Do Not Use The New Ati Catalyst Drivers

Posted: Thu Feb 10, 2005 1:57 pm

Well it has been quite a long time since I posted something like this. Yesterday Ati released a new set of video card drivers bringing it up to version 5.2. I spent part of today testing these drivers out and here are the results. I noticed a 5 fps drop in UT2004 and a startling 14.5 fps drop in Half-Life 2. Now these were supposed to be more than a set of bug fixes, they were supposed to improve scores in games and apps in the newer X-Series of card. I HIGHLY RECOMMENDED using the 5.1's for all of your gaming needs.

On a side note I will soon be doing an update to the 'Tweaking Articles' due to their popularity and the fact that some of the information needs to be updated. We now resume your Net Surfing which was already in progress.

Posted: Thu Feb 10, 2005 2:52 pm

Good 2 know

Guest

Always interesting to see claims by people that can 'see' a 5fps difference in a game ... Rolling Eyes

Don't trust numbers that are reported by anyone or anything.
Trust your own damned eyes.

Never mind that there often are 5+ fps in UT anyway, so unless you're in danger of having the fps drop below 20 fps for the entire game there's no need to worry.

Posted: Sat Feb 12, 2005 10:14 am

First the first time in a long time I would have to disagree with you JaFo. They are plenty of reasons a 5fps hit is noticable. You have to remember that even though it is '05 and I have a nice rig there are still incredibly detailed maps that make my rig sweat a little. For example CTF-Grassy Knoll. There are parts of that map that my fps drop down to 51 fps. When playing on a server with a lot of people and you dip down to Forty-something it is not only distracting it can be downright deadly. As for the CS:S video test I would imagine it wouldn't be as damaging I agree but I don't really game with CS as it is too slow paced.

Guest

First : If you're framerate already is dropping to 40-50 then you won't notice the 5fps additional drop in that location.
/me I rarely notice anything below 20 fps ... unless the framerate was quite a bit higher before or after the hiccup. I'd even dare to suggest that a rocksolid 20 +/- 0 fps system is far better than a system that averages 40 +/- 20 fps.

And second I seriously doubt that anyone can predict the amount of fps-drop based on a few benchmarks on a single system.
Even Ati doesn't even dare to give hard numbers for any improvements.

Just make sure you've done benchmarks on your own system before and afterwards and downgrade only if you've noticed 'problems' afterwards.

And if you're downgrading then you really really have to be sure you've eliminated the 'new' driver.
The safest bet is to install a standard vga-driver after running a driver-cleaner and before installing the old driver-set.

Posted: Sun Feb 13, 2005 11:25 am

No I whole heartedly would agree with you but this was a fresh OS install and the only drivers this new install had ever seen was the 5.1s I did the uninstall and then new ones and ran benchmarks to find out. I am not a rookie at this you know Wink