Do you need to use DDU when upgrading your GPU? 

As the developer of DDU I have to agree. DDU is a tool made mainly to fix problems that you *may* encounter when you are switching brand or update driver etc. It was not made specifically for using everytime or to give free FPS boost . The main 2 things that would happen when using it everytime is that you are sure to avoid *possible* conflict/corruption, name it, between driver version / brand and mostly recover disk space on your main drive. If you have a lot of drivers updates and never clean installed, you could have several wasted GBs from theses drivers. Bottom line, use DDU when you need it or if you want to recover some disk space of accumulated drivers. DDU is not mandatory to upgrade your drivers if everything's goes fine.

bro gave the answer in under 17 seconds, without even an intro, 10000/10 we should all aspire to be like Robotech

their's a high pich ring its so unbearable

Rob, I've been looking a bit further backward in videos (I'm new to following this tech stuff on youtube), and found this a few days after I'd been debating using the DDU since i'm switching from nVidia to AMD, and I couldn't figure out why it was such an issue. So stumbling on this today was very helpful and what a pain it must have been to make. Thanks Dave

You’re amazing. I was stressing a little about replacing my gpu, I thought I was gonna have to use ddu and jump through all types of hurdles

I have watch a lot of RU-vid videos on lots of topics and I must say yours was by far one of the best ones I have seen, this will be the first time ever I have left a positive comment on any video. The video was very clear straight to the point and well presented, and finally it gave me the information I was looking for without loads of waffle. Thank you.

Ive been upgrading PC things since the early 90's. Not much in the last decade though. Since before the internet its been recommended to remove old drivers first. I've done it both ways and both ways have always worked.

I had to run it when upgrading from a 2070 Super to a 3080 TI last week. My games were just dropping frames all over making them completely unplayable. DDU has saved me quite a few times over the years but I only use it when I need to.

Actually after just going through a major headache switching from Nvidia (GTX 1660S) to AMD (RX 6700XT), I can say that using DDU is a good idea. The AMD RX 6700XT driver was very confused and kept choosing crazy refresh rates like 30 and even 24 on Crysis 3! Doom Eternal claimed that it needed a driver update even though I was running the latest driver! When I ignored the message, the game booted and stuttered like crazy! Ironically Rise of the Tomb Raider had no problems running whatsoever. I initially thought that the AMD drivers were just trash or something, but then I gave in and booted into safe mode. I pulled the internet connection, ran DDU, and cleaned all the drivers from both manufacturers. I reinstalled the AMD drivers and then reconnected the internet (which DDU tells you to do btw). Now Crysis runs in 60ish frames (which is normal on AMD) and Doom Eternal runs flawlessly. Before running DDU I did reinstall the GTX 1660S to find that everything still worked great so it seemed that just the AMD drivers had issues. I have in the past switched to better Nvidia GPUs several times without using DDU with no issues, so going from one manufacturer to the other may be where problems can pop up, and like me they can pop up only in certain games. So just do it. It may save you alot of trouble.

Beware. This video was wrong for me.. I upgraded from a 4070 to a 4070 ti super. My games will not play. Thanks for helping me ruin my system. I also went thur so msny comments researching to see what others was saying. The maker of DDU says to only use it if u have a problem. I say use it everytime. In my case i shouldn't of had any problems. As you say. Nvidia to Nvidia same series. My games are so lagging. Thanks for the video that helped make my computer not work properly.

I do think this video would've been more useful had you been switching between cards of the same brand of different architectures. Back when I upgraded from my 780ti to my 1080, the 1080 didn't output any display in Windows until I swapped back to the 780ti and removed the drivers. Now that I'm going from a 1080 to a 3090, I'm trying to figure out whether this will cause the same issues. Guess there's only one way to find out.

A fresh windows install is always my first option lol, I get frustrated trying to diagnose issues and just find it the simplest and easiest solution to any major issues, that and reset cmos

The reason they all recommend using DDU is to make sure theres no issues. As far as i know nobody is claiming issues will 100% occur if you dont do it with DDU. I personally had an issue while switching GPU though my test was on a w10 machine that didnt have an OS refresh or system cleanup for 5 years

Thanks for literally testing that and making a video about it, viewer count made me a bit sceptic but now watching all of it to the end i can say you make pretty good content and deserve more views :)

In the olden days of Windows XP, Vista, Seven--maybe, when the WDDM / Plug'n'Play wasn't very good. Nowadays, though, Windows 10/11 just don't give a rip what you do. Change from AMD to Intel, chop and change GPU Brands, the O/S doesn't care; it'll just download the basic drivers it needs off Windows Update to make the Card or Board useable, and then you get the proper drivers later.

I just recently upgraded my gpu from nvidia to amd. I just swapped the hardware out without any deep dive. Amd installed wouldn't turn on not until I swapped back and used ddu. Swapped back to amd and it turned on cept no display signal. Turned it all off and remove cmos and put it back after 5mins and everything ran smoothly to installed amd drivers.

Make it more messy, start with older drivers and update over the top use say the last 15 drivers

Ok so im going from a gtx 1660 super to a rtx 4060 will i have to use ddu are is it just a quick swapping process

Love your videos bud, great work. I recognise you from somewhere other than on here but can't place where...

I upgraded my old rig I gave my son to an amd 1600af from intell 4460. After 5 restarts downloading stuff the pc became faster and stable. Windows 10 auto updates and fixes most issues. I think ddu is still usefull from win8 and lower. After 10 it's just a non issue.

Great video, and thanks for all the hard work in testing!!! 👍 For reassurance cuz I got OCD lol, here's my situation.... Ok so I got me a new refurbished ASUS G10 that comes with a GTX 1660 Ti. I haven't turned the PC on yet. It should prompt me to setup Windows when I do turn it on though. I purchased a RTX 3060 Ti separately to replace the GTX 1660 Ti before I first turn the PC on. My questions is.... would that that the best route in my situation.... Then I would of course install the Nvidia GeForce experience and drivers.

No u dont. no one does. but u can if you want. its like everything in life. next up a video on: dobi need XYZ to do ABC

what windows is SUPPOSED to do and what is DOES is two different things !!!

Guys please help me I took out my gpu and put it back in but now my games are super laggy and before it wasn’t like that

Do I need to delete old 1070 drivers? I am upgrading from an Invidia 1070 AMP Extreme to a RTX 4070 Invidia. To free up disk space yes.

Wouldn't the fresh windows install remove the old drivers

You deserve more views and likes from the amazing work you did for us. Thank you for using a scientific method for your proof.

I wonder if there's any potential issues when staying in the same brand, but switching to a new generation. I like to keep a clean system, but this is still very interesting. I have wondered about this, since it is possible to have three different brand GPUs in some of the new laptops, with an external GPU.

Going from a 3060ti to a 4070 super should I ddu or na

Good man i was worried about doing the DDU stuff not knowing what to remove etc, since all the videos ive watched seem to use it. Thanks ill just install it so.

Does anyone else hear a constant high pitch sound throughout this video?

What if I dont use a fresh windows install for every GPU switch? Can I just shutdown swap em out and boot back up then install necessary drivers. NO FRESH WINDOWS INSTALL.

Step 1. Switch GPU Step 2. Turn on PC Does GPU fan spin? No? Check power and PCIe connection. Otherwise faulty GPU GPU fan spins but no video? First step: make sure your monitor is plugged into the GPU. Too many people make the mistake of plugging it into the mobo. No dice? Try DDU with your old GPU reinstalled. Otherwise try a clean windows install. If nothing works, might be a faulty port or worst case, faulty GPU

A lot of peeps are very convinced huh. But for my personal experience before upgrading from nvdia to amd I used DDU just to clear the driver and clear the storage and Havent encountered a single problem after using DDU, but like you said if there are crashes if not using DDU to upgrade GPU it could be corrupted etc etc because each ones pc is diff at some point then why not give DDU a shot , like you said it if there are crashes not using DDU a lot of factors might affect but this CONTENT only RELIES ON YOUR EXPERIENCE but not also considering others experience for not using DDU.

Ik its an old upload but i'm recently getting a rx 7900 gre and upgrading from a 2070 super evrything should be fine for me?

I swap from amd to nvdia. I have problem like black screen when playing video and games even open apps. My friends says you need to load windows again. I tried ddu no hopes. All I have to do is when On my pc I have to reinstall my NVIDIA gpu all the time

im upgrading from 1070 ti to 4070 ti. Should i use DDU or not ?

I used DDU to switch my 4070 Ti back to my RX 6800 XT, after completing the process, my killer control center no longer works. I tried everything to get it working again, including Uninstaller and reinstalling it. Sadly I had no choice but to do a fresh install. This makes no sence to me, since killer control center was never included in the DDU process.

Been wanting to upgrade from a 4060 to a 7900 xtx. Watched this and it’s going good so far

So, just like that. Uninstall the nvidia geforce drivers, switch graphic card with amd, boot and install amd drivers and good to go..

Thank you for your work as a developer. Your software has been amazing. Know that you are much appreciated.

I upgraded my rx580 8gb oc to a 6600xt sapphire, I used ddu and rhe pc shuts down soon as it loads up, and that's after a fresh install of Windows, But the gpu i was told was bench marked for 3 hours with no issues, i just wanted sone extra performance, i have a ok bequeit 750w dark pro gold rated, soits not that, and i do know the gpu is gen 4 pcie and my mobo is gen 3, b450 pro asus, wouldn't it just run gen3 speeds and work, I give up in the end after 5 day's of Tring to get it to work, So so gutted for wasting money on a gpu that i know is fine but won't work in my pc, If anyone has any help id appreciate it loads as id love to get it working, i might even give the rx580 8gb oc to the person that helps get it working, Kool video tho man 💯👍

Great video!

i keep getting stuttering when playing game, it is because i got bad driver or corupted driver? since switching nvdia to amd no problem

in 2009 i had a huge problem one of the old HD cards replacing a Nvidia card. I think the old software was different. Today's is much better at ensuring its products work. I swear to god the old installers used to sabotage the other brand. Thats what we all thought. Pure AMD, fine. Pure Nvidia, fine. But if you ever tried to switch, you were basically boobytrapped.

great video! thank you so much. Now I'm trying my luck without DDU but will eventually use it if any problems come up :)

hey. i'd like to know if i should use it if i'm upgrading from AMD integrated to AMD graphics card

I found out that this video is very helpful. 100% recommended

great video! but what about moving to a different family and tier - let's say from a 3070 to a 4080? thanks!

Should i still ddu if i install a new gpu if my cpu has integrated graphics?

Thank you.. I just got a recent gpu upgrade and seeing this gives me peace of mind when switching

Is it still required to use DDU if you are switching from Nvidia (GTX 1080) to Intel (Arc A-series) under Win 10 pro? Would going through Control Panel to uninstall all the installed Nividia drivers be good enough?

So if I upgraded from a 1650 to a 1070 I wont have to use ddu??

I just switched from a 3080fe to 3080 ftw3 should I use ddu in that scenario?

Im going from 1660 to 2060 soon and never used ddu drivers before. My friend went from 2060 to 3070 and said he didn't use them at all. Is it mainly for people switching from amd to nvidia or just good rule of thumb to do with any upgrade?

what a huge amount work for a video. I can only hypothesize, that the presentation is some kind of project for credits toward graduating.

if you have performance issues yes absolutely yes i switched 3600 to 5600x and rx 6600 to 66ooxt and had to do it twice, why twice F knows but its what worked.

Thanks! Switching from 3060ti to 7900 xt, first time heard about DDU and, i guess i can forget about right away :) Cool hat, by the way!

Do I need to use ddu when switching from Nivida to amd

Thanks for this very straight forward video. Haven't seen one of those in a while

Yes, because you can avoid annoying errors like nvlddmkm failures which can lock your system up.

👍👍

do i need to use ddu if i dont have any dedicated graphics card previously

What about if you go from Gigabyte to founder's edition? 2060 super gigabyte to 3070 ti founder's edition that is.

I love your idea. Is the decision more logical and reasonable.

I’m changing from nvidia to amd after twenty years so wasn’t sure what to do, this video cleared up my questions thanks

What is that backround sound?

I followed your advice and after installing drivers I had low fps. I rebooted the pc in safe mode and used ddu and reinstalled the drivers and my fps problem was solved. This is not the first time I have had this problem. Just because you did not experience problems doesn't mean that others won't. I also had a problem going from two AMD cards from the same generation. You should really take this video down. You are going to get people that are building their first computer and or upgrading a pre built for the first time and they could have problems and not know it. It takes an extra 5 min to use ddu.

I have a 3060 rn and my 4070 comes in tomorrow do I need to use DDU since it’s a new generation?

Its only the cleaning type of extra work

TY

Thanks Dude... much appreciated.

this is top 0.1% of youtube content

Hey why does my helpful comment getting deleted after a few seconds?

To be fair, the documentation of DDU clearly states: only install if you have problems during normal uninstallation.

🤣 "for maximum cluster****" lol.

smooth sailing! thank you for the information and entertainment!

Great video, Thank You for that!

"People on the internet don't know what they are talking about" - Some guy on the internet.

I have a question (maybe pointless after watching the video): I have an AMD APU (R3 2200G), and I want to add an RX 6600 (CPU bottleneck I know), do I need to use DDU? I can just plug in the GPU and download the latest drivers for the GPU right?

Hi. I have question Can I use DDU software if I don't have a processor with an integrated card ? If I remove my GPU drivers and don't have integrated graphics, what happens? Black Screen only ?

Informative! :) What's with the high pitched noise though?

es para gente con toc,

I would like to share that you very much need to if you switch brands, went from 3080 to 7900 xtx and was having a TON of problems, until I randomly had the epiphany that maybe the old drivers were conflicting with my new card, used DDU to wipe the slate clean, reinstalled drivers, and no crashes.

Does DDU actually do anything functionally different from device manager? If I do anything involving drivers that Windows doesn't cover automagically, it's pretty much through that.

thx🙂

Thx a lot sir, i was somehow paranoic about if i should use DDU or doesnt, but after all just doing a "clean" nvidia driver update always worked for me ! no need to search for issues, thx

What if you are upgrading from a Rzyen 5700g Apu to a Dedicated Nvidia Gpu ???

it's not essential but it can help I've had driver issues across brands before the less windows has to screw up the better :P

so many hours of work for a five minute video. You sir are the hero we don't deserve.

If I'm upgrading from a GTX 1650 to a RTX 3060 without using DDU can I just use the geforce experience to auto-detect and download 3060 drivers after installing new gpu? Will it detect and install new drivers or just stay the same game ready driver version that all gpus use on geforce experience?

Well I've had plenty of problems switching from nVidia to nVidia cards until using DDU, so for the most part I find this video to be an above mentioned "anecdotal advice".

Maybe i going to use ddu because you don't try series 900/1000 to series 2000/3000

I have a question. 1. Which Graphics Card is the best for heavy gaming??? Nvidia GeForce or AMD Ryzen???? 2. Is it good to have an antivirus software to be used to protect my PC or Laptop???

Nice must of taken ages. DDU maker is gonna be pissed.

My 6700 behaved very weirdly while switching from 1050ti, it worked by the end of the day. But it was horrible experience, I ended up buying a 3060 ti. Nvidia is very reliable.

Thanks!!!

i changed my card from amd to nvidia before using ddu did i mess up im freaking out