A quick visit to the official Nvidia page confirms that its latest video drivers have already crossed the 800-megabyte barrier. In general, it's the same size as an operating system, and there's no reason to think that trend will reverse. Nvidia tries to offer a very well-defined experience with its drivers, which means there isn't much room for customization... unless we use something like NVCleanstall to clean up the bloatware.
How to Install Nvidia Drivers Without Bloatware Using NVCleanstall
If you have doubts about the stability and performance of your graphics card, the number one recommendation is to update its drivers. Obviously, there will always be isolated cases where the user is forced to perform a downgrade to fix compatibility details, but it's never a bad idea to start with the latest version, especially if we're looking to run the latest generation games.
The problem is... its size. In the specific case of Nvidia, its Game Ready drivers exceed 800 megabytes. No one denies that combining optimizations and support for dozens of GPUs is an extremely complex task, but Nvidia adds certain modules in these drivers that are not mandatory for its operation, and that cannot be disabled during a traditional installation. The alternative is to take the scalpel, and that's when the tool NVCleanstall comes in.
NVCleanstall is a creation of the TechPowerUp portal that helps us install Nvidia drivers without bloatware in the background, eliminating unnecessary components and at the same time reducing memory consumption. When running NVCleanstall for the first time, the software detects the installed version of the drivers, and takes care of searching for the most appropriate build online. Other options available in the menu are the use of already downloaded drivers, the manual selection of previous builds, and the permanent installation of NVCleanstall on the computer (it behaves like a portable program by default).
The second phase is the one that interests us the most: Customization. The only basic and essential component for the graphics card to work correctly is the video driver, but there is a lot to explore here. Each entry has a brief description of its function, and its linked dependencies. Personally, I usually check the PhysX and HD Audio via HDMI boxes to send audio and video at the same time to a TV or monitor with speakers. In fact, the Recommended preset included in NVCleanstall selects the first three options.
Then, the program focuses on downloading and processing the driver so that it adjusts to our previous selection (unless we have chosen a local installer). NVCleanstall also offers the possibility of applying Installation Tweaks. The most relevant are blocking telemetry and advertising, removing the sleep timer for the HD audio system (virtual headset users have reported problems with that timer), and the use of Message Signaled Interrupts which Nvidia disables for compatibility reasons, but which can cause latency spikes under certain configurations.
The last step is just a normal installation of the customized drivers. Alternatively, we can create a special package that allows us to use them on another computer, and even request a correct configuration that eliminates the previous profile. Finally, NVCleanstall is compatible with both the Game Ready and Studio Driver versions of the drivers, and as if that were not enough, it also includes a mod that adds unsupported cards, something very useful for mobile versions of graphics chips that cannot be configured with a standard installer.
Official site and download: Click here
