This particular decision was based on an experience last week where I lost several days of work in Cubase because I could get no sound from it - https://forums.steinberg.net/t/yet-another-no-sound-problem-i-hope-this-is-some-simple-mistake/778225/27 - after innocently plugging and unplugging my headphones from my PC headphone jack. I related this both here and on VI-Control and in both forums was told I shouldn’t be using the stock RealTek sound chips that cam with my PC. So that’s why I want to get some different sound hardware.
The driver aspect of it is that as a Cubase noob I’ve been told many times here to use ASIO drivers. When I started I was using ASIO4All but had problems sharing multiple sources on my PC, e.g., switching between the browser playing Vimeo and Cubase, so I switched to the Generic Low Latency ASIO driver. I want to spend my time making music and NOT tinkering with configurations or debugging problems.
A few months ago I started up Adobe Premiere Pro and got no video. But I also got a message on my screen from Adobe that due to a recent update in Premiere Pro I needed to update my video driver. The message included a link to the NVidia webpage where the correct driver was located and instructions on how to install it. Switching over was easy-peasy and took minutes. Nothing else that used video on my PC was affected. I want it to be that easy with Cubase - “For this version of Cubase and that Sound Card, use this driver” Most of us are musicians, not IT specialists who like to experiment with drivers.