Cautionary Statement: Latest Catalyst drivers

[Guest Damar Stiehl]

Installed latest Catalyst drivers this morning (03/09 release).

 

Started TSL.

 

The moment I loaded up a saved game, the whole screen was garbled and I literally couldn't see anything but character portraits. Menu was functioning fine.

 

Had to roll back to the previous version.

 

Mind you that I always had the latest drivers up until now and had no problems with any games, TSL included.

 

So, I would not suggest installing the latest release, at least as long as you are playing TSL.

[Astatine]

Wot again?!

 

Much as I try to convince myself that hardware fanboyism is lame, I can't help but wonder how Nvidia manage to get away with far fewer game breaking bugs despite releasing drivers three times less often...

 

There's something wrong there somewhere...

 

~cuddles his 6800GT~ "

[Haitoku]

Wot again?! 

 

Much as I try to convince myself that hardware fanboyism is lame, I can't help but wonder how Nvidia manage to get away with far fewer game breaking bugs despite releasing drivers three times less often...

 

There's something wrong there somewhere...

 

~cuddles his 6800GT~  "

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

It's only OGL really... But it does blow though... 4.11 still the best for TSL I think, maybe next driver realease will be better >_>

 

Still love ati though ^^

 

~Cuddles his x800xl, which is completely on par with the 6800 GT, but cost 200$ less ^_^~

[Astatine]

Wot again?! 

 

Much as I try to convince myself that hardware fanboyism is lame, I can't help but wonder how Nvidia manage to get away with far fewer game breaking bugs despite releasing drivers three times less often...

 

There's something wrong there somewhere...

 

~cuddles his 6800GT~  "

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

It's only OGL really... But it does blow though... 4.11 still the best for TSL I think, maybe next driver realease will be better >_>

 

Still love ati though ^^

 

~Cuddles his x800xl, which is completely on par with the 6800 GT, but cost 200$ less ^_^~

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I bought my 6800GT when they were new and the X800 series were still pretty much unavailable but were I buying now I think I still might. Surprised at the price difference where you are. Here in the UK the X800XL is cheaper, but only by about

[themacman]

you've got to give it to Nvidia they've got their act together since the forceware driver set

before that nVidia drivers used to suck now they surpass Ati which is pretty amazing knowing Ati used to have top notch driver which now stink like they are rotten.

 

Nvidia is getting better Ati is getting bloated.

[Haitoku]

Wot again?! 

 

Much as I try to convince myself that hardware fanboyism is lame, I can't help but wonder how Nvidia manage to get away with far fewer game breaking bugs despite releasing drivers three times less often...

 

There's something wrong there somewhere...

 

~cuddles his 6800GT~  "

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

It's only OGL really... But it does blow though... 4.11 still the best for TSL I think, maybe next driver realease will be better >_>

 

Still love ati though ^^

 

~Cuddles his x800xl, which is completely on par with the 6800 GT, but cost 200$ less ^_^~

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I bought my 6800GT when they were new and the X800 series were still pretty much unavailable but were I buying now I think I still might. Surprised at the price difference where you are. Here in the UK the X800XL is cheaper, but only by about

[Guest Damar Stiehl]

Actually I love my 9700Pro, even tho it's starting to show its age. Aside from the TSL failure with the latest Cats, it's never given me any trouble.

 

But, be forewarned by my sad experience with these latest Cats.

[kungfutse]

Heh, I'm still using Omega 4.10 beta driver set and haven't had a single problem with my 9800PRO (XT board with XT bios flashed) . Both KotORs run smoothly @ 1024x768 with 4xAA/8xAF (I prefer anti-aliasing and little prettier textures over resolution). Other games (HL2, Chronicles of Riddick) run smoothly with almost maxed out settings and even Vampire: The Masquarede - Bloodlines runs playably.

 

I guess what I'm trying to say is, that the newest drivers isn't always the magical solution to problems. I usually update drivers only if they provide concrete _gaming_ performance boost (and remember, you don't play 3D Mark) or the game simply refuses to work with older drivers (haven't had a single game yet).

 

As for ATi's drivers, I'd take Omega Drivers (http://www.omegadrivers.net) anyday over the stock ATi reference drivers, they just plain and simply suck.

[Judge Hades]

ATI makes great cards... and crappy drivers. Even more reason to go with NVidia

[dabise]

I've been with ATI for over 10 years now. About 3 years ago I picked up a GeForce 4 card because of an outstanding deal at my local vendor (which was replaced with a Raedon just last year) and I am regretting going back to ATI.

 

 

ATI drivers have been nothing but grief for me for the last year.

[Colrom]

I'm sorry you are having trouble

 

But the new ATI catalyst drivers have worked fine with KoToR for me.

 

Perhaps your generalization is premature.

[Rambutaan]

Yeah looks like ATi users will have to wait another month until 5.4 come out. Note that the latest 5.3 release acknowledges the problems with KOTOR 2 which means it's likely they'll fix it in the next patch:

 

http://www2.ati.com/drivers/Catalyst_53_release_notes.html

 

And here's a list of the issues:

 

# Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 2: Playing the game under Windows XP with an ATI RADEON 9800 series installed, results in display corruption being noticed when changing the in-game options from low to maximum Topic number 737-10091

 

# Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic: Loading the Dantooine level of the game under Windows XP results in slow game performance Topic # 737-10092

 

# Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 2: Setting the graphic option in the CATALYST

[DemonKing]

I just switched from a 9800Pro to a Geforce 6800GT - the pro was my first and last ATI card (at least until Nvidia totally loses the plot). The image quality was great but the drivers sucked - the rapid driver releases meant that while problems were often fixed, all too often they screwed support up for other titles.

 

I'll stick with Nvidia updating their drivers every few months then ATI spitting out crap updates every month. I've never had a problem with Nivida drivers and any game, but with ATI I was often tearing my hair out.

[Kiwegapa]

The reason that the 5.3 drivers do not have any KOTOR fixes is because ATI has two driver teams working at the same time, and they alternate releases. This gives them two months to put together each release instead of one, and they also can share information with each other, although not every fix can go in before the team finishes.

 

The reason that KOTOR is on the Known Issues list is because I and others have contacted ATI and explained the issues that need to be fixed. This is a pretty good sign that the issues will be dealt with by next driver release, since the fact that they're in the list shows that ATI has received enough reports to make them an issue and have verified that they do occur.

 

Most of the KOTOR 2 bugs are actually KOTOR 2 itself, and the upcoming patch will deal with them. Catalyst 5.4 should just make things that much smoother.

[Colrom]

Test for promotion.

[MaglorD]

Installed latest Catalyst drivers this morning (03/09 release).

 

Started TSL.

 

The moment I loaded up a saved game, the whole screen was garbled and I literally couldn't see anything but character portraits. Menu was functioning fine.

 

Had to roll back to the previous version.

 

Mind you that I always had the latest drivers up until now and had no problems with any games, TSL included.

 

So, I would not suggest installing the latest release, at least as long as you are playing TSL.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Hmm weird. I just upgraded from the 5.2(old control panel) to 5.3(CCC) and haven't noticed what you mentioned. In fact, the new drivers seem better in that I'm not getting graphic glitches running at 1280x960.