Catalysts 5.02 - 5.04

[de Moni]

So what's up with these Catalysts? With all of them I get the
same kind of checkered texture corruption in several games
(Silent Storm, Mafia, UT2003) which only gets worse the
longer I play. This seems to occur only if I use high detail
textures.

http://www.nic.fi/~aape/MafiaCorruption.jpg

Second glitch:
After a while of playing may happen so that screen just
freezes, then goes blank and after a few seconds picture
comes back and game goes on. I can hear all the sounds
still going under the frozen/blank screen. It may also do
this freezing several times in a short period of time.

I get this bug to come up only if I use heavier settings like
4xAA and all the High Quality. Sounds like a overheating
problem at first but it simply can't be, because 5.01's work
fine with the same settings. I can play about 5 minutes before
this blanking bug starts to harass me.

Btw. I'm using Radeon 9600pro. No tweaks, no oc'ing
and I always wiped out previous drivers by using Driver
Cleaner.

Too bad, according to benchmarks 5.04's seem to improve
UT2003 performance quite nicely and perhaps other games
too which are using the Unreal engine :-(

 

[abc]

So what's up with these Catalysts? With all of them I get the
same kind of checkered texture corruption in several games
(Silent Storm, Mafia, UT2003) which only gets worse the
longer I play. This seems to occur only if I use high detail
textures.

http://www.nic.fi/~aape/MafiaCorruption.jpg

Second glitch:
After a while of playing may happen so that screen just
freezes, then goes blank and after a few seconds picture
comes back and game goes on. I can hear all the sounds
still going under the frozen/blank screen. It may also do
this freezing several times in a short period of time.

I get this bug to come up only if I use heavier settings like
4xAA and all the High Quality. Sounds like a overheating
problem at first but it simply can't be, because 5.01's work
fine with the same settings. I can play about 5 minutes before
this blanking bug starts to harass me.

Btw. I'm using Radeon 9600pro. No tweaks, no oc'ing
and I always wiped out previous drivers by using Driver
Cleaner.

Too bad, according to benchmarks 5.04's seem to improve
UT2003 performance quite nicely and perhaps other games
too which are using the Unreal engine :-(

Obviously it's not a common problem.
Maybe your card is faulty, or AGP drivers or something system related?

 

[Andi Cole]

Have you tried the latest 5.4 catalyst drivers or are those the ones you
mean anyway.

 

[de Moni]

Maybe your card is faulty, or AGP drivers or something system related?

If my card would be faulty, then I suppose I would be
getting corrupted textures and stuff regardless of what
driver version I'm using? Now 5.01 and below that
seem to be working OK.

Already tried re-installing the latest VIA Hyperions.
But I think this problem came after I changed my mobo
from Asrock k7s8x -> k7vt4apro, strange.

 

[de Moni]

Have you tried the latest 5.4 catalyst drivers or are those the ones you
mean anyway.

If you meant me, yes I have recently went through drivers
from 4.12 to 5.04, only those mentioned in the subject are
causing trouble.

It would be OK for me to use 5.01's that are latest working
drivers, but performance boost offered by 5.04's in games
based on Unreal engine is a bit tempting

 

[dino]

do you have SP2 in?...did you reformat or do a repair install after changing
the M/B?

 

[Minotaur]

So what's up with these Catalysts? With all of them I get the
same kind of checkered texture corruption in several games
(Silent Storm, Mafia, UT2003) which only gets worse the
longer I play. This seems to occur only if I use high detail
textures.

http://www.nic.fi/~aape/MafiaCorruption.jpg

Second glitch:
After a while of playing may happen so that screen just
freezes, then goes blank and after a few seconds picture
comes back and game goes on. I can hear all the sounds
still going under the frozen/blank screen. It may also do
this freezing several times in a short period of time.

I get this bug to come up only if I use heavier settings like
4xAA and all the High Quality. Sounds like a overheating
problem at first but it simply can't be, because 5.01's work
fine with the same settings. I can play about 5 minutes before
this blanking bug starts to harass me.

Btw. I'm using Radeon 9600pro. No tweaks, no oc'ing
and I always wiped out previous drivers by using Driver
Cleaner.

Too bad, according to benchmarks 5.04's seem to improve
UT2003 performance quite nicely and perhaps other games
too which are using the Unreal engine :-(

Add some more case cooling, the newer drivers apparently puch things a
little harder and warmer.

 

[Minotaur]

Add some more case cooling, the newer drivers apparently puch things a
little harder and warmer.

BTW should have added, use ATI tool and under-clock your card.
Then go and see if you get ceashes again, easy way to test for heat stress..

 

[de Moni]

Add some more case cooling, the newer drivers apparently puch things a
little harder and warmer.

Well that sounds interesting, didn't know that software
could make hardware run hotter than usual.

 

[de Moni]

do you have SP2 in?...did you reformat or do a repair install
after changing the M/B?

I did do repair install but as far as I've heard that doesn't really
fix things that well? And I didn't quite have the energy to start
installing XP and all my apps from scratch.

*update* Installed 5.2 Omegas as well and behold!
No messed up textures or blank screens so far. Better hope
things stay this way and Omega-tweaked 5.4 Catalysts are
coming soon.

 

[Ben Pope]

Well that sounds interesting, didn't know that software
could make hardware run hotter than usual.

The video would run much cooler if it rendered everything in software,
no? Software controls the hardware, so if the software becomes more
efficient (perhaps re-ordering certain instruction), it can make more
requests of the hardware.

I doubt that one revision driver update for a card thats 2 years old
would make a significant difference, though.

Ben

 

[Ken Maltby]

I did do repair install but as far as I've heard that doesn't really
fix things that well? And I didn't quite have the energy to start
installing XP and all my apps from scratch.

*update* Installed 5.2 Omegas as well and behold!
No messed up textures or blank screens so far. Better hope
things stay this way and Omega-tweaked 5.4 Catalysts are
coming soon.

I think you have found one of the reasons that there are
a number of us who are willing to wait for the Omega
version of the drivers to come out each time. I hope
that you sent a few bucks his way, as it appears that he
could use the support.

Luck;
Ken

 

[de Moni]

I think you have found one of the reasons that there are
a number of us who are willing to wait for the Omega
version of the drivers to come out each time. I hope
that you sent a few bucks his way, as it appears that he
could use the support.

Well hopefully he's getting some kind of compensation
from the banners I clicked, the least thing I could do at
the moment...