Quick ATI drivers question

[Piuc2020]

The last time I owned an ATI card was about 5 years ago, when I switched to NVIDIA I made a habit out of uninstalling, restarting in safe mode and using driver cleaner to wipe out the drivers and THEN installing the new drivers; is it still recommended to do this with ATI drivers? I think I read somewhere that you can even update them without uninstalling the previous version first, is this true? is it a reliable and hassle-free way of updating drivers?

Thanks for the help.

 

[thilanliyan]

I don't do any of that unless I run into problems which I haven't in a while. I just install right over the old one and have done so since I got this 4870 back in January.

 

[Sylvanas]

You can install over the top like you can for Nv, but it is generally good practice to fully clean your drivers- this limits the chance of driver conflicts. You may never have any problems installing over the top and thats fine- whatever works for you, but if you have problems a clean install is the first port of call.

 

[seemingly random]

Originally posted by: Piuc2020
The last time I owned an ATI card was about 5 years ago, when I switched to NVIDIA I made a habit out of uninstalling, restarting in safe mode and using driver cleaner to wipe out the drivers and THEN installing the new drivers; is it still recommended to do this with ATI drivers? I think I read somewhere that you can even update them without uninstalling the previous version first, is this true? is it a reliable and hassle-free way of updating drivers?

Thanks for the help.

I haven't had to do this for years - for any hardware.

There was a time, that if you switched cards, you had to boot with the new card in a different slot so the pc would recognize that there was a change...

 

[vj8usa]

I haven't had to uninstall/wipe my old drivers since I upgraded video cards. Heck, thanks to Vista I don't even have to reboot after installing new drivers.

 

[nemesismk2]

Even though I know I don't have to I just can't break the habit of updating my ATI drivers without first uninstalling the old drivers, using driver cleaner and then installing the new drivers. I've always updated the drivers like that and I usually never have driver related pc problems so it must be working lol

 

[Nathelion]

You can do this, and most likely it won't cause issues. But from time to time, there will be problems.

 

[Mem]

I aways uninstall old drivers then reboot Vista and install new drivers after before another reboot ,never had any issues this way and its safer then over the top IMHO.

In general you can install over the top with ATi drivers with Vista ,as to Driver Cleaners you really only need to use them if you change cards ie go from Nvidia to ATi or vice versa, also if you have a driver issue.

 

[ShawnD1]

You can probably install the new drivers over top of the old drivers. My computers has an integrated Radeon 2100 and I was able to install the new ones over the old ones without a hitch. I later added a GeForce 7950GT to that computer without removing the ATI drivers and even that worked just fine.


Back when I was using a Radeon 9600, the only reason for uninstalling the old drivers was because the new drivers would sometimes refuse to install until the old ones were uninstalled. As long as the driver installer is willing to install the new drivers, I don't know why would need to uninstall anything.

 

[Candymancan21]

Ati even says its ok to install over top. I always Uninstall them and Install new drivers but thats just a habit from the past. I know people who reformat there entire computer when they switch from ATI to NV or vis versa. Thats not necassary either, you are just waisting your time.

 

[apoppin]

ATi says it is OK, who am i to disagree ?

i have deliberately tried it both ways - for several months after no reboot was required - with no difference i could find

the guys that still use driver cleaner are the ones i feel bad for
- ATi uninstall manager works better

 

[geokilla]

I prefer to at least uninstall first, then install the new drivers. Why risk getting a driver crash that may take forever to fix.