Video Card Upgrade. Newbie question

GaryTheGreat · #1 (**permalink**) 22-01-2008, 02:50 AM

I've been told that when upgrading a video card, one should uninstall the old video card drivers first before putting in the new video card. SO, Here's my question. If I did that, how would i see anything on my (DVI) monitor to install the new video card drivers. Am I missing something here?

Also, along the same line. I was also told that it's best NOT to install the drivers that come with the new video card. You should go online and download the newest ones. BUT, again. Wouldn't that mean that my video card would not work and therefore i would just have a blank screen?
I will be getting the new card later this week and don't want to mess this up

jephree · #2 (**permalink**) 22-01-2008, 03:42 AM

You are correct on both.

Uninstall your current drivers and get the latest on-line.

You can Save the download of the latest beforehand if you want.

Without drivers a video card still works but only in VGA mode at a very low resolution @ 800 x 600 usually.

So as long as the card is working you will see something.

Digerati · #3 (**permalink**) 23-01-2008, 07:41 PM

To the second part of your question, there is no set rule to use the latest drivers. However, as a general rule, whenever I install new hardware, I use the latest driver from the website as the one on the disk may be very old. If the original driver is pre-XPSP2, or if using Vista, you should have current drivers. At the very least, you can check the version history on the website and see if any changes have been released and if the changes affect you.

However, once you have your hardware up and running, I advise against updating the drivers just because a new one is out there. IMO, you should only upgrade existing drivers when one or more of the following conditions are met:

1. The new driver addresses an issue you are currently experiencing
2. The new driver addresses a security issue
3. The old driver is corrupt and reinstalling it does not fix the problem

jephree · #4 (**permalink**) 24-01-2008, 01:20 AM

In general this is probably the right approach.

However NVIDIA has been releasing new drivers for its 8000 series almost every other month over the last year.

Most of these are game related and game specific.

If you game on Steam they actually inform you in real time to update when a new driver is released. Almost like Automatic Updates.

Anyway this is basically for "gamers" and again the 8000 series from NVIDIA.