Upgrading from Ati 3870 to Nvidia gtx550ti. What do I do?

[Invizibleyez]

I have a Visiontek Ati Radeon HD3870 OC in my computer right now, and I bought a PNY Nvidia GTX 550 ti as an upgrade. I want to make sure I do as much as possible ahead of time to ensure a speedy and smooth transition. I've never Actually had a Nvidia GPU that wasn't a laptop GPU, so this is my first time installing one. I've always had ATI before this.

I've already downloaded the latest drivers 285.62 for my computer. I am running Vista SP2 64bit. I am thinking I should uninstall my ATI display drivers and then power down, remove the 3870 and put in the 550ti and power up, then install the drivers i downloaded. The one tricky part may be that I also have a Visiontek ATI TV Wonder 650 TV Tuner card installed also.

Anyone have any thoughts or advice? I am hoping this goes smoothly. Most questions about my system should be answered by my sig. Thanks.

[Andre S. Veteran]

In theory it should just work without any issues. Just remove the old card, replace, and Windows will take care of the rest.

[capr]

I think you will be fine without uninstalling the nvidia drivers. The process may remove something you need for your ati card. idealy you want to uninstall that card and re install it with the nvidia card installed.

but like I said, that's the ideal case if you are after it. I think you will be fine just swapping the cards and installing the new drivers. I always like to let windows try and install the latest drivers instead of using something from the manufacturer but that's just because i dont' want their bloat on my computer. some swear by the manufacturer...

[Invizibleyez]

I installed the new Nvidia GTX 550ti with no issues. I guess I remember the older days when things would always be complicated with an upgrade. Thanks Windows Vista SP2!

Oh and by the the way capr, I am upgrading from ATI to Nvidia, not the other way around. I got what you were saying I think though. Without the drivers from Nvidia.com Windows didn't know what to do with my new card for some reason. I tried it your way, but then installed the full drivers from Nvidia.