Do I need to remove old drivers when installing a new graphics card?

[willemharmse]

I currently have a AMD Radeon RX 580, and I am saving money to buy a NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060. I want to know if I should uninstall the AMD drivers beforehand as I have seen a lot of people say it is necessary?

The one problem I have is if I uninstall the drivers what will happen, will I still be able to use the GPU to boot into windows as I currently have a problem with the GPU not wanting to boot using UEFI and I believe the new GPU will allow UEFI. The reason I want to boot is just to go into BIOS to change the boot mode from CSM to UEFI, as the iGPU also requires UEFI I also cant use it without changing the setting, the only other option I have is to reset the CMOS.

 

[wNotyarD]

If swapping from Radeon to GeForce or vice-versa, yes, you should uninstall your drivers prior to replacing the card.

No, you won't have issues entering the BIOS menu without drivers installed in Windows.
So you can uninstall the drivers, access the menu to change from CSM to UEFI, turn the PC off, swap cards, and boot it back on. Then you'll install the GeForce drivers.

 

[willemharmse]

If swapping from Radeon to GeForce or vice-versa, yes, you should uninstall your drivers prior to replacing the card.

No, you won't have issues entering the BIOS menu without drivers installed in Windows.
So you can uninstall the drivers, access the menu to change from CSM to UEFI, turn the PC off, swap cards, and boot it back on. Then you'll install the GeForce drivers.

Thank you so much, I was stressing because I thought I would have to reset the CMOS just to use the new GPU.

 

[wNotyarD]

Wait a little, I must ask one question:
Is your Windows install made using CSM mode?

If yes, changing from CSM to UEFI will render it unbootable. And I don't know if you can boot with an Ada card on CSM mode. You may very well have to reinstall Windows at some point.

 

[willemharmse]

Wait a little, I must ask one question:
Is your Windows install made using CSM mode?

If yes, changing from CSM to UEFI will render it unbootable. And I don't know if you can boot with an Ada card on CSM mode. You may very well have to reinstall Windows at some point.

Sorry for the late reply, I believe my windows install is made using UEFI mode. As a few months ago I bricked my GPU (its fixed now after a struggle) and to fix it I reset the CMOS to be able to use my iGPU as it would not work in CSM mode, and windows still booted like that so I don't know if that means it is. Is there any way to check?

 

[wNotyarD]

Sorry for the late reply, I believe my windows install is made using UEFI mode. As a few months ago I bricked my GPU (its fixed now after a struggle) and to fix it I reset the CMOS to be able to use my iGPU as it would not work in CSM mode, and windows still booted like that so I don't know if that means it is. Is there any way to check?

Well, if you can boot with the iGPU using UEFI mode, I guess it'll work just fine

 

[willemharmse]

Well, if you can boot with the iGPU using UEFI mode, I guess it'll work just fine

I forgot to mention that everytime I tried to boot using UEFI the boot would give me the no GOP found error and the revert the boot mode to CSM/Legacy. Will this cause a problem when I insert the new GPU, or is there a way to apply BIOS settings without restarting the computer?

 

[wNotyarD]

I forgot to mention that everytime I tried to boot using UEFI the boot would give me the no GOP found error and the revert the boot mode to CSM/Legacy. Will this cause a problem when I insert the new GPU, or is there a way to apply BIOS settings without restarting the computer?

I may be guesstimating here, but as you installed a non-UEFI card (your RX580) and it's probably set somewhere within the menu that PCI-E must be the primary graphics device irrespective of being UEFI capable or not, it throws that GOP error in the event you try to boot in UEFI with the 580 attached.

If you change to UEFI and take the Radeon out, does it boot with the iGPU?

 

[willemharmse]

I may be guesstimating here, but as you installed a non-UEFI card (your RX580) and it's probably set somewhere within the menu that PCI-E must be the primary graphics device irrespective of being UEFI capable or not, it throws that GOP error in the event you try to boot in UEFI with the 580 attached.

If you change to UEFI and take the Radeon out, does it boot with the iGPU?

Yes it does boot. Would it be possible to uninstall the drivers of the GPU using the iGPU or would it uninstall all display drivers?

Also to add to earlier in msinfo32 the BIOS mode is set to UEFI which I believe, I may be wrong, means that the windows install is a UEFI install and the C: drive is also in GPT format.

 

[wNotyarD]

Yes it does boot. Would it be possible to uninstall the drivers of the GPU using the iGPU or would it uninstall all display drivers?

If you use only the AMD uninstaller, it will only remove AMD drivers. Heck, even if you use DDU (DisplayDriverUninstaller) it would only remove what you tell it to (it has separate buttons for NVIDIA, AMD and Intel) and I actually recommend you to do so using safe mode.

Even in an absurd case in which every driver was removed, Windows would load a generic driver so you'd still have desktop video.

 

[willemharmse]

If you use only the AMD uninstaller, it will only remove AMD drivers. Heck, even if you use DDU (DisplayDriverUninstaller) it would only remove what you tell it to (it has separate buttons for NVIDIA, AMD and Intel) and I actually recommend you to do so using safe mode.

Even in an absurd case in which every driver was removed, Windows would load a generic driver so you'd still have desktop video.

Thank you for your help. I think I should almost be getting the GPU next week I hope to have enough money if I run into problems I will just ask on this thread again. Would you recommend DDU or AMD uninstaller, and a quick stupid question, if the system is Ryzen then will AMD uninstaller remove the chipset driver to or are they save?

 

[wNotyarD]

Thank you for your help. I think I should almost be getting the GPU next week I hope to have enough money if I run into problems I will just ask on this thread again. Would you recommend DDU or AMD uninstaller, and a quick stupid question, if the system is Ryzen then will AMD uninstaller remove the chipset driver to or are they save?

AMD uninstaller first, then DDU. And no need to worry, the chipset drivers will stay.

 

[DaemonForce]

This is really optimistic seeing how the RX 580 is mostly trouble free.
Usually I can remove old drivers in Rapr and it's fine but the terrifying part is the new card.
If it's too new, new cables, BIOS flash, forcing PCI-E g3 mode, IO-SRV off, just to get a display and a POST that doesn't angry beep at you.
Good luck.