I need a solid driver

[QV]

Maybe it's not the video cards. Could your case could use some more air
flow from a fan?

DaveL

I already have a maximum complement of 3 fans - 1 pulls in cool air from the
front and 2 exhaust warm air out the back. The air circulation should be
adequate but it's obviously not enough because I can almost eliminate all
the artifacts if I remove the cover and aim a 16" fan directly at the inside
of the case. I'm sure that with even more extraordinary cooling (water
cooling? dedicated air conditioner?) , I could get the card to run 100%
artifact-free but IMO a video card should be engineered to work properly
even in poorly cooled systems.

 

[J. Clarke]

I already have a maximum complement of 3 fans - 1 pulls in cool air from
the front and 2 exhaust warm air out the back. The air circulation should
be adequate but it's obviously not enough because I can almost eliminate
all the artifacts if I remove the cover and aim a 16" fan directly at the
inside of the case. I'm sure that with even more extraordinary cooling
(water cooling? dedicated air conditioner?) , I could get the card to run
100% artifact-free but IMO a video card should be engineered to work
properly even in poorly cooled systems.

Something's fishy here. Sounds like your case is very marginal for modern
high performance components.

 

[J. Clarke]

Because I got what I got and I don't have the damn money to get anything
else.

I hate to seem uncharitable, but when someone is bitching about a high-end
video board and talking about all the games he's havin trouble with then
says that he can't afford anything else, my first reaction is that it's
time to toss the games and start looking for work.

Otherwise I would be going NVIDIA. The Omega 5.1s work great so
far,
but in the end this card has issues. Rome still has graphical anomalies
in
regards to smoke, I can't remember when it didn't for some reason. But at
least the system doesn't die when I launch flaming onager shots like 5.2 -
5.4 does.

To go off topic for a sec, I owned a Geforce 2 - 4 and I have to say that
outside of one instance with a bad release that messed up Desert Combat, I
never had issues like this. I mean we can all claim to never have had
issues, and it may be true. But I have definitely noticed patterns where
ATI drivers just seem to have more issues, and usually more serious.

As for the AIW vs non AIW, I couldn't tell you. I honestly don't think
its that big of an issue, and I could always overclock to regain lost FPS
if I needed it.
-phil

I see every day folks complaining about ATI drivers well I have a 9700
pro combined with 2500 Barton system with 1 gig of ram and I have never
had any
problems with my graphics.

I run the following game with no issues

Doom3
HL2
MS century of flight
NFSUnderground
FarCry
BattleFeild 1942
and so on

so I don't know why there are so many out there that have problems

maybe they should not upgrade there drivers just to upgrade drivers
I am still using 4.11

You should only upgrade your drivers if you have issues that have been
corrected in the new drivers release else stick with what you have..

and don't forget to follow the directions to install the new ones....

ASUS A7N8X Deluxe
2500 Barton
1gig PC3200
120 gig SATA
ATI 9700 pro




I have a 9700 Pro AIW. I don't use the TV capabilities though.
Anyways,
here is my issue. I play Rome: Total War and Battle for middle earth
frequently. Using Cat 5.1s I get optimal performance out of Rome it
seems,
but BFME crashes. With 5.2 and 5.3, BFME doesn't crash but Rome easily
gets
slowed down.

I'm about to test 5.4, but odds are that Rome will still perform
poorly.
So
what drivers can I use? Omega didn't make a 5.1, only 4.12 and 5.2. I
though about DNA drivers, although I don't know the install routine for
them. I need some advice here cause it seems like im totally screwed.
-Phil

i run all the mentioned first person shooters and rome.
i currently use cat5.2 from ati. the 5.2s did not kill my hl2
framerate as some tech-site review claimed it would i previously used
ati's cat5.1 as well as omega's 5.1 [omegas claim is my monitor as a
plug & play monitor with max res of 1600x1200 but as its a 1280x1024
flat panel i binned them for ati's that recognise my monitor
correctly] - i've had zero gfx problems.
i had zero gfx problems with the 4series cats before that - i only
tried 5.1 because they were current when i did my 6monthly reinstall;
i used the 5.2s which were current when the hdd failed a month later -
otherwise i'd still be on 4.something which worked fine & were stable.
my card is a 'built by ati' 9700pro therefore the ati drivers are
specifically suited to my card. on the other hand, those using ati
chipset cards manufactured by other companies should use drivers from
their particular manufacturer as the design may deviate from ati's
reference.
barton 3000/333
abit nf7 s2g
512mb [2x256] pc3200
that said, from all the posts in ngs & forums i've seen over the
years, all-in-wonder cards can be problematic for many
implementations, i've not seen many posts indicating fixes, though.
i also remember reading somewhere that all-in-wonder cards do not give
anywhere close to the game performance of corresponding non wonders,
ie - your 9700pro a-i-w will not provide the same game performance my
9700pro will.
as you don't use the a-i-w functionality, why didn't you just buy a
9700pro?

dr ratt

 

[Airman Thunderbird]

Had a similar problem with a video card and high case temps. Solved it
by getting a new heatsink and fan for the CPU. Since then have suspected
that just removing and blowing out the dust from the original fan/sink
would have worked about as well.

 

[Philburg2]

Yeah I think some people forget that dust is a huge system killer. Im going
to disassemble and rebuild my machine just to clean it thoroughly. I
cleaned out a cpu fan once and the temps dropped 9 degrees Celsius.
-Phil