Driversweeper redundant with Nvidia drivers?

http://www.nvidia.com/object/drivers_faq.html

Just read the above FAQ as I've just got a pair of 460 1GB cards and was very surprised to see Nvidia are recommending to install over the top of old drivers now! I always installed over the top with my ATI card as I liked to keep my settings, and it appears Nvidia now do the same.

Has this always been the case?

 

They have always "recommended" it. Saying it is problem free and all that BS. I would go as far as to say that is especially untrue for the newer 257+ drivers, with it's disappearing profiles and mixing files on unclean installs, it is just as F'd as ever.

 

I've noticed that since the 25x.xx series of drivers, after each installation over the old drivers it'll always ask for a reboot. I guess they do somehow 'remove' the old drivers in the process of installing the new.

 

I've always installed over top an no problems so far.

 

As much as they say to install Nvidia System tool or Nvidia NAM.

Do try yourself

 

interesting... continue with the source:

Q: I want to go back to my older driver. How do I do that?
A: If you overinstalled the newer driver over the older driver then you can roll back to the older driver. Instructions can be found here: Option 2: Roll Back To Your Previous Driver.

Maybe this is the porpuse, to roll back to the old or last driver installed

 

I uninstall and DriverSweeper, just for peace of mind, but when i don't i have no issues either.

In my opinion, the most important thing to do when installing new drivers is to reset overclocks first.

 

I've never had issue installing new drivers over old drivers. One thing I have noticed when I do install over old drivers is that I tend to lose the specific characteristics of the new driver. What I mean by that is I see less of a dramatic increase or decrease in IQ & performance. From my experience if you start with a clean slate by using Driver Sweeper in safe mode it really fleshes out the changes Nvidia has made.

 

absolutely , when i had the dissappearing profiles bug the only way i could stop the bug reoccuring in newer drivers was to use driver cleaner in safe mode after uninstall and do a clean install , NVidia really need to have a think about their advice

 

What's ironic is if you read the release notes, it states the following:

Uninstalling the NVIDIA Display Driver Software
Note: It is highly recommended that you follow the steps in this section to completely uninstall
the NVIDIA Display Driver software before updating to a new version of the software.To uninstall the nView software, follow these steps:
1 From the Windows taskbar, click Start > Settings > Control Panel to open the Control
Panel window.
2 Double‐click the Add/Remove Programs item.
3 Click the NVIDIA Display Driver item from the list.
4 Click Change/Remove.
5 Click Yes to continue.
A prompt appears asking whether you want to delete all of the saved nView profiles.
• If you click Yes, all of the nView software and all of your saved profiles will be
deleted.
• If you click No, the nView software is removed, but the profile files are saved in the
Windows\nView directory on your hard disk.
Your system now restarts.
Installing the NVIDIA Graphics Drivers
1 Follow the instructions on the NVIDIA .com Web site driver download page to locate
the appropriate driver to download, based on your hardware and operating system.
2 Click the driver download link.
The license agreement dialog box appears.
3 Click Accept if you accept the terms of the agreement, then either open the file or save
the file to your PC and open it later.
Release 256 Graphics Drivers for Windows - Version 258.96 RN-W25896-02v01 | 42

4 Open the NVIDIA driver installation .EXE file to launch the NVIDIA InstallShield
Wizard.
5 Follow the instructions in the NVIDIA InstallShield Wizard to complete the
installation.

 

I always follow this outline when uninstalling drivers too:

http://www.evga.com/forums/tm.aspx?m=71117

except I run CCleaner after driver sweeper, then reboot out out of safe mode just to be sure.

 

Think there are many different opinions among the Nvidia developers when it comes to drivers, which is worrying.

But if installing over the top has never given you any issues, then no reason to stop doing that, and if the Driver Sweeper method is of no hassle to you, then why stop doing it if it provides you extra peace of mind.

Only think i will say though is, for those that install over the top, can you try the Driver Sweeper method if you do have issues, always best to rule that out first.

 

Installing over is not the ideal method. Nvidia just wants to simplify the process for those who find it it complicated to do a clean install. Nvidia's method is what is called a "conventional install" while using driver sweeper or driver cleaner pro and running win in safe mode is a "clean install." The best is still the latter. But if your lazy, use the former and risk retaining remnants of the old driver that may be corrupted.

 

As long as there are no specific problems, using driver sweeper is way overrated, while installing over the old driver is the recommended method for non-nerds. Over the years, I have made the experience that nVIDIAs recommended method (uninstalling via Control Panel, then reinstalling) works best, and in the result, there's NO difference to the driver sweeper method (it only costs less time and the ds method has a reputation of being more "professional" - which it isn't ).

 

No offence, but how do you know this?

Did you develop driver installation procedures and standards in Microsofts development labs? Do you work for ATI or Nvidia driver teams who both recommend updating "over the top" by the way.

I'm guessing not, you will be a random forum dude, that has heard the words "driversweeper" and "conflicts" from another random forum dude, who himself heard from another dude and so on.

FYI when you install over the top you do not overwrite anything as the OS keeps the old driver files to enable you to roll back later if needed. Things have moved on from Windows 98/ME days.

 

I just do the old fashion way by add and remove in control panel.

 

Some here are way too anal and its always been the case making more work for themselves than need be !

EVGA staff on EVGA forum do not recommend you use Driver Sweeper for no good reason and I personally do not.

I use it if I have an issue and it can help rectify it most times.

For normal install of Nvidia driver your supposed to disable AV and install it over the top.

Then if its a crappy buggy driver you can simply roll back and all your settings are intact.

 

Maybe it's recommended to install over old drivers but only with recent drivers, all I know is that with 18x.xx and 19x.xx I always had stuttering problems (more like vram leaks actually) in a few games if I didn't fully uninstall first. Last time I tried it with 25x.xx over 25x.xx I didn't have that problem however, maybe they changed something on it.

 

Strange way to get around to saying use DS then you won't have a problem. If you just did the uninstall/safe mode DS/ reinstall then you'd never have a problem, right?

 

Was my post not in English or some other problem ?

I said what I said not whatever you seem to have read out of it.

You install drivers over the top as per Nvidia's recommendations.

You can sometime get an issue as that's life with PC's, so then its time to try fix that issue using Driver Sweeper.

Out of all the year I have used Nvidia drivers (2001 till now) I have only had to do the above 3-4 times period !

I install over the top and 99% of the time have zero issues, if the driver ends up a bad one like the one that was messing with temps due to fan speeds (widely known but did not affect me) you can roll it back easily.

Why make everything so difficult are PC's not to make things easier ?