Drivers & Software

[reebis]

Hello,

The issue I have is with updating the NVMe driver (non-raid) from the default Windows drivers that's provided.  After installation the driver date states it's from 2006 and from Windows.  I've tried updating this via Gigabyte's disk/website, made my OS unbootable.  I have not found the driver for this device. 

The generic driver is old and doesn't make sense how Gigabyte doesn't have one for it. 

(Note*, I'm aware other drivers aren't installed.  I did not install the other drivers because I've done this many times, different iterations with the same result.  Didn't want to waste the time.)

[black_zion]

The driver date on Microsoft standard drivers, they're updated and tweaked with new Windows 10 builds, which is why the driver version is what it is, so there's no problem with using them. If, however, your NVMe drive manufacturer has their own drivers, like Samsung for me as both of mine are Samsung drives, you should use their drivers.

[reebis]

black_zion‌, omg dude!  Thank you so much!  This was what I was looking for!  This was driving me insane!  Even Gigabyte support couldn't answer this question.

I didn't realize the on-board controller.  It's odd to me that the controller is built in the disk its self.  Completely opposite of what you typically deal with in motherboards and drivers.  You have controllers that manage the disks.  Typically not controllers build onto the disk themselves.  Then again it's been 7 years since I built my last machine.

Again, thanks for the help.  I just couldn't live with Windows default drivers.  /vomit.

[black_zion]

Well...all drives have onboard controllers, be they HDD, SATA, or NVMe, but NVMe works differently compared to the other two. Compact Flash is the only one which comes to mind which integrates everything, which is how you can take a CF card, use an 80 pin IDE cable, and use it as a native IDE device in a computer from the 90s. HDD controllers are pretty dumb, by design:

You still need controller "drivers" in the OS as the OS needs to actually see the drive, but with the much more simplified nature of NVMe compared to SATA means that no external "controller" as such is required so no specialized drivers are required. If the drive manufacturer has their own drivers, which most do, they should be used as they can be more efficient since the manufacturers can tailor them for each drive, but as far as a measurable performance difference ...Maybe if you had one of the new 64 core EPYC processors then yes, but in a desktop, no.

Compared to SATA