- Joined
- Jan 30, 2002
- Location
- Southbridge, MA.
Ok,
I know there is a few of us out there (more then we would like to admit) who have been limping along with our Radeon VE's / 7000's. For those of us who have this card we know the joys of good image quality, (if you have VE) great 2 monitor support, some decent overclockability, and even real DVD use (well it's there if you want it).
However the problem that we all have with this little GPU is, she runs like a dog, or I should say a gerbil. Runs as fast as she can but can't get too far on that little wheel! Is it me or does this card remind you of the Celery's without the cache?
Any way, I have come to the conclusion that a lot of the lack luster performance is not just the castrated GPU's fault. In fact, I think this card may be left out in the cold when it comes to the whole 1 driver for all Radeon cards issue.
How do I come to this conclusion you ask? Well I was browsing through Madonion.com and was looking at all the 2500 range BM that people were getting with this card and thinking to myself, "Why am I only getting in the 15XX range with my XP"? Then I realized that the ones that had these higher scores had 16bit Z buffer (instead of 24 like my setting) and triple Frame buffer (instead of Double like mine). I wouldn't think this would explain the difference, but I kept searching to see if there were people scoring high with the true default settings on 2001.
Well there were some in the 2200 range that had the same settings as mine and many that had a slower processor then mine. So I had work to do.
I knew 2000 might be slowing me a little but the difference was too great to be explained by OS alone. I thought I was doing right by using the latest drivers posted at Madonion's site but just out of curiosity I started looking deeper in the bowels of the forum's and Internet.
Now I don't remember where but if you guys want them I can send them to you, but I came across a web site that listed drivers specifically labeled as for the Radeon VE / 7000. They don't look like some developed drivers (like what omega would put out) but like regular ATI drivers. The problem is they are old, date on them is September of 2001. I figured, well, they were made specifically for my VE card so I might as well try them.
I am typing this at work and don't have my machine here to check the driver's revision numbers but it was like 5.X.X.3276 or something like that. EDIT ----> Duh! All I had to do was look at the link in my sig. It's all right there in the stats for my 2001 benchmark! The driver version is 5.13.01.3276 so I was pretty good in my guess <----. I hope that makes sense to you guys but if I was home I could be more specific. After I get home I will post the exact revision.
Anyway, the "name" of the driver as posted on the advance section of the Adapter tab is RV100. Maybe everyone already knows about this but I didn't. After installing these drivers my BM in 2001 went from the 15XX's to 1975 was the best I can do so far.
Yeah I know still not in the 2200 range but I can't overclock my 1800+ XP to more then 138 FSB because I haven't been able to up the voltage yet, still at stock. So I figure at least I am in the same league as where I should be, after uping my voltage on the XP I should be able to easily clear the 2000 mark.
The bad part of these drivers, they are not as stable as the newer slower ones. But at least I see that the card is capable of pulling some, what I would almost call, “decent” numbers, and if ATI had taken these type of drivers to more maturity then I think this card would (or should) be able to outperform any MX400.
My conclusion and charge to you guys?
Well I believe there is more performance lurking in these cheap little cards. I believe the problem is that the 1 driver for all cards hides the fact that this card is not really getting much help with the new driver revisions. Sure the 7500 and the 8500 keep improving but after this little experiment I just don't see how they have been improving the VE / 7000 side of it.
As for my charge, do you guys know where this RV100 driver came from (who developed it I mean) and is there another family of drivers specifically made for this card? It would be nice if I was just stuck under some rock and there has been a whole other family of drivers specifically made for our VE or 7000 cards. If you guys said to me "you idiot! Everyone knows that the driver you need is X! Just download it and go back to your moronic hole in the Internet!" I would be very happy.
But somehow I don't think this is the case. I did some searching and didn't find anyone else even mention the issues that I was having. So how bout it guys? Any ideas?
PS. Sorry for the book. Sometimes I get carried away.
Edit ---> Hmmm, after looking at the number revisions more closely, I wonder if this is actually a Rage 128 Pro type driver. Hmmm.
I know there is a few of us out there (more then we would like to admit) who have been limping along with our Radeon VE's / 7000's. For those of us who have this card we know the joys of good image quality, (if you have VE) great 2 monitor support, some decent overclockability, and even real DVD use (well it's there if you want it).
However the problem that we all have with this little GPU is, she runs like a dog, or I should say a gerbil. Runs as fast as she can but can't get too far on that little wheel! Is it me or does this card remind you of the Celery's without the cache?
Any way, I have come to the conclusion that a lot of the lack luster performance is not just the castrated GPU's fault. In fact, I think this card may be left out in the cold when it comes to the whole 1 driver for all Radeon cards issue.
How do I come to this conclusion you ask? Well I was browsing through Madonion.com and was looking at all the 2500 range BM that people were getting with this card and thinking to myself, "Why am I only getting in the 15XX range with my XP"? Then I realized that the ones that had these higher scores had 16bit Z buffer (instead of 24 like my setting) and triple Frame buffer (instead of Double like mine). I wouldn't think this would explain the difference, but I kept searching to see if there were people scoring high with the true default settings on 2001.
Well there were some in the 2200 range that had the same settings as mine and many that had a slower processor then mine. So I had work to do.
I knew 2000 might be slowing me a little but the difference was too great to be explained by OS alone. I thought I was doing right by using the latest drivers posted at Madonion's site but just out of curiosity I started looking deeper in the bowels of the forum's and Internet.
Now I don't remember where but if you guys want them I can send them to you, but I came across a web site that listed drivers specifically labeled as for the Radeon VE / 7000. They don't look like some developed drivers (like what omega would put out) but like regular ATI drivers. The problem is they are old, date on them is September of 2001. I figured, well, they were made specifically for my VE card so I might as well try them.
I am typing this at work and don't have my machine here to check the driver's revision numbers but it was like 5.X.X.3276 or something like that. EDIT ----> Duh! All I had to do was look at the link in my sig. It's all right there in the stats for my 2001 benchmark! The driver version is 5.13.01.3276 so I was pretty good in my guess <----. I hope that makes sense to you guys but if I was home I could be more specific. After I get home I will post the exact revision.
Anyway, the "name" of the driver as posted on the advance section of the Adapter tab is RV100. Maybe everyone already knows about this but I didn't. After installing these drivers my BM in 2001 went from the 15XX's to 1975 was the best I can do so far.
Yeah I know still not in the 2200 range but I can't overclock my 1800+ XP to more then 138 FSB because I haven't been able to up the voltage yet, still at stock. So I figure at least I am in the same league as where I should be, after uping my voltage on the XP I should be able to easily clear the 2000 mark.
The bad part of these drivers, they are not as stable as the newer slower ones. But at least I see that the card is capable of pulling some, what I would almost call, “decent” numbers, and if ATI had taken these type of drivers to more maturity then I think this card would (or should) be able to outperform any MX400.
My conclusion and charge to you guys?
Well I believe there is more performance lurking in these cheap little cards. I believe the problem is that the 1 driver for all cards hides the fact that this card is not really getting much help with the new driver revisions. Sure the 7500 and the 8500 keep improving but after this little experiment I just don't see how they have been improving the VE / 7000 side of it.
As for my charge, do you guys know where this RV100 driver came from (who developed it I mean) and is there another family of drivers specifically made for this card? It would be nice if I was just stuck under some rock and there has been a whole other family of drivers specifically made for our VE or 7000 cards. If you guys said to me "you idiot! Everyone knows that the driver you need is X! Just download it and go back to your moronic hole in the Internet!" I would be very happy.
But somehow I don't think this is the case. I did some searching and didn't find anyone else even mention the issues that I was having. So how bout it guys? Any ideas?
PS. Sorry for the book. Sometimes I get carried away.
Edit ---> Hmmm, after looking at the number revisions more closely, I wonder if this is actually a Rage 128 Pro type driver. Hmmm.
Last edited:
