Best way to upgrade/install 4850 from 3870 (driver related)

[cappster]

What do you guys think is the best way to install my new 4850 on my current rig that is running a 3870? Is it best to uninstall the drivers>clean registry>install 4850>install drivers or will just installing the 4850 without uninstalling drivers suffice? I upgraded a few years ago from a 6600gt to a 7800gt without installing new drivers, but I am curious to see what the community has to say.

Thanks

Cappster

 

[jonpaul37]

the 3870 and the 4850 will both use the same Catalyst 8.11 drivers, you should be able to just swap them out and let it rip...

 

[IH8U]

If you are really concerned about it, get Driver Cleaner. However the cards use the same series drivers, so it is really a non issue. The issues with the nVidia cards was that they used a different set of drivers, for each new hardware iteration (sometimes they rolled the old drivers into it, sometimes not). You'll notice that ATI typically has a set of drivers for 3 or more iterations, while nVidia has a new set for each generation.

 

[jeffredo]

Its so easy to do a clean driver install for new hardware for compatibility's sake I would uninstall the drivers, install the new hardware and reinstall the drivers.

It might work fine just pulling the old card and sticking the new one in without an uninstall or reinstall. It your performance is crap or you have driver issues you'll know what to do.

 

[Shadow703793]

^+1 for un install in (run Drive Cleaner) then re install.

 

[cappster]

I went the uninstall drivers>driver cleaner>install card>install drivers route. Everything worked ok. I've discovered my processor is quite a bottleneck for the 4850. I do, however, average anywhere between 20-30 fps more in fallout 3 and call of duty 4 than with the 3870. 3dmark 06 is about the same with both cards with the 4850 coming out about 500 points higher. I also ran autotune on the 4850 and it maxed out at 790 on the core, but crashed as soon as I tried to run lightsmark. I pushed it to 700 and it ran fine so I think I might try to push it further.