Digital BW, The Print

It is my understanding that the Epson print driver is only 8 bit.  If true,
then a conversion to 8 bits occurs to all 16 bit files before printing.  You
can convert the file manually in PS and then print or you can just print the
16 bit file and let the Epson driver do its own conversion as necessary.  Is
there any advantage to one method over the other in regards to print
quality?  I can run tests but didn't want to "reinvent the wheel" if someone
else had already tested this.

Thanks in advance,
Doug