Upgrading my vid card

[DonNagual]

Just to be sure, thought I'd ask the pros (that is your guys.....)

I now have the FX5200, and have purchased a Sapphire Radeon 9800 Pro (128Mb).

I am planning on just taking out the FX5200, plugging in the 9800 Pro, and then reinstalling XP from scratch. I have all my drivers for everything, and I haven't reinstalled windows for a while, and things are getting kind of glitchy so I thought I would kill two birds with one stone...

Before I go ahead and do this........... is there anything I am not thinking of? Anyone foresee any problems?

 

[DonNagual]

Alright, let me ask another question. Probably showing how little I know, but hey, I'm not afraid!......

Drivers. For my 9800 Pro, should I just use the drivers from Sapphire's site? What drivers should I be using? I have heard that there are all kinds of 3rd party things going on, and I just haven't a clue what is best...

 

[Arris]

The only thing that might be a consideration is having a large enough wattage PSU to supply the new card and the rest of your system, although you probably should be ok.

You will be fine using the Sapphire drivers that come with your card but usually they will have newer ones on their website. You can also just download the standard ATI ones from www.ati.com since they will work with all ATI based cards without any problem.

The third party ones you have probably heard of are the Omegadrivers tweaked ones. Unless your particularly bothered about getting about 10 3dmark points or you have a problem running a certain game I don't think you would need bother with those.

 

[DonNagual]

If I decide to NOT reinstall windows XP (which I am now leaning towards), how to I go about making the swap from my fx5200 to the 9800 Pro?

Do I have to uninstal the old drivers, or do I just plug in the new card, install new drivers and away I go?

What is the best way to go about the switch?

 

[abc]

uninstall old drivers
take out old card
put in new card
install new drivers
restart

 

[young&wild]

This is how i usually carry it out.

1) Uninstall the old drivers form "Add/Remove Program" in the control panel

2) Go to My Computers. Make sure theres nothing under "Display Adapters" in the Device Manager. If yes..delete it.

3) Shut down the computer and unplug all the cables. Process to install the card into the AGP card.

4) Turn on the computer. Install the latest drivers.

5) Restart the pc for the settings to be applied.

This should ironed out unwanted conflicts.