Whether to update nVidia driver for FX 5500 or not

[soybean]

Folks, I'd like your opinion here.  I have a nVidia GeForce FX 5500 (256MB) graphics card installed but I'm still using a driver which dates back to Oct '05, I believe; the version is 8.1.9.8, or 81.98.  A visit to nVidia website, and using their driver selector for the FX 5500, indicates 169.21 in the most current driver.

I browsed through some FAQ pages on their site and get conflicting impressions on whether to update or leave as is.  My system (Win XP Pro SP2) is stable with the 81.98 driver.  What would you do, update to the latest driver or not?

[patio]

If you are unsure of the results the failsafe method would be to create a new Hardware Profile in XP to test the new driver...this will not affect the original installation and you will be presented with a choice at startup of which you want to boot to.

Black Viper's site has excellent instructions on setting these up but it's pretty straightforward.

As far as opinion i have found that when it comes to drivers...newer is not always better.

[Calum]

Personally, I wouldn't bother updating the driver.
The FX5500 is an older card, meaning that new drivers will not contain an fixes or performance improvements for it, they'll focus on the latest and greatest.
If your system is stable, leave it as it is.

[soybean]

Thanks patio and Calum.  The creating of a new Hardware Profile for testing sounds like a very good idea.  I may try that; otherwise, I'll probably just leave it as is. 

[soybean]

A follow-up: I did create a new Hardware Profile, set it as default for the time being, started up under that profile, and installed the new driver.  So far, I can't see any significant difference, performance-wise.  I may switch back and forth the two hardware profiles (the other one has the older driver) for awhile and allow some more time for observation and comparison.  In any case, creating the Hardware Profile was an interesting exercise.  To do this, I visited both the Black Viper site @ http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/xpprofiles.htm and a Microsoft page on To create a hardware profile.

[patio]

Cool stuff hey ? ?
One of the better things MS included with XP and on...
You can also use it for testing new software without any consequences but instead i Swear by Total Uninstall...