Do I have to uninstall old AMD drivers before installing a Nvidia GPU?

Question

Ok, I'm new to PC building so what I done was I didn't uninstall my old AMD drivers before putting in my new Nvidia GPU (GTX 660TI), and there was firs major conflicting programmes but I managed to uninstall all the AMD drivers whilst the Nvidia card was in, and it seems to be fine now, however there are some game performance issues (I'm not sure if it is he game or is it my driver installation method). I used to play Need for speed Most Wanted (2012) on my old GPU AMD Redeon HD 6770, and it worked to a certain degree but when I start up the game with the new GPU it stutters on the same setting as I had on the 6770, I am now worried and could someone please help me?

I also tried Tomb Raider (2013) and there are some tearing issues and slight frame-rate drops as well on high settings.

In case here are my specs:

RAM: Corsair 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 1333MHz XMS3 Memory Kit CL9 1.5V unbuffered

CPU: AMD Bulldozer FX-6 Six Core 6200 Black Edition 3.80Ghz (Socket AM3+) Processor

Motherboard: Asus M5A97 PRO 970 Socket AM3+ 8 Channel HD Audio ATX Motherboard

GPU: GPU MSI GTX 660 Ti 2GB GDDR5 Dual DVI HDMI DispalayPort PCI-E Graphics Card

PSU: Cooler Master 750W

Thanks :-)

Answer 1

Yes, IT IS A MUST lol. With both catalyst and NVIDIA drivers running, they will mess with each other.

Completely remove AMD's catalyst drivers, then fresh install your NVIDIA drivers. 320.18 is horrible atm for most configs. Also, that "no" above me will give you unwanted problems :P

NVIDIA is working on a driver fix since 320.18 is very bad at times

Answer 2

I've had problems after installing a new Intel DH77EB motherboard and an Intel I7-3770 CPU using my original NVidia GTX 550Ti. The video card would stop working whenever I played certain video games. I ended up going to NVidia's website and using older drivers until one worked. See if you can start your PC in "Safe mode" and then install the drivers older NVidia drivers or whatever ones you need. Once I got mine to work, I turned off the auto update NVidia feature. A lot of times the latest NVida drivers may have issues. Also make sure that your power supply is strong enough to handle the additional power requirements of the new video card. Mines a 600W thermaltake power supply. My guess is that you maybe having Power supply issues.

Answer 3

No.