Geforce to ATi-XT, need Radeon driver suggestions

[Average Joe]

Hello,

I'm swapping out an older Geforce FX-5900 128mb card tomorrow, and replacing with an 'ATI All-In-Wonder X800XT' 256mb AGP card.

I know absolutely nothing about ATI drivers, but want the best performance/quality for use with SH3 (not to mention Microsoft's FS-2004 flight-sim).

Should I load the drivers packaged with the card (I've no idea what they are yet), or better to get updated ATI/Radeon drivers?

Any suggestions for a nice 'SH3-Friendly' driver-version to DL for this card?

Thank you.

p.s. If anyone has recently switched from Geforce to Radeon, are you generally happy with the switch? This will be the first Radeon card I've ever purchased.

p.s.1. Maybe I'll finally be able to use the Harbor-Traffic mod :|\

[Wolfram]

I use a x800xt PE with Omega modded drivers.

These are not "official" drivers but do provide the best image quality for my system (everyone's is a little different).

For Omega Drivers try here at: http://www.omegadrivers.net/

Another reason to avoid stock drivers is they (ATi) are forcing people to have to use the CCC panel system which requires .Net and is a lot of tax on your resources.

Omega are basic ATi (no CCC) with tweaks to setting made by the author

g/l <g>

[Wolfram]

Oh yeah I made the switch last year just for this game :)

installed properly the ATi card and Omega drivers kick *** :up:

:lurk:

[Perilscope]

Look, the only thing I can say is to not install the driver from the CD. Always download the appropriate and latest ATI driver here.
(Watch out It’s a brainless ASP page, so do not refuse cookies (I H8 microsoft))

https://support.ati.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=894&task=knowledge&folderID=27

Also do not install the multimedia center, its way to heavy especially when you already have a good video player installed, for sure.

[Average Joe]

Think I'll try the Omega drivers first. I found the latest version (Radeon Omega Drivers 2.6.87, Catalyst 5.12).

Wolfram, do you mean the official drivers require MS's 'NET. Framework' driver? Hmm I don't like that idea... It takes about 75mb of space, installed. I use that program to 'edit' certain things but don't keep it on the drive.

I may DL the latest (official) Catalyst drivers too, just in case there's any trouble with the Omega drivers. I have my C: partition backed up for very quick restore, so I can play-around a bit with different drivers.

__

Perilscope, If I need the official drivers I'll watch out for the excess 'cake' as you mentioned.

If I'm understanding you correctly, it sounds as if a bunch of unwanted things 'can' be installed with official drivers.

That reminds me when trying to install sound-drivers for an SB-Live! card, and ending up with about 320MB of 'media player', 'juke-box', tons of sound-files, and a mess of other junk :88)

Oh yeah, cookies 'on' too... Oyy!!

Thanks a bunch :)

p.s. I see Omega 5.12 driver is a 'lighter' 24MB .exe file.
ATI official 5.13 driver is 34MB with CCC and WDM, not to mentioned NET. Framework's required 75MB install.

[Gizzmoe]

do you mean the official drivers require MS's 'NET. Framework' driver?

The driver itself doesn´t require .NET, the CCC does. ATI offers a "Display Driver Only"-only download, if you then install the 3rd-party "ATI Tray Tool" you don´t need ATI´s official Control Center and .NET.

[Average Joe]

do you mean the official drivers require MS's 'NET. Framework' driver?

The driver itself doesn´t require .NET, the CCC does. ATI offers a "Display Driver Only"-only download, if you then install the 3rd-party "ATI Tray Tool" you don´t need ATI´s official Control Center and .NET.

Gizzmoe,

Although I don't have the new ATI card yet, I opened the Omega 5.12 installer, but they will not work as such. They require WinXP's SP2 service pack (still using SP1).

I'll head back to ATI and get their 5.13 'display drivers only', then find a ATI tool-tray as you mentioned.

...Just found this 1mb ATI tray-tool (216,000 downloads, must be pretty good), at:
http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=733

If you know of a better tray-tool (or simple control-panel type interface) please let me know.

Thanks for the help. :up:

[Gizzmoe]

If you know of a better tray-tool (or simple control-panel type interface) please let me know.

No, it´s the best!

But you should try the Omegadriver first, it´s in some cases much faster than the standard driver. Only use the standard driver if the Omegadriver doesn´t work correctly.

[Average Joe]

No, it´s the best!

But you should try the Omegadriver first, it´s in some cases much faster than the standard driver. Only use the standard driver if the Omegadriver doesn´t work correctly.

I tried to load the Omega software, but it stopped quickly, citing I didn't have Win SP2 pack installed.

Once the ATI card is installed I'll try the Omega driver again; maybe it'll work then.

Sure looks like I can use that slick tray-tool though :|\

[Panama Red]

I use XP SP1 and have an ATI X800XT PE video card too. Since I will not go to SP2 (SP2 is not game friendly), I use the last ATI legacy driver that did not require SP2/.Net.

I'm not home at the moment, but I think it is ATI driver 5.1 or 5.2. Go to the ATI site and check it out (the "Readme" portion will tell you if it needs SP2). The other thing that I found is when I tried to update my drivers without using the CCC, SH3 actually ran a couple of FPS slower in the harbour with the HT mod.

The only "down side" to using the older drivers is that you do not get some of the "newer" ATI features like Adaptive AA, but that is a SMALL price to keep SP2 off my game PC.

[thasaint]

i personally prefer DNA drivers over omega... i get all of my drivers from guru3d.com

just got the same card as you for christmas as well, i love it

i think you'll find the ati cards perform better with FSAA on than nvidia's

[Gizzmoe]

(SP2 is not game friendly)

My almost 40 games are not unhappy with SP2.

[Panama Red]

Gizzmoe:
You are lucky because several of my older favorite games required a serious patch for others to play on SP2, but since I stayed on SP1, I never had any these problems.

[Wolfram]

i personally prefer DNA drivers over omega... i get all of my drivers from guru3d.com

just got the same card as you for christmas as well, i love it

i think you'll find the ati cards perform better with FSAA on than nvidia's

Agreed! :up:

Guru3D is a great place to get and try different drivers:

http://www.guru3d.com/

I say if you can try them all - just for me Omega been doing the trick, btw I did not realize you need SP2 to run it, I had SP2 already before so I guess I never realized it or heard it.

TY I learned something new :know:

Note; not all Omega made differences: explosions seemed a bit better with ones based 5.9 but smoke and water seem better with current set.

Have Fun!

:lurk: