FarCry performnce and how to find out Catalyst Version?

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cam

Hello all,

Dim question, so any help gratefully received. I've got a 9800PRO
which I bought bundled with a Dell Dimension 4600 last summer. My
first question is: how do I find out who actually built the card i.e.
who was the OEM? The ATI chipsets are built into cards by other
manufacturers, right? Or not necessarily? Could this be Dell's version
of the card or some unnamed OEM? Or an ATI card?

Further, (mostly in order to get FarCry running nice) I'm considering
upgrading Catalyst. Problem is that I don't know what version my
current machine is at. Individual drivers come up with numbers like
6.19.003.98 when I check out their Display Properties but I don't
know what the overall Catalyst version is e.g. 3.9. Can anyone tell me
how to figure this out? I know, for instance, that the Control Panel
doesn't have a SmartGART tab.

I've been using the SiS sytem utility recommended by TweakTown
(http://www.tweaktown.com/document.php?dType=guide&dId=569) to profile
my machine and it doesn't help with either of the above issues. Are
TweakTown rated well or can anyone recommend other good ATI tweaking
sites?

Finally, Far Cry is amazingly jerky on even low settings and I'm
wondering if anyone thinks going up to a gig of RAM will make a big
difference - currently at a shameful 256M.

Cheers for any insight,
cam
 
I doubt this will be much help, but I had 2 radeon 9800 pro cards, one was
branded by sapphire, one was a no-name OEM card. However they were
absolutely identical, the sapphire board itself didn't say sapphire on
anything except a sticker, all components were in identical places etc. so
I'm not sure exactly who manufactured either. The only difference was the
sapphire (slightly more expensive) had I think samsung memory and the no
name had hynix branded chips.

There is a tab in the display properties that will tell you what version
catalyst you have, I don't recall which one unfortunately.

As for Far Cry I've heard that 512 or a gig of ram helps a lot, When I got
the game I had 512, now I have 1 gig and it ran very nicely on a radeon 9800
pro card. The ubisoft far cry forums might be worth looking at also.

best of luck with it :)
 
currently at a shameful 256M.
Click to expand...

! Not shameful, just masochistic.

Forget messing about with drivers. Get that RAM. Going to a gig would be
great, but at the very least throw another 512 in there. You won't regret
it... well, not unless you knock a mug of coffee into the case while
adding the RAM ;-)

Andrew McP
 
(e-mail address removed) (cam) wrote in
Hello all,

Dim question, so any help gratefully received. I've got a 9800PRO
which I bought bundled with a Dell Dimension 4600 last summer. My
first question is: how do I find out who actually built the card i.e.
who was the OEM? The ATI chipsets are built into cards by other
manufacturers, right? Or not necessarily? Could this be Dell's version
of the card or some unnamed OEM? Or an ATI card?
Click to expand...

Here's one way that might help.
In advanced settings for display find Options tab (that's ATI specific tab)
and click Details button on it. You'll see a lot of info there. You need
Subsystem Vendor ID.
Now navigate here: http://www.pcidatabase.com/vendors.php?sort=id
and find the vendor of your graphics card.

Alexei
 
Further, (mostly in order to get FarCry running nice) I'm considering
upgrading Catalyst. Problem is that I don't know what version my
current machine is at.
Click to expand...

Why is this a problem? You don't need to know or care what
your current version is. Just install whatever drivers you want,
yo won't have to "tell it" what drivers are currently installed.

Finally, Far Cry is amazingly jerky on even low settings and I'm
wondering if anyone thinks going up to a gig of RAM will make a big
difference - currently at a shameful 256M.
Click to expand...

Yes. I have only 512 MB, and many games are jerky, especially
far Cry and Call of Duty. I had to stop playing and order
more RAM. 1 GB fixed the problem.

Jeff
 
Why is this a problem? You don't need to know or care what
your current version is. Just install whatever drivers you want,
yo won't have to "tell it" what drivers are currently installed.



Yes. I have only 512 MB, and many games are jerky, especially
far Cry and Call of Duty. I had to stop playing and order
more RAM. 1 GB fixed the problem.

Jeff
Click to expand...


I can contest to 1GB being a whole lot better then 512MB. Its a huge
difference and FarCry is the game that REALLY needs that kind of
power. Ram is a no brainer.. its the cheapest upgrade you can do that
makes the MOST difference you can "feel".

Pluvious
 
how great the ati 9800pro - is with Far Cry (pictures at bottom - AI story
at top.
http://www.smokeypoint.org/farCry.htm

HP 873n
ati 9800pro 1gig ddr. all menu's cranked all the way up. no stuttering.

http://www.smokeypoint.com/My_PC.htm


I am so very very happy with the ATI, and HP - I just DO iT ! if their are
new Cat's available at ATI, then that is good enough for me ! whamo DL'ed
and loaded and my ATI is upgraded to the latest cat's no swet !!!!!!!!!!!!

sounds like youse just gots a memory prob. go for a gig if you can get it !
The rest of your HP will fall into place !!

** No Fate **

cheers,
dracman
Tomb Raider: Shotgun City
http://www.smokeypoint.com/tomb.htm
http://www.smokeypoint.org/traod/traod.html
http://www.smokeypoint.com/tombraider1/tombraider1pictures.htm
http://www.smokeypoint.com/tombraider1/tombraider1midaspics.htm
http://www.smokeypoint.com/uzi.htm
http://www.smokeypoint.com/tomb2.htm
http://www.smokeypoint.com/medipak.htm

**savegame editors all versions Tomb Raider & TRAOD godmode
http://www.smokeypoint.com/tr2code.htm


http://www.smokeypoint.com/3dfx.htm


** Win2k and winXP hi-res with TR1
http://www.smokeypoint.com/glidos.htm

** Tomb Raider 1 add on UB levels
http://www.smokeypoint.com/tomb2.htm#Tova

** GTA III vice City Character MOD
http://www.smokeypoint.com/uzi.htm#gta3



.... so much of me...



cam said:
Hello all,

Dim question, so any help gratefully received. I've got a 9800PRO
which I bought bundled with a Dell Dimension 4600 last summer. My
first question is: how do I find out who actually built the card i.e.
who was the OEM? The ATI chipsets are built into cards by other
manufacturers, right? Or not necessarily? Could this be Dell's version
of the card or some unnamed OEM? Or an ATI card?

Further, (mostly in order to get FarCry running nice) I'm considering
upgrading Catalyst. Problem is that I don't know what version my
current machine is at. Individual drivers come up with numbers like
6.19.003.98 when I check out their Display Properties but I don't
know what the overall Catalyst version is e.g. 3.9. Can anyone tell me
how to figure this out? I know, for instance, that the Control Panel
doesn't have a SmartGART tab.

I've been using the SiS sytem utility recommended by TweakTown
(http://www.tweaktown.com/document.php?dType=guide&dId=569) to profile
my machine and it doesn't help with either of the above issues. Are
TweakTown rated well or can anyone recommend other good ATI tweaking
sites?

Finally, Far Cry is amazingly jerky on even low settings and I'm
wondering if anyone thinks going up to a gig of RAM will make a big
difference - currently at a shameful 256M.

Cheers for any insight,
cam
Click to expand...




.................................................................
Posted via TITANnews - Uncensored Newsgroups Access-=Every Newsgroup - Anonymous, UNCENSORED, BROADBAND Downloads=-
 
cam said:
Hello all,

Dim question, so any help gratefully received. I've got a 9800PRO
which I bought bundled with a Dell Dimension 4600 last summer. My
first question is: how do I find out who actually built the card i.e.
who was the OEM? The ATI chipsets are built into cards by other
manufacturers, right? Or not necessarily? Could this be Dell's version
of the card or some unnamed OEM? Or an ATI card?
Click to expand...

All of the above. But none of them matter. Possibly the device ID would
let you know.
Further, (mostly in order to get FarCry running nice) I'm considering
upgrading Catalyst. Problem is that I don't know what version my
current machine is at.
So?

Individual drivers come up with numbers like
6.19.003.98 when I check out their Display Properties but I don't
know what the overall Catalyst version is e.g. 3.9. Can anyone tell me
how to figure this out? I know, for instance, that the Control Panel
doesn't have a SmartGART tab.
Click to expand...

Advnaced Graphics Options -> Options, I think.
I've been using the SiS sytem utility recommended by TweakTown
(http://www.tweaktown.com/document.php?dType=guide&dId=569) to profile
my machine and it doesn't help with either of the above issues. Are
TweakTown rated well or can anyone recommend other good ATI tweaking
sites?

Finally, Far Cry is amazingly jerky on even low settings and I'm
wondering if anyone thinks going up to a gig of RAM will make a big
difference - currently at a shameful 256M.
Click to expand...


256 is NOT enough RAM! Fire up task Manager-> Performance -> Peak Commit
Charge. That is how much RAM you need. (do it after playing Far Cry)

Ben
 
cam said:
Hello all,

Dim question, so any help gratefully received. I've got a 9800PRO
which I bought bundled with a Dell Dimension 4600 last summer. My
first question is: how do I find out who actually built the card i.e.
who was the OEM? The ATI chipsets are built into cards by other
manufacturers, right? Or not necessarily? Could this be Dell's version
of the card or some unnamed OEM? Or an ATI card?
Click to expand...

http://tinyurl.com/2vgxq

regards

@ndrew
 
Thanks all for the tips on how to get the vendor of the card - it
appears (in plain English, no need for a lookup but that will be handy
to have anyway Alexei!) in the Details section of the ATI Options.

There appears to be no way to find the overall Catalyst version.
Driver file-specific version numbers are shown in dxdiag and Display
Properties but no Catalyst version and I can't find any published
mapping between the two. AFAICT, manufacturers like Dell often only
allow a stripped-down version of ATi Control Panels on their distros
so this may explain why it is visible to others in their Display
Properties.

In answer as to why this matters (Ben and Jeff): well, apart from like
the above point, it's nice to know what's going on inside your
machine, here's an example from the ATiTool site:

"If the rendered cube is without fur and you are running Catalyst
3.10, make sure your 'MipMap details' setting is set to maximum- this
is a Catalyst bug."

My point being that a lot of discussions of performance, overclocking,
game-specific issues etc. assume a knowledge of the Catalyst version:
posting a question without stating this is akin to posting without
stating your OS.

Frankly, reading the various potential hazards of upgrading (*), I am
willing to drop the cash for the memory for the long run so I will
leave Catalyst as it is for the moment. My gig of 3200 arrives from
Crucial today so I shall let you all know how it improves the
performance.

Many thanks for the responses,
cam

(*) I know it should easily be done with care and have found some very
good FAQs for doing this but I also find occasional reports of things
just completely screwing up occasionally - don't need it.
 
Frankly, reading the various potential hazards of upgrading (*), I am
willing to drop the cash for the memory for the long run so I will
leave Catalyst as it is for the moment. My gig of 3200 arrives from
Crucial today so I shall let you all know how it improves the
performance.

Many thanks for the responses,
cam
Click to expand...

I would still upgrade you catalyst drivers to the latest ones. There are
known probs in earlier cat releases with Far Cry

see ww.rage3d.com forums for more info.
--
Les
AMD64 3200+
2x512 MB corsair platinum 3500
Gigabyte GA-K8VNXP
Herc 9700 Pro
SB Audigy
 
Far Cry is the first game/app I ran that needed more than 512mb ram (which I
have). As for CoD, setting the config file hunkmegs to 256 from 128 stopped
the hdd thrashing for me. I think jeff b and I already went over that and
it didnt help him for some reason though...

mike
 
I would still upgrade you catalyst drivers to the latest ones. There are
known probs in earlier cat releases with Far Cry

see ww.rage3d.com forums for more info.
Click to expand...


We are days away from getting CAT 4.6's released so I'd just install
those and you'll now know which version you have. :)


Pluvious
 
cam said:
Frankly, reading the various potential hazards of upgrading (*), I am
willing to drop the cash for the memory for the long run so I will
leave Catalyst as it is for the moment. My gig of 3200 arrives from
Crucial today so I shall let you all know how it improves the
performance.
Click to expand...

Potentially a plane could crash land on your house... does it stop you from
living there?

Potential and likely are two different things.

Upgrading the drivers is a troubleless experience for most people.

If you have problems... use cat uninstaller, reboot, hit cancel at the
driver install, reinstall the drivers, reboot. No big deal.

Ben
 
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