Questions on upgrade

grizzly

I'm going to upgrade from a 8800gt to a 280. I wondering what I'll have to look out for doing this (first time upgrading a card). Will the software drivers work after first boot in XP? Or will I have to DOS boot? What pitfalls should I look out for when installing and swapping cables?

thanks,

uberpixie

grizzly wrote: »

I'm going to upgrade from a 8800gt to a 280. I wondering what I'll have to look out for doing this (first time upgrading a card). Will the software drivers work after first boot in XP? Or will I have to DOS boot? What pitfalls should I look out for when installing and swapping cables?

thanks,

First 3 things to think about:

1) will my power supply be good enough to support my new gfx card
2) will my power supply be good enough to support my new gfx card
3) will my power supply be good enough to support my new gfx card

Thats it really....

The gfx card itself should come with at least one converter to convert from 6/8 pin to molex and if you have a half way modern PSU it should have at least x1 6/8 pin rail free.

After that:

1) uninstall dirvers in XP.

You can use drive cleaner pro to fully wipe/remove the old drivers if you are paranoid or just careful :pac:

Driver Cleaner Pro is your first stop if you have issues installing your new drivers.

2) shut pc down

3) install card, hook up any required 6/8 pin power cables

4) turn pc back on

5) Install latest driver

6) restart PC.


There is nothing sinister or complicated in installing a new gfx card.

What you need to do is post up what power supply you have to ensure it is capable of running a 280.

grizzly

204W for the cards and I believe my machine has 700w to spare for the all the PCI slots. So should should be grand with one card.

Thanks for the detailed answer!