New Sapphire Radeon X00XTPE

[Cfn Nexus]

So i just picked up a new Sapphire Radeon X800XT PE (swapped it from an ATi AIW X000XT since Media Control Center was giving me serious headaches and its really a pain to try and watercool). Looks nice and shiny, tho that heatsink that blows into the tower has gotta go.
Wow, what a time trying to install drivers. First i got ahead of myself and tried to install Cat 5.6's right out. No go, get an error saying to try and install "standard VGA drivers first", and the NGO drivers from guru3d.com kept giving me a new hardware found every time i powered on (anyone kno whats up with that???) So i Driver Clean, and used the CD drivers, Cat 4.1 and had to do it twice to get an error free install. Installed 5.6's over them to where i am now, and overdrive says i'm currently going 526.50/560 @ 45C. Definitely going to get me a maze4 and cool this thing.
Anyways, next off is to play some CS:S and the new BF2! <- my brother had a copy and even on my old FX5900 Ultra it looked damn sweet. Anyone have any recommendations for me with this card? Kinda new to the ATi scene, though i did download ATiTools. Let me know, TIA

[Lewis]

Did you get your drivers from a site? Because I'm ordering an OEM version of the Sapphire x800XL (in my sig) which means it doesn't come with the installation cd doesn't it, so i'll need to get the latest drivers from somewhere.

Yours is the newer one of the x800XL Isn't it? i'd just be seeing what performance i can get out of it in CS and bf2 on high settings mate. Let us know how you do. :)

[SlimDog53185]

Lewis you can get drivers from ati.com and a lot of other sites.

As for things to do with your new card. You can run benchmarks like 3DMark05. Or play Doom3 and Half-life 2. There are some great games in the making now like the quake wars game, I forgot the title. F.E.A.R. is also looking really good, so I say wait for those.

[Cfn Nexus]

played both bf2, and cs:s last night, both on high settings...absolutely fabulous performance, lol i even had to turn down to medium in a few in bf2, since i moved so quickly the redraw was hard on the eyes and keeping up.