Catalyst driver for flightsims

[Peter Jenkins]

I am buying a new system and leaning towards an ATI 9800 Pro videocard.
Is there a Catalyst driver that will satisfactorily run FS2004, IL2FB and
LOMAC. My concern is that some posts say FS2004 needs to run on drivers
later than 3.7 whereas others say IL2FB only runs well on CAT 3.7 or
earlier.

The ATI card seems to give much better bang for the buck, but if there is
not a single CAT driver that can run the above flightsims OK then I will
have to consider the costlier, noisier, hotter NVIDIA option.

Any advice appreciated

 

[Whiteflyer]

I had to download the latest Catalyst 3.9 driver for my old Radeon Board
yesterday as the old driver did not display the ATC text clearly in FS2004, and
now everything seems to be working just fine.

Whiteflyer

 

[The original Russ.]

I'm no expert. But from what I've read on the web, ATI have now sorted out
their driver probs regarding FS9 and it runs just fine.

Cheers,

Russ.

 

[klh]

No, that's not entirely true - I still got lots of shimmering of
trees and buildings in fs2004 with my Radeon 9600 Pro (Cat3.9)
And I have tried many differents settings in fs2004 and drivers.

klh

 

[The original Russ.]

Since I have an nvidia based card, I can only go from what I've read on
various web sites.

I'm sorry your still having probs. I hope ATI will sort it out soon
though???

Cheers,

Russ.

 

[nfh]

I have a 9800 128mb OEM (Dell) card using Catalyst 3.9 drivers. All three
sims you mentioned run very well for me (2.6 P4& 1Mb fast Ram).

Good luck!

FH

 

[Derek Wildstar]

I am buying a new system and leaning towards an ATI 9800 Pro videocard.
Is there a Catalyst driver that will satisfactorily run FS2004, IL2FB and
LOMAC. My concern is that some posts say FS2004 needs to run on drivers
later than 3.7 whereas others say IL2FB only runs well on CAT 3.7 or
earlier.

The ATI card seems to give much better bang for the buck, but if there is
not a single CAT driver that can run the above flightsims OK then I will
have to consider the costlier, noisier, hotter NVIDIA option.

Any advice appreciated

3.9 cats are currently imperfect for the combination of applications you
mentioned. While some people claim excellent results with 3.9 and FS,
further investigation also reveals that some specific configurations refuse
to co-operate and fluid rendering is impossible.

I suspect that the greater your ability to self-diagnose and repair a
suspect installation, the greater a chance you have of having a trouble free
ATI experience. I personally avoid ATI's products, but it's not necessarily
due to the fact that nvidia products are 'better'...you just can get a
better experience, easier.

 

[Joe M.]

I am buying a new system and leaning towards an ATI 9800 Pro videocard.
Is there a Catalyst driver that will satisfactorily run FS2004, IL2FB and
LOMAC. My concern is that some posts say FS2004 needs to run on drivers
later than 3.7 whereas others say IL2FB only runs well on CAT 3.7 or
earlier.

The ATI card seems to give much better bang for the buck, but if there is
not a single CAT driver that can run the above flightsims OK then I will
have to consider the costlier, noisier, hotter NVIDIA option.

Any advice appreciated

Considering the known issues with ATI and FS2004 PLUS the fact a GF FX 5900
Ultra runs IL2 just as fast as an ATI 9800 Pro - why not get an nvidia
board? The "bang for your buck" with an ATI board is for future gaming
(DX9) and first person shooters. For sims and sports Nvidia is a great
choice if compatibility is a concern.

FWIW, I run over 25 games trouble free with an Nvidia 5900 Ultra - including
FS2004 and IL2FB.

 

[Adam Webb]

yup, your right

3.9 = great for FS2004 = IL2 texture flashes, black ground terrain, and
smoke effects sometimes look a totaly mess
3.7 = gteat for IL2 = terrible for FS2004, includeing menu stuttering and
ground shimmering

 

[dmac]

I still have the mipmap problem also. no matter how many times I file a
driver complaint I get no response from ati about this.

 

[TrAsK]

I still have the mipmap problem also. no matter how many times I file a
driver complaint I get no response from ati about this.

I still have a ground shimmering problem (fs9) with 9800pro. and cat
3.9

 

[klh]

Well I'm kind of glad that I'm not the only one who got the
mipmap problem (ground shimmering etc.) with my 9600 Pro.
It's just a shame that ATI is doing nothing about it!

klh

 

[dmac]

really sucks with a $400 card with 256mb. you would think it would be
addressed. other than that I am very pleased, I run mip map at 5 and it is
ok.

 

[dmac]

try mipmap of 4 or 5 in hardware setup menu in game. helps a lot.

 

[Wayne]

Would you please reply in more detail how you are resolving the shimmering
in FS 2004?
-yes, I sent them a comment too that their 3.10 release notes say nothing
about FS shimmering.

 

[dmac]

in the game itself, under display settings-hardware tab. you will see the
mipmap level-set it to 4 or 5, that helps.
also in the ati catalyst settings pick 3d, custom settings, and you can
lower mip map there also.