Catalyst Woes

[gamezfreak]

I've just spent the last hour updating, finding instability, uninstalling and now i'm back to square one. Using the only stable drivers I can find (which were supplied with the card) Catalyst 3.4's.

Firstly I tried 3.9's. Nope, games hung, 3Dmark2001 crashed, then I tried 3.6. Ok for a while, then unexpectadly crashed a few times in games and in 3D Mark.

So I went back to the 3.4's.

Why can't I have updated drivers for my machine? I mean come on, ATI's website babbles on about "stability and innovation" when i've had the worst problems with the drivers.

The games I tried we're: -

Call of Duty
Warcraft 3 - Crashed and went into sound loop
Counter Strike - Same problem as above.

Sigh. Looks like i'll have to stick with 3.4's from now on.

[Steve]

Do you have your memory optimised for System Cache rather than Programs?

As a tweaker I set that up, and, as many did, discovered newer Cats had problems with it. Perhaps that's the issue here. However, my problems were more aloong the lines of delayed write errors.

Also, try turning VPU recover off - it's not quite perfect yet.

[gamezfreak]

Do you have your memory optimised for System Cache rather than Programs?

Call me retarded - but i'm unsure on what you mean. How do I find out if my memory is optimised for system cache or programs?

[Zak33]

Originally posted by gamezfreak
Call me retarded - but i'm unsure on what you mean. How do I find out if my memory is optimised for system cache or programs?

You aint retarded mate...I dunno what he means either.

Looking forward to finding out tho.

Out of interest....I am now back to Cat 3.0 cos 3.9 was so bad in IL-2. I am totally unsure of this VPU recovery thing....it caused grief twice at a local LAN before I dumped the driver and went back to 3.0

Shame....ATI were just getting this driver thing saddled and sorted

[Trash Man]

Running the 3.10beta drivers at the moment. These fixed the COD problems I was having

[Austin]

Originally posted by gamezfreak
How do I find out if my memory is optimised for system cache or programs?

I'm pretty sure it's either through ...

System Properties -> Advanced -> Perf -> Settings -> Advanced

OR

Control Panel -> Admin Tools -> something or other

If you don't know it (hence haven't changed it) you shouldn't have to worry.

[funnelhead]

Ati have released a so called 'hotfix' to address problems with the latest cats and call of duty. Maybe it will help with your other problems.... For a link and some comments as to what the hotfix achieves:

http://firingsquad.com/news/newsarti...?searchid=5709


hope this helps, F

edit - if you havent optimised your mem for cache yourelf, then its where it should be - for programs - so don't worry about it

[hotpurple]

I tried the system cache thing and found no difference at all. I wouldn't bother with it.

Chris

[Ravens Nest]

Originally posted by gamezfreak
I've just spent the last hour updating, finding instability, uninstalling and now i'm back to square one. Using the only stable drivers I can find (which were supplied with the card) Catalyst 3.4's.

Firstly I tried 3.9's. Nope, games hung, 3Dmark2001 crashed, then I tried 3.6. Ok for a while, then unexpectadly crashed a few times in games and in 3D Mark.

So I went back to the 3.4's.

Why can't I have updated drivers for my machine? I mean come on, ATI's website babbles on about "stability and innovation" when i've had the worst problems with the drivers.

The games I tried we're: -

Call of Duty
Warcraft 3 - Crashed and went into sound loop
Counter Strike - Same problem as above.

Sigh. Looks like i'll have to stick with 3.4's from now on.

Isnt there a problem with the 9600 pro? where you have to have fast writes on or it crashes??

Supposedly it's fixed with the latest BIOS for the 9600 pro but cant be downloaded from ATI so you have to find a site that has it or send your card back to the supplier.

Here's a link to a topic discussing it..

http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthre...st+writes+bios

[Kezzer]

eek, that doesn't really sound like a driver problem for me. My card runs perfect on everything no matter what game i play.

[Zak33]

for the record.....I have disabled Fast Writes in the latest Catalyst drivers (3.9's) and also diabled VPU recovery...

now solid

9800 Pro at 400/700