Best drivers for 9600XT?

[Neil Harrington]

I've just built an inexpensive little Win2000 system I want to use for
gaming, but not necessarily the latest and most hardware-demanding games.
CPU is a Sempron 2800+ socket 754, 1 GB of system memory and an oldish
9600XT 128MB 4x/8x AGP. I've very happy with the system but want to update
the drivers for the 9600XT, as those on the installation disk are Catalyst
3.8 -- pretty old.

What's the best (in stability, performance and features) Catalyst version
for this card?

All information and opinions much appreciated.

 

[Dirk Dreidoppel]

I've just built an inexpensive little Win2000 system I want to use for
gaming, but not necessarily the latest and most hardware-demanding games.
CPU is a Sempron 2800+ socket 754, 1 GB of system memory and an oldish
9600XT 128MB 4x/8x AGP. I've very happy with the system but want to update
the drivers for the 9600XT, as those on the installation disk are Catalyst
3.8 -- pretty old.

What's the best (in stability, performance and features) Catalyst version
for this card?

All information and opinions much appreciated.

Using a 9600 XT on W2K myself. I've upgraded util Ati capped even the
unofficial support. Last possible drivers are the 7.5, or the Omegas based
on them, which I run. I'm fairly happy with that set.

 

[Dirk Dreidoppel]

Using a 9600 XT on W2K myself. I've upgraded util Ati capped even the
unofficial support. Last possible drivers are the 7.5, or the Omegas based
on them, which I run. I'm fairly happy with that set.

Correction: It's the 7.4 drivers. 7.5 and later can not be installed on W2K.

 

[Neil Harrington]

Correction: It's the 7.4 drivers. 7.5 and later can not be installed on
W2K.

Thanks, Dirk. The AMD/ATI site seems to imply that Catalyst 6.2 is the last
that supports the 9600XT on Win2000, and I've installed that just a little
while ago. It does give a small but definite increase in benchmarks
(3DMark03 and AquaMark3) and seems fine, but now I'll try the 7.4 also.

Not that this is a big deal, but do you know if there's a way to keep the
4:3 aspect ratio for games on a 1280x1024 (5:4) LCD flat panel? That would
mean a small amount of letterboxing, of course, which is OK with me. In the
Catalyst Control Center I have "Match the source video" selected under
Theater Mode Settings / "Set the video aspect ratio to:", but apparently
this only applies to playing movies on DVD. Even when Video Standard
Settings are set to Theater, running a 4:3 benchmark fills the screen, which
means of course I'm getting a small amount of vertical stretching. As it's
only about 6% it's unnoticeable except when there's a full circle on the
screen, but I was just wondering if it can be corrected.

Neil

 

[Dirk Dreidoppel]

Thanks, Dirk. The AMD/ATI site seems to imply that Catalyst 6.2 is the last
that supports the 9600XT on Win2000, and I've installed that just a little
while ago. It does give a small but definite increase in benchmarks
(3DMark03 and AquaMark3) and seems fine, but now I'll try the 7.4 also.

Not that this is a big deal, but do you know if there's a way to keep the
4:3 aspect ratio for games on a 1280x1024 (5:4) LCD flat panel? That would
mean a small amount of letterboxing, of course, which is OK with me. In the
Catalyst Control Center I have "Match the source video" selected under
Theater Mode Settings / "Set the video aspect ratio to:", but apparently
this only applies to playing movies on DVD. Even when Video Standard
Settings are set to Theater, running a 4:3 benchmark fills the screen, which
means of course I'm getting a small amount of vertical stretching. As it's
only about 6% it's unnoticeable except when there's a full circle on the
screen, but I was just wondering if it can be corrected.

I have no widescreen, so I don't know about that. Cat 6.2 were indeed the
last officially supported driver, but they left the inf setting for W2K in
up to 7.4.

 

[Neil Harrington]

I have no widescreen, so I don't know about that. Cat 6.2 were indeed the
last officially supported driver, but they left the inf setting for W2K in
up to 7.4.

Dirk, thanks again for the info.

Neil