To all ATI GPU owners

[Dukelord]

Killer Sneak from dna-drivers.com has just released another version of his optimized drivers which intergrates ATI Tray Tool from Ray Adams and promises a lot of tweaks and optimization....it even has support for ATI Mobility GPUs...

DNA-drivers - DNA-ATi 5.1.7.5x32

Can ATI GPU owners who are interested pls download and install and provide a feedback on performance and memory issues partaining to the new drivers on this thread? I'm interested in knowing for example how an emulator like PCSX2 fares with the new drivers....More FPS? Better texture and quality? Pls let us know? Be sure to post your system specs and the tweaks you did using the new drivers..

[firyace]

from what i heard, its not like any different than any other custom drivers. I had just switch from the omega drivers to the warcat drivers yesterday (of which i heard that it pwns omega drivers), I just have like a 1-6 fps raise, so its not that much, provided that most of your games runs at 80 something frames.

I am pretty sure that there will be no change in the performance of pcsx2 whether you switch the drivers or not.

[Dukelord]

what does "pwns" mean? Does this warcat driver have compatibility for ATI Mobility GPU's? Specifically ATI mobility radeon xpress 200M? Pls give me a link to the site lemme see... Thanks

[StergioS]

The slang term Pwn, used primarily in the Internet gaming culture, means to soundly defeat an opponent. It is sometimes used for taunting of an in-game enemy and rubbing in victories. It can also be used, especially by non-gamers, in the context of getting "pwned" by The Man.


wiki is your friend

oh and dont expect miracles from changing your drivers

[Dukelord]

Dude gimme a direct link to the warcat drivers...Do you know if it works with ATI X200M?

[refraction]

Originally Posted by Dukelord

Killer Sneak from dna-drivers.com has just released another version of his optimized drivers which intergrates ATI Tray Tool from Ray Adams and promises a lot of tweaks and optimization....it even has support for ATI Mobility GPUs...

DNA-drivers - DNA-ATi 5.1.7.5x32

Can ATI GPU owners who are interested pls download and install and provide a feedback on performance and memory issues partaining to the new drivers on this thread? I'm interested in knowing for example how an emulator like PCSX2 fares with the new drivers....More FPS? Better texture and quality? Pls let us know? Be sure to post your system specs and the tweaks you did using the new drivers..

why dont you just try it yourself? instead of getting others to do your dirty work?

[firyace]

dude, try tweakRus for warcat drivers, and from what I heard, DNA has alot of missing video card IDs, so you might to ask to implement your ID in their forums.


And to be honest with you, with 200m, changing drivers won't mean anything to you, it would still not play PCSX2 or any games like that. Heck, not even my x1300pro 128 mobile can stand a chance, and my laptop is a CoreDuo with 2Gb of Ram.

[Dukelord]

Yeah I was actually aving problems installing the drivers, so I contacted Killer Sneak the author and so he told me to give him my DeviceID which I did...
Can you pls give me a link for tweakRus for warcat drivers...I googled and I'm getting a lot of conflicting results...At least I'll be able to play Syberia 2, Scarface, Company of Heroes and You are Empty (all PC games)

[Rockford_C64]

I've never been a fan of these so-called "Tweaked" drivers.

ATI, know what they're doing, or in the case of the 7.xx drivers, perhaps they don't, but my point being, you can't polish a turd. Although, personally, I get on with the 7.4 set, perfectly fine.

If you really want some tweaks, do-it-your-self style, then download ATI's drivers only, no CP or CCC, then find the latest ATI Tray Tools, by Ray Adams, and install them both, manually.
Then, goto one of the forums where Ray has posted exactly what the tweaks do, I believe they're on Driverheaven's forum as part of a sticky, and tweak each setting until you get your desired result.
Then, try out the per-game tweaks, where you can set individual tweaks/overclocks tailored to each game.

Lastly, remember that IQ is subjective. One man's negative LOD, is another man's shimmering hell.

Although, quite what you're expecting from a ATI X200M, is beyond me. I know you're stuck with it, but you cannot expect miracles from a GPU thats a few generations behind.

[StergioS]

you search and didnt find them??
XTreme-G WarCat 7.4 Pure Edition

[firyace]

Originally Posted by Rockford_C64

I've never been a fan of these so-called "Tweaked" drivers.

ATI, know what they're doing, or in the case of the 7.xx drivers, perhaps they don't, but my point being, you can't polish a turd. Although, personally, I get on with the 7.4 set, perfectly fine.

If you really want some tweaks, do-it-your-self style, then download ATI's drivers only, no CP or CCC, then find the latest ATI Tray Tools, by Ray Adams, and install them both, manually.
Then, goto one of the forums where Ray has posted exactly what the tweaks do, I believe they're on Driverheaven's forum as part of a sticky, and tweak each setting until you get your desired result.
Then, try out the per-game tweaks, where you can set individual tweaks/overclocks tailored to each game.

Lastly, remember that IQ is subjective. One man's negative LOD, is another man's shimmering hell.

Although, quite what you're expecting from a ATI X200M, is beyond me. I know you're stuck with it, but you cannot expect miracles from a GPU thats a few generations behind.

Not really, unless you have times on your hands and do alot of testing, custom drivers is better than the normal ATI ones. Not only comes in pre-modded, it has modifications where a general user won't know what is it for. Plus, they are the experts that know what is the best for the cards and whats not, so I trust them.

Alot of time, custom drivers do give me a boost in performance and video quality without the hassle to configure the whole thing yourself.

[Dukelord]

I second that firyace...Custom drivers rock!!!

[Rockford_C64]

Not really, unless you have times on your hands and do alot of testing

They cannot tell YOU whats best for YOUR system, it doesn't work like that. IF you cannot spend a bit of time on your own system, testing this stuff for yourself, then why bother with PC gaming at all ?
Their tweaks, are fixed for all games, when you install them, a sort of pre-defined set of registry entries, that just doesn't work for all games.

custom drivers is better than the normal ATI ones

Thats your opinion.

Not only comes in pre-modded, it has modifications where a general user won't know what is it for.

If you don't know what they're for, how do you know they're any good ? How do you know if they actually helped anything, in any way ?
Sure, you can go from 100fps, to 102 fps, but was it really worth it ? Are you sure your gains aren't simply error of margin ?

Plus, they are the experts that know what is the best for the cards and whats not, so I trust them.

Experts ? And ATI, aren't, no ?

Alot of time, custom drivers do give me a boost in performance and video quality without the hassle to configure the whole thing yourself.

But wouldn't you feel better if you knew what these tweaks done ? And how they work ?
I remember arguing this a few years ago, when I found out that a set of these drivers had a -2 LOD setting, meaning you had negative LOD for every game. Fine, for a game where the mipmap boundary is constantly in your sights, such as a driving game, but a complete knightmare for a game like Oblivion.

Lastly, don't you think that ATI, what with the current negative press they're getting with the R600 cards, would (if they had the means) hold back on some 'Wonder' tweak that could potentially give their cards a nice boost, without hindering IQ ?
Think about it, the ATI coders wrote these drivers, and probably know every little trick in the book to get the most from them.

I'm not ragging on at you, don't get me wrong. If you like them, then continue to use them. But, I'm just saying that YOU, yourself, can also get the most from your card, without the need for custom drivers.
And, at the end of the day, all they're doing is adding a bunch of card ID's to the .inf file, and adding tweaks like Fast Color Clear, Color Compression, Various Texture Tiling/Micro Tiling settings, etc... to the regsitry, all of which can be done with ATT. They don't have any source code to tweak, or special compiled dlls.

[firyace]

They cannot tell YOU whats best for YOUR system, it doesn't work like that. IF you cannot spend a bit of time on your own system, testing this stuff for yourself, then why bother with PC gaming at all ?
Their tweaks, are fixed for all games, when you install them, a sort of pre-defined set of registry entries, that just doesn't work for all games.

You sound like "If you don't know how to raise your voltage and fsb in your bios, why do you use a computer to word process?". The truth is, alot of people don't! Look, PC gaming is , in a sense, is a type of gaming. And what is gaming?A way of stress relieve and time killer or a form of entertainment. So now getting back to your response, I am only a casual gamer, and so I won't be sitting around all day benchmarking and tweaking my driver just to squeeze out 1-3 fps. After an 8-hour/day job, I only have a few hours on my hands to get on with my life, and only a little portion would be spent to gaming. If I would want better performance, I would get myself a 8800GTS

Thats your opinion.

Of course that is my opinion, as Dukelord asked for my opinion and I told him what I think. But if you have visited guru3d, rage3d, or driverheaven, most people would tell you that custom drivers are better than STOCK ATI catalyst, not the one that you tweaked.

If you don't know what they're for, how do you know they're any good ? How do you know if they actually helped anything, in any way ?
Sure, you can go from 100fps, to 102 fps, but was it really worth it ? Are you sure your gains aren't simply error of margin ?

I don't really need to know if they are good or not, I just install a driver and run a game, if it runs stable and the performance is at my expectations, I will stop at that point.

Experts ? And ATI, aren't, no ?

I am not saying ATI people are not experts, as they are the ones who wrote and improve the drivers. But in terms of tweaking the original drivers, the people who created custom drivers have the experience (at least more than me).

But wouldn't you feel better if you knew what these tweaks done ? And how they work ?
I remember arguing this a few years ago, when I found out that a set of these drivers had a -2 LOD setting, meaning you had negative LOD for every game. Fine, for a game where the mipmap boundary is constantly in your sights, such as a driving game, but a complete knightmare for a game like Oblivion.

Lastly, don't you think that ATI, what with the current negative press they're getting with the R600 cards, would (if they had the means) hold back on some 'Wonder' tweak that could potentially give their cards a nice boost, without hindering IQ ?
Think about it, the ATI coders wrote these drivers, and probably know every little trick in the book to get the most from them.

At university, I already know more than I want to know on how stuff works (especially on computers). Its not like I would want to learn more during my gaming time. And if you are saying that ATI's driver is already the best, why are you tweaking it . Also, as far as tweak goes, you should look at some of the descriptions that the people wrote for the given custom drivers. They are specifically either designed for IQ, or performance. People chooses custom firmware because they want either IQ or performance gain without the hassle to do the dirty work themselves.

I'm not ragging on at you, don't get me wrong. If you like them, then continue to use them. But, I'm just saying that YOU, yourself, can also get the most from your card, without the need for custom drivers.
And, at the end of the day, all they're doing is adding a bunch of card ID's to the .inf file, and adding tweaks like Fast Color Clear, Color Compression, Various Texture Tiling/Micro Tiling settings, etc... to the regsitry, all of which can be done with ATT. They don't have any source code to tweak, or special compiled dlls.

Its not the first day that I know that it can be done with ATT, but sometimes its not like a great deal to change the settings so that it will work at the most optimal condition. Sure, tweaking it urself would probably lead to the best performance, but for me, I just want the fastest gain of performance in the shortest of time.

In the end, it all comes down to personal preference, as you had your opinion and I had mine...

[Rockford_C64]

You sound like "If you don't know how to raise your voltage and fsb in your bios, why do you use a computer to word process?"

Poor analogy. You can damage your CPU, Motherboard, Memory, by upping voltages, fsb's, especially if you don't know what you are doing. The worst you can do with a tweak, is a driver re-install, or if it's a total screw-up, a windows re-install.

I am only a casual gamer, and so I won't be sitting around all day benchmarking and tweaking my driver just to squeeze out 1-3 fps. After an 8-hour/day job, I only have a few hours on my hands to get on with my life, and only a little portion would be spent to gaming.

Oh I agree, I myself only get a few hours per day, to surf, and game, and anything else I can fit in my day. Thing is, you can spend all day just installing these drivers, just to get a 1-3 fps, and in the end you're no better off than you were using ATI's own drivers.

But if you have visited guru3d, rage3d, or driverheaven, most people would tell you that custom drivers are better than STOCK ATI catalyst, not the one that you tweaked.

Yes, the very same ones who WONT, under any circumstances, try tweaking for themselves. I take a lot of what they say, with a grain of salt.

ATI's driver is already the best, why are you tweaking it

I don't tweak drivers anymore, I got fed up with that, back in the Cat 5.xx days. What I do now, is a per-game tweak, a game profile tailored to that specific game. It works best, I know it works best as I do it for a lot of people (I build custom systems for a living). This is far different to tweaking drivers, as I often just go for a good GPU+Mem overclock, which yields far superior results than a simple tweak.

In the end, it all comes down to personal preference, as you had your opinion and I had mine...

Again, I agree. I'm just pointing out that you have a choice, if you want it.

[firyace]

Poor analogy. You can damage your CPU, Motherboard, Memory, by upping voltages, fsb's, especially if you don't know what you are doing. The worst you can do with a tweak, is a driver re-install, or if it's a total screw-up, a windows re-install.

Same level as your "if you don't tweak, why game?" analogy.

Oh I agree, I myself only get a few hours per day, to surf, and game, and anything else I can fit in my day. Thing is, you can spend all day just installing these drivers, just to get a 1-3 fps, and in the end you're no better off than you were using ATI's own drivers.

What??
You just told us in your previous post that you tweak using ATT for stock drivers because you are saying that it gives you better performance, yet now ur saying the directly opposite. Do you just notice that you are contradicting yourself?
Mind you, I only install a new driver because I have corrupted my last one, and I am not the kind of guy who spends all day installing drivers.

I don't tweak drivers anymore, I got fed up with that, back in the Cat 5.xx days. What I do now, is a per-game tweak, a game profile tailored to that specific game. It works best, I know it works best as I do it for a lot of people (I build custom systems for a living). This is far different to tweaking drivers, as I often just go for a good GPU+Mem overclock, which yields far superior results than a simple tweak.

Even the speaker himself gets fed up with tweaking, and you are convincing other people how rubbish these custom drivers are and people should tweak it themselves? And yet the next sentence contradicts himself again by saying tweaking every single game individually and put them into separate profiles?

Note to mods: Please close this thread, its getting off topic now, thankyou

[Dukelord]

Pretty good points you guys have made....then again it all boils down to taste and expectations of how you expect you multimedia...especially games...to perform....Also for some very stupid reason, GPU manufacturers and vendors may decide to discontinue support for a particular brand leaving owners in the lurch...Thus people turn to custom drivers to satisfy their needs...i for one support custom drivers...As long as I understand what each options do...

Originally Posted by firyace

Of course that is my opinion, as Dukelord asked for my opinion and I told him what I think. But if you have visited guru3d, rage3d, or driverheaven, most people would tell you that custom drivers are better than STOCK ATI catalyst, not the one that you tweaked.

Are you sure Dukelord is a dude?

[firyace]

Originally Posted by Dukelord

Pretty good points you guys have made....then again it all boils down to taste and expectations of how you expect you multimedia...especially games...to perform....Also for some very stupid reason, GPU manufacturers and vendors may decide to discontinue support for a particular brand leaving owners in the lurch...Thus people turn to custom drivers to satisfy their needs...i for one support custom drivers...As long as I understand what each options do...



Are you sure Dukelord is a dude?

ooops sorry missy

[Rockford_C64]

Same level as your "if you don't tweak, why game?" analogy.

Learn what analogy means, BEFORE you use it.

You just told us in your previous post that you tweak using ATT for stock drivers because you are saying that it gives you better performance, yet now ur saying the directly opposite. Do you just notice that you are contradicting yourself?
Mind you, I only install a new driver because I have corrupted my last one, and I am not the kind of guy who spends all day installing drivers.

Read what I said, before you start throwing insults. Get your facts straight, sonny boy. I never insulted you, if you can't talk openly in a forum, then leave.
I said, you can spend all day installing TWEAKED drivers, only to get a 1-3 fps, and is it worth it. By the time you've bug-tested these TWEAKED drivers, you may as well installed stock drivers and spent LESS time doing it yourself. Understand now ?

Even the speaker himself gets fed up with tweaking, and you are convincing other people how rubbish these custom drivers are and people should tweak it themselves?

You clearly haven't a single clue as to what I'm on about. So lets leave it here. If you can't distinguish between tweaking a set of drivers, and per-game profiling, then there's no hope you at all.

The end.