Changing Cards With Same Drivers

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Guest

I now have installed ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro AGP, but want to replace it with
my HD 3850 AGP. They both have the same Catalyst driver suite for the 2000
series and 3000 series. Would I still need to uninstall the drivers before
switching cards?

JB
 
I now have installed ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro AGP, but want to replace it
with
my HD 3850 AGP. They both have the same Catalyst driver suite for the
2000
series and 3000 series. Would I still need to uninstall the drivers
before
switching cards?

JB
Click to expand...

I switched my 8800GT to a GTX 260 without doing anything other than pulling
one and sticking the other in the slot. This was 4 months back or so on the
Windows 7 Beta. I've done same thing with a 9600GT and 8800GTX on another
box with XP SP3. I've done the same thing while back with a 9800 Pro and an
X1650 Pro AGP card. Windows simply recognized the device and kept running
normally on startup. Now whether or not that's a recommended procedure is
another thing. There's plenty of times I've unistalled and reinstalled the
driver when switching cards but usually if the card is of the same family
and the drivers are the same for both it's easier and faster to yank and
switch.
 
I now have installed ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro AGP, but want to replace it with
my HD 3850 AGP. They both have the same Catalyst driver suite for the 2000
series and 3000 series. Would I still need to uninstall the drivers before
switching cards?

JB
Click to expand...
You shouldn't have any problems. When I purchased a 3870 last year it
failed after about a week and I had to send the card in and wait for a
replacement. In the meantime I just plugged in a 2600 and everything
worked fine. When the replacement card came I just plugged it in and
haven't touched anything since.
 
In message <[email protected]> "<JB>"
I now have installed ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro AGP, but want to replace it with
my HD 3850 AGP. They both have the same Catalyst driver suite for the 2000
series and 3000 series. Would I still need to uninstall the drivers before
switching cards?
Click to expand...

In short, no.

Windows will automatically detect and use the correct driver, that part
isn't a problem. When you're changing manufacturers or switching to
cards that need different drivers from the same manufacturer then you
need to uninstall and reinstall to get the new driver, but in this case,
both ATI and nVidia have a fairly unified platform, so you can just let
Windows load the appropriate drivers for the hardware you actually have
installed at any given moment.
 
I now have installed ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro AGP, but want to replace it
with
my HD 3850 AGP. They both have the same Catalyst driver suite for the
2000
series and 3000 series. Would I still need to uninstall the drivers
before
switching cards?

JB
Click to expand...

"I switched my 8800GT to a GTX 260 without doing anything other than pulling
one and sticking the other in the slot. This was 4 months back or so on the
Windows 7 Beta. I've done same thing with a 9600GT and 8800GTX on another
box with XP SP3. I've done the same thing while back with a 9800 Pro and an
X1650 Pro AGP card. Windows simply recognized the device and kept running
normally on startup. Now whether or not that's a recommended procedure is
another thing. There's plenty of times I've unistalled and reinstalled the
driver when switching cards but usually if the card is of the same family
and the drivers are the same for both it's easier and faster to yank and
switch. "

Thanks a lot for that info. I'll give it a try.

JB
 
I now have installed ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro AGP, but want to replace it
with
my HD 3850 AGP. They both have the same Catalyst driver suite for the
2000
series and 3000 series. Would I still need to uninstall the drivers
before
switching cards?

JB
Click to expand...
"You shouldn't have any problems. When I purchased a 3870 last year it
failed after about a week and I had to send the card in and wait for a
replacement. In the meantime I just plugged in a 2600 and everything
worked fine. When the replacement card came I just plugged it in and
haven't touched anything since".

Thank you, Michael. Will try it in the morning

JB
 
In message <[email protected]> "<JB>"
I now have installed ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro AGP, but want to replace it
with
my HD 3850 AGP. They both have the same Catalyst driver suite for the 2000
series and 3000 series. Would I still need to uninstall the drivers before
switching cards?
Click to expand...

"In short, no.

Windows will automatically detect and use the correct driver, that part
isn't a problem. When you're changing manufacturers or switching to
cards that need different drivers from the same manufacturer then you
need to uninstall and reinstall to get the new driver, but in this case,
both ATI and nVidia have a fairly unified platform, so you can just let
Windows load the appropriate drivers for the hardware you actually have
installed at any given moment".

Thanks for your reply. Both cards are ATI, and use the same driver suit.

JB
 
Thanks for the information. I had the 9.4 hotfix, now I've got the 9.5.

Thanks

JB

It depends... The HD2600 AGP was an ATi reference design, the HD3850 AGP was
not. Not all drivers advertised to work on 3000 series cards will work with
the HD3850 AGP.

I suggest you download and extract this driver to a folder on your hard disk
before proceeding with the swap.
http://support.amd.com/us/kbarticles/Pages/CatalystAGPHotfix.aspx
 
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