Downgrading video cards = Driver reinstall?

[DarkRogue]

Hey, everyone,

I have a quick question for anyone that might know first hand.
I am using a GTX 670, but its fan died last night during a game of Serious Sam 3. The game was apparently far too serious for it.
In any case, the GPU overheated and shut down.

I need to replace the hsf or RMA the card (probably will just do an RMA) but in the meantime, I think I will have to swap back to my old 8800GT. GTX 670 is still working right now, but even watching Youtube will overheat it, haha.

In any case, I was wondering if swapping out the GTX670 for the 8800GT means I have to reinstall drivers. My gut says I shouldn't have to, since it's going from nvidia to nvidia, but hey, stranger things have happened. Maybe the driver package only installs drivers specific to the card detected on initial installation?

So, has anyone done this and can report on whether driver reinstallation is necessary or not?

Thanks.

 

[MrK6]

I am using a GTX 670, but its fan died last night during a game of Serious Sam 3. The game was apparently far too serious for it.

LOL. I haven't laughed out loud at a forum post in awhile, thanks for that.

As far as drivers go, I'd just uninstall the GTX 670 in device manager, shut down, put the 8800 GT in, then boot up and let Windows autodetect and install, and be done with it. I've done it this way in the past and haven't had any problems. Generally staying with the same manufacturer is relatively painless.

 

[DarkRogue]

Haha, I'm glad you got a kick out of it. 😀

Thanks for the response, I'll probably do that.
I generally try to avoid "dirtying" the Windows installation unnecessarily, but I have little choice right now.