Solved Changing from nVidia to AMD; What is involved???

[BuckSkin]

I currently have a nearly-new EVGA/invidia video-card and drivers installed; this card has been nothing but a constant source of headaches; $70-plus total waste.

My wife's identical machine has a Gigabyte/AMD card that easily outperforms my invidia and has never given any problems; it just does it's job and does it well.

Thus, I have ordered an identical Gigabyte/AMD card to replace the invidia in my machine.

My question is, so far as the drivers are concerned, what procedure should I follow when I replace the invidia with the AMD; do I uninstall the invidia drivers just before shutting down the machine for card replacement or what ?

Thanks for reading.

 

[HAVOC]

Remove drivers using DDU (display driver uninstaller). Remove card. Install new card. Install new drivers.

 

[chefduane]

I made the NVidia to AMD change a few years ago. Never looked back. Most folks here seem to be Nvidia boosters with a few AMD'ers. I've just had good luck with AMD boards and gotten lots of value and performance for the money.

 

[BuckSkin]

Remove drivers using DDU (display driver uninstaller). Remove card. Install new card. Install new drivers.

Thanks! That is simple enough; I even already have DDU.

I made the NVidia to AMD change a few years ago. Never looked back. Most folks here seem to be Nvidia boosters with a few AMD'ers. I've just had good luck with AMD boards and gotten lots of value and performance for the money.

With the experience I have had, both with the invidia card and EVGA support, I will never buy another.

My experience is exactly why I bought AMD for the wife and then another for me.

 

[HAVOC]

Just the opposite for me, I never really had any issues with ATI (now AMD) cards. I've read about problems (with ATI) while deciding on parts for my first build and decided on NVidia, haven't had a problem yet.
My friend and I just built him a PC and he chose AMD, he hasn't had any issues either. Both companies have really improved their offerings.

One thing I recommend is to wait before installing the newest driver. I usually wait about a month or two and see what bugs show up with the newest one.

 

[Barman58]

One thing that I have noticed is that AMD and nVidia cards support audio in different ways that can cause issues in some circumstances

The basic difference is that although Both cards support audio Via HDMI only nVidia cards support sound through the DVI ports so you can be "Forced" to purchase additional audio hardware when using multiple monitors and changing from AMD to nVidia cards.

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
You really don't say which card/ exact model GT/ GTX... you're having issues with
I have 2 evga GTX gpu's and they both rock

 

[Mellon Head]

I have to say that while I am a little disenchanted with AMD's CPU and motherboard offerings (poor benchmarks, GPU card graphics lanes on MB being slow), I will say that their graphics cards seem to be of high quality lately.

I absolutely love my R9 280. It's never given me any trouble, and it runs all of my games on the highest settings. It doesn't benchmark as well as an Nvidia card in its same class, but I think that is because it is using a slower graphics lane because of the motherboard I have. It's very hard to find an AMD motherboard with my CPU socket which has a x16 PCI 3.0 compliant socket, unfortunately. My next build will be Intel based, but I will probably just move my current GPU over to the new build to save money.

 

[RoasterMen]

I've used both NVIDIA and AMD/ATi cards. I've never had any problems with both but all I can say is pick the ones that you want more and works best for you.

NVIDIA needs to update their Control panel though, it looks like something you'd see during the Windows 98 era.

 

[BuckSkin]

Someone asked which invidia card has caused me nothing but problems; random screen blackouts that there seems to be no fix for and crashing photo programs just at the crucial "save as" moment.

EVGA GeForce GT 730 2GB GDDR5 64bit DVI/HDMI/VGA Low Profile Graphics Card 02G-P3-3733-KR

If I were paid $2/hour for all the time I have wasted on this card, I could retire.

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
Thanks according to the psu requirements it takes a 300w or better to run this card was that requirement met on the machine ?
EVGA - Product Specs - EVGA GeForce GT 730 2GB (Low Profile)

 

[BuckSkin]

Hi,
Thanks according to the psu requirements it takes a 300w or better to run this card was that requirement met on the machine ?
EVGA - Product Specs - EVGA GeForce GT 730 2GB (Low Profile)

PSU requirement is met by better than twice the minimum with a 750-watt Corsair.

The Gigabyte AMD Radeon R7 240 DDR3-2GB DVI-D/HDMI/D-SUB OC Video Graphics Cards GV-R724OC-2GI REV2.0 in the wife's otherwise identical machine outperforms it in every way with only the stock 305-watt PSU.

I have another AMD exactly like hers on the way; hopefully the one I am getting will be as good as the one she has.

I just used the drivers supplied with the included disk when I set hers up and it is performing perfectly; I cannot count how many different drivers I have tried with the invidia and none have helped.

I wish I had of paid more heed to the numerous 1-star reviews before I bought the invidia, as I am far from being alone in having the screen blackout problems.

All EVGA support was good for was to play a delaying action until my 30 days was up, then any further attempts to access my support account took me to a "sorry; this site is under repairs" page.
I don't believe the human I finally got on the phone knew as much about things as I did and that is very little.

 

[RoasterMen]

No way the GT 730 requires 300W. It only needs a 280W unless you're gonna fry it up.

The GT 730 isn't really a big upgrade to people with Haswell Processors anyways.

 

[BuckSkin]

Okay, I used DDU (in SAFE mode) and thought I had uninstalled the nvidia drivers and such; the monitor even had the appearance of the drivers being gone.
However, I did select "Clean and shut-down" in DDU and it did not automatically shut-down; I had to manually go to "start" and shut-down.

Old (nearly brand-new) invidiaEVGA out and new AMD in; fired up and installed the AMD drivers from the disk.
As soon as the AMD drivers installed and restart, everything is looking and working good.

However, when I look in Control Panel>Programs, the nvidia audio and video drivers are still listed, along with that Vulcan whatever it is that showed up along with the nvidia drivers.

The nvidia control panel appears to be gone and the nvidia folder is gone from the start menu.

I tried to remove the nvidia drivers from "programs" using GEEK-Uninstaller and got this:



So far, the presence of the nvidia stuff in "programs" does not seem to have any negative effect on anything, but I would feel better to have it gone.

Thanks for everyone's help and input in this situation.

 

[JordanMihailov]

Used Ati hd7870 and hd7770 after that gtx 780.
Just install the different driver suite and you are good to go.

 

[Mellon Head]

However, when I look in Control Panel>Programs, the nvidia audio and video drivers are still listed, along with that Vulcan whatever it is that showed up along with the nvidia drivers.

You've probably got an Nvidia entry left over in your registry that is making the entry show up in "Programs and Features". Not really a problem unless it really bugs you. The program and drivers are gone, and even if there are remnants, they won't be used by, or affect the AMD card.

Vulkan is a part of the AMD driver pack, and it's a runtime for the AMD system. Don't remove it or the AMD drivers might act funny.

 

[BuckSkin]

You've probably got an Nvidia entry left over in your registry that is making the entry show up in "Programs and Features". Not really a problem unless it really bugs you. The program and drivers are gone, and even if there are remnants, they won't be used by, or affect the AMD card.

Thanks for alleviating my worries; as for really bugging me, I tend to lean toward obsessive/compulsive where such things are concerned and often would be better off if I just left things be.....

Vulkan is a part of the AMD driver pack, and it's a runtime for the AMD system. Don't remove it or the AMD drivers might act funny.

It must be some vital necessity for nvidia as well, as it installed with the nvidia drivers; I will leave it be.


It has been 24 hours since the switch to AMD and I haven't had the first glitch; ......maybe I shouldn't brag just yet.

 

[BuckSkin]

Just an update on my changeover from nvidia to AMD:

It has now been some six weeks since I installed the AMD card.
Like on the wife's machine, I just used the drivers supplied on the disc that came in the box.
During this time, I have not had a single negative issue, no screen blackouts, no screen flickerings showing pieces of open windows behind the active window, no program crashes.
Everything just WORKS, and works as it should.
With the nvidia card, if I had more than a couple programs open, everything was slow as mud; with the AMD, I can have a dozen programs open at once and I cannot tell any difference in performance compared to when only a single program is open.

I am very happy with this new AMD card; I just wish I could get back the seventy-some-odd hard to get dollars that I wasted and all the sleep and time I lost trying to get satisfaction from the nvidia.


I wish to thank all of you guys for all of your help and advice; it is appreciated, thank you !