1.Windows isn't going to find crap! This is because -> Windows, has searched through all of it's Generic drivers, and THE drivers, installed for your graphics card!
Naturally, when it comes to finding THE best drivers for your graphics card, it will come upon THE one installed for your graphics card.
The drivers that come with a graphics card, (On the CD) ARE the best ones.
So forget about the Windows driver search.
2.Drivers, are small pieces of software, that help the Operating System, (Windows XP is an example of an O/S), to 'communicate' with a device. In this example, your graphics card is the device in question.
Updating drivers for a device can be a good thing, or a bad thing.
Why?
Because when a device is made, by the time it hits the market new programs,( Games specifically), have been written (Programmed), and have technology beyond the drivers that came with the graphics card.
Therefore, it is Believed to be a good thing, 'To bring the drivers up to speed'.
However, this is not always a good thing, as driver updates may have to write over 'codecs', that are already installed in the driver software.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Codecs
SOMETIMES, the old codec is not properly written over, and now you have two versions of the codec. The old and the new. This creates a 'conflict'.
Which codec to use.
If your satisfied with the performance of graphics, that are handled by your graphics card, I advise leaving it alone.
You can easily create more of a headache for yourself, instead of 'bettering' the graphics quality of your graphics card.
This is why 'wanta be' forums probably answer lightly. They advise you should upgrade your graphics cards drivers, out of one side of their mouth, while quietly muttering, "I hope they do it right, and if it messes up, I hope they know how to go back to the old driver version".
Now, I am trying to use tact and diplomacy here, but if your graphics card doesn't give you the graphics performance you desire, it's time to upgrade your computer system.
Why?
You hear and read it all the time. You need the new "Space Commander MegaDeath XVIIII version graphics card. "Will make your games jump out of your monitor, and drag you back in. YOU'LL be part of the game, and will never want to go back!"
Okay,...not quite like that!
As graphics technology evolves, so does the computer system to handle it. This gives you an idea, of whats going on with 3D graphics,
1.http://computer.howstuffworks.com/3dgraphics.htm
This gives you an idea of how graphics cards work,
2.http://computer.howstuffworks.com/graphics-card.htm
Your computer, uses an AGP expansion slot for your graphics card,
3.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AGP
This technology came out in 1997. Two years in computer technology
advancement, is like a light year of advancement for human technology. The AGP technology is 10 years old now.
Now technology for the expansion slot on an average motherboard, has gone to PCI Express. Has since 2004. That was the PCI Express 1.0 version. Since then the PCI-Express 1.1 version came out, and presently the PCI Express 2.0 version is being used.
4.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI_Express
PCI, AGP, and PCI Express are forms of a computer Bus.
5.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bus_(computer)
This is how data (Information) is transferred back and forth, inside the computer to the processor.
It actually becomes a little more involved than that statement.
This chart helps to explain the data transference,
6.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Motherboard_diagram.png
(CPU stands for Central Processing Unit. Another name is Microprocessor, or simply Processor)
The faster, and the more, completed graphics data you can transfer back and forth to the processor, the better your graphics will be.
Graphics data (Information), goes through the Northbridge chipset, to a Front Side Bus, and then to the processor. It also comes back along this route.
(Except for the new Intel Core i7 computer systems)
Think of a bus, (PCI, AGP or PCI Express, and also the FSB, {Front Side Bus}, as being what it seems to state.
A Bus.
A bus that carries passengers. The more passengers you can carry, (Data), and the faster the bus line runs, the more passengers, (Data) arrive at their destination, and the quicker they get there.
7.http://www.directron.com/fsbguide.html
The PCI-Express x16 is the fastest, largest bus line.
ATI came out with a line of graphics processing units. GPU: 9.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GPU
Radeon is one of them.
10.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ATI_Radeon
(R300 is the series used for your ATI Radeon 'Atlantis' 9600 graphics card)
Point of this last statement? (No.9 and No.10 link)
Your graphics card has the ATI Radeon R300 GPU. The graphics technology used on the Sapphire Radeon Atlantis 9600 graphics card, is still ATI's. Doesn't matter WHO makes the ATI Radeon 9600 graphics card, it's still ATI technology. It could be made by Mickey Mouse and his gang.
Sapphire doesn't feel like including Radeon in the title, because the R300 GPU, is part of the Radeon line of GPU's.
Edit: I stated "completed graphics" above, because a dedicated graphics card, has it's own graphics processor, (GPU), and ram memory. This 'completed' graphics data still has to go to the processor, where it transfers it to the Operating System. The Operating System is controlling the program. The game.
To download and use a graphics card driver update, you
click on the driver name. A small window will pop up. You have the option of Run or Save. Click on Run.
Another small window will pop up. A Microsoft 'Squawk Box".
"Warning. This program (Whatever) hasn't been certified by Microsoft, ya-da, ya-da, and so on"
It's okay! Click on Run again. Follow the instructions, and if it asks you to restart your computer, do so. If it doesn't, do it anyway.