• Welcome to Overclockers Forums! Join us to reply in threads, receive reduced ads, and to customize your site experience!

Reformat still necessary going from Nvidia to ATI card?

Overclockers is supported by our readers. When you click a link to make a purchase, we may earn a commission. Learn More.

gingo

Member
Joined
Oct 23, 2002
I remember it was always recommended to format and install windows after switching from Nvidia to ATI gfx card. Due to drivers not being removed completely, etc.

Is this still recommended today?
My Ti4200 is really showing its age, I'm thinking about picking up a 9800Pro soon but a reinstallation of windows would be very inconveinient at this time.
 
Its not imperative that you reformat, as long as you use drivercleaner or something similar to get all of the drivers out.
 
the only real reason to do a complete reinstall is to get rid of an old problimatic windows.

drivercleaners can be your friend....good luck.

mica
 
not necessary..

a while back i went from a ti4200 to a 9600 pro and never had a problem...

if all else fails, drive cleaners...
 
So I would:
1. Use a driver cleaner to remove any nvidia drivers
2. Turn off computer
3. Install new ATI card
4. Turn on computer and install ATI drivers

Correct?
 
The one step I would suggest you add would be clean your registry after removing the old drivers. Good habit anyway, and will help avoid any strange conflicts of settings.

DWolf:cool:
 
This is what I do when I upgrade cards/drivers, in particular what I did when I went from a ti4200 to a 9800Pro.

1)Uninstall the nv drivers from add/remove progs (but don't restart)
2)Launch driver cleaner 3 and run it's 3 nv cleaners
3)Launch a program called detonator destroyer for added cleaning
4)Do a manual search of your registry for any nv related keys
5)Do a manual sweep of your windows folder for anything starting with nv and delete it.
6)Restart and throw in the 9800Pro

This has worked succesfully for me many times. Most of the time however you can get away with just using steps 1-3 skipping 4,5 and then performing 6.
 
I'm caught in a situation where I can't format and re-install fresh right now. I know I'm having problems because of switching back and forth from an Nvidia to and ATI, then back to an Nvidia. Driver cleaners don't always work. It's rare, but sometimes you have to format and re-install. I'd follow the directions above to remove the old drivers and install the new card and drivers. Usually the only symptom that the driver cleaner didn't work, is in games. It'll freeze, kicking you to your desktop, or give you weird errors about not having the correct DirectX version even though you have the latest version. But, it usually doesn't affect anything else with the funcionality of windows.
 
Back