Upgrading graphics card - remove drivers first

[cosmogenesis]

Got a 3080 and going to put a 4070 TI in its place - you guys remove drivers first or not bother ?

 

[Captain_Bosh]

Yeah it will be different drivers. Uninstall drivers, turn off, install 4070, restart and install new drivers.

You can use DDU to remove all traces of previous drivers if you want to be thorough.

 

[cosmogenesis]

DDU?

 

[Captain_Bosh]

DDU?

Display Driver Uninstaller. Free software for removing NVIDIA/AMD drivers.

 

[mickyflinn]

DDU?

Display driver uninstall software.

Display Driver Uninstaller (DDU) download version 18.0.7.6

Download Display Driver Uninstaller (DDU) - Remove AMD/NVIDIA/INTEL Graphics Drivers Cleanly - DDU is a driver removal utility that helps you completely uninstall AMD/NVIDIA graphics card drivers and packages from your system, leaving no leftovers behind, including registry keys, folders, files...

www.guru3d.com

 

[Armageus]

Yeah it will be different drivers. Uninstall drivers, turn off, install 4070, restart and install new drivers.

Assuming the 3080 is on a recent driver, then no need to uninstall, as they both use the same drivers.


Don't believe me - try it, Go to NVIDIA's site and select either the 3080 or the 4070Ti and both come back with the same version, date and filesize

GeForce Game Ready Driver | 546.33 | Windows 10 64-bit, Windows 11 | NVIDIA

Download the English (UK) GeForce Game Ready Driver for Windows 10 64-bit, Windows 11 systems. Released 2023.12.12

www.nvidia.co.uk

DDU?

Display Driver Uninstaller.

Used to be needed ages ago when removing display drivers would leave old files, profiles and things laying around, but these days drivers from both NVIDIA and AMD are much better.
It's not really needed, and arguably is more of an inconvenience as it resets everything, so any changes you've made in the graphics driver need setting back up again

 

[KompuKare]

Assuming the 3080 is on a recent driver, then no need to uninstall, as they both use the same drivers.


Don't believe me - try it, Go to NVIDIA's site and select either the 3080 or the 4070Ti and both come back with the same version, date and filesize

GeForce Game Ready Driver | 546.33 | Windows 10 64-bit, Windows 11 | NVIDIA

Download the English (UK) GeForce Game Ready Driver for Windows 10 64-bit, Windows 11 systems. Released 2023.12.12

www.nvidia.co.uk

Display Driver Uninstaller.

Used to be needed ages ago when removing display drivers would leave old files, profiles and things laying around, but these days drivers from both NVIDIA and AMD are much better.
It's not really needed, and arguably is more of an inconvenience as it resets everything, so any changes you've made in the graphics driver need setting back up again

While unlikely in this case AFAIK, the same version, date and file size does not meant that the same thing gets installed as the installer could use different settings depending on what it detects or even extract different binaries from the installation archive. The ultimate example would be installing Windows from an ISO. Same ISO, potentially different HALs (but Windows has got a lot better at that), etc.

Pretty sure that isn't the case with Nvidia's drivers, but it could be.

 

[cosmogenesis]

yer, thanks. I will try it without uninstalling the current drivers.

 

[Armageus]

yer, thanks. I will try it without uninstalling the current drivers.

It should work fine - upon first boot with the new card Windows will detect it, and then just need a reboot - then all should work fine.

Pretty sure that isn't the case with Nvidia's drivers, but it could be.

From experience though it isn't
NVIDIA and AMD's graphics drivers are unified, (largely as a bi-product of them needing to support multiple graphics in the same machine where driver file names might otherwise conflict) so all necessary files for all supported cards are installed.

The only time this isn't the case are where e.g. support for older cards is dropped and cards are moved to a "legacy" driver package, or if you are running drivers that are 6 months or more out of date, which won't cover brand new cards.

 

[cosmogenesis]

Well I’ve just tested it without deleting the drivers but i did update them afterwards and it works fine. Played some redacted bf2042 for 40 minutes and it was fine.

Now I need to enable DMA - anyone remember how to do that - worth a few frames per second ?

 

[subbytna]

No you can drop in and it'll be fine. If you're unsure, drop the new card in and run nvidia checked for drivers. You'll be good to go if you update drivers to the latest version BEFORE dropping your new card in.

EDIT - Just see your recent post, looks like it worked as expected