Change Graphics Cards

[glennprayogo53]

I change my ZOTAC 1050Ti OC to Digital Alliance 1050Ti Dual OC. I already install nvidia driver before, do i need to remove all driver files and then i install again the driver ?

 

[13thmonkey]

For the time and effort it will take, I would reinstall.

 

[InvalidError]

Earlier this year, one of my friends had problems with his PC and suspected his GPU (GTX960), brought it to me so I could stress-test it, simply swapped it in place of my GTX1050 and did a 24h burn-in test, worked fine without reinstalling drivers.

If you are using customized vendor drivers, mileage may vary. I only use the generic drivers directly from Nvidia.

 

[13thmonkey]

I've had a gtx580 to 970 swap lead to bsod on Reboot, pain to remove, replace, uninstall, refit, install, so as a matter of course I'd do it. What if the bios is slightly different and the driver uses that information. It'll probably work, but just in case.

 

[glennprayogo53]

For the time and effort it will take, I would reinstall.

How do i reinstall it ?

 

[InvalidError]

What if the bios is slightly different and the driver uses that information.

Windows doesn't care about the BIOS, it cares about the PCIe GUID which it uses to match hardware with existing driver profiles to allow multiples of any hardware to exist concurrently on the same computer. Different cards even of the exact same model have different GUIDs and will get separate driver profiles.

If you get crashes from swapping out different GPUs using universal drivers, then something in the driver stack might not be saving/loading stuff that should be GUID-specific to/from GUID-specific storage.

Are you using generic universal drivers from Nvidia or customized AiB drivers and utilities? I wouldn't be surprised if customized drivers were more likely to freak out on hardware swaps, such as by omitting vendor checks before attempting to access vendor-specific board features.

 

[13thmonkey]

What if the bios is slightly different and the driver uses that information.

Windows doesn't care about the BIOS, it cares about the PCIe GUID which it uses to match hardware with existing driver profiles to allow multiples of any hardware to exist concurrently on the same computer. Different cards even of the exact same model have different GUIDs and will get separate driver profiles.

If you get crashes from swapping out different GPUs using universal drivers, then something in the driver stack might not be saving/loading stuff that should be GUID-specific to/from GUID-specific storage.

Are you using generic universal drivers from Nvidia or customized AiB drivers and utilities? I wouldn't be surprised if customized drivers were more likely to freak out on hardware swaps, such as by omitting vendor checks before attempting to access vendor-specific board features.

Personally I was on stock Nvidia drivers, So you're suggesting that inserting a new card will trigger the creation of a new profile based on the new GUID.

 

[InvalidError]

So you're suggesting that inserting a new card will trigger the creation of a new profile based on the new GUID.

It isn't a suggestion, that's how drivers that follow the Windows Driver Foundation model are supposed to work.
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/drivers/install/hklm-system-currentcontrolset-enum-registry-tree
Basically, properly written drivers should rely on the registry keys managed by the PnP-manager for all of their device-specific registry storage needs and the driver API even has functions to automate this so driver developers have no excuses to store/load their device data in/from the wrong place.

 

[13thmonkey]

So you're suggesting that inserting a new card will trigger the creation of a new profile based on the new GUID.

It isn't a suggestion, that's how drivers that follow the Windows Driver Foundation model are supposed to work.
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/drivers/install/hklm-system-currentcontrolset-enum-registry-tree
Basically, properly written drivers should rely on the registry keys managed by the PnP-manager for all of their device-specific registry storage needs and the driver API even has functions to automate this so driver developers have no excuses to store/load their device data in/from the wrong place.

Well, it failed with me, on stock nvidia drivers, so the question is 5mins of effort to uninstall and reinstall drivers, worth the 10mins of effort dealing with hardware swap an extra time and the feeling of dread if you see a BSOD, or if it doesn't do it properly and you end up with something that kinda works. But hey ho, his time, not mine.