I recently upgraded my graphics card to an RTX 5080, and I'm wondering if I need to do anything special. Should I uninstall the old drivers before downloading the new ones, or can I just install the new drivers over the old ones?
2 Answers
If you're moving from an AMD GPU, it's a good idea to use Display Driver Uninstaller (DDU) to fully remove the old drivers. However, if you're upgrading from another Nvidia card, you can usually just update the drivers directly.
In most cases, if you had a recent Nvidia driver, you won't need to do anything special—it's pretty much plug and play. But if you do run into problems, performing a clean install of the drivers can often sort things out. If you're switching from AMD, using DDU is a smart move to clear out any old driver remnants. But if you're staying within Nvidia's family, the same driver package works across different models, so it should be straightforward.
I have a question about this: I built a new PC and plan to use a 5070 Ti but am currently using a 1070. They're both Zotac. Should I go ahead and use DDU when I finally swap in the new GPU?