Updated Video Driver = Huge Speed Boost?

[V8toytruck]

So I've been running my system for 2 years or so now..

i7
2xSSD
GTX460
3XHDD for storage

and it was a BF3, Premiere Pro, Photoshop and CGN machine. About 1-2 months ago it started getting slower. I thought it was the being slow so I didn't think much else.

Today I updated the video driver on the GTX460 and EVERYTHING is faster. Its literally like going from a regular hard drive to SSD again.

Can a video driver make THAT much difference???

[SouperMan]

Maybe optimizations were made in the driver for video processing that made it more efficient, which reduced the workload off the CPU?

Good to hear that a simple fix yielded a good size benefit for you!

[segfault]

gfx drivers are finicky; I used to read the release notes before I upgrade and it would fix one problem while introducing (knowingly) another. They're probably still at it.

One possibility is your original version had an incompatibility with another component or a particular driver version. Windows updates may automatically upgrade certain drivers.