How hard is it these days to update drivers and/or video cards?

[Caveman]

2 related questions:

1) In the old days (15 years ago), I remember video driver updates required one to remove driver "residue", etc... Does anyone still worry about this or does just one uninstall the current driver and install the new one?

2) Along those same lines... If you are just installing a new video card (970 for a 770), do you just power down the machine, swap cards and keep going like nothing happened or is there a special procedure?

 

[futurefields]

I'm interested in this question as well. I'm switching to Nvidia whenever my GPU arrives in the mail, have been running AMD on this PC since I built it in 2012.

 

[SKORPI0]

How to on a Windows based system. Did this when I switched from Nvidia (GTX 680) to AMD (Radeon 7970 crossfire).

NVidia - http://www.nvidia.com/object/IO_13955.html
AMD - http://support.amd.com/en-us/kb-articles/pages/gpu57removeoldgraphicsdrivers.aspx

 

[kasakka]

With Nvidia, there's a "clean" option in the driver install that does the job. Normally you can just upgrade to the new driver.

If you upgrade a video card, it's best to first uninstall any previous video card drivers, then swap the card and install the latest drivers for your new one.

 

[SPBHM]

I used to remove the old drivers with programs like driver sweeper, but I haven't done that in years, I alway simply install the new version over the old one and it all works perfectly,

 

[rgallant]

http://www.guru3d.com/files-details/display-driver-uninstaller-download.html

any issues you could try this
I use it some times when I put new cards in which is not that often
but would use it going amd to nv , nv to amd

 

[Techhog]

Upgrading the driver when not changing cards: Generally, you can just install the new driver and be done with it for both brands, but it's "safer" to uninstall first. Generally, I'd only do a full clean install once a year or with a big driver update.

Switching cards when not changing brands: You don't need to uninstall and reinstall the driver, but again, it's safer.

Switching both the card and the brand: Remove the old driver with DDU... except, even that's technically not necessary because Windows (and I'd assume Linux) is good at assigning the correct driver to the correct hardware. It's even technically possible to have AMD, Nvidia, and Intel graphics drivers and hard all in the same system and switch between them as needed! (by physically switching the monitor connection) I'd still use DDU in this case, though. Some people would recommend going as far as reinstalling Windows, but that seems extremely excessive.

 

[Z15CAM]

Simpler then ever - Just follow the Previous GPU Driver uninstall instructions and use the New Cards Driver Installation Instructions.

Be sure to to Reboot in between.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

1) drivers update themselves. I click ok. Sometimes computer wants to restart.

2) if you already have the latest driver package instalked and are upgrading to a card from the same company (ncidia to nvidia or amd to amd), you don't need to uninstall/reinstall the drivers. Just swap the cards and Windows will figure it out. You might be prompted to reboot.

 

[smackababy]

With Nvidia, there's a "clean" option in the driver install that does the job. Normally you can just upgrade to the new driver.

If you upgrade a video card, it's best to first uninstall any previous video card drivers, then swap the card and install the latest drivers for your new one.

For the life of me, I don't understand why AMD doesn't have this option. Especially, considering it installs unpacked crap before it installs the driver. I don't want to manually have to remove your garbage AMD!

 

[Whitestar127]

It's simpler than ever with the new GeForce experience. Just click Update and off you go. Not even necessary to restart.

 

[Piroko]

Did two card swaps (HD4670 -> HD6670 -> HD7770) with the "shut down, swap card, boot up, reboot after automatic driver installation just in case" process, no issues.
Driver updates: install new version over old one, reboot just in case. No issues.

As for switching between vendors, only did that once back in the Vista days, coupled with a clean Vista reinstallation (had a couple of issues with several drivers though).

 

[Dahak]

This could be just my imagination, but I think part of the reason why we had to fully remove / run these driver cleaners was because of XP. I have not seen the need as much on 7 and newer.

Might be related to how the driver model changed for the video drivers in vista onwards.


My self, i usually just do an upgrade over the existing drivers, or if swapping cards just uninstall the old ones and install the new ones