ATI/4.5's

[cavity]

For all of you brave hearts out there, ATI has released the 4.5's.  Good luck and for those who try them, please let us know what your thoughts are.  I think Ill sit out on these, getting tired of all the updates.  Todd

[Delta_]

I went from 4.3 to 4.5, the performance is basically the same in DX8.1, but also has bug fixes.  OpenGl performance has improved quite a lot, and DX9 performance has increased by ~30% for some games.

[cavity]

Thanks for the reply.  30%, too bad we can't get that for 2004.  My graphics do look alot better with the 4.4's than any other driver I had.  Ill probalby do the 4.5 sometime soon.  Always looking for that performance boost, have yet to find it!  Todd

[codered]

I have upgraded my drivers to the 4.5's and I think these are a winner.  ;D  I used them with FS9 and Lock On last night and I am very impressed with them.  I ugraded from 3.9 to 4.5.  It took them this long to get the graphics looking great and the frames duable.  As far as a performance increase, I have not noticed much.  I have my sliders practically maxed and am able to get an average of 24 FPS.

You can check out my screen shots in the payware forum that were taken with the new 4.5's.

[jubjub47]

I've been using the 4.5's for a few days.  They seem to be pretty good and they've fixed a few problems I was having on several games.

[JBaymore]

Do they NOTICEABLY increase framerates in FS9?

best,

................john

[jubjub47]

Not much of a boost in fps, but not a decrease.  The picture is tons better than previously though.

[Delta_]

FS9 uses DX8.1 graphics so it will not get an FPS increase in this version, as it was openGL and DX9.0 that got the increases, but as jubjub47 says it gives an improvement in IQ.  Which is worth it straight away.

[JBaymore]

[quote]FS9 uses DX8.1 graphics so it will not get an FPS increase in this version, as it was openGL and DX9.0 that got the increases, but as jubjub47 says it gives an improvement in IQ.

[jubjub47]

The only way to boost your fps is with a nice cpu or memory upgrade.

[Delta_]

The difference between 8x and 4x is only 1-2%, so that reason on its own is not enough to warrant an upgrade.

[jubjub47]

The difference between 8x and 4x is only 1-2%, so that reason on its own is not enough to warrant an upgrade.

It's way more than 1-2% speaking from personal experience and technical stats.  I upgraded my system about a year ago from a 4x to an 8x board without changing any other components in my system.  My fps nearly doubled.  I went from avg fps of 12 to fps of 20-22 with fairly high settings and 100% traffic.  You've got to look at it how it is.  The 4x slot is basically a 4 lane highway with a high flow of traffic.  The 8x is an 8 lane highway with the same amount of traffic which has room to flow at a much higher speed.

[Delta_]

It may have been the change in motherboard, it was definetly not the change from 4x to 8x.  The extra bandwidth will only help high-end cards like the 9800pro and higher.

In this case it may help JBaymore, but not in all cases, it depends on the card that you use, but going up from 4x to 8x is wasting money.  Even though bandwidth doubles, the overall performance does not increases very much.

Useful links:
http://www.hardwarezone.com/articles/vi ... cid=3&pg=3
http://www.hardwarezone.com/articles/vi ... cid=3&pg=5
http://forums.devhardware.com/archive/t-20110

[jubjub47]

Well in JBaymores situation he's running a 9800xt through a 4x slot.

[Delta_]

The basics still apply.  You get double the bandwidth, but the increase in fps is no more than 3%.  The 9700pro is still a high end card.