Upgrading GPU: Card Installation/Driver Change Order

[Shark With A Laser]

Hello friends,

 

I currently have two EVGA 970s in SLI and I'm in the process of stepping them up to the 980Ti. I've shipped out one of the 970s today so I'm expecting my first 980Ti in about a week or so. I have one 970 sitting in my system in the interim.

 

My question is, once my 980Ti arrives and I want to swap it out with my 970, what would be the proper order of changing drivers & removing/installing cards?

 

Do I remove all the current video card drivers with my 970 still installed, remove the 970, and then install the 980Ti and then drivers? Does it matter? I've seen a lot of posters before recommending clean installs of drivers whenever changing video cards, I guess the confusion for me is what order do I need to do these things in.

[Zayzo]

Hello friends,

 

I currently have two EVGA 970s in SLI and I'm in the process of stepping them up to the 980Ti. I've shipped out one of the 970s today so I'm expecting the other 980Ti in about a week or so. I have one 970 sitting in my system in the interim.

 

My question is, once my 980Ti arrives and I want to swap it out with my 970, what would be the proper order of changing drivers & removing/installing cards?

 

Do I remove all the current video card drivers with my 970 still installed, remove the 970, and then install the 980Ti and then drivers? Does it matter? I've seen a lot of posters before recommending clean installs of drivers whenever changing video cards, I guess the confusion for me is what order do I need to do these things in.

Shouldn't need to remove drivers at all. Take out the cards and then put the new ones in.

[dragoon20005]

the removal of drivers only applies to AMD to nVidia GPUs or vice versa

[Firearm2112]

i recommend a clean driver install. get display driver uninstaller. when you run it you should have 3 options. choose "Remove and Shutdown (for installing a new card)"

[Zayzo]

i recommend a clean driver install. get display driver uninstaller. when you run it you should have 3 options. choose "Remove and Shutdown (for installing a new card)"

Why? He's not moving to amd. The driver will be the exact same as the one he has installed now. I've even used the same drivers testing 700 series and 900 series cards on the same pc without issue.

[Firearm2112]

Why? He's not moving to amd. The driver will be the exact same as the one he has installed now. I've even used the same drivers testing 700 series and 900 series cards on the same pc without issue.

i just find it good practice, and to avoid any issues

[Zayzo]

i just find it good practice, and to avoid any issues

I do use DDU when upgrading to newer drivers, but i don't see the purpose in reinstalling the exact same driver that already supports the card you plan on putting in.

[The Pizza Thief]

When you say you already shipped out one of the 970s you mean you sold it? Also, you should be good, but just to be sure clean all the Nvidia drivers using DDU and do a fresh install. Good luck.

[Aniallation]

My question is, once my 980Ti arrives and I want to swap it out with my 970, what would be the proper order of changing drivers & removing/installing cards?

 

Do I remove all the current video card drivers with my 970 still installed, remove the 970, and then install the 980Ti and then drivers? Does it matter? I've seen a lot of posters before recommending clean installs of drivers whenever changing video cards, I guess the confusion for me is what order do I need to do these things in.

Take the 970 out, put the 980Ti in, that's it. You do not have to do anything to the drivers because they use the same ones.

[Guest]

Just plot the 980 Ti. I had GTX 650 drivers (was using it temporarily) and when I put my Titan X in, everything just worked fine. No updates.

[Shark With A Laser]

I do use DDU when upgrading to newer drivers, but i don't see the purpose in reinstalling the exact same driver that already supports the card you plan on putting in.

 

This is what I was wondering about. I use Nvidia's GeForce Experience to upgrade my drivers and optimal settings so I wasn't sure how using a 3rd party cleaner to remove existing drivers and installing new ones would help.

 

As far as I could tell, anyone with an Nvidia GPU using NGFE and downloading the latest updates was using the same set of xxx.xx batch of drivers, but then again I know jack when it comes to drivers and software. 

[Shark With A Laser]

When you say you already shipped out one of the 970s you mean you sold it? Also, you should be good, but just to be sure clean all the Nvidia drivers using DDU and do a fresh install. Good luck.

 

I shipped one of the 970s back to EVGA as part of the step-up program. They require a one-for-one exchange in order to upgrade to a higher tier of GPU.

[Zayzo]

I shipped one of the 970s back to EVGA as part of the step-up program. They require a one-for-one exchange in order to upgrade to a higher tier of GPU.

Hmmm......... Do you have a link to how their system works? Sounds interesting.

 

This is what I was wondering about. I use Nvidia's GeForce Experience to upgrade my drivers and optimal settings so I wasn't sure how using a 3rd party cleaner to remove existing drivers and installing new ones would help.

 

As far as I could tell, anyone with an Nvidia GPU using NGFE and downloading the latest updates was using the same set of xxx.xx batch of drivers, but then again I know jack when it comes to drivers and software. 

Yeah, i stopped using Geforce experience for drivers. I like it for shadowplay and the fps counter. Otherwise its not running.

[Shark With A Laser]

Hmmm......... Do you have a link to how their system works? Sounds interesting.

 

Yeah, i stopped using Geforce experience for drivers. I like it for shadowplay and the fps counter. Otherwise its not running.

 

http://www.evga.com/support/stepup/

 

It's a nice program EVGA runs, but the window of opportunity is very small. You really only have the option of doing the step-up if you purchased the GPU within the last 90 days, otherwise the option doesn't exist for most people. Additionally the step-up limits which card you pick. For instance I can only get a very base model of the 980Ti from EVGA. You will also (obviously) need to pay the difference between what you paid for the current hardware you have and the one one you want to upgrade to, plus the costs of shipping to and back from EVGA.