That’s what in used to use but there are some features you can’t access without the physx components so I get the whole package now. For baseline it’s good for sure.

Nope. Always been that way. Enter model, choose platform, download drivers. Ive had to do it for at least a decade and a half since the nvidia program has never not borked out trying to update drivers.

It’s been the same for 20 years at least. My first nVidia card was a geforce2 but I had an integrated SOC one that borrowed main board memory before that called a RIVA TNT 2. Prior to that had an ISA SVGA card but can’t remember who made it: