Figure I would get a head start on this. I don't recall ever switching graphics card GPU vendors without reinstalling Windows. I know it can be done, but I constantly see people posting that they have problems when they do this. What I am asking for is someone who is informed or has done this to confirm if it is in fact neccesary to use 3rd party tools to remove all traces of nVidia before installing CCC. Can I just install over it?
I am moving from a 480 GTX to a 7970.
Thanks in advance.
while i'm no guru, i do have quite a bit of experience switching between AMD/ATI GPUs and nVidia GPUs, as well as running both types in the same machine (i do a fair amount of distributed computing). i cannot say with 100% certainty that 3rd party software is in fact necessary to remove all traces of a previous driver install. what i
can say is that sometimes 3rd party software is necessary, and sometimes it isn't. that is to say, i've uninstalled older AMD/ATI driver versions and installed newer AMD/ATI driver versions successfully without having to resort to using 3rd party software to clean up odds and ends. i've also uninstalled AMD/ATI drivers and installed nVidia drivers successfully without having to resort to using 3rd party software to clean up odds and ends (and vice versa).
that said, i've made these kinds of changes on numerous occasions, and it doesn't always work flawlessly. at the end of the day i've found that sometimes it works without 3rd party software, and sometimes it doesn't. given the imperfect track record, i use 3rd party software to clean up video driver remnants after uninstalling old drivers and before installing new drivers (i use something called Driver Cleaner Pro) just to avoid the possibility of problems cropping up later. either way, a reformat should be completely unnecessary unless you use a "driver cleaner" of some sort that irreparably damages the registry.
i'll also mention that, while Driver Cleaner Pro has worked flawlessly for me while cleaning up AMD/ATI drivers, i did have issues with it once while trying to clean up nVidia drivers. i don't know if that short guide on OCN that chimaxi83 suggested is any more or less reliable, but it might be something to consider since you're going from an nVidia GPU to an AMD GPU.
most of the time when i switch from one type of GPU to another though, i leave the video drivers from both types installed b/c i know i'll be switching back in the near future (due to distributed computing requirements). i often find that AMD drivers don't interfere w/ nVidia drivers when using an nVidia card, and vice versa. i also hardly ever have problems running both AMd and nVidia GPUs & drivers in the same machine...then again, i'm doing distributed computing, not gaming or anything else that requires rigorous video output.
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