t happen every time. But when it does, you’re stuck, and you’ll have to boot into safe mode just to fix it. If you don’t know what that means, skip this method and use Method 2.

Method 2: Download the driver from nvidia.com/drivers (recommended)

This is the method I use on client PCs. It’s safer and you stay in control of what gets installed.

Step 1. Go to nvidia.com/drivers.

Step 2. Select your GPU. Choose your product type (GeForce), series, model (for example RTX 5080), and operating system (Windows 11).

Step 3. Under Download Type, choose Game Ready Driver. Click Search, then Download.

Step 4. Run the installer. When it asks what to install, choose NVIDIA Graphics Driver only. Do not install the Nvidia app.

Step 5. Choose Express or Custom, finish the installation, and restart your PC.

That’s it. You get the latest driver without the extra software that causes problems.

Method 3: Clean install with DDU (for crashes and driver problems)

If your game is crashing, or you’ve been stacking driver updates on top of each other for months, a normal update might not be enough. Old driver files get left behind and cause conflicts.

That’s when I do a clean install using DDU (Display Driver Uninstaller).

Step 1. Download the new driver from nvidia.com/drivers first (follow Method 2) and keep the file on your desktop.

Step 2. Download DDU and run it. It’s best to run it in Safe Mode.

Step 3. Select GPU, then Nvidia, and click Clean and restart.

Step 4. Your PC will restart with the old driver completely removed.

Step 5. Install the new driver you downloaded in Step 1. Choose driver only, no Nvidia app.

Step 6. Restart your PC again.

This one process fixes most of the problems I see: game crashes, black screens, stuttering, and random driver errors. I do it on a lot of client PCs before touching anything else.

Quick summary

• Easy but risky: Nvidia app. It can cause a black screen during installation.

• Recommended: Download Game Ready drivers from nvidia.com/drivers and install the driver only, with no Nvidia app.

• Best for crashes: DDU clean install, then a fresh driver install, then restart.

Still crashing? Let me check your PC for free

A clean driver install fixes a lot of problems. But if your game is still crashing or lagging after this, something else is going on, like Windows settings, BIOS settings, background processes, or a bottleneck in your hardware.

At ASB Gaming I offer a free PC check before you pay for anything. If your hardware is the real problem, I’ll tell you straight. I won’t take your money for an optimization that won’t help.

If it’s a software issue, I’ll fix it. Most of my clients are Warzone players, and I’ve got 1,400+ five-star reviews on Fiverr and 200+ on Discord from people who went from stutters and lag to smooth, stable FPS.

Visit asbgaming.com to get your free PC check and see how I can help.