9700 Pro drivers

[Stephen Goulding]

Hi,

A quick question if I may.

I have been given a Gigabyte GV 9700 Pro graphics card and I wish to install
the best drivers available can anyone suggest which is the best.

I am currently I am using the ones downloaded from the Gigabyte site

 

[patrickp]

Hi,

A quick question if I may.

I have been given a Gigabyte GV 9700 Pro graphics card and I wish to install
the best drivers available can anyone suggest which is the best.

I am currently I am using the ones downloaded from the Gigabyte site

The drivers provided by an OEM for its radeon cards are often optimised for
their version of that card, Steve, so are often the best ones to use,
although they will usually be a version or so behind the ATi ones.

However, there's no reason why you shouldn't install and run the latest ATi
drivers if you want to. SIAS. Having said that, the new Catalyst 4.3
drivers don't seem to be an improvement in speed or stability; they seem
aimed rather at various game fixes. So, unless you you see a game listed in
the "fixed in this version" link that you want to play, it's probably not
worth bothering with.

HTH patrickp

 

[Dr Teeth]

The drivers provided by an OEM for its radeon cards are often optimised for
their version of that card, Steve, so are often the best ones to use,
although they will usually be a version or so behind the ATi ones.

From what I can see, one 9700 Pro (and other ATi & Nvidia cards) is
usually identical to another, clock speeds, type and speed of memory
etc.

I'd say forget the marketers drivers and use the chipset makers, every
time.

Cheers,

Guy

** I may not be perfect, but I'm
** English, and that's the next best thing!

 

[Greg]

I had my best speed numbers from the ATI Cat 2.4's. Stability has been good
with all drivers. I now use Cat 4.3's so I can take advantage of the ATI MMC
8.9 since I have an AIW card.

 

[patrickp]

From what I can see, one 9700 Pro (and other ATi & Nvidia cards) is
usually identical to another, clock speeds, type and speed of memory
etc.

I'd say forget the marketers drivers and use the chipset makers, every
time.

Cheers,

Guy

** I may not be perfect, but I'm
** English, and that's the next best thing!

Not actually so, Guy - there are differences between many OEM versions and
Built by ATi cards. Some OEMs; Sapphire, for instance, do just seem to
provide plain ATi drivers as their own; other OEMs (I can say from personal
experience that ASUS do) certainly optimise their own versions for their
cards - and this would support the contention that these OEMs don't make
cards identical to ATi's own.

patrickp

 

[Dr Teeth]

Not actually so, Guy - there are differences between many OEM versions and
Built by ATi cards.

How about some examples, Patrick? Other than faster components that
allow for overclocking, I cannot think of any.

Standing by for enlightenment <g>.

Cheers,

Guy

** I may not be perfect, but I'm
** English, and that's the next best thing!

 

[Skid]

How about some examples, Patrick? Other than faster components that
allow for overclocking, I cannot think of any.

Standing by for enlightenment <g>.

That's a pretty big difference.

The most significant is memory. Some of the cards sold as 9700 Pro are
actually underclocked because the memory won't run that fast. In many cases,
more than one type of memory was used on the same model from the same
company, so you could actually order two PowerColor cards, for example, that
had different memory specs. The bios on the cards set different speeds and
timings based on the memory modules used. There were small differences in
performance at stock speeds and major differences in overclocking
capabilities.

The other difference is the PCB. Sapphire, for example, offered two
different 9700 Pro models, one red and one black, that had different
characteristics and performance.

For details, there are some good head-to-head comparisons of Radeon brands
and models at www.xbitlabs.com

 

[patrickp]

That's a pretty big difference.

The most significant is memory. Some of the cards sold as 9700 Pro are
actually underclocked because the memory won't run that fast. In many cases,
more than one type of memory was used on the same model from the same
company, so you could actually order two PowerColor cards, for example, that
had different memory specs. The bios on the cards set different speeds and
timings based on the memory modules used. There were small differences in
performance at stock speeds and major differences in overclocking
capabilities.

The other difference is the PCB. Sapphire, for example, offered two
different 9700 Pro models, one red and one black, that had different
characteristics and performance.

For details, there are some good head-to-head comparisons of Radeon brands
and models at www.xbitlabs.com

Thanks for that, Skid. But, Guy, surely the real question is, why
_wouldn't_ different OEMs make their cards differently? They all have
different sourcing for materials, different manufacturing processes,
different design teams, different standards, different markets - the list is
endless. What on earth makes you think that every OEM's card is going to be
exactly the same?

For myself, I have a Sapphire 9600 Pro VIVO card. ATi don't even make a
VIVO card in any range above the 9000s now, I think, but various OEMs
probably produce, between them, a VIVO version of every ATi range. In
addition, All-In-Wonder cards are made to different specifications for
different regions; ATi's own are, AFAIK, all NTSC models now. I would have
thought from the claim in your sig that you would be aware of that.

And those are glaringly obvious differences. As Skid has pointed out, there
are other clear visual and component differences. Another obvious one is
cooling solutions.

But, apart from that, different OEMs obviously have different design
philosophies. My VIVO card is a clear example of that, and many OEMs have
taken the decision to produce card versions that ATi don't make. Some OEM
cards won't run ATi's MMC software. And it's also clear that, concerning
the OP's question, some designs are different enough to benefit from changes
in ATi's drivers; I've found that to be so with an ASUS card, for instance:
it ran much better with ASUS' own versions of the Catalyst drivers than with
ATi's drivers of the same version number.

patrickp

 

[Dr Teeth]

But, Guy, surely the real question is, why
_wouldn't_ different OEMs make their cards differently? They all have
different sourcing for materials, different manufacturing processes,
different design teams, different standards, different markets - the list is
endless. What on earth makes you think that every OEM's card is going to be
exactly the same?

I did not say that they would be exactly the same, but that any
differences would not warrant different drivers. My comments, and I
should have made it clear, related to 'vanilla' cards.

The differences that you mentioned are not that great. How many ways
do you think their are to assemble a product based on surface mounted
technology, for example? They may have different sources for
materials, but who said that those materials have to be different?
Most of the 'differences' that have been mentioned in this thread have
been of 'bolt-on' extras.

Different markets are usually dealt with by marketing rather than by
product differentiation anyway.



Cheers,

Guy

** I may not be perfect, but I'm
** English, and that's the next best thing!

 

[patrickp]

I did not say that they would be exactly the same, but that any
differences would not warrant different drivers. My comments, and I
should have made it clear, related to 'vanilla' cards.

The differences that you mentioned are not that great. How many ways
do you think their are to assemble a product based on surface mounted
technology, for example? They may have different sources for
materials, but who said that those materials have to be different?
Most of the 'differences' that have been mentioned in this thread have
been of 'bolt-on' extras.

Different markets are usually dealt with by marketing rather than by
product differentiation anyway.



Cheers,

Guy

** I may not be perfect, but I'm
** English, and that's the next best thing!

Different markets such as the regionalisation produced by different TV
standards cannot be dealt with by marketing, Guy, they can only be dealt
with by product differentiation.

And I've personally experienced a definite difference with an ASUS 9600XT
running on ASUS' versions of Catalyst drivers and ATi's original versions of
the same drivers. There's no doubt in my mind that some (not all!) OEM
cards are sufficiently different from the ATi models that they run better
with modified drivers.

patrickp

 

[Ben Pope]

I did not say that they would be exactly the same, but that any
differences would not warrant different drivers. My comments, and I
should have made it clear, related to 'vanilla' cards.

The differences that you mentioned are not that great. How many ways
do you think their are to assemble a product based on surface mounted
technology, for example? They may have different sources for
materials, but who said that those materials have to be different?
Most of the 'differences' that have been mentioned in this thread have
been of 'bolt-on' extras.

ATI produces a reference design, as do most chipset manufacturers for
example. With ATI partners, they get this reference and no doubt a whole
set of application notes. It seems that almost everybody follows the
reference design - if the dereference board doesn't include the various bits
for VIVO etc, I would suspect that application notes do. If you are to
deviate from a design that you know works, you have to be asking yourself
why.

The one easy thing that is pretty easy to change of course, is the memory -
it's all pin compatible and you get the notes on how to adjust timings for
the ATI Firmware.

I would feel plenty qualified to commission a design of an ATI board if
somebody wanted it for commercial purposes... would I want to deviate from
the reference? No. I wouldn't want to touch that with a bardge pole. The
differences are going to be on component sourcing... if the manufacturer
sources parts that are lower spec, or push the barriers a little more, they
know they're gonna have a nightmare with returns on faulty cards. The bulk
prices of this type of component come down to pretty much the same price no
matter who you get to source them... is it worth the hassle?

Different markets are usually dealt with by marketing rather than by
product differentiation anyway.

I would have to agree with this too. Seeing adverts for the same product
from a different country is an amusing thing.

Ben

 

[Dr Teeth]

Different markets such as the regionalisation produced by different TV
standards cannot be dealt with by marketing, Guy, they can only be dealt
with by product differentiation.

Hi Patrick,

I said "different markets are _usually_ dealt with by marketing...".

Cheers,

Guy

*** The problem with marriage is ***
*** that there's no casting vote!! ***