Do people still need Driver Sweeper, Device Driver Uninstaller, etc when swapping AMD -> nVidia, or visa versa

[WeeHawky]

so in the topic basically. Or is the simple uninstall fine now ?

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Need = No
Is it the better method = Yes

Why? Because a simple Uninstall regarding GPU driver might leave crap behind that can interfere, not just files but also Registry entries.

[CursedPanther]

I've heard both answers to the question before on numerous forums. The truth probably is nothing too serious will ever happen if you don't perform a 'complete' clean install, and whatever game related errors you happen to run into later aren't necessarily driver related either.

But it never hurts when you don't mind taking the extra steps.

[WeeHawky]

It seems that Driver Sweeper was replaced with the other one.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

For the app in question; this is the official creator's homepage for DDU:
http://www.wagnardmobile.com/DDU

Can also use that, as well as sites like Guru3D.com to stay up-to-date on GPU Driver versions and other related software.

In most situations shouldn't need to use DDU. Just run the Uninstaller from say:
- Windows Control Panel > Programs and Features
- CCleaner > Tools
- IObit Uninstaller > this one is best for a free tool regarding uninstalling things, as it can detect if there are extra un-needed files related to the original installer on the system and ask u if u wish to get rid of those.

It is really only if u have GPU and/or Driver related issues should u have a need for DDU. Doesn't hurt to download such useful tool so u already have it on-hand if need-be.

For uninstalling NVIDIA, best bet is uninstall all of them one by one until all are gone, starting with things like HDMI Audio Driver and PhysX, as long as the last one u uninstall is Forceware, then u should be fine. Plus with NVIDIA u can simply choose Custom > tick Clean Install box in there, and that should take care of clean installing the GPU driver to help avoid issues.

[CursedPanther]

One thing I think I should mention. Once I've used Driver Sweeper to perform a so-called clean install, only the program had deleted some of the critical files and my Windows failed to start properly after the restart. Fortunately I managed to recover it through System Restore.

Anyway, Driver Sweeper had come a long way since then. It may have received the improvements it needed to prevent further similar accidents.

[Zakhov]

Personally I haven't used any Driver Cleaner's or Driver Sweepers since I made the jump to Windows 10. Haven't noticed any drawbacks or performance hits.

I'm on nVidia so I just check the option to do clean installation during the upgrade/installation, I assume AMD drivers should have a similar option.

But I guess it doesn't hurt to use Driver Cleaner's or Sweepers. I used DDU as mentioned above when I was still on Windows 8.1

[Bad 💀 Motha]

If you just doing normal routine Driver updates while on the same GPU or series of GPU family; then u shouldn't need to run apps like DDU.

Simple install of latest driver is really all u should need to do in such a case as that. At the very least just pick Custom > Clean Install

And it's never really about "performance issues" it is more of situation u can find yourself in when switching GPU from AMD > NVIDIA or vice-versa and then having left over driver files and registry entries. This is what DDU ensures to cleanup/remove. Which if a conflict does exist on the system, can have games not launching, hard resets, overall OS issues and/or in-stability because of such conflicts.