Installing new GPU

[Barraco]

I recently upgraded my GPU. Should be here tomorrow... I am switching from an ooooooold dual AMD 480 (ancient i know) GPU to an EVGA GTX SSC 960 (4GB DDR5) since it was on sale, and the 970/980s were out of my budget. What do I need to know when I swap them out? Ive read I need to make sure and remove all my old AMD driver software before shutting down and removing my old GPU. Any tips or advice would be much appreciated since I've never done this kind of stuff. Thanks!

[McGuire]

Well to be honest, as long as you case is large enough, the physical change is rather simple - take out the old and insert the new. Make sure you unhook/release any latch that might be on your PCI-E port.

I am not aware of any uninstalling you need to do when going from AMD to nVidia, but to be honest I've never had anything other than nVidia lol. For performance and cleanliness sake, I would say it would be best to uninstall any of the AMD software before installing the new nVidia card, however, unless your motherboard has on-board video, it might not be easy/possible to do it until you have the new card in. This will also help with startup times and with system resources, as your PC will not need to start/run the old and unused AMD software 

[McGuire]

See here >> http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-2470714/switch-amd-nvidia-gpu.html

[Bingham]

I used to have a amd r9 280 and i switched to a gtx 970 and i can confirm that you will need to uninstall the drivers but that is as simple as just uninstalling amd catalyst control center. other than that it started right up and works great.

[Griffith]

I would highly recommend uninstalling AMD catalyst control. It is simple and is the proper way to do it. I once switched between two Amd cards without uninstalling the drivers and it screwed a lot of stuff up. Such as my boot times and Ethernet connection, I had to run internet wirelessly for a while. I am not saying that this would happen going from amd to nvidia but I would be on the safe side. It takes ten minutes at most and it will save you a headache.

As far as the new card goes, after uninstalling the drivers from the old card. Just disconnect power from the Amd card, and remove it from the PCIE slot. Then drop the new GPU in and connect power. When you first boot with the new card install the new drivers for that card. It should have come with a disk with all the drivers on there. After that check online for the most up to date drivers. If there isn't any then you are good. If there are then download and install them, and your good to go.

[Barraco]

thank you all for your help. i was able to change GPUs today without any problems... I would have done it wrong with out all your advice. thanks!

[McGuire]

Good to hear, and good luck with your new graphics!!