easy to swap nvidia for ati?

[broadwayblue]

i currently have a dell 4500 system with a gforce 4 4200 and will be receiving a new 8250 this week with a radeon 9700 tx. i'm giving the new system to a relative and i was wondering if i could swap the cards (i want to keep the 9700!)? the os would recognize the new hardware when rebooted, right? so i'm thinking i should just have to download the new drivers from the cards respective manufacturers. my only other concern is the power connection required for the 9700...does that come already attached to the 9700 or do you use a standard power connector coming from the power supply? thanks!

 

[nemesismk2]

Originally posted by: broadwayblue
i currently have a dell 4500 system with a gforce 4 4200 and will be receiving a new 8250 this week with a radeon 9700 tx. i'm giving the new system to a relative and i was wondering if i could swap the cards (i want to keep the 9700!)? the os would recognize the new hardware when rebooted, right? so i'm thinking i should just have to download the new drivers from the cards respective manufacturers. my only other concern is the power connection required for the 9700...does that come already attached to the 9700 or do you use a standard power connector coming from the power supply? thanks!

Your main concern should be the nvidia drivers, they have code that if you change from a nvidia product to an ATI product your pc will cease to function. I think it's best if you keep your GF4!

 

[UCknightmare1]

As long as you uninstall the NVidia drivers before you uninstall the old card you should be fine. I just Replaced my TNT2 with a ATI 9000 with no proplems at all. With the Power connector for the 9700, I believe there is an in-line splitter to split power of of one of your hard drives. I will look at my manual this evening when i get home from work as it has installation instructions for a 9700 in my 9000 book.

Best of luck.

Ben

PS - watch out for NVidia Fanboys that post on this board as they will give you advise like our friend nemesismk2 did.

 

[Slappy00]

Your main concern should be the nvidia drivers, they have code that if you change from a nvidia product to an ATI product your pc will cease to function

Man thats heavy.. I tend to keep up on these things and i would think that if nvidia really did this sort of thing you speak of (purposely of course) they would have all kinds of litigation on their hands.

In short I think there is no code being put in short of divers being placed in the right directories and the regestery enteries being added.

If you are that paranoid there are plenty of utilities that clean the regestery of invalid entries and plenty of antivirus (which i think is what you are inferring is happening) programs that can detect residents in the memory or boot sector that can be doing this sort of thing.

 

[stebesplace]

Uninstall nvidia drivers.

Shut down computer.

replace nvidia with ati.

Start computer.

If using windows Xp, drivers will be installed generic, so make sure prior you have downloaded the most recent drivers for the card. Same goes with this process in the other dell. . .

-Steve

 

[broadwayblue]

Originally posted by: stebesplace
Uninstall nvidia drivers.

Shut down computer.

replace nvidia with ati.

Start computer.

If using windows Xp, drivers will be installed generic, so make sure prior you have downloaded the most recent drivers for the card. Same goes with this process in the other dell. . .

-Steve

thanks...so it's not imperative that i uninstall the nvidia drivers before swapping the cards? and i should notice a difference between these two cards performance wise, right?

 

[broadwayblue]

Originally posted by: UCknightmare1
As long as you uninstall the NVidia drivers before you uninstall the old card you should be fine. I just Replaced my TNT2 with a ATI 9000 with no proplems at all. With the Power connector for the 9700, I believe there is an in-line splitter to split power of of one of your hard drives. I will look at my manual this evening when i get home from work as it has installation instructions for a 9700 in my 9000 book.

Best of luck.

Ben

PS - watch out for NVidia Fanboys that post on this board as they will give you advise like our friend nemesismk2 did.

thanks...my main concern other than the driver issues is the power connector for the 9700.

 

[Mem]

thanks...so it's not imperative that i uninstall the nvidia drivers before swapping the cards?

It would be the best way and very wise move to remove the Nvidia drivers first,before installing the ATi card.

 

[broadwayblue]

Originally posted by: Mem

thanks...so it's not imperative that i uninstall the nvidia drivers before swapping the cards?

It would be the best way and very wise move to remove the Nvidia drivers first,before installing the ATi card.

so just go to control panel-->add or remove programs and uninstall "NVIDIA windows 2000/XP Display Drivers." should that do it?

i was just afraid the screen would go blank or something if i deleted the video drivers while using the pc.

 

[Mem]

Yes removing the Nvidia software from Control Panel (install/remove icon), it will ask you to reboot and should bootup using the standard VGA driver.You can also delete the Nvidia folder in Windows directory after you`ve uninstalled the drivers & rebooted, then close your PC down and install the ATI card.

i was just afraid the screen would go blank or something if i deleted the video drivers while using the pc

When you remove the drivers it will ask you to restart your PC as stated above,plus
XP has built-in drivers.

 

[broadwayblue]

Originally posted by: Mem
Yes removing the Nvidia software from Control Panel (install/remove icon), it will ask you to reboot and should bootup using the standard VGA driver.You can also delete the Nvidia folder in Windows directory after uninstall of drivers & reboot then close your PC down and install the ATI card.

i was just afraid the screen would go blank or something if i deleted the video drivers while using the pc

When you remove the drivers it will ask you to restart your PC as stated above,plus
XP has built-in drivers.

thanks for the info...i'll do it that way. last question, how much power does the 9700 draw? my dell 4500 only has a 230 watt ps and i know some people are saying that these days you need at least a 300w or 400w ps. i am currently running a dvd drive, cd-rw, and two hard drives. is there still enough power for the ATI?

 

[Mem]

I`ve been reading the Ati 9700 likes and needs a good quality 300w or above,as for your 230w I would say it probably won`t be good enough,however you can try it,but it would be wise to upgrade it.

 

[UncleWai]

i think the problem here is by removing the r9700, you will void the warranty.
Therefore, your relative will get no support from Dell.
And as a result, you will be the tech support for them.

230watts is not going to cut it I think, even if you can boot up, it will probably reboot when you are playing an intensive game.

There is a detonator destroyer out there which helps you clear all the nvidia mumbo jumbo.
You may also want to get Regcleaner to get rid of all the registries.

 

[broadwayblue]

Originally posted by: Mem
I`ve been reading the Ati 9700 likes and needs a good quality 300w or above,as for your 230w I would say it probably won`t be good enough,however you can try it,but it would be wise to upgrade it.

damn. always a different problem. i guess i'll need to do a bit more research on this topic.

 

[nemesismk2]

Regarding my comment above, I was just joking stop taking things so seriously ppl!

 

[broadwayblue]

Originally posted by: nemesismk2
Regarding my comment above, I was just joking stop taking things so seriously ppl!

i was fairly certain about that. personally i've been a nvidia guy (have gforce 4 and 2 in my current systems...but i took the upgrade on my new system to the supposedly king of the hill at the moment 9700. i only hope i can find a way to use it!

 

[nemesismk2]

Originally posted by: broadwayblue

Originally posted by: nemesismk2
Regarding my comment above, I was just joking stop taking things so seriously ppl!

i was fairly certain about that. personally i've been a nvidia guy (have gforce 4 and 2 in my current systems...but i took the upgrade on my new system to the supposedly king of the hill at the moment 9700. i only hope i can find a way to use it!

Right now I'm happy with my GF4 Ti4600 in my main computer however I should really upgrade the GF4 MX440 in my 2nd computer to maybe the Ati Radeon 9000 Pro sometime in 2003.

 

[tazdevl]

There is always a reg key or DLL floating around to cause problems. Video card is too pervasive a component.

If you truly want a problem free installation, do a reformat and reinstall of your OS.

In regards to Uncle's comments... it will not void the warranty, but you will not receive any support for video card related matters.

 

[broadwayblue]

so i realized that i have a 300watt antec power supply in an SX830 case i never used. it's an ATX power supply...will that work on the dell case/motherboard? anything special required to swap out the power supplies?

the power supply is a PP-303XP.

http://www.antec-inc.com/p_pp303xp.html

 

[UCknightmare1]

Originally posted by: tazdevl
There is always a reg key or DLL floating around to cause problems. Video card is too pervasive a component.

If you truly want a problem free installation, do a reformat and reinstall of your OS.

In regards to Uncle's comments... it will not void the warranty, but you will not receive any support for video card related matters.

I guess you could do that if you ABSOLUTLY wanted to be sure but my XP machine has run constantly since last Saturday when i installed my Radeon 9000 remebering to do the uninstall of the NVIDIA drivers before removing the old hardware.

This is just my experience and i am not saying you might not experience problems.

About the power connector/installation instructions i promised you the other night sorry i didn't get around to it trying to fight off a cold.

Here are the Instructions directly copied from the ATI Radeon manual

The RADEON 9700/9500 Series requires connection to your PC's internal power suplly for operation. A 300W power supply or greater is recomended where a number of internal devices are installed

Complete the instruction for removing the old video care and software found at Uninstalling Old Graphics Card Software on page 3.

Use the supplied Power Extension Cable to connect the RADEON 9700/9500 Series to the computer's Hard Drive power connector.

1) Remove the power cable from the Hard Drive power connector

2) Connect "A" of the Power Extension Cable to the RADEON 9700/9500 Series power connector as shown.

3) Connect "B" to the Power Supply connector.

4) Connect "C" to the Hard Drive power connector.

5-8) Install card in AGP slot and boot - paraphrased

The power supply connector looks just like your typical Y-splitter you would use in a computer, maybe someone who has enough money to buy one can tell us more specifically what it looks like to help you out if you need it.

If you have any other questions about the installation manual i might be able to get them scanned in for you and sent if you would like them.

Ben

If you have any more

 

[broadwayblue]

Originally posted by: UCknightmare1

Originally posted by: tazdevl
There is always a reg key or DLL floating around to cause problems. Video card is too pervasive a component.

If you truly want a problem free installation, do a reformat and reinstall of your OS.

In regards to Uncle's comments... it will not void the warranty, but you will not receive any support for video card related matters.

I guess you could do that if you ABSOLUTLY wanted to be sure but my XP machine has run constantly since last Saturday when i installed my Radeon 9000 remebering to do the uninstall of the NVIDIA drivers before removing the old hardware.

This is just my experience and i am not saying you might not experience problems.

About the power connector/installation instructions i promised you the other night sorry i didn't get around to it trying to fight off a cold.

Here are the Instructions directly copied from the ATI Radeon manual

The RADEON 9700/9500 Series requires connection to your PC's internal power suplly for operation. A 300W power supply or greater is recomended where a number of internal devices are installed

Complete the instruction for removing the old video care and software found at Uninstalling Old Graphics Card Software on page 3.

Use the supplied Power Extension Cable to connect the RADEON 9700/9500 Series to the computer's Hard Drive power connector.

1) Remove the power cable from the Hard Drive power connector

2) Connect "A" of the Power Extension Cable to the RADEON 9700/9500 Series power connector as shown.

3) Connect "B" to the Power Supply connector.

4) Connect "C" to the Hard Drive power connector.

5-8) Install card in AGP slot and boot - paraphrased

The power supply connector looks just like your typical Y-splitter you would use in a computer, maybe someone who has enough money to buy one can tell us more specifically what it looks like to help you out if you need it.

If you have any other questions about the installation manual i might be able to get them scanned in for you and sent if you would like them.

Ben

If you have any more

well i took a chance and swapped the cards...but had a few little problems during the process. first of all when i tried uninstalling the nvidia drivers from the control panel the os kept finding them when i rebooted. so i didn't actually get to uninstall them until after i had installed the radeon. as far as the power connector was concerned both ends of on power cable were already connected to my hard drives so i used the available end of the cable running to the floppy drive to add the connector to the radeon...is this a bad idea? if so i can unplug one connector from a hard drive and split it to go to the video card. so then i installed the radeon drivers and control panel, got an error (video got all blocky and froze for a minute), rebooted, and everything seems fine now. just ran 3dmark and scored a 10569. not sure if that's good but everything seems to be working at the moment. looks like i need to upgrade my 1.8ghz processor next.