What is and why drivers are needed?

[korishkaz]

The driver is a kind of bridge between the system and the hardware of the computer. With its help, the Operating System is told everything that is connected to the computer and how to interact with it.
A driver is not a physical device, it cannot be "touched". This is a program that contains files with which the system can interact with devices.
When you just installed windows on a new PC, the OS does not know anything about the external devices of the computer, so it needs to be "acquainted" with them through drivers.
Some versions of Windows already have pre-installed drivers. Usually this is the minimum - for working with sound, video, network, bluetooth, mouse, keyboard, etc.
It cannot be said that without drivers and immediately after installing the OS, you will not be able to work with a computer. You will have sound and video, but these are standard settings and you will not be able to fully use all the "charms" of the connected devices until you install their drivers.
This applies not only to the new OS on the computer, drivers need to be installed for other new devices that you will connect in the future.
Drivers are needed for almost all equipment that is connected or will be connected to a computer: a sound card, a video card, a web camera, a printer, mice and keyboards with additional keys, various joysticks, etc.
For example, if you have not installed drivers for your fancy sound card, you will not be able to fully enjoy the sound from the speakers. Or, without installed drivers for the video card, you will have graphics problems. Well, without drivers for printers, copiers, scanners, web cameras, etc., they will not work and the system will not see them, although they will be connected.

[gefota]

Yes you are right. Without the proper drivers, the performance of your computer can be significantly degraded.
DriverPack helps me to control the work of drivers. DriverPack automatically analyzes the system, finds all the devices itself and understands which drivers need to be installed for them (if they are not available), which ones to update, and which ones to reinstall (if they are, but are broken). There is a large library of drivers here. Card reader download drivers here https://driverpack.io/en/devices/cardreader or other drivers it's easy and fast