modified ATI drivers, does anyone use them?

LucasG

I know that there are modified ati drivers available (ie. NGO, Omega, etc...) but I don't see anyone talking about them. I know that the nvidia folks won't shutup about them, but I'd like to know which ones people have used and what their experience was.
I would also like to know whether some of the modified drivers offered a noticeable image quality improvement (w/o a significant hit to performance) and whether the performance improvement didn't degrade the IQ too much.

At the moment, I'm using the 7.4 catalysts (drivers only) with the ati tray tools.

Palerider · 09-10-2007, 19:25 | posts: 3,253 | Location: Toledo Ohio | User is Offline

I used to use Omega's all the time, and always loved them. I stopped when I bought this card, because it was brand new at the time, and Omega didn't support it.(they are usually one or two driver releases behind the current release)
Optimized for gamers, and a joy to use.Now that you have me thinking about them, I may drop them in instead of the new 7.9's

krisby · 09-10-2007, 20:11 | posts: 621 | Location: In Kylies head... | User is Offline

I used to use the Omegas as well, I did try the NGOs once but found the Omegas a little better in IQ and FPS, plus ATI Tray Tools that comes with Omega drivers is fantastic, I wish Nvidia had a similar all one tool.

Now I'm on Nvidia I don't use modified drivers, I did try them but I had no shadows in El Matador, whereas the officials do. Made me wonder if El Matador was missing shadows, what was I missing from other games?

LucasG · 09-12-2007, 06:51 | posts: 41 | Location: USA | User is Offline

Welps! After being being fed up with random crashes in Bioshock and the inability to get the 7.8s or the 7.9 to run on my system, I took the plunge and tried the Radeon Omegas (latest version based on the 7.4 cats). So far, it has been very smooth sailing. Since installing them last night, I haven't had a single crash in Bioshock. With the other catalysts (tried every version from 7.3 to 7.6) would result in Bioshock crashing while either loading a saved game or moving from one level to another.
By the way, I have been playing Bioshock in Windows XP Pro 32bit.

aircool

LucasG, the 7.7s kick ass IMO.

Shame theres a complete lack of drivers (modded) recently.

LucasG · *Last edited by LucasG; 09-12-2007 at 17:54.*

The 7.7s and up work like dog brownies on my system. I tried them twice with a reboot and driver sweeper between installs. I just could not get them to work... crash city every time!

Anyhow, I'm happy to report that the Omegas have been working like a charm for me. I haven't had a single crash in Bioshock and at the moment, that's all that matters to me.

With the exception of increasing the resolution to 1280x1024 and enabling EAX, all other settings are at default.

I wish the driver mod. folks would give the ATI cards a little more love because their hardware is solid, but their drivers blow chunks.

dvrocc · 09-12-2007, 19:13 | posts: 23 | Location: Modesto CA | User is Offline

Quote:

Originally Posted by LucasG

I know that there are modified ati drivers available (ie. NGO, Omega, etc...) but I don't see anyone talking about them. I know that the nvidia folks won't shutup about them, but I'd like to know which ones people have used and what their experience was.
I would also like to know whether some of the modified drivers offered a noticeable image quality improvement (w/o a significant hit to performance) and whether the performance improvement didn't degrade the IQ too much.

At the moment, I'm using the 7.4 catalysts (drivers only) with the ati tray tools.

Come to think of it the driver modders "community" is slacking a bit and there nearly isn't that many modded drivers around anymore Cat 7.5 is the latest mod driver I have found and 158.22 Nvidia still gives me the best IQ/Performance. I have used modded drivers for years but just about stopped this year because there so far behind you can go down load the official and use it for months before a modded ones shows up. As for IQ I guess it really depends if you use a tweak program like Nhancer, NVtray, Ati Tray Tools, Ati Tool to tweak your driver for IQ or performance I think the Ati Tray Tools offered by DNA & Omega drivers is a better choice that thinga has tons of options, see all them?

anyway Nhancer is also good but real buggy sometimes I guess it really depends on your tastes.

kevinti2005 · *Last edited by kevinti2005; 09-12-2007 at 20:18.*

For ATI, Omega has been working like a champ since my good old day of 9200, no doubt about it! I'm using Omega@7.4 and in fact, I have been patiently waiting for Omega@7.7 (The last stable/problem-free driver) to be released sooner or later.

Let's "pressure" Mr. Omega to mod the 7.7....

(Just kiding..)

Cheers!

KillerSneak · 09-13-2007, 03:50 | posts: 1,126 | Location: The Netherlands | User is Offline

Quote:

Originally Posted by aircool

LucasG, the 7.7s kick ass IMO.

Shame theres a complete lack of drivers (modded) recently.

I agree and i have been out a while due to I-net problems (my router died) I'm working on the DNA-ATi 5.2.7.9 atm

Also i would like to know what you guys would like in a modded driver More IQ or Better FPS ??

LucasG · 09-13-2007, 06:03 | posts: 41 | Location: USA | User is Offline

I personally, prefer better IQ. Sure, more FPS is always welcome but I wouldn't want to sacrifice IQ in exchange for speed.

aircool

I like both

But i would like some more fps in the odd game or too..

The last DNA's i had were good, but the ATT was a little lacking, thanks for your efforts too.

studabakahawk

Hi
I have 2 flavors of 1950 pro cards. one is agp(256 mb) and the other is 512 mb pci x 16, i just came over to ati cards ,and like the alternative.
Im running 7.5 on both machines.
I was trying the new drivers out as soon as they arrived but got a nasty reaction when i put the 7.6\7.7 onto my rig with the agp 1950 pro card.
Blue screens, crashes, all kinds of stuff.
so bad in fact that it prompted me to build a new machine (AMD 5600x2, MSI K9AG neo2 M\B Amd chipset & south bridge,and the 1950 pro 512 pci-x 16 video card,2 gig kskill 800 mem.
and i wasnt so adventerous when i chose my vga driver, i used the 7.5 CCC driver and installed it one component at a time .
My kid has my old rig(FX- 57 1950 agp 256 mb , 2 gig kingston hyper X, on a gigabite K8U-939 M\B, thats ULI chipset, there is none rarer than that M\B i dont think!
mabye it was the ULI chipset that didnt like the post 7.5 drivers i read a post that said some thing about 1950pro agp cards dont like the post 7.5 drivers, i dont know what it was, but unless i hear something specific about those drivers(post 7.5 drivers), im sticking with 7.5 i did see a DNA 7.5 but im really gun shy, im nervous about using CCC and having those nightmares again.
Im not going back to nvidia ,and i appreciate the effort put in to mod drivers, with nvidia i tried every driver that came out fearlessly, but now i just scared.

KillerSneak · 09-17-2007, 04:19 | posts: 1,126 | Location: The Netherlands | User is Offline

I don't like the CCC aswell thats why DNA-ATi's don't use the CCC but a special version of ATT

BloodyFighter · 09-17-2007, 16:38 | posts: 19 | User is Offline

i'm using DNA ATi drivers and they are spectacular!
Benchmarked them comparing CCC and the DNA's and i got 68 fps for CCC and 77 fps for DNA theres was no visible drop in IQ and no crashes to date (altought u ahve to play around with the advance tweaking section - check the guide for ATT on this forum or tweakguides.com)

LucasG · 09-17-2007, 19:45 | posts: 41 | Location: USA | User is Offline

Out of curiosity, what are the default/factory settings for the ATI catalyst drivers if no control panel s/w (CCC, ATT, etc...) is installed?
Most of the time, I enable the 'auto balanced' profile and create separate game profiles.

studabakahawk · 09-24-2007, 04:42 | posts: 445 | Location: long island n.y. | User is Offline

Thanks for the response i may just try the DNA 7.5 drivers i like the idea someones tinkering for my benefit, especially when the CCC drivers seem to fail so miserably.
here we are discussing these issues and as we speak countless others are banging their heads against the wall with their first ATI cards and they arent working right. its a shame to think how many people who tried ATI will walk away from them and go back to Nvidia because they cant resolve their driver issues.
ATI if you can read this please take note, good drivers not putting up Shi%#y ones, is how you keep your customer base.
This site will resolve alot of those issues, thank god its here but if you put out crappy drivers well all be buying nvidia cards in another year

nosliw · 09-28-2007, 04:28 | posts: 2 | User is Offline

highly recommend omega drivers, i installed one after i couldnt get a catalyst to install properly after a virus. Not only does it work fine and give u lots of extra options and has fixed many problems i had before with graphics related crashing

madmossy · 09-28-2007, 05:48 | posts: 80 | Location: Paignton, England | User is Offline

Use to use em all the time when i had my 9800xt but stopped when I got my 2900xt due to the lack of support for it and Vista.

KillerSneak · 09-30-2007, 13:38 | posts: 1,126 | Location: The Netherlands | User is Offline

Well to really see what CCC can do, I'm thinking / modding the drivers to make 100% use of CCC at the moment just to see how people react to them. I hope to have them ready soon and see what people think of using CCC

studabakahawk · 10-05-2007, 17:26 | posts: 445 | Location: long island n.y. | User is Offline

so is it safe to try the omega 7.9 drivers in 1950 pro pci-x cards or what?
i have found the omega drivers very stable and when i was running my old 6800 GS agp card their 92.72 driver was silky smooth and was the only driver i found that ran PREY and everything else.Im still sitting pat with the 7.5 ccc and ATI tray tools.
anyone here running it on an AMD\ATI M\B(690G MSI K9AG Neo-2). im really being a baby about this but i went through hell last time i installed anything past 7.5.
i was a walk to the UPS store away from RMA'ing my 1950 pro agp card.
till i did a full uninstall of Win XP Pro when i booted up clean i ran 7.5ccc and it was ok.
But i was so worried i did a new build to my current settings and am using 7.5ccc and ATI try tools with it.
i want to get back in the hunt but im not going to watch it all go to hell again Im elect engineer and am to FUC%ING busy to try to figgure out why my new rig has the hickups!
so please are the New OMEGA 7.9 1950 pro friendly or what? safe or what?

scottsmi · 10-08-2007, 09:43 | posts: 107 | Location: Oregon | User is Offline

My old laptop has a Radeon 9600 Pro chipset, and I used Omega's drivers exclusively on that system and they worked great. Downloaded the latest batch for my current rig, and for some reason my monitor refresh rate was locked at 60 Hz, no matter what settings I changed (it supported 75 Hz) and eventually had to load up Powerstrip to get the monitor refresh rate set properly. Decided to uninstall and currently am using the Catalyst beta drivers (7.10 RC 4) and everything seems to be working fine.