Ok, per group recommendations, we're updating to the AIW 9600xt cards.

  • Thread starter Thread starter Gareee©
  • Start date Start date
G

Gareee©

From our old 8500 aiw cards.

We should have them in a week, and ordered them for about $179 each shipped.

The next practical step up looked to be the 9700 pro, and they were about
$50-$60 more plus shipping, and for the price/performance that seemed to
steep for the difference.

Now I'll be able to run ut2004 with all the eye candy on, and at higher
resolutions, and Lightwave will run faster as well.

I'll report on the differences when they are installed.

BTW since I'm already running the latest Cat drivers, will I have to
uninstall them, or just swap the cards out? Are the 8500 drivers the same as
the 9600xt ones?
 
From our old 8500 aiw cards.

We should have them in a week, and ordered them for about $179 each shipped.

The next practical step up looked to be the 9700 pro, and they were about
$50-$60 more plus shipping, and for the price/performance that seemed to
steep for the difference.

Now I'll be able to run ut2004 with all the eye candy on, and at higher
resolutions, and Lightwave will run faster as well.

I'll report on the differences when they are installed.

BTW since I'm already running the latest Cat drivers, will I have to
uninstall them, or just swap the cards out? Are the 8500 drivers the same as
the 9600xt ones?
Click to expand...


You should be able to put the cards straight in, Gareee©. However, if
you want to get the best from your new cards, you would do well to
uninstall all the old software and drivers and reinstall (not exactly
the most major of procedures).

Possibly also a good idea to have a clear out, too, after uninstalling
- if you're using the 'High Speed' driver suite, just run the ATI -
Software Uninstall Utility, if you installed separate driver
components, dl and run cat-ininstaller.exe from
http://www.ati.com/support/drivers/misc/catalystutils.html

Also, delete the big ATI folder on your C: drive that the install
routine unpacks to.

DX 9.0c is just out, might be a good idea to install that first, and
the Catalyst 4.8 drivers, which are supposed to fix Ati's OGL
problems, should be out by the time you get your cards. Makes an even
better reason to uninistall and reinstall, doesn't it?

patrickp

(e-mail address removed) - take five to email me
 
BTW since I'm already running the latest Cat drivers, will I have to
uninstall them, or just swap the cards out? Are the 8500 drivers the same as
the 9600xt ones?
Click to expand...

I would recommend uninstalling the old drivers via the add/remove utility
just before you shut down to yank the 8500's. Then install the new Catalyts
after installing the 9600XT's. Less potential for glitches this way. If you
Ebay those two 8500 AIW cards you'll recoup a good chunk of your 9600XT AIW
outlay.
 
Augustus said:
same

I would recommend uninstalling the old drivers via the add/remove utility
just before you shut down to yank the 8500's. Then install the new Catalyts
after installing the 9600XT's. Less potential for glitches this way. If you
Ebay those two 8500 AIW cards you'll recoup a good chunk of your 9600XT AIW
outlay.
Click to expand...

Yep. We'll probably keep one, since I have another older pc we have around,
and can network in. It's slower, but the video card will give it a litle
more life.

I think I will do a total uninstall for the drivers, then reinstall once the
cards are in.

BTW if anyone else is reading this, ALWAYS turn OFF Norton Antivirus before
updating or installing cat drivers.
 
Gareee© said:
BTW if anyone else is reading this, ALWAYS turn OFF Norton Antivirus
before updating or installing cat drivers.
Click to expand...

Why? It's never caused me any problems.

Ben
 
Ben Pope said:
Why? It's never caused me any problems.
Click to expand...

It didn;t here either, until the last update, when Norton decided that one
file shouldn't be installed. This happened on two systems here, and both
systems had the same issues.. extremely high gamma setting on desktop which
had to be changed manually every time.

When we contacted ATI, that was the first question they had, and knew the
solution right away.

They said always not only shut down norton during install, but also turn off
the auto start for the next boot.

That worked on both systems, so of course, we're doing that in the future,
per their instructions.
 
Gareee© said:
It didn;t here either, until the last update, when Norton decided that one
file shouldn't be installed. This happened on two systems here, and both
systems had the same issues.. extremely high gamma setting on desktop
which had to be changed manually every time.

When we contacted ATI, that was the first question they had, and knew the
solution right away.

They said always not only shut down norton during install, but also turn
off the auto start for the next boot.

That worked on both systems, so of course, we're doing that in the future,
per their instructions.
Click to expand...

Fair enough.

Ben
 
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