Which drivers?

  • Thread starter Thread starter David Casey
  • Start date Start date
D

David Casey

I want to update my graphics drivers to the most current. Do I need the
control panel and WDM Capture Drivers? I like to keep it simple, so I
would just install the graphics driver and forget the other stuff unless I
need them. I have a Radeon X800 XT 256mb PCI Express x16. Thanks in
advance to any advice anyone can offer.

Dave
--
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Dave -

As you have the most powerful gaming card on the planet why would you
want to limit your options? At any rate, I use the Omega drives (
http://www.omegadrivers.net/ ) , right now he is baseing them on ATI
Catilyst version 4.7's. It WILL install the (modified) ATI Control
Panel but it doesn't mean it has to be used (just that you SHOULD!)..
Just keep in mind if you have already installed the standard ATI
Control Panel remove it (JUST the ATI Control PAnel in Add/Remove
Programs) BEFORE installing Omega's..

You really want to be able to adjust FSAA and Anistropic filtering,
let alone set VSync, Refresh rate, Mipmapping and other parameters to
your preference. The are MILLIONS of us that are more than happy to
help you understand these settings if you need assistance at first..

Just MHO of course.
A guy waiting patiently for an X800XT on bakorder...
G Patricks
 
Dave -

As you have the most powerful gaming card on the planet why would you
want to limit your options? At any rate, I use the Omega drives (
http://www.omegadrivers.net/ ) , right now he is baseing them on ATI
Catilyst version 4.7's. It WILL install the (modified) ATI Control
Panel but it doesn't mean it has to be used (just that you SHOULD!)..
Just keep in mind if you have already installed the standard ATI
Control Panel remove it (JUST the ATI Control PAnel in Add/Remove
Programs) BEFORE installing Omega's..
Click to expand...

Okay, I'll check out the Omega drivers. What process do you go through to
make sure the old drivers are completely removed before installing the new
ones?
You really want to be able to adjust FSAA and Anistropic filtering,
let alone set VSync, Refresh rate, Mipmapping and other parameters to
your preference. The are MILLIONS of us that are more than happy to
help you understand these settings if you need assistance at first..
Click to expand...

Sounds good! The only reason I got this graphics card installed in my
system (a Dell Dimension 8400... I know, I know I didn't build it this time
around, but was growing tired of always trying to figure out little
problems in my last home-built desktop) is so I'm ahead of the curve for a
while game-wise.

Dave
--
We are the US military. Your asses will be kicked. Resistance is futile.

US Army Signal Corps!
www.geocities.com/davidcasey98

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It really isn't "normally" necessary to remove the old drivers to
install the new Omega's (But Dell's are sometimes a bit
"different"..). You MUST uninstall the "ATI Control Panel" in
Add/Remove programs (assuming it's there), then just reboot and run
the Omega Installer, saying yes to add in all its extra goodies.. If
you want to uninstall the drivers you can do this in Add/Remove also,
then run Driver Cleaner (http://www.driverheaven.net/cleaner/ ) before
installing the Omega's per the Driver Cleaner Instructions.

HTH
G P
 
It really isn't "normally" necessary to remove the old drivers to
install the new Omega's (But Dell's are sometimes a bit
"different"..). You MUST uninstall the "ATI Control Panel" in
Add/Remove programs (assuming it's there), then just reboot and run
the Omega Installer, saying yes to add in all its extra goodies.. If
you want to uninstall the drivers you can do this in Add/Remove also,
then run Driver Cleaner (http://www.driverheaven.net/cleaner/ ) before
installing the Omega's per the Driver Cleaner Instructions.
Click to expand...

Okay, ran 3dMark03 with the original drivers that came with the machine and
got 10471. Uninstalled them and the control panel, installed latest Omega
drivers and control panel and just got 11731 so an improvement there. What
else can I do to tweak it out?

My hardware is:

Intel P4 @ 3.0GHz w/HT
512MB RAM
80GB SATA hard drive

Dave
--
We are the US military. Your asses will be kicked. Resistance is futile.

US Army Signal Corps!
www.geocities.com/davidcasey98

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Quick and Dirty explanation (look around online for VERY in-depth
explanations)..

Start the ATI CP (Omega should have placed icon on desktop) there are
two ways to go - High speed for Benchmark #'s and High Quality for
gaming..

High Quality -
Go to the Direct 3D tab (do same for OpenGL) you can adjust your FSAA
and Anistropic Filtering to improve image quality in 3D games. Higher
you go, better it looks (usually). You need to check off Custom and
UN-Check Application preference to adjust.. Below that are sliders
for:
Texture Quality - Slide it to full Quality (right)
MipMap Detail Level - Slide it to full Quality (right)
Wait for Vertical Sync - Slide it full right for Always On - (locks
your card to monitors max refresh rate to avoid visual oddities,
tearing, etc. This is debated ad-naseum but its the way I run it..
TRUFORM - Slide Full left, always off.
Hit Apply

Now go to Monitor Tab and set it for the highest refresh rate your
monitor supplies (be sure "Hide Refresh rates your monitor can't
display" is ticked off..)

Go to "VPU Recover " Tab and UN-Check it also.. for both High Speed
and High Quality, leave it off..


High Benchmarks
Go to the Direct 3D tab (do same for OpenGL)

Check Application preference for both FSAA and Anistro.

Sliders for:
Texture Quality - Slide it to full LEFT
MipMap Detail Level - Slide it to full LEFT
Wait for Vertical Sync - Slide it full LEFT- (FPS will go to the
moon...)
TRUFORM - Slide Full left, always off.
Hit Apply

That should get ya started! Let us know what kind of numbers you get
with different settings.

HTH
GP
 
Icer said:
Quick and Dirty explanation (look around online for VERY in-depth
explanations)..

Start the ATI CP (Omega should have placed icon on desktop) there are
two ways to go - High speed for Benchmark #'s and High Quality for
gaming..

High Quality -
Go to the Direct 3D tab (do same for OpenGL) you can adjust your FSAA
and Anistropic Filtering to improve image quality in 3D games. Higher
you go, better it looks (usually). You need to check off Custom and
UN-Check Application preference to adjust.. Below that are sliders
for:
Texture Quality - Slide it to full Quality (right)
MipMap Detail Level - Slide it to full Quality (right)
Wait for Vertical Sync - Slide it full right for Always On - (locks
your card to monitors max refresh rate to avoid visual oddities,
tearing, etc. This is debated ad-naseum but its the way I run it..
TRUFORM - Slide Full left, always off.
Hit Apply

Now go to Monitor Tab and set it for the highest refresh rate your
monitor supplies (be sure "Hide Refresh rates your monitor can't
display" is ticked off..)

Go to "VPU Recover " Tab and UN-Check it also.. for both High Speed
and High Quality, leave it off..
Click to expand...

In games you could also turn on the Temporal AA utility(Omega packed it with
Cat.4.7) which doubles your efective FSAA(e.g. AA 6x+TAA=AA 12x.
With that kind of hell machine you can play all games but I would sugest
buying another 512 DDR.
Also (for future reference)you should know that X800 XT can get even better
scores with games if you have a CPU that's not a bottleneck for the card.
 
On Sat, 31 Jul 2004 14:40:26 -0400, Icer wrote:

[snip!]
That should get ya started! Let us know what kind of numbers you get
with different settings.
Click to expand...

Okay, when set everything up for performance, best score I was able to get
was 12075. During the first 3dm03 test, the frame rate shot up to 1300 for
about half a second with an average of 256 for that test.

When I set everything to best quality, I got a score of 4126.

Dave
--
We are the US military. Your asses will be kicked. Resistance is futile.

US Army Signal Corps!
www.geocities.com/davidcasey98

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How high was FSAA and Anistropic Filtering for the 4126 score?
On Sat, 31 Jul 2004 14:40:26 -0400, Icer wrote:

[snip!]
That should get ya started! Let us know what kind of numbers you get
with different settings.
Click to expand...

Okay, when set everything up for performance, best score I was able to get
was 12075. During the first 3dm03 test, the frame rate shot up to 1300 for
about half a second with an average of 256 for that test.

When I set everything to best quality, I got a score of 4126.

Dave
Click to expand...
 
How high was FSAA and Anistropic Filtering for the 4126 score?
Click to expand...

I didn't make note of it, but I had set *everything* to quality and the
highest each of those can be set to is:

OpenGL
FSAA: 6x Anisotropic: 16x

Direct3D
FSAA: 6x Anisotropic: 16x

Dave
--
We are the US military. Your asses will be kicked. Resistance is futile.

US Army Signal Corps!
www.geocities.com/davidcasey98

Remove IH8SPAM to reply by email!
 
Icer said:
Go to "VPU Recover " Tab and UN-Check it also.. for both High Speed
and High Quality, leave it off..
Click to expand...

Why switch that off, because it affects performance? I doubt that.
Or so you could rather get your PC totally locked-up than have the
possibility that VPU Recover would do it's job? At least I haven't
got any issues with having it on.
 
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