new card.. new drivers

I’m just about to move from a Geforce3 to a 9600XT; having heard several tales of woe about the migration from Nvidia to ATi I’m wondering if there is anything obvious I should do to make the process as easy as possible!

Is it simply a case of uninstalling the Detonator drivers, plugging in the card, then installing the Catalyst drivers? Or do I need to check through the registry, use third-party driver cleaners, re-format the hard drive or whatever :(

Don’t really want to spend too many hours messing around!

I’ve had several generations of Nvidia cards but no ATi’s for a while (last one was a Rage Pro!) so I’m a bit out of the loop on this.

I’m guessing it will be pretty straightforward but any advice appreciated.

Errr.. BTW what are the Omega drivers all about? :)

;) You should find a big jump going from GF3 to Rad9600XT, esp if you have a decent monitor. It is best to do a fresh OS install, gfx card drivers are about as intrusive as things get so can screw things up. It takes a little longer but can save you numerous headaches, is good practice from time to time and gives you a good chance to ensure backups are up to date.

:cool: If you want a simpler life you SHOULD be fine just uninstalling drivers (maybe associated folders, DLLs etc) and then plugging in the new card and installing its drivers. If you want to take alittle more time it can be wise to run some kind of cleaning program first. At the end of the day if it really seems quirky you can always do a fresh OS install (or reinstall) anyway. It's nothing to do with switching from nVidia to ATI but simply one of upgrading to a new gfx card.

:D The Omega drivers are unofficial drivers which are intended to unlock some hidden features, should be slightly better than ATI's official CATs which are the next best thing to use. Either way is very cool!

i just switch from a fx5200 to a 9600 aiw pro and i gonna reinstall, but its my fault i didnt get all of the nvidia drivers when i tried to delete them and its messin up my system... boot times and so on

use a program like this which i found on the guru3d site.. there are lots of 'detonator killer' type applications, and i dont know which one is best (as i only have nvidia cards :eek: - i shall wait til next year before upgrading my gfx card i think..), but that one should do the job :)

mark

if i do a reinstall will i have to reinstall all of my programs or will it just "repair" windows?

:) If you reinstall over the top of your current Windows installation it should keep all your programs etc so no need to reinstall everything. It shoudl also keep user settings, favourites and stuff but it makes sense to backup anything important.

As i understand it the Omega drivers come with an inbuilt cleaner. But it cant hurt to use a separate one to be sure
So uninstall the dets.
reboot into safe mode
run the driver cleaner
turn off
put in sexy new card
Insatll Omegas 3.9 http://www.omegacorner.com/

I wouldnt say it requires an immediate reinstall of windows.
Play around first to see how you like it. You should be doing a standard reinstall not too far into the future anyway, right?

Easy now, F

you MIGHT have to reinstall Windows....
1st try uninstalling old drivers, then using one of those detonater file removers, then shut down PC. (unplug PC) and switch cards.
If you're getting low benchmarks or having problems/instability you'll probably have to reinstall Win.

Or you could upgrade to an Nvidia card like the 5700U, 5900+ that would also be a nice upgrade, and no possible problems as long as you have a recent set of drivers.

Like this... http://www.gainward.com/c-1.html?id=129#2 $230
core/mem = 400/850 with VIVO and will clock to 450/900 the 5900 Ultra speed. (at least mine does :) )

This is the way i clean out the nvidia drivers, it's basically what other people have wrote but more indepth..


First go into safemode
Remove the nvidia's display drivers from add\remove panel in control panel.

Then run Drivercleaner to clean out the old drivers
http://www.driverheaven.net/cleaner/

restart in normal windows
Press cancel when windows informs you it has found a video controller
(You will have to do this twice)
And now install the new drivers
http://www.ati.com/support/driver.html



I prefer the Omega customised drivers
(cause they have overclocking, artifact tester, 9700-9800 mod & custom settings)
You can get these from here.
http://www.omegacorner.com/index_ati.html

To install omega drivers you leave your existing catalyst drivers on, but just un-install the old ATI control panel then run the omega driver package and restart PC.

(Also remember that the radeons need DirectX9 installed to work as well ;) )

Its nice to reinstall windows if your installing new GFx card or completely different mobo chipset as that way you don't get the rubbish and conflicts from having two different sets of drivers ;)

oh and ghost is your friend ;)

Cheers for the info guys. The install went fine and the new card is happily purring away.

Now all I have to do is explain to the boss how an 9600xt got added on to an order for a pair of new Nvidia Quadro FX-3000's for the office :D

;) Just play the ...

"ATI cards have superior 2D image quality so is much better on people's eyes (hence no/fewer law suits) ... after all he doesn't want to fork out for a Matrox Parhelia"

and

"The 9600XT (should) have intelligent fan management so helps to keep noise levels down ... ehnce less headaches and days off work"

finally

"The thing's damned fast and capable of some serious (gaming) productivity which should in turn enhance staff morale"

cards ... or slip him a bottle of wine.