Do You or Don't You? Proper Install of Video Updates

So do you or don't you uninstall the old drivers, use a third party utility like Driver Cleaner Pro?

Or do you or don't you just install the new driver on top of the old one?

I've done both with no issue, but not sure if there is an official answer on this. I know NVDIA and ATI recommend it, but I know plenty of people including me who have just installed on top of old drivers with no issues.

I never used driver cleaner, even when I swapped video cards, and everything has always been working perfectly. I say, when it ain't broke don't fix it... Simply uninstalling the old driver did the trick for me.

I usually uninstall then delete any left behind folders/files manually then reboot and installl the new ones. If a problem occurs I then run driver cleaner in safe mode. I follow all of the mess up with a defrag and final reboot to top is all off and am usually good to go.

Best,

3Ball

I've never uninstalled the old drivers (ATI) and never had any issues.

See, neither have I and I guess what I'm really getting at is, is it necessary to uninstall the old drivers?
You might not always have to, but driver conflicts are a common problem, and just because nothings happened so far doesn't mean nothing will happen in the future. Better safe than sorry.

I don't. I uninstall the drivers, shut down, put in the new card, boot, and install new drivers. I've never had a driver problem with videocards.

As a matter of fact, I like pointing out my first dual screen experience. I was using an AGP Nvidia TNT2 as my primary, and a PCI ATI Rage as the secondary. I had both Nvidia and ATI drivers installed on my computer, AT THE SAME TIME, was using both cards AT THE SAME TIME, with ZERO issues. Like you, I just don't see what the fuss is all about.

Precisely. And I know people who've just installed on top of old drivers forever with no issues.

I've done both with no issues, but it sounds like the wisdom generally given here is to uninstall the old drivers, reboot, install the new drivers, reboot. Some also use DC Pro or some such programs, but that seems debatable on whether or not that's necessary.

See, neither have I and I guess what I'm really getting at is, is it necessary to uninstall the old drivers?

In part, I think it depends on the make of the card that you're taking out and the one you're putting in. if they are both Nvidia based, they may use the same drivers, and if they are both ATI based, they likewise may use the same drivers. I uninstall drivers when I am putting an ATI card where a Nvidia card used to be, and vice versa, but if I'm installing the same basic type of card, I leave things alone and usually have no troubles.