[SOLVED] Safely Removing EVGA Precision X16 and undoing it's settings/clean install of GPU drivers.

[Cyber_Akuma]

Going to be upgrading to a newer card and selling off my old ones, so I want to undo all overclocking settings both to sell them off and so they don't conflict with my new card, as well as wipe out all driver settings and start over.

For the overclocking:

I am aware that PrecisionX does not make permanent overclock settings and they are just set in software, so I am guessing I don't need to worry about the cards still being overclocked when I sell them right?

As for my system though, would just simply uninstalling EVGA Precision X16 also remove all the overclock settings it applies on Windows boot, or do I need to take additional steps to undo them? It there any reset somewhere that just undoes everything and makes it use everything at stock again/remove all overclock settings on boot before I uninstall it? I basically want to completely wipe out the app and any and all of it's settings, and how to do that if just a simple uninstall will not be enough.

As for the drivers:
Is it still recommended to do a clean removal and reinstall of drivers when upgrading a card even if you are just going from an old GTX model to a newer GTX model that use the same drivers and are by the same manufacturer?? And if so, is just an uninstall enough or do I need to use other means? I remember that years ago people would recommend running a driver cleaner app (forgot the name) in Safe Mode that would remove all traces of a driver... but that was long ago, is that still the way to do it today? Or is the uninstall feature of the drivers/the "perform a clean install" option on the installer when installing the drivers the same thing nowadays?

 

[Barty1884]

I am aware that PrecisionX does not make permanent overclock settings and they are just set in software, so I am guessing I don't need to worry about the cards still being overclocked when I sell them right?

Correct. Unless you've modified the BIOS' of the card, anybody can drop the GPU into their system and it'll run at "stock" for them.

As for my system though, would just simply uninstalling EVGA Precision X16 also remove all the overclock settings it applies on Windows boot, or do I need to take additional steps to undo them? It there any reset somewhere that just undoes everything and makes it use everything at stock again/remove all overclock settings on boot before I uninstall it? I basically want to completely wipe out the app and any and all of it's settings, and how to do that if just a simple uninstall will not be enough.

Not 100% sure on X16, but for it's competitors (like MSI Afterburner) you can simply deselect it applying at Windows startup. You shouldn't need to remove the program, just delete (or disable) the profile for the card.
When you have a new GPU in there, you don't want it trying to force a profile that applied to A.N.Other card.

Fully uninstalling X16 would serve the same purpose too - no application to load a profile = no profile loaded.

As for the drivers:
Is it still recommended to do a clean removal and reinstall of drivers when upgrading a card even if you are just going from an old GTX model to a newer GTX model that use the same drivers? And if so, is just an uninstall enough or do I need to use other means? I remember that years ago people would recommend running a driver cleaner app (forgot the name) in Safe Mode that would remove all traces of a driver... but that was long ago, is that still the way to do it today? Or is the uninstall feature of the drivers/the "perform a clean install" option on the installer when installing the drivers the same thing nowadays?

Even Nvidia to Nvidia (or AMD to AMD) will benefit from a clean installation,.
The "clean install" checkbox inside the driver installation is not 100% "clean" and can leave behind some problems.

It is still highly recommended to run DDU in safemode to remove all traces of prior drivers then shut down/switch cards.

In addition, I would suggest downloading the driver from Nvidia's website ahead of time, and not connecting to the internet after switching cards out. Windows will attempt to install a driver at the same time you are, which can cause the driver install to fail.

Boot with the new GPU, navigate to where you downloaded the driver, and run/install. Once that's done, you can connect back to the internet.

 

[Cyber_Akuma]

Never used DDU before, even though I now recall having heard of it many times. Do I run the driver uninstaller first, and then DDU, or do I just run DDU alone to uninstall the driver?

 

[Barty1884]

Just DDU, in safe mode.

No need to do anything via Nvidia's uninstaller etc, DDU will take care of everything.