New 7.2 drivers question (Newbie)

[Syke]

I have a Radeon 9600 card and Device Manager reports the driver as
6.14.10.6430. I take it this means Ver 6.14? I am thinking on changing to
the new 7.2 drivers. The installation instructions say to un-install all
the old software first, then install the new driver. If I do this, will
Driver Rollback and System Restore work OK if I don't like the change and
want to revert?

Win XP Sp2

Regards and thanks in advance

Pat Macguire

 

[First of One]

I have a Radeon 9600 card and Device Manager reports the driver as
6.14.10.6430. I take it this means Ver 6.14? I am thinking on changing to
the new 7.2 drivers.

It's... a bit more complicated than that. I have Catalyst 7.2 installed, and
this is what I see when I check driver version in Catalyst Control Center:

Driver Packaging Version 8.342-070202a1-041238C-ATI
Catalyst Version 07.2
Provider ATI Technologies Inc.
2D Driver Version 6.14.10.6666
Direct3D Version 6.14.10.0471
OpenGL Version 6.14.10.6347
Catalyst Control Center Version 2007.0202.1923.34565

"7.2" is the version number of the Catalyst software suite. The driver
package is "8.342". Within the package there are separate driver files for
2D, Direct3D and OpenGL. The "6.14.10.6430" you saw in Device Manager is the
2D Driver Version. Of course, to make life difficult, the 2D Driver does not
always get updated with every monthly Catalyst suite release.

The installation instructions say to un-install all the old software
first, then install the new driver. If I do this, will Driver Rollback
and System Restore work OK if I don't like the change and want to revert?

Win XP Sp2

Driver Rollback probably won't work, since it only sees the 2D display
driver files and may neglect the Direct3D and OpenGL drivers. If you don't
like the change, uninstall the Catalyst Control Center and Display Driver
(in that order) through Control Panel -> Add/Remove. Download an older
release like Catalyst 6.3, which is known to work well with the Radeon 9600.

 

[Frodo]

If you want to make a really "clean" install of Cat 7.2, use the program
"Driver Cleaner Pro"
right after uninstalling the old ATI software, but before installing Cat
7.2.
Driver Cleaner Pro will make sure every little bit of the old ATI software
are removed.
I do not currently have a link for the Driver Cleaner Pro software.