ATI users take note ....

[[AK]Abaddon]

New Omega Drivers are out. Reportedly, there is quite a boost in performance for 256mb cards in this set. They also allow you to control Catalyst AI (ATI's performance optimization tech).

www.omegadrivers.net

[[AK]The Beast]

Dang...my ATI cards are both of the 128 MB variety. Actually, the greatest strain on my 9600SE is playing video out to the TV--I don't play games on that PC. It's nice for me because I get MLB.tv for free with my MSN Premium subscription, which comes free with my Verizon DSL, and I can play the games on my TV--just as if I was watching it on regular TV.

Do you know of any good tweaks that'll allow me to squeeze some extra performance/life out of my 9500 Pro? I checked a link you posted previously and I can't cleverly "disguise" it as a 9700 Pro.

[[AK]Abaddon]

Supposedly this driver gives a boost to all ATI R3XX and up cards. Both of yours fall in that category. It enables Windows Media Video acceleration, so that might help with your video performance issue. Also, setting AI to high might result in a very noticeable performance gain.

[Ages]

Cool, thanks AB!

Ok, downloaded and installed; just need to tweak them a little bit. I've noticed no degridation in performance. I'll have to run them for a bit to see if I get a real boost. Thanks again

[[AK]StitchJones]

Does anyone know how to get the DVI out for the ATI 9600xt series to display a high resolution on HDTV sets? I have some .ts 1080i video streams saved to my computer and I can only get a reduced resoultion on my screen. Someone said I should use Powerstrip. HELP

[[AK]Abaddon]

Stitch,

If you download the latest Unian Catalyst set (based on 4.9 Catalyst), it has an option for HDTV in it. Check the forums at Driverheaven for a download link.

Good luck,

[Ages]

Here's what the readme says:


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.

**************
REMINDERS:

A- If you have the normal ATI drivers installed, uninstall the ATI Control Panel
BEFORE upgrading to these drivers, the Omega Drivers already have the CP
integrated and another CP will cause conflicts or other problems.

B- There is no need to uninstall ANY previous drivers (ATI or OMEGA) when
installing these, the new ones will overwrite any previous settings, but if
you still want to uninstall them completely, is ok.

C- In Windows 2k/XP, ALWAYS disable DDC in the ATI "Displays/Monitor" CP after
installing drivers to be able to use ALL the refresh rates and resolutions
your monitor supports, also this is the best way to avoid the 60Hz RR bug.

D- The WDM drivers for VIVO and AIW cards are not included, but they can be
downloaded separately from a link in my drivers page.

E- The Radeon cards do support FastWrites and they will work with it on
(on some machines), but it is not recommended, there is NO SPEED gain
when using FW, and this option will affect your PC's stability a LOT,
most game crashes and problems are because FW is enabled.

F- Install the included Multires utility to have access to ALL the available
resolutions in the Omega Drivers, standard Windows doesn't show all of them.

G- Always uninstall the previous version of RadLinker before installing the new
one included in the latest Omega Drivers.

H- After installing the new drivers and rebooting, if your desktop is SLOW and
games won't run, is because AGP acceleration has been disabled by Windows, in
order to fix this you MUST re-install the latest AGP chipset drivers for your
Mother Board (this also includes laptops). After rebooting check the Advanced
SmartGart Options in the Omega Start Menu and see if at least AGP/PCI read are
both ENABLED, if all of them are enabled, the better, but some MBs doesn't
support AGP/PCI write functions, if all still disabled, just click on "Retest
All" and press OK to restart.

I- If you are using an Omega soft-mod and you are experiencing crashes, black
screens, artifacts or the "check board effect" during game play, run the new
included Driver Swapper utility and select the Normal driver, the reason is
that your card is not accepting the soft-mod due to broken/incompatible
hardware.

J- You can switch between the Special OGL and Normal OGL file at any time without
the need to reinstall the drivers by using the included OpenGL File Swapper in
the Omega Start Menu.

I don't recommend the use of ANY external tweakers with my drivers (specially
Rage3D Tweaker), as they override my special settings and will make my work
useless. The only time I recommend a tweaker is when you have a specific
problem with a specific tweak and need to change it in order to make the drivers
work correctly. Also if you use a tweaker for overclocking, FSAA, Gamma or
Aniso settings, is just fine, but you'll be better off using the integrated ATI
CP for that (which is ok by me if you change any setting in it).

If you have any problems with this drivers please go to my webpage and look in
the ATI help section for answers. If still have problems look for the drivers
thread in www.driverheaven.net forums and let me know what is going on.

If you happen to find a new tweak or fix for a specific game or many games
and it proves that it works then drop me an E-Mail (don't post it in the
forums), I'll make sure credit will be granted to that person in this INFO file.

IMPORTANT: Don't bother ATI about these drivers as they are unsupported by them!

************************************************** *******************************

O M E G A D R I V E
"Please support my site by clicking on the ads, Thanks!"
http://www.omegadrivers.net

May GOD bless everybody!



For some reason this doesn't come with the download.

[[AK]Rocks]

Stitch with all the money your spending on TV's you would think you would have an x800 by now. 9600xt???