OEM (Lenovo) or AMD drivers for laptop? (Ideapad Flex 5)

[Orbs]

Hi everybody,

Humble apologies if this has already been asked, but I've been looking around and I would like to gather a little more information on this. I've recently bought a Lenovo Ideapad Flex 5 (Ryzen 5700U) and I noticed that the chipset and integrated graphics drivers from Lenovo were outdated. Now the laptop runs fine but I was always under the impression that getting the latest driver updates are a good thing in hopes for better performance, battery life and overall stability, so I updated the drivers to the latest ones from AMD. Battery life is very important to me as my job involves carrying my laptop around with me most of the time.

However I'm coming across conflicting information. Some people are suggesting I stick to the drivers from Lenovo as they are more "fine tuned" and better optimized for my laptop under the notion of "if it ain't broken don't fix it!". As far as I can tell, there isn't much of a difference unless I do some benchmarking and tests but I don't have the time for that right now. I would love to hear what the forum has to say about this. TIA!

TLDR: What's better for my laptops performance, battery life and stability? Lenovo drivers or latest AMD drivers for both chipset and integrated GPU?

 

[Bill_Bright]

However I'm coming across conflicting information. Some people are suggesting I stick to the drivers from Lenovo as they are more "fine tuned" and better optimized for my laptop under the notion of "if it ain't broken don't fix it!".

Hmmm, you are actually presenting conflicting information yourself. If you go by the notion, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it!", it would not matter where the drivers come from. If the system is working fine, you would not update the drivers, regardless where they come from.

And for the most part, that is the philosophy I take - but there are exceptions.

When I build a new computer or buy a new notebook, I always start with the latest drivers. And when it comes to notebooks, I typically get them from the notebook maker. But not because of the reasons you give. Sadly, notebooks, tend to have several to many "proprietary" changes to them. So I usually get the drivers from the makers to ensure they are compatible with my notebook.

That said, typically, notebook makers do NOT want to duplicate effort. That just wastes money so when it comes to chipsets and integrated graphics, the drivers are often the same anyway.

You ask about battery life - that would fall back on the notebook maker.

In any case, I NEVER update a driver or flash a BIOS without first reading the readme file for the update to see what it does. In many cases, it is to simply add support for a new CPU, GPU, or RAM that came out after the unit left the factory. Or it is to add support for some feature I don't use. Then I apply your "If it ain't broke..." rule. But if it addresses a bug that affects me, adds support for a new CPU I am considering, or addresses a security issue, I typically will update the driver sooner rather than later.

The primary exception would be for graphics drivers when I have a graphics card installed. I typically keep them updated. And in most cases, the card maker uses the GPU maker's drivers. So it does not matter.