the last word on ATI drivers

[scootermafia]

Hello all.
I just replaced my 6800 Ultra with an X1900XT. I haven't owned an ATI in forever but I figured I'd give it a shot since it's a great card for a great price.
My question is in response to a friend of mine who is not really an Nvidia fanboy but has an X1900 and says the drivers are absolutely horrific, that the games often skip and mess up compared to an Nvidia, even with the 6.7 Catalyst drivers or the Omega drivers. He also says all the ATI software slows your computer down big time.

However, I am somewhat doubtful of his horror stories despite ATI's rep for suck drivers. The last 3dmark05 record was set with a Crossfire machine so it can't be bad like he said. ATI owners, please put in the last word.

[vixro]

If you dont have more than a gig of RAM, CCC can be considered "cumbersome", although it doesn't really slow down your machine. If you're running an x1900, I highly doubt you have less than a gig of RAM or a slow CPU in the first place which would cause such slowdowns. Games do not skip or "mess up". Your friend is probably the victim of spyware or slower computer parts running in his system.

Sounds to me like your friend is just repeating the worst of the worst that he just hears from upset users and repeats them like everyone expeiences the same thing as a justification for not trying to fix something that may be HIS fault and not the drivers. my .02.

[Seabee]

I have had an X1900XT-X since release, and I havent had any problems like your friend describes. Yes, CCC is cumbersome, but having 2gb of memory evens things out. Besides, if you are going to use another program such as ATi Tray Tools, you can just install the driver and forget using CCC.

[deathman20]

Been an ATI user since 9600 and 9800's came out. Gone through 3 generation groups of cards (9600Pro & 9800Pro, 800Pro, X1800XL and X1900XT) With a backup X300 card.

I've personally had less issues with ATI's drivers except for the past few release of what I want I use to have with nVidia's driver sets. And despite the fact people might hate one card compared to the other time in and time out you really only hear the bad side of each card maker usually.

nVidia is the ok texture quality and shimmering
ATI is the driver sets and slightly expensive

The good sides is

nVidia lower power and heat output, generally fast/cheap cards
ATI great texture quality, and powerful cards

I'm still using the 6.3 drivers due to the newer driver releases having issues with a program I use where ti downclocks the card to 2D clocks when it plays video's. Otherwise I would of upgraded by now, then again I might just upgrade and ditch the program til it can be fixed and thats truely my only beef with the drivers currently. But ATITools hasn't been upgraded since Feburuary so that could be part of the issue to.

[chevro1et]

deathman20: Are you running the OC as listed in your sig for the x1900xt? If so, why don't you ditch ATiTool, OC in Overdrive, and use Rivatuner for fan control/ monitoring? Looks like you are using stock voltages, and your OC is not beyond the capabilities of Overdrive. Redrumy3 found that ditching ATiTiool cleared up that 'underclocking while viewing avi' issue... just a thought.

[deathman20]

deathman20: Are you running the OC as listed in your sig for the x1900xt? If so, why don't you ditch ATiTool, OC in Overdrive, and use Rivatuner for fan control/ monitoring? Looks like you are using stock voltages, and your OC is not beyond the capabilities of Overdrive. Redrumy3 found that ditching ATiTiool cleared up that 'underclocking while viewing avi' issue... just a thought.

First im running below stock voltages on the core at least. Was planning on dropping the memory voltages as well since I can't go any faster then what I'm at currently due to crappy memory controller. I might just give up and use ATITray Tools or Rivatuner.

I've tried using Rivatuner before and I'm just lost. Does it have a setting where it will progressively increase fan speed when temps increase like ATITools? Or does ATITray Tools have that feature?

Yea I plan on just trying Overdrive again and working with that as long as it will function properly. Last time I tried it, it didn't work at all even after enabling the services. So I'll have to look into that.

Edit: BTW I know that ATITool is causing the underclocking. Guess a part of me was hoping that W1zzard would of released another version of it before it got to this stage, but of course real life comes first.

[chevro1et]

Well, I have no issues with Overdrive for overclocking. RivaTuner does not have a progressive fan control like ATiTool though, so with the stock cooler it may not be your cup o tea... just has 3 settings for 2D, low-res3D, and performance 3D. Dunno about the progressive fan control in ATT, never used it yet, as it does not support x1800/ x1900 series cards at this point.... on second thought, maybe you are just better off with the setup you have in place :shrug:

[deathman20]

Well, I have no issues with Overdrive for overclocking. RivaTuner does not have a progressive fan control like ATiTool though, so with the stock cooler it may not be your cup o tea... just has 3 settings for 2D, low-res3D, and performance 3D. Dunno about the progressive fan control in ATT, never used it yet, as it does not support x1800/ x1900 series cards at this point.... on second thought, maybe you are just better off with the setup you have in place :shrug:

Its a really tough decission. I'll have to look into it more like I said because I really want to upgrade my drivers but don't want to go through the hassle of learning new overclocking/monitoring software.

[vixro]

deathman, the best suggestion is to use winflash to export your bios, edit the bios with Rabit (set your Fan speeds how you like), change your 3d voltage to 1.4v, and set your 3d overclocks in it. Then all you have to do is uninstall your drivers, and reinstall them and you'll be good. You won't need ati tool anymore and you won't have to worry about the downclocks.

[UglyChild]

Good thing, is you dont have to use CCC at all, instead you can use CP just like Nvidia has. Thus you dont even need Net. Framework either. This will free up your resources and give you simpler and easier to use CP and access to many settings.


Heres a Control Panel that you can use instead of CCC.

http://www.yousendit.com/transfer.php?action=download&ufid=05ABDE575FC123B4

[deathman20]

deathman, the best suggestion is to use winflash to export your bios, edit the bios with Rabit (set your Fan speeds how you like), change your 3d voltage to 1.4v, and set your 3d overclocks in it. Then all you have to do is uninstall your drivers, and reinstall them and you'll be good. You won't need ati tool anymore and you won't have to worry about the downclocks.

Now how do you do that? I only see 1 voltage option for GPU and is that 2D or 3D voltage? Besides the fact it won't let me set it higher then 1.2875V

[vixro]

If you use the latest version of Rabit, you will have 3 options. The default setting, the 2d settings that overdrive recognizes, and the 3d setting that overdrive recognizes. The voltages are changable from .9-1.6 in .025v increments on all 3 settings (default, 2d, 3d).

http://images14.fotki.com/v20/photos/8/873576/3428284/rabit1-vi.jpg
http://images15.fotki.com/v337/photos/8/873576/3428284/rabit2-vi.jpg

[deathman20]

Ah ha. I had a different version thats what was messing me up. Looks better now as long as I can flash back to an older bios lol.

[BigDan3131]

I love ATI Tray Tools, the option list in each section are great. I had ati tool but it was function limited compared to traytools. I have three settings Stock1, for everyday use with my own fan settings. Gamer, for most everything I play with fan on max and adaptive turned on. ExGamer for hardcore games with more core and mem speed than Gamer. I like it mainly for the tweaking options that can give me that extra bit.

[deathman20]

Ya decided to try it out its nice options are good. Now all I'm doing is sitting and waiting to see what can be done with the 2D to 3D automatic switch that the ATI drivers are suppose to do and arn't on my setup.