Video: Installing a New Graphics Card + Going From ATi -> nVidia and Back Again

[mesce]

I n this thread you are going to learn how to upgrade your graphics card from the same manufacturer and also if you are going to a different manufacturer.

F irst of all you are going to need a form of Driver Cleaner if you are sticking with the same brand of card (nVidia/ATi/etc.) The sub manufacture, like Evga, Sapphire, BBA, BFG, etc. Doesn't really matter so the only thing you need to know is what card it is that you are upgrading and if you are upgrading you will of already researched what card you are going to buy whether its nVidia or ATi as these are the main graphics card manufacturers out there.

G et Driver Cleaner from here you can go ahead and buy the professional driver cleaner if you really must but the freeware version does just a good of a job as anything else.

T he only reason you should use driver cleaner is if you are upgrading your graphics card driver to the latest one or changing your graphics card from a nvidia to another nvidia and same with ATi.

Firstly keeping the same manufacturer these are the steps you should take
1. You have just bought your shiny new upgrade of an ATi or nVidia card, you take it home and your pc is on.

2. Now this is the important bit, uninstall via start>control panel>add or remove programs>ATi drivers/nVidia.

3. Your pc will be asked to restart you choose no, you make SURE you have driver cleaner installed on your pc and then you go to START>RUN>type "msconfig" without the ".

4. In msconfig (system configuration utility) choose the boot.ini tab and put a tick in safe boot and then network (if you are on a network to access the internet, just for good measures)

5. It will ask to restart, you press yes.

6. Upon restart you dont want to do a system restore so read the box carefully when it comes up and press to carry on in safe mode.

7. Open up driver cleaner, and go to options choose program interface advanced.

8. Driver Cleaner should now show the select cleaning filters screen with 4 drop down boxes once you put a tick in the little box at the side.

9. Put a tick in the drop down boxes and choose your make of video card (ATi/nVidia) and you will want to delete them.

Note: If you have a nVidia nforce chipset motherboard or a ATi Xpress Chipset then make sure you don't select them drivers, you just want the ATi/nVidia display drivers to be gone.

10. After it has finished cleaning it will show you everything that it has cleaned and the things it hasn't cleaned. Here you will notice the many files still left on your computer from the uninstall from the Control Panel. The things that it couldn't delete were the files and data that have already been uninstalled via step 2 (control Panel).

11. Close driver cleaner and go to run>msconfig and undo what we did earlier in step 4. So uncheck safe boot and network.

12. Restart

13. Install the latest drivers that you downloaded/came with your new graphics card on cd.

For a list of the latest nVidia/ATi graphics drivers go to nVidia or ATi


I f you are changing from nVidia -> ATi or ATi-> to nvidia then more often than not you must reformat. I am not just preaching about this as a rumour, I have actually had many ATi cards and nVidia cards and I had to reformat between ATi and nvidia card swapping. But with the way things have gone recently, do not reformat until you have tried the method above first. Reformatting can be a pain in the arse quite a lot of the time so make sure you try the above way first. If you are going for pure benchmarking numbers and scores and want the top of the top performance, then I would definitely say reformat.

I would imagine you already know how to reformat. The easiest way is to firstly backup EVERYTHING you need. If you have a secondary hard drive, this can be very easy because you can back your data up there and you can also get the latest chipset drivers for your motherboard, graphics drivers, sound drivers etc.

T he easiest way to reformat after the above has been done is to put in your operating installation cd, restart your computer, go to the bios and make sure that the cdrom/dvd rom is before the hard drive on the boot device priority. Then save and exit from the bios and pay attention to the screen and press any key to boot to the cd rom and take it from there.

U pon reformating and back in windows, you must do things in this order.

Chipset Drivers
Video Card Drivers
Windows Updates
Sound Drivers
Anti Virus

A fter installing in near enough that order (Chipset Drivers MUST be the first installed) then you can continue with the rest of your applications.

I f you want full performance of that card you must reformat or you will not feel the full force of the card.


I f you don't agree with any of the above, please post and express what your opinion is. If its logical then it shall be inputted.

T hank Y ou

mesce

[kev182]

Nice Guide!

I would add that you can also access safe mode by using "F8" during startup.

And i have changed from ATI to nvidia at one time using DC with no problems, many other ppl have as well...although a reformat may be better.

[thisismetcalf]

Finally. This was definately needed and now can clear up many many questions down the road for people. Props Mesce

[Tim]

Very nice....should be good for the noobs..

But why the After etc etc That doesn't look good IMO And maybe some Screenshots of the progress it self...

Top job

[mesce]

Thanks lads, One of the reason I did it was because of all the threads, then I thought about how often I upgrade and others so I thought it was needed.

Kev, You really should reformat if your switching ATi-> nvidia and back again.


edit: tim, I put bigger first words because I thought it might look better. I could just use the capital letter bigger?

[Jcloutier]

What do i do if I am upgrading from onboard video to ati?
I have a gigabyte 8S661FXM-775 mobo.

[mesce]

well in that case, uninstall in windows, driver cleaner it and then go to the bios and disable integrated graphics display when you put in your new ATi card.

[Jcloutier]

I don't have to go through the hassel of formating and reinstalling win xp

[mesce]

Nope not with integrated graphics. A simple uninstall, brush with driver cleaner, disabled in bios and put in the new card and all should be good. of course install your drivers for your new card.

[Jcloutier]

I should be getting my new ati aiw 9800 pro within the next week and hopefuly all will go well. thnx for the help

[BIOHazard87]

lol i believe u dont hav to reformat from ati>nvid or nvid>ati cuz iv done it tons of times, it works fine with my driver cleaner pro

[INJViper]

Props Mesce very informative.. I went from a Sapphire 9600Pro, to a Gainward 6800GT, and finally to an XFX7800GTX and used DC3 each time with no problems..

[dingle23]

I also have intergrated graphics and am planning to buy a nVidia graphics card would i do the same thing as above that you mention to the perosn that has the ATI?

[mesce]

Yes, follow that suite.


A simple uninstall, brush with driver cleaner, disabled in bios and put in the new card and all should be good. of course install your drivers for your new card.

[Numbchuck]

If you uninstall the onboard graphics drivers in windows will the display not disappear?
Does something else take over?

[mesce]

The driver wont be there but the device will still be on the system just without drivers and it will hamper performance.

You definitely need to de-select it from the bios.

[noair]

Nice Guide, very helpful. Thanks.

[PatT]

Originally Posted by mesce

If you have a nVidia nforce chipset motherboard or a ATi Xpress Chipset then make sure you don't select them drivers, you just want the ATi/nVidia display drivers to be gone.

how do you now if its the disply or the chipset, because it just says nvidia or ati in drivercleaner

[mesce]

Originally Posted by PatT

how do you now if its the disply or the chipset, because it just says nvidia or ati in drivercleaner

The drivers for the nforce chipset are called nforce x.x.x x= numbers. The ati one i am not familier with so someone might want to let me know what the ATi drivers are called for the ati express motherboards.

Just dont clean the nforce stick to the nvidia drivers.

[falcobird]

Nice sticky!

heres my input:
dont ask me why this happens.
when i switch from a x700 pro to a x800 pro, i need to reinstall my video drivers.
but when i switch from an x800 pro to an x700 pro, i have no driver problems whatsoever.
i also had no driver problems when changing my x700 to an x300 and changing my x300 to x700.
any thoughts on this?