Here is how I select and install the “best” driver for my NVIDIA Graphics card, to get the best performance and stability in SOLIDWORKS.
Please read all the steps, some steps are just preparation for later steps.
- Please check this video - https://youtu.be/OBGxt8zhbRk – to make sure that your machine is restarted when the step requires a restart.
You can use Shift+Restart or set the setting described in the video.
- In your browser, open solidworks.com – select Support and System Requirements.
Find and click Certified cards and drivers, is it located in the Hardware and Hypervisors section
- In the top there are patches for SOLIDWORKS 2018 and newer, download the one matching your SOLIDWORKS version – and save it for later.
- Go to NVIDIA's web site
https://www.nvidia.com
(The following is from the United State NVIDIA web, please set to United States for the next couple of pictures are correct).
and select Drivers in top right corner - Use the Manual Driver Search option.
- First select Product Type, Serie and Product. Then select Operation System.
Set language to English - UK or US.
Click Find.
- Expand for move Versions
- Select the one with Driver Release number 550, and if there is more than one with the that release number, then the newest with that Release number.
– and download the driver.
- Now we are going to remove all previous versions of any NVIDIA graphics cards related software.
In Apps & features – search on NVIDA and uninstall all that is related to graphics and graphics cards.
You might need to reboot you machine several time before all can be uninstalled.
- Reboot the computer – just to make sure that all uninstalls are finished.
- Install the graphics driver we downloaded in step 7, and make sure that you install it as an administrator by RMB and Run as Administrator.
- Follow the steps in the installation – and select Custom (Advanced).
- Only select the Graphics Driver and check Perform a clean installation. If you know that you need some of the other options, please select them – but 99% of normal users don’t need the other stuff.
- Finish the installation and reboot the computer.
- Start and run SOLIDWORKS – close it.
Run the Patch we downloaded in step 3.
Below you can see the steps from the Patch install guide, especially important if it has been previous installed.
4. Run the downloaded msi patch (i.e. SW20xx_GraphicsCards_Support.msi where "xx" are the last two digits of the product year)
4.a) ** NOTE ** If prompted "To configure or remove the existing version of this product"
4.b) Navigate to the Windows search bar
4.c) Search for "Add remove"
4.d) Click on "Add or remove programs"
4.e) Scroll until you find "SOLIDWORKS 20xx graphics support"
4.f) Click on "SolidWorks 20xx graphics support" -> Uninstall
4.g) Re-run SW20xx_GraphicsCards_Support.msi
- Run SOLIDWORKS and check that Enhanced graphics performance have a checkmark.
- We are now using a driver that SOLIDWORKS can’t check, and SOLIDWORKS Resource Monitor might come with some notification about wrong driver version.
It can be turn off by checking Dismiss Graphics Notifications in the right mouse menu on the SOLIDWORKS Ressource Monitor.
- NVIDIA has removed the NVIDIA Control Panel from some of the newer driver installations.
And it has to be downloaded and installed from Microsoft Store, search on nvidia – it will properly be the first result.
- Check that NVIDIA Control Panel is present in the RMB menu, on the desktop.
- Check in the Control Panel that there is a full option list (3D Settings, Display, Video and Workstation). And that the monitors is connected to the NVIDIA Graphics Card - see below.
If that isn't the case, there could be a second graphics card that can interfere with driver - and that have to be solved.
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