Rayder

Well, our Vista machine is finally running stable. (stupid RAM timing annoyances ) We currently have an Asus 4670 512MB in it. We are going to be replacing the 4670 with a Sapphire 4870 1GB card very soon. (like, as soon as NewEgg gets it to us....next couple of days)

My main question is how should I handle the video drivers for the upgrade? Do I need to uninstall the Cats first and reinstall them with the new card? Do I just swap cards and the Cats will automatically recognize the new card, or should I simply reinstall the drivers after the card change? I'm running the 9.9 Cats.
Just want to make sure I do things right the first time, ya know? I never actually upgraded the video card without reformatting before.

One other little question....will I really notice much of a speed increase in games going from a 4670 to a 4870?

Thanks for any pointers you guys can give me.

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temeteus82

I don't think that you will need reinstallation of gfx drivers at all. I think that the AMD drivers are smart enough to see the new card and windows to use the pre-installed drivers.

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OldBuzzard

Maybe, and maybe not. A lot of it will depend on your CPU.

In my case I saw a big increase in FPS by upgrading my CPU. My 3870 X2 was being bottlenecked by my 4800+ X2. I replaced it with a PhenomII X4 940 (all other components remained the same), and saw a dramatic increase in FPS in a number of games.

As for re-installing drivers? If your current drivers are up to date, that shouldn't be necessary.

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BlueMak

What I would do is uninstall the ATI drivers, reboot, do not install anything, shut down system. Replace card, boot, install drivers.

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Rayder

I like BlueMak's idea best, it just seems like the best way to go to be sure the card gets enumerated (or whatever) properly and the drivers set up for the 4850 (not 4870 as previously stated, wasn't sure of 50 or 70 until my bro got up and told me which he ordered) so whatever little tag-throughs for the faster card gets put in place. Not really sure what all goes on in the drivers....so better safe than sorry.

As for the speed improvements...I imagine there will be an improvement. Here's the system specs:
Asus P5Q SE Plus motherboard
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6700 @2.66ghz
4GB 1066 RAM (G.Skill)
BFG 750 watt PSU
2 - 500GB HD's (C: and basic storage)
2 - 1TB HD's (our media drives...TV recordings mostly)
1 - Liteon BD drive
Vista Home Premium
Moncaso case with 7" touchscreen
All hooked to a Samsung 52" LCD widescreen TV through HDMI (direct from card HDMI, no dongle)
No overclocking.

Another little issue.....not really a big deal I guess since everything ran fine after previous Catalyst installs, but every time I ever install Catalyst drivers on this rig, I ALWAYS get 4 warnings (two for each monitor (TV and case), I assume) about the monitors not being enumerated during the driver install. Is that normal for an HDMI hookup?

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BlueMak

I don't have an HDMI card so I don't know, but with my monitor that doesn't have HDMI and I use a dongle for the card, I don't get any such message.
Yeah I know, not much help sorry.


Oh, one thing I forgot to add, after you finish with installing the new drivers, reboot. You don't "have to", but if the system for whatever reason, crashes, it could lead to some problems.

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The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others(Bertrand Russell)"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil,You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them." - Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis
This is slavery, not to speak one's thought. [Euripides-The Phoenician Women (c.411-409 B.C.)] http://www.macedonia.info/FALLACIESANDFACTS.htm Sic semper tyrannis.