Repeatedly switching graphics cards - HD 4xxx + HD 6xxx

[MajinCry]

Hey there. Got a question.

Would it be possible to install drivers for both an HD 4670 and an HD 6670, without repeatedly un-installing and installing the drivers whenever I switch GPUs?

Reason for the question is that I'd like to get the old 4000 series card for my older games (Oblivion, Neverwinter Nights, etc.), whilst keeping my 6670 for the games I currently play.

Thanks in advance!

 

[DiaSin]

Im confused. Why do you need two cards? Why not just play it all on the 6670?

 

[tator_80]

If you don't mind me asking whats the point of switching between cards?. 6670 is an overall better card. You shouldn't need to switch between cards. It would make more since to have 6670 play all your games and get better performance out of those older games. The 6670 is 2 tiers above the 4670 in the Tom's Hierarchy Charts

 

[migrax]

I agree with DiaSin, no need to switch cards. The 6670 is the higher end card and should play anything the 4670 can play. Games that played on the 4670 should play as well or better on the 6670.

If you are concerned that the different DirectX types will be a factor, then all that is really necessary is to install the DirectX appropriate for the game you want to play. Any card built for DirectX 11 is backward compatible with all previous versions of DirectX.

Or maybe I am way offbase in which case, install the 6670 and give the 4670 to your kid brother.

migrax

 

[nukemaster]

I would tend to agree with the user above(was tator_80 at the time). my girlfriend plays oblivion on a newer card without any issues. If you are worried about power, both those cards should be very friendly power wise.

Onto your point, Chances are you should be able to install the current drivers for each then just swap at will. I never changed drivers going from 4XXX to 5XXX and back. The 4XXX cards are on legacy drivers now. Windows seems to just grab the right driver and CCC seems to support both.

My switching was using a different card while running tests or diagnostics among other things.

 

[MajinCry]

@All

Reason for changing cards, is that Oblivion runs like pish on my 6670 whenever lighting is involved and Neverwinter Nights just chugs whenever there is any action on screen.
Others who have a 4670, with the same specs as I have, don't have these problems; the games run like a dream.
Reason for picking the 4670 - Cheap. Works. Plays the old games I'm looking to play like a dream.

@nukemaster A'ight, thanks mate.

 

[nukemaster]

Maybe the games detect the faster card and enable extra features that are not well supported.

I would be interested in knowing what settings the games pick when each card is in.

 

[tator_80]

Maybe the games detect the faster card and enable extra features that are not well supported.

I would be interested in knowing what settings the games pick when each card is in.

Same. The setting might be getting up'd by the stronger card, enabling more features than the slower card. If you have auto detect settings that could be the case, then again it could just be a weird bug

 

[MajinCry]

@nukemaster & tator_80

With Oblivion, it says my 6670 is unsupported, and puts it to medium settings. A 4670 can max out oblivion (supposing AA is kept down) @ stable 40 fps.
Funnily enough, that is what I can do in Skyrim with my 6670. Not in Oblivion though.

With NW, it just doesn't play ball with AMD's opengl driver. It works, but not well.

 

[tator_80]

To be honest.. I just recommend going with a newer card than both. Maybe consider a Nvidia 6 series or a Radeon 7000 series, just depends on preference. GTX 650 are only $100. Probably will beat both those cards. And solve the problem with changing out cards and the graphical issues. Maybe could sell both cards to pay for a 650 or a better card than that

 

[Sakkura]

My 5670, which is extremely similar to the 6670, did just fine in Oblivion.

 

[MajinCry]

@All
Perhaps I should clarify.
I haven't bought a 4670 yet. I do however have a 6670 which I've used for a while, but having recently delved into older games, I'm getting problems now.
I was wondering how viable a solution would be to just throw in a 4670 whenever I'm playing the older games.

@Sakkura

Actually, the 5670 == 6670. Which makes my issues with Oblivion even more damn weird. Didja ever have trouble with older games?

 

[Sakkura]

Actually, the 5670 == 6670. Which makes my issues with Oblivion even more damn weird. Didja ever have trouble with older games?

They're not perfectly identical, but they're pretty damn close.

I don't recall having any particular trouble with older games. It did better than what I had before. And the only reason I ditched my 5670 was that newer/more demanding games weren't running so well on it, and I got a 1080p screen.

Besides, Oblivion isn't _that_ old. Newer than World of Warcraft.

 

[s3anister]

MajinCry, I can't help but suggest that you look into possible driver conflicts on your (I'm assuming Windows) install. It really doesn't sound like a hardware issue to me and your games should run fine assuming game settings are properly configured.

FYI, I have used a number of different generation AMD/ATI cards for Oblivion, never once had a problem. Currently using a 6950 with unlocked shaders, again, no problems with the GPU on a clean Windows 7 install. With the exception of the new GCN Radeon HD 7xxx series of cards, all past generation cards are based on AMD's VLIW (Very Long Instruction Word) architecture introduced with the 2900 XT. Any problems you're experiencing are either going to be with the game's code or driver/OS issues, however, as the Radeon HD 6670 is a newer card with drivers that have been optimized for Oblivion by AMD that leads me to believe that there is an interoperability issue somewhere.

I'd suggest uninstalling your AMD drivers, using a driver sweeper program, then running CCleaner on your registry, then FINALLY after you've done all that, install the latest drivers from AMD which can be found here: http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/Pages/index.aspx

Hope this helps.

 

[MajinCry]

@S3anister

A'ight, I'll get right on it.

Just as an inquiry, which driver did you last use when you played Oblivion, if you remember? I've been wanting to play this game for a while now, and if all it is, is a driver issue, I'd like to get the correct 'uns pronto.

 

[MajinCry]

Update: Uninstalled 13.2 beta drivers, installed 13.1 drivers. No change.

 

[s3anister]

Hmm I believe I was using 12.6 the last time I loaded up Oblivion. It's been a bit of a while since I usually just play Skyrim these days.

Sorry to hear you're still having troubles. There are some registry tweaks you could try manually... Otherwise, there's always the good old reformat.