Why reinstall drivers after switching between compatible gpus?

PeterPwned · May 11, 2011

Hi,

can anyone explain to me why I need to reinstall the newest nvidia drivers whenever I switch my 580 for my 9800? According to the nvidia site both cards use the same Forceware drivers so technically I should not need to reinstall drivers.

Cheers.

Automata · May 11, 2011

I wouldn't reinstall the drivers. :shrug:

EarthDog · May 11, 2011

You shouldnt really have to for that switch. The only things that may get wonky are your overclocking programs, but even Afterburner picked up on the switch for me.

If you have issues, THEN reinstall, but that jump, I wouldnt bother either.

PeterPwned · May 11, 2011

Hmm nvidia control panel completely disappears whenever I switch cards - that is what I don't understand. Device manager shows my 9800 gtx with a yellow exclamation mark and all I can do to restore drivers is reinstalling, seemingly.

Automata · May 11, 2011

Right click on the device and reinstall the drivers through there. Sounds like it didn't find them for you.

Make sure to point it to the extract point of the drivers (usually c:\nvidia\...)

EarthDog · May 11, 2011

So just reinstall. Takes what, a minute?

Zerix01 · May 12, 2011

Windows sucks that's why. It seems like it associates that product with a specific driver and freaks out when it changes. I never have this problem in Linux as long as the current driver installed supports the GPU's I've swapped and keeps my display settings.

I know I know, can't game in Linux but just saying.

Zantal · May 12, 2011

and sadly even if you manage to game on linux the performance loss is great.

Last time i tried all benchmarks scored low. and i couldn't enable sli.

PeterPwned · May 12, 2011

EarthDog said:
So just reinstall. Takes what, a minute?

Doesn't that leave driver residue? Or is drivercleaner just a hype?

EarthDog · May 12, 2011

I would use Driver Cleaner when moving from ATI to Nvidia just to be sure, but do not use that practice with the same Brand card. If you have installed a couple drivers before, you will see a folder there from each version. The last few Nvidia drivers have an option for a 'clean' install (takes out all settings and such, not sure about prior driver folders) and I use that method.

Zerix01 said:
Windows sucks that's why. It seems like it associates that product with a specific driver and freaks out when it changes. I never have this problem in Linux as long as the current driver installed supports the GPU's I've swapped and keeps my display settings.

I know I know, can't game in Linux but just saying.

thats not very helpful to the person that started this thread is it? He has windows, so what was the point of this post except to incite a forum 'riot' (trolling)? (Rhetorical question, please dont answer)

Zantal · May 13, 2011

EarthDog said:
The last few Nvidia drivers have an option for a 'clean' install (takes out all settings and such, not sure about prior driver folders) and I use that method.

Last time i checked it doesn't remove the folders.

JeremyCT · May 14, 2011

PeterPwned said:
Doesn't that leave driver residue? Or is drivercleaner just a hype?

You're talking about installing the same driver over the same already existing driver. There's nothing "extra" to remove unless you're changing driver versions (particularly if you're backdating the driver) or changing to a different driver vendor (Intel, AMD, nVidia).

Clean installs for graphics drivers are "best practice", but they're not always necessary.

Did you by any chance disable the feature in Windows that allows it to search for a compatible driver when you install new hardware? That comes to mind as a reason that it isn't installing your 9800 correctly on first boot. Re-installing the driver is a simple and quick remedy though.

Why reinstall drivers after switching between compatible gpus?

PeterPwned

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Automata

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EarthDog

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PeterPwned

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Automata

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EarthDog

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Zerix01

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Zantal

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PeterPwned

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EarthDog

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Zantal

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JeremyCT

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