That all depends. How old is your card?

If it’s old (and I MEAN old), then yes. Older graphics card installs did not remove the old versions of the drivers + software, which caused many people do have duplicates of these things. Generally, it’s harmless, but it can impact performance sometimes.

However, this is no longer the case. Both AMD / ATI and NVIDIA both provide installers that first remove the previous version.

In fact, the installer should state so. Open the installer and find out!

For older cards, you may sometimes find this feature under “Custom” or “Advanced”. It’s normal now though.

For example — in the NVIDIA 660 GTX drivers I just installed before writing this, it stated that the drivers would be “upgraded” (aka they’re being dealt with by the installer) if the EXPRESS setting was used. If the Custom / Advanced setting was used, it would be a CLEAN install.

NVIDIA also has NVIDIA GeForce Experience now too, which helps greatly.

Anyway, this is a pretty common question so I thought I’d go ahead and make a post about it. Nobody wants to have near-duplicate drivers.

Just remember: when in doubt…uninstall first if worried.