Catalyst 7.5 not recommended..my opinion

[Torps]

After uninstalling the 7.4 version and installing 7.5 I found I am no longer able to run SH4 anywhere near 1680 X 1050. The frame rates have dropped considerably , especially facing the horizon or anything other then open water,ie my sub or anything on the surface. Tested on....

Custom Built
Core 2 E6700 OC to 3GHZ
Intel 975XB Express Chipset BX2
4GB DDR2 800mhz OCZ Gaming Memory
ATI 1950XTX PCI-E
500GB RAID 5, Sata II 16mb (3x)HITACHI HD's
22in Benq WS

Any comments or questions please do ask/tell.

Good hunting.

[-Pv-]

I assume you ran at this same rez previously and you didn't change any of the game features. Since you know the frames dropped, what was the previous average compared to the current average at the same rez and game options?

I would never attempt that rez myself. I would need a magnifying glass just to know what game I was playing.
-Pv-

[Stew U-582]

Well I tried updating catalyst 7.5 and I couldnt even get a picture anymore.
had to boot up in safe mode and revert back to 7.4

[Fish40]

Still useing Cat7.3's for my X1650pro! Besides the problem of no sun glare, there are no problems. :up:

[AVGWarhawk]

Yeah, something is wrong with 7.5. I used this on my Dads computer. Whenever I booted it said it could not find some file etc. I had to use the add/remove program to take out the CCC file. Then I reverted to 7.3 for him. Bad mojo with 7.5.:nope:

[SteamWake]

Phew once again Im glad I waited. :p

[AVGWarhawk]

Phew once again Im glad I waited. :p

Yeah, really bad. Said it could not find MOM.Implementation blah blah. I had to search the net for a fix. It has issues man:down:

[Kingcobra24]

I upgrade the ATI drivers the same day I'm notified by email of their availability. I originally had 7.1, then went through all the upgrades - 7.2, 7.3, 7.4 and now 7.5, I upgrade through the ATI website whereby they download the drivers to my computer directly, then install them automatically. I have no need to delete/uninstall the current drivers before installing the new ones.
I try not to get into situations whereby I have to delete a previous install before doing a new install because many times in the past I've deleted programs and because I deleted a file or 2 or 3 that were now being used by more than one program (shared files), by deleting the program(s), I often had programs that no longer worked properly, if they worked at all.
I haven't had ANY problems installing/using ANY driver upgrades through the ATI website. Every version has installed properly and has been an improvement to the graphics of my crossfires.
:lurk:

[Torps]

I assume you ran at this same rez previously and you didn't change any of the game features. Since you know the frames dropped, what was the previous average compared to the current average at the same rez and game options?

I would never attempt that rez myself. I would need a magnifying glass just to know what game I was playing.
-Pv-

With 7.4 when I would go to external view the frame rates would be low initially but then the card would kick up to around 40fps give or take and i could fly around any ship,plane etc with no issues. With 7.5 It would take maybe 1-2 seconds longer to get to the external view and the game would drop to around 15 fps sometimes less. I made sure before I ran SH4 on Cat 7.5 the same settings were ap-plied as it was on 7.4.

AA X 6 + Temporal
ATROPIC X16

Everything else on high quality. I have not messed with open GL since the image is awesome anyway. I might later today though.No magnifying glass needed by the way, just a larger widescreen 21+.

[walsh2509]

Don't laugh! But I bought a GF6600GT 6/7months ago and it blew up well it didn't work any more ...


But I got decent FR and the sim looked good (well as good as it gets with a 6600GT, which was not too bad).


Anyhoo, I sent it back and got a call nearly 28days later saying that they had no GT6600GTs left and they were shipping me a replacement ( a better card? I couldn't tell you one way or another! may be one of you can) any way I get a x1650 512mb card delivered and I install it. The disc that came with it had the drivers, but I went to the ATI site and followed the d/ld Q's like HomeXP/x1650 and it took me to the latest drivers for the card I guess.

When I seen the posts about drivers and the 7.? whatever I had a look in Hardware and the driver I d/ld was 8.3 (good /bad??? anyone?) and when I was messing about in Sub school = torp school after I sunk the ship I went after the fishing boats with my deckgun. I noticed that even within 500mts of them the top of the sail was missing it ws flickering in and out and it looked like the sail had been cut straight across near the top...


Never had that with the GF6600GT is it the x1650 (it is a better card ? ) and if so , is it the driver I d/ld (8.3) that is causing the flickering on the top of the sail?

[Fish40]

I think you mean 7.3, no? The latest cat drivers for ATI are 7.5's.

I'm useing the 7.3's with my X1650 pro, and have no graphical glitches at all. The flickering is an issue that is seen by many who own both ATI, and Nvidia. I don't think there is a definite answer to that one. There also was a seperate thread a while ago dealing with the "Flickering Textures" issue. Do a forum search, and you may be able to dig it up.

Another thought: Did you completly remove all traces of your old graphics driver befor installing the new? Since you had a different brand card, any trace of that old driver may play havoc with a new driver of another brand.

[MONOLITH]

After these reports, Sticking with 7.4 for now. Runs smooth and looks really great.

No reason to screw with it. :smug:

[Capt. Shark Bait]

:hmm: , i've not had a prob with 7.5

[oiler]

i'm possible to force AA and AF from cat 7.5 with 100% succes. With all older drivers i couldn't force it for resolution 1680x1050 (all other resolutions worked fine) and if i make profile for sh4.exe in CCC then drivers now recognize and set 3d clocks correctly for sh4. I didn't notice any major - or + with FPS. So i'm happy with new cat:yep:

[AVGWarhawk]

The CCC was the problem on my Pops computer. I had to remove it on the add/remove screen. Once done the pop up of MOM.implemention not found went away.

[MONOLITH]

I liked the CCC, but I realized mostly because of it's friendly inviting look.

In regard to raw functionality, it does have a few hiccups. Although hesitant at first, I dumped the CCC and went with ATI tray tools, and now I'll never go back.

Super easy to set up inidividual profiles for different games, comes with temperature monitoring tools, easy simple overclocking, and never had a single problem.

and it's free.

[Chief of the Boat]

Concur... '7.5' doesn't work very well. I haven't had time lately to really wring it out, but with 7.5 that [@#$$] s-l-o-w cursor is back, so the whole thing must be 'off'. Back to 7 point 3 !

COB

[walsh2509]

I think you mean 7.3, no? The latest cat drivers for ATI are 7.5's.

I'm useing the 7.3's with my X1650 pro, and have no graphical glitches at all. The flickering is an issue that is seen by many who own both ATI, and Nvidia. I don't think there is a definite answer to that one. There also was a seperate thread a while ago dealing with the "Flickering Textures" issue. Do a forum search, and you may be able to dig it up.

Another thought: Did you completly remove all traces of your old graphics driver befor installing the new? Since you had a different brand card, any trace of that old driver may play havoc with a new driver of another brand.


I had a look in my device manager and the driver for my x1650 is 8.380.0.0

info from DM ..

Driver Provider ... ATI Technologies Inc.
Driver Date ... 17/05/2007
Driver Version ... 8.380.0.0
Digital Signer ... Microsoft Windows Hardware Compatibility Publisher

[Chief of the Boat]

Yeah... I've never found a correlation between version number, as in 7.3, etc.. and driver number... but I haven't bothered dwelling on it. After putting in my X1600 I went to ATI and got all from 7.1 to present and tried 'em all. Only 7.5 has caused me any heart-burn...

COB

[-Pv-]

When I see driver versions come out relatively close together I start getting gun shy. I have no problems on my 1950 and 7.3 so I'll hold off a bit for the inevitable soon to come update.
-Pv-

[AVGWarhawk]

I installed the new 7.5 driver only. No issue. I do not see anything new either.

[gdavison]

The ATI catalyst control Centre is a mess and in FPS and Driving Sim circles is often the blame for performance loss ..

Try using ATI Tray Tools to control the drivers instead ..

Do a complete driver clean
http://www.tweakxp.com/article37536.aspx

and then Load ONLY the ATI drivers (and WMV drivers if your card needs them) and then load ATI Tray Tools
http://www.guru3d.com/article/atitraytools/189/

Also a usefull Graphics guide for ATI users
http://www.tweakguides.com/Graphics_1.html

Also note there is already a 7.5 hot fix
http://support.ati.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=894&task=knowledge&questionID=27293

[AVGWarhawk]

I will give this a go. Thanks!

[-Pv-]

I can never download AT Tools (been trying for months.) I click to accept the licence agreement and the guru home page loads then nothing.
-Pv-

[Marko_Ramius]

With 7.5 --> The new Gato with a tow cable :hmm:


[/URL][URL="http://imageshack.us"]http://img411.imageshack.us/img411/8198/sh4751ww4.jpg (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/%5BURL=http://imageshack.us%5D%5BIMG%5Dhttp://img411.imageshack.us/img411/8198/sh4751ww4.jpg%5B/IMG%5D%5B/URL%5D)


http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/5645/sh4752rf8.jpg (http://imageshack.us)



I never had this kind of anomalies with 7.3 in SH4 but a few ones in the game Stalker .

Maybe i will try some older one like 6.10 ...

[Torps]

Nice Tow cable, never seen that before. Might want to try 7.4 runs pretty good.

[Syxx_Killer]

Looks more like a towed array sonar system to me.:hmm:

[AVGWarhawk]

WOW....it is the Death Star....must be Darth Vadars sub;)

[AVGWarhawk]

Anyway, I dumped the CCC for the ATI card. Then I loaded the tool tray for 3DGURU. Reset up up everything. At first it was fine. Of course being who I am, I started playing with the tool tray. My game lost all color. I rebooted and put the tool tray setting back. All was well again. The only thing I get is the start up movie has some yellow in it. No matter, I do not watch it anyway. The game plays and looks find with 7.5. I will work with it some more. The tool tray is more useful than the CCC.

[MONOLITH]

The tool tray is more useful than the CCC.

Once you become familiar with it, yes indeed.

Every single game I own now has a custom setup in the tray tools. Switch games, click a button, and boom...perfect graphics and fps without tinkering around for a half hour.


I could never get the profiles to work in CCC, nor hot keys.

[MONOLITH]

http://www.MayhemOnStrings.com/Images/SH5.jpg

[Syxx_Killer]

ROFL!!!!! :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

[AVGWarhawk]

Good one Monolith.....Under de Sea!

[SUBMAN1]

Yeah - ATI drivers have tanked since the release of the x2900. I've had issues with them too, both 7.4 and 7.5. It may have something to do with the fact that they include they support Vista now. 7.3 didn't. Dunno. I've also had weird anomolies with the later revs that didn't happen on 7.3

-S

PS. i haven't tried SHIV on it yet. Been waiting on patch 1.3 before I go back to that game, but I'll try it to see what my x1900 XTX does before I go back to 7.3

[Marko_Ramius]

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:


Good one, Monolith :up:


I installed 6.10 and with "Stalker" i have no graphical issue at all while i had some with 7.X. Didn't try SH4 yet.

[Steel_Tomb]

7.5 caused my system to crash constantly, back to 7.4 here!

[Steel_Tomb]

Lol that gato looks like its got some sort of towed array!:ping:

[AVGWarhawk]

I now have the 7.5 driver with the tool tray. I do not suffer any crashes but I seem to get more of the flashes when on the bridge. 7.3 worked fine for me and I believe I will roll it back. I do like the tool tray and will keep that.