New Omega-Drivers based on Cat 4.11 out

[Thomas Engler]

Hi!

New Omega-Drivers are available at
www.omegadrivers.net/ati/win2k_xp.php. These drivers are based on the
8.07 beta (i.e. Cat 4.11 beta)

Here's part of the readme:

OMEGADRIVE here!
These are my "optimized" drivers for the ATI Radeon family of video
cards.

What's New? (2k/XP 2.5.90)

* Based on the Beta Catalyst 8.07 drivers.

* Fixed Radlinker installation issues, now it should give NO errors.

* Updated the Advanced 3D control panel to include Color/Gamma settings,
so I disabled
the normal ATI Color tab.

* Enabled WMV hardware acceleration.

* Fixed a bug with some Radeon cards (mostly 8500 and 9000) which caused
texture
corruption in some 3D games/applications. Thanks to lockves for the
tip.

* Fixed a few install/uninstall issues which caused some old settings to
stay in the
registry even after installing/uninstalling the drivers.

* Enabled Geometry Instancing in supported cards (R300 and up).

* Enabled AI support without the need to use or install CCC.

* The Advanced 3D Control Panel has changed, now both D3D and OGL
settings are applied
using Global controls in the 3D tab, and specific D3D and OGL settings
have been moved
to the Options tab. This was the only way to add AI support to the
drivers.

* Found the cause of the laptop video playback problem, see note #1 for
the fix.

Known bugs:
* Hibernation and Standby are not working properly on some cards and
laptops.
* The Special CS OGL driver CAN'T BE CONTROLLED with the new menu
options, see note #5.

**************
Important Notes:

1. Well, at last, the fix for the dreaded overlay video bug has been
found. The cause IS NOT
the ATI drivers or any of my settings, the cause is a hardware bug,
more specifically a
BIOS bug. In the testing, two people already updated their Sager
notebooks with a new BIOS
provided by Sager and the video problem is GONE! So I encourage you
to go to your
manufacturer's web page and see if a new bios update has been issued
for your laptop, and
if not, e-mail the manufacturer so they can rush out a fix for this.

2. CCC will work with the Omega Drivers, but is NOT recommended that you
install it, all
the functions found in CCC are already included with RadLinker Omega
Edition or will
be included in a near future as this new CP project develops.

3. Now the Omega Drivers will use a built-in, special RadLinker version
("Advaced 3D" tab)
with the following features:

Uses NO resources.
Doesn't require .NET to work.
New settings for both D3D and OGL.
Golbal controls to set both D3D and OGL in one pass.
Automatic Per-application profiles.
Integrated Overclocking.
Desktop and Game Color/Gamma control.
Game Color/Gamma control for profiles.
Temporal AA settings (T2 & T3) and Temporal AA Threshold control.
Trilinear filtering can be forced for Anisotropic filtering.
Catalyst AI support.

This new CP was made in conjunction with ChrisW, maker of Radlinker,
as an exclusive
feature for the Omega Drivers and we will keep adding features in
future releases.

4. Since RadLinker is now a vital part of the Omega Drivers, it will not
be an option
to select during setup anymore, it will now automatically look for
and uninstall ANY
previous version and replace it with the new one.

5. Since the menu changed, all of the commands in the CP that control
AA/AF/VSync/etc. will
NOT work with the Special CS driver. The reason is that the file
used for CS is an old
OGL file and the new CP uses NEW registry keys to control the D3D and
OGL settings, but
in order to control them, the driver needs to recognize these
commands. The default
internal setting for the Special OGL file is all High Quality, no
AA/AF/VSync.

Thomas

 

[Jon Cortelyou]

Nice!

I've already installed the new ATI 4.9 drivers. Do I have to uninstall that
driver before installing the new Omega drivers?

Thanks!

 

[Glitch]

Nice!

I've already installed the new ATI 4.9 drivers. Do I have to uninstall that
driver before installing the new Omega drivers?

It would be very advisable to do that.
The new drivers are worth the download only if you have a 256 MB
card,though.I have an ATI Radeon 9700PRO(128 MB) and I saw some
improvements but if you have a 256 MB card you're gonna have much better
FPS in games and even better 3DMark scores.

 

[Jon Cortelyou]

Ah good to know. I only have at 9700 Pro with 128MB. I guess I'll hold
off.

 

[David Shorthouse]

Known bugs:
* Hibernation and Standby are not working properly on some cards and
laptops.

This is what concerns me most because I use standby. Is there a posted list
of what cards do/do not work with standby?

Dave

 

[Mike]

I have a 9800np, nf2 board and theres no issue.

mike

 

[smithy]

Glitch you are referring to the new 4.11 drivers? why worth only if you
have a 256mb card, i have one of these, whats the difference?

smithy?

 

[Glitch]

Glitch you are referring to the new 4.11 drivers? why worth only if you
have a 256mb card, i have one of these, whats the difference?

There was supposed to be a BIG memory allocation error when using
previous drivers with 256 MB cards.It's now fixed and you can see huge
differences.Some people are reporting up to a 1000 3DMark points
improvement with X800 PRO cards but you should see much better FPS with
any 256 MB card.

 

[SLB]

There was supposed to be a BIG memory allocation error when using
previous drivers with 256 MB cards.It's now fixed and you can see huge
differences.Some people are reporting up to a 1000 3DMark points
improvement with X800 PRO cards but you should see much better FPS with
any 256 MB card.

I think its only a prob with certain 256 cards. I just tried the new
omega driver with my ATI X800XT PE and there was no difference in
3dmark 03 scores in comparison to ATI's 4.9 cat driver.

 

[FB]

Man these are just BETA drivers between 4.9 and 4.10. True performance
is up, but the official ones are just around the corner.
Then Omega can mod the new drivers.