Installing older Radeon on Gateway PC

[SoTM]

I am building a higher end gaming PC, but in the meantime I want to emulate PS2 (namely Final Fantasy 12)and upscale it to 1080p(I have seen videos on YT, and it looks FAR better than the PS2 does).

I have a Gateway PC running windows 8.1 64 bit, Core i3 3220, and 6GB RAM.

How do I install the driver on this, before or after I install it? Does W8.1 do this automatically?

 

[Dom_79]

You install the driver after installing the GPU itself. Windows (7&8x) will detect the new hardware and attempt to download "windows version" drivers for it. They are not as good as the drivers from the manufacturer (in this case AMD).

If windows does automatically install drivers:
1. Go to AMD website and download the drivers for your GPU.
2. Un-install and delete "windows version" drivers.
3.Install AMD GPU drivers

 

[SoTM]

You install the driver after installing the GPU itself. Windows (7&8x) will detect the new hardware and attempt to download "windows version" drivers for it. They are not as good as the drivers from the manufacturer (in this case AMD).

If windows does automatically install drivers:
1. Go to AMD website and download the drivers for your GPU.
2. Un-install and delete "windows version" drivers.
3.Install AMD GPU drivers

 

[SoTM]

I am having trouble uninstalling the windows auto version. When I do so, the display vanishes. If I reboot with the HDMI, it starts with the windows version again.

I tried installing the radeon driver, and it gave a message that it did not work. I went back to the standard monitor( the blue one, sorry don't know what it's called) and tried installing the radeon driver then. It was a success, but when I reboot with the HDMI connected it still has he windows version for the radeon

 

[Dom_79]

Just so I'm clear. The GPU card you are installing has both an HDMI connector and a VGA (the blue one).

 

[SoTM]

No, the video card(Radeon HD3650) has an HDMI, DVI, and a display port. The VGA was on the PC already, and what I have been using up until now.

 

[Dom_79]

ok. need to go through some things with this. I will give you a quick GPU install walkthrough as though you are just for the first time installing it.
To stop windows from automatically installing video drivers you will need to change the windows update settings as follows;
Control Panel->System and Security->Windows Update->Change settings->Check for updates but let me choose whether to download and install them. There is a check box option below this for recommended updates which says "give me recommended updates the same way I receive important updates". Make sure that box is checked (video driver updates are "recommended updates") This is for Windows 7. I'm not sure exactly how to do it on 8 (I don't have it) but you can google it if it seems different.

1.With the GPU out (and monitor plugged into the motherboard VGA) uninstall the GPU drivers and the onboard drivers, this will force windows to display in a generic driver mode (at decreased resolution as if in safe mode)
2.Turn off the system and install the GPU. Plug monitor into GPU then start the system.
3. Find you downloaded (or re-download whichever) drivers for you GPU and install them.

Once all that is completed your system should be running the way you wanted it.

 

[SoTM]

Thank you for the detailed response.

Either I am a blithering schmuck, or something is not right.....I cannot get my PC to go into that basic video setting that would look like safe mode. I did disable the auto detect/update...but still the windows version is installed when I boot up with the Radeon card in there.

I am actually going to leave it as is...the Radeon card (even with windows driver)affords 2x resolution of this game with zero slow down, and looks FAR better than the P2 can spit out. I know it is the card doing this, as I tried the same with stock video and it was horrible even at native solution. I am really hesitant to play around too much, as this is my work PC and I am screwed without it. I only want to be able to start playing some of my favorite classics like FF12 and FF7 while I finish my gaming PC build.

Again, thanks for the help....I am sure you will see me posting again when I set up my new rig

 

[Dom_79]

Your welcome for the help

Good idea not to mess up your only PC (especially if you need it for work!)

Have fun playing FF7 (my favorite of the series, one of the games that made me decide to buy a Playstation back in the '90s). BTW trying to get FF7 decently emulated in ePSX is the reason I got back into computers after 15 years of console gaming