Catalyst drivers and UT2004, Doom3, Q4?

Discussion in 'Videocards - AMD Radeon Drivers Section' started by SkaarjMaster, Sep 7, 2006.

  1. SkaarjMaster

    SkaarjMaster Member Guru

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    I asked this question at 5 other forums, so why not here too!:)

    I was just wondering what would be the best catalyst drivers for these 3 games (obviously, mostly concerned about UT2004)? Presently I'm running the 5.8 catalyst drivers with CP and NOT CCC and they seem to be running fine. I'm even open to trying some Omega drivers (6.7 seem to be latest available). Anyone have any comments or stories of their experiences to help me out? Thank you. Here are my abbreviated specs from my sig below:

    WinXP SP2
    P4 3.2GHz CPU
    Asus P4P800-Deluxe MB
    2GB Corsair XMS PC3200 RAM
    Sapphire ATI Radeon 9800Pro 256MB w/ VGA silencer
    SB Audigy2 OEM sound card hooked up for 5.1 surround sound
    Enermax 550W PSU

    I'm looking at some of the reviews of the Catalyst drivers at Tweaktown and ATI driver release notes and without looking at the release notes in huge detail, it looks like the best Catalyst drivers for me right now are going to be the 6.5s or 6.6s as these provide the best performance gains in UT2004 over previous drivers. For Doom3/Q4, it's the same story and these also have performance hits with the 6.7s and 6.8s.

    I've also checked around for the Catalyst/ZeroPoint/NGO/Omega comparisons and all I could find was something in 2005 (nbsgaming) suggesting NGO was the best overall, Zeropoint or NGO was the best for DX games and Omega the best for OpenGL games. I have no idea how this applies now though. It's looking like the best candidate for me now though might be the NGO Ultra 6.5 or 6.6 drivers. Yes, I'll be playing UT2004 most of time, but still will be playing some OpenGL games like Doom3/Q4/UT. After looking at the Tweaktown results again, maybe I do want some version of the 6.8 drivers? Anyone have any comments on this?
     
  2. DayDreamer

    DayDreamer Maha Guru

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    Cat 6.6 or 6.7 was supposed to improve with UT2k4
     
  3. SkaarjMaster

    SkaarjMaster Member Guru

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    Yes, Cat 6.5 was supposed to increase UT2004 performance by as much as 23%, then Cat 6.6 was about the same. No mention of UT2004 for Cat 6.7s, but I believe Doom3 and Q4 took a very slight performance hit. Cat 6.8s gave Doom3 and Q4 slight performance gains. This is why I'm thinking some version of the 6.8s would be best for me. I'm just wondering if I should use one of the tweaked driver sets (ZeroPoint, Omega, NGO...) instead of the Cats. Yes, I know some of the 6.8 versions of these aren't out yet. Thank you.
     
  4. SkaarjMaster

    SkaarjMaster Member Guru

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    I know what tweaked driver would have been best for me a year ago, but what about now? Should I get the Zeropoint, Omega or NGO?:question:
    Anyone? C'mon, I'll even buy you one of these.;):beer:
     

  5. Repo Man

    Repo Man Ancient Guru

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    the official 6.5's and 6.7's with the CCC performed nicely for me. never been a fan of tweaked drivers and ive only had bad results with them but as always everyones rig performs differently so all i can say is experiment and tell us the results :p
     
  6. alco

    alco Master Guru

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    like Repo Man said
    i like 6.5 best for ut2k4
    use that together with ATT
    your good to go and look me up for a match :D
    grtz.. DSP_^(oo)^_
     
  7. Sinacle

    Sinacle Master Guru

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    I...I know you!

    Does the name Requies sound known to you..? ;) In for a match? :p

    On topic, I always stick with the latest drivers and I recommend it to anyone :)
     
  8. alco

    alco Master Guru

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    sorry doesn't ring a bell (yet:p) (look me up:D)


    as for the drivers
    the latest is not always the greatest u know
    you have to try out yourself to find the right ones for your system
    also the chipset drivers can make alot of difference
     
  9. SkaarjMaster

    SkaarjMaster Member Guru

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    Well, I still haven't upgraded from the 5.8 cats. I'm definitely leaning towards the NGO 6.6s or NGO 6.12s though. What do you guys think for my system (sig) and games in the thread title? Thank you.
     
  10. Vanadis

    Vanadis Master Guru

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    It doesn't really matter. Just set your ingame resolution to 800x600, 16 bit. Everything but character details on low and you're good to go. :)
     

  11. Amilo-D

    Amilo-D Master Guru

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    Give 6.8 drivers a shot. They were pretty solid from what i remember. However, make sure you turn off shadows in Q4 (and Doom3) options. That should almost double your fps.
     
  12. SkaarjMaster

    SkaarjMaster Member Guru

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    All right, based on this thread, other threads in this forum and similar threads in other forums, I've finally decided to upgrade from my 5.8s to either NGO or ZeroPoint 6.6s. There was a thread somewhere in the Guru3d forums that said the ZeroPoint might be best with my video card, so I'm throwing the ZeroPoint back into the mix again. For my card and games, do you guys think NGO or ZeroPoint?:)

    Um, just saw that no ZeroPoint 6.6s exist, so that makes the decision easy........NGO 6.6s it is!
     
    Last edited: Mar 26, 2007
  13. SkaarjMaster

    SkaarjMaster Member Guru

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    geez, has it really been almost 3 months since I still haven't upgraded my video drivers? OK, I'm still planning on moving to the NGO 6.6s and let's say this will happen by the end of the summer. This should be plenty of time for me.:) I'll chime in on the results after I do it.
     
  14. SkaarjMaster

    SkaarjMaster Member Guru

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    OK, it's been almost 3 months since my last post in this thread and I finally upgraded to the NGO Ultra 6.6 drivers today! Here are the results:

    ATI Catalyst 5.8 (driver only with ATI control panel):

    UMark (DM-Forbidden, 1280x1024, 12 bots, current settings incl. 2xAA,4xAF)
    min >> 4.255326
    avg >> 40.037739
    max >> 123.191775
    score >> 40.088936

    3DMark2001SE (1280x960,2xAA,4xAF) >> 11,719
    3DMark2003 >> 4,190
    AquaMark3 >> 42,702 score (42.70 avg. FPS)

    NGO Ultra 6.6 drivers (WDM with ATI control panel):

    UMark (as above)
    min >> 4.460111
    avg >> 41.928104
    max >> 125.690750
    score >> 41.981968

    3DMark2001SE (as above) >> 11,706
    3DMark2003 >> 4,208
    AquaMark3 >> 42,669 score (42.67 avg. FPS)

    Not much of a change and the important benchmark for me is the UMark (for UT2004 of course) and it's slightly higher, so that's good. I don't pay for benchmark programs, so those are the only ones I ran. I probably should have run a Doom3 and Quake4 one also, but I forgot and it's too late. Knowing that those tweaks are there and should make both those games faster is fine with me. I'll stick with these for the life of the card. See Ya!:)
     

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