I am still running the 5.7 drivers on my AIW 9800 pro and was wondering -
since my system is an older Abit NF7-S based system w/ AMD XP-M 2600
cpu, 1
gb ddr - if I will see any improvement by using later drivers?
I do use the TV feature and the pvr features (video tape to dvd) etc.
along
w/ office functions, web, and some gaming.
Everything works fine now so I don't want to upgrade unless there is a
marked improvement.
Thanks.
There is an argument for "if it ain't broke don't fix it". ATI themselves
don't officially advocate the driver upgrade bandwagon that we tend to
jump on. Probably a third of posts to this group are along the lines of
"I changed to this driver and now it won't..." ;-) However, there are
bound to be an awful lot of trouble free upgrades too. You only see the
problem ones don't you, really.
Bear in mind that the drivers evolve to fix bugs and to boost performance,
particularly on newer cards and for newer games. Like me, you have a
middling (with respect) system and an "older" card. I only recently went
from 5.11 (Cat) to 6.3 (Omegas) on my Athlon 3200/9600 PRO system and I
have felt no difference on this platform, given the level of 3D apps/games
I can run with this hardware. Users like us don't get much from the
improved optimizations and the games I run, 2-3 years old as they are,
have almost certainly had all their related bugs fixed in the 5 series
drivers. You also face the additional task of making the AIW TV work
again!
If you do it, uninstall the old driver and control panel properly before
you load the new version. A backup wouldn't go amiss, or a restore point,
as you ought to be able to reverse the change. You'll also have to decide
whether to install .NET and run the CCC or use an alternative control
panel (FireMV drivers with control panel, Omegas, Tray Tools, etc).
I only jumped to 6.3 as I like to stay in the ball park and wanted to be
on a six series driver "for the hell of it". I'd also had *very*
occasional lock-ups that are more liklely to be something else or
temperatures or perhaps fastwrites, but I saw that also as cause to
update, trying to rule out one possible issue.
If you have no such problems, however, there's surely some justification
to sit tight. A lot depends on whether you are a fiddling fiend or not
and prepared to work at any problems, enjoying the challenge, or if it
will upset and annoy you if it won't go straight out of the box. I fall
into both categories at times, depending on the moon......
Best - Ian.
--
Using Opera's revolutionary e-mail client:
http://www.opera.com/mail/
---
avast! Antivirus: Outbound message clean.
Virus Database (VPS): 0616-3, 20/04/2006
Tested on: 20/04/2006 15:01:11
avast! - copyright (c) 1988-2005 ALWIL Software.
http://www.avast.com