ati cards and non ati drivers

[bob brozewicz (news group)]

hi all,

i posted this the other day with no responses. since then i have read
about omega drivers. what are these and are the compatible with ati
cards. i started to look for more information but what to know if
someone could explain what these drivers are.

after reading about the problems that ati has with its catalyst drivers
and some peoples systems it made we wonder, are there other drivers that
are not made by ati that will work with there cards?

just curious.

im running the 4.9 and dont seem to have any issues after i went to a
350 watt power supply.

bob brozewicz

 

[Bill Crocker]

I believe the Omega drivers are compatible with most ATI cards. I'm sure,
somewhere on the web site, it should cover this. I've tried them, from
time, to time, and have not noticed any marked difference.

It makes sense to me, that ATI's own drivers, would deliver the best overall
performance, within safe operating parameters, not causing risk of damage to
the card.

Bill Crocker

 

[J. Clarke]

hi all,

i posted this the other day with no responses. since then i have read
about omega drivers. what are these and are the compatible with ati
cards. i started to look for more information but what to know if
someone could explain what these drivers are.

after reading about the problems that ati has with its catalyst drivers
and some peoples systems it made we wonder, are there other drivers that
are not made by ati that will work with there cards?

just curious.

im running the 4.9 and dont seem to have any issues after i went to a
350 watt power supply.

The Omega drivers are the standard ATI drivers with the configuration
settings fine-tuned for gaming instead of general use.

 

[Eugen T]

The Omega drivers are the standard ATI drivers with the configuration
settings fine-tuned for gaming instead of general use.

Yes, Omega drivers are fine-tuned Catalyst drivers, which usually outperform
Catalyst in benchmarks. Also, they are more stable than stupid Catalyst
drivers - I did find them to perform much better with 8500 and 9700 series
cards. The only card that gets lower results in benchmarks is my new
PowerColor 9600Pro EZ, but I need to do some more tweaking on it
There is also an option in Omega drivers for CS players to get better
frame-rate on newer cards =)

 

[Eugen T]

Omega drivers are compatible with ALL ATI cards. Check out their websites.
And no, ATI's own drivers do not deliver best overall performance - that's
why there are tweaked drivers out there like Omega and at least 3 other
types.

 

[Lenny]

Also, they are more stable than stupid Catalyst drivers

These so-called "omega" drivers are nothing but ye average catalyst drivers
with .inf files that someone's ****ed around with. The drivers themselves
are binary files and can't be modified except by disassembling them and
reverse-engineering the hardware to see how it all works, which frankly
requires more time and patience than I expect anyone to be able to offer up.

There is also an option in Omega drivers for CS players to get better
frame-rate on newer cards =)

Why would you need that in CS? It runs at 100+ fps on any half decent 3D
card from the last 5 years or so.

 

[borolad]

Yes, Omega drivers are fine-tuned Catalyst drivers, which usually outperform
Catalyst in benchmarks. Also, they are more stable than stupid Catalyst
drivers - I did find them to perform much better with 8500 and 9700 series
cards. The only card that gets lower results in benchmarks is my new
PowerColor 9600Pro EZ, but I need to do some more tweaking on it
There is also an option in Omega drivers for CS players to get better
frame-rate on newer cards =)

The ' God Bless ' man himself tells you that the Omega's are optimized
for gaming not benchmarking.

They are not for benchmarks, but are excellent gaming drivers.

BoroLad

 

[Aki Peltola]

Omega drivers are compatible with ALL ATI cards. Check out their
websites. And no, ATI's own drivers do not deliver best overall
performance - that's why there are tweaked drivers out there like
Omega and at least 3 other types.

And difference between all those modded drivers in
practice is something like 1fps and max 100 points in
3DMark compared to official Catalysts, so we are
certainly talking about massive differences here

Not to mention that old familiar "Whoa, this game truly
FEELS like running smoother with these drivers!" thing.

Isn't it always like that when people update their drivers,
everything mystically feels like running much better.
Advertisements from the driver's author also do help a
bit creating this illusion...

 

[John Hall]

I wonder why ATI doesn't tweak their own drivers. After all, they have the
engineers who compiled the drivers in the first place. I have used the
Omega drivers and I don't think there is anything wrong with them. But I
don't believe the drivers themselves are tweaked. I think that Omega just
adds a bunch of cool tools and a different Control Panel interface to help
the overclockers.

JK

 

[John Hall]

Exactly.

JK

These so-called "omega" drivers are nothing but ye average catalyst
drivers with .inf files that someone's ****ed around with. The drivers
themselves are binary files and can't be modified except by disassembling
them and reverse-engineering the hardware to see how it all works, which
frankly requires more time and patience than I expect anyone to be able to
offer up.


Why would you need that in CS? It runs at 100+ fps on any half decent 3D
card from the last 5 years or so.

 

[Eugen T]

So, why don't you '**** around' with your own drivers to increase stability
and/or performance then, if you are so smart?
I have used Omega drivers on several of my ATI-based cards and omega drivers
are more stable for sure. I had tons of problems with Catalyst because of
compatibility to Via chipset, working in Win2K sometimes, etc.