Upgrading EVGA GTX 680 to a 1070 and had a question about the drivers installed.

[soulwatch5]

So I've been putting together computers for a little bit now and it is time to upgrade my video card. What i just realized is that I have never actually upgraded from nvidia to a higher model nvidia card or amd to another amd card. Every time I've upgraded cards for some reason I've always switch brands cause at the time of purchase the other brand had a better bang for the buck or fit my budget better at the time. Its pretty simple switch cause all I would do is uninstall all things radeon or all things nvidia and install the correct software and drivers. This time since its actually the same brand I was wondering what I should uninstall and what should i keep. I figure all i would do was just uninstall the actual drivers and that is it, keeping phyX and experience. Then changing cards and installing the driver for the card. Or it is better to just uninstall everything and reinstall it all again for the new card?

 

[Lochekey]

I would recommend doing a full clean install of everything just to be safe. That way you do not have lingering drivers/programs causing potential conflicts.

 

[Woomack]

Reinstalling is recommended however when you have GTX680 with the latest drivers then Windows will automatically install GTX1070 as exactly the same package is for both series. I have no issues while switching between various Nvidia cards like GF710/720, GF610, GTX780, GTX980 or GTX1070. Applications have the same files already registered.
On the other hand reinstalling all takes couple of minutes so I guess it's not a big problem.

 

[Alaric]

If I pull a GPU and replace it with a different one, I uninstall all the drivers and install from scratch. Is it necessary in every case? No. But if a problem develops it takes a step out of the diagnostic process up front. It's worth it to me, but all my GPUs prior to my current one were Radeons and one does not fool around with AMD graphics drivers. They come with enough issues built in. LOL