Whats the Best Driver For The ATI9600xt

[VPA_KTPA]

Hello.i have the newest driver.but i was just wondering if any one eles is getting better results with any other drivers.thanks

[Delta_]

I use 4.2, i have not benchmarked with this driver yet.  When i went up from 3.9 to 4.1 i got a 5% increase.  

[VPA_KTPA]

Thanks for the information Hyvry1_Delta.i am running the 4.2 allso with good results.i did read someone said there getting better results with the omega drivers.but i think ill stay with the ATI drivers since i dont have any problems.

[Delta_]

I am going to change to 4.3,  They are up now.  Link is in sig \/.  I will try to update it everytime a new one comes out.

[andy2]

I have the 9600 PRO and downloaded and installed the 4.3 driver last night. This time I did the install per their instruction and got a better install than I did with 4.1 Texturing and colour looks much better than I had before. I forgot to do a benchmark .

Andy

[Delta_]

You should get higher scores.  About 300 i think would be reasonable, in 3dmark

[andy2]

Interesting. I was nearly floored when I dropped around 3000 with 3DMark2001 with AA x4  and Antistropic X8 in the control panel. With them off I got around 9250, still less than with the supplied 3.7 driver from Saphire(It's a 9600Pro) With a clean boot I get around 10050  with 4.3

Performance in the sim seems better and typically at 29.9fps most of the time set to 30, with and without external AA etc. I have everything maxed at 1024x768 32bit.

Might try some of the earlier ones again just to see what happens but expect I will come back to 4.3 Don't know if the Saphire version will be any better(I expect they are customised to my card) but they are still back at 4.1

[Delta_]

I do not know what the scores for a 9600pro are expected to be, but for 3dmark01 i get 14k.

[andy2]

I forgot to mention my motherboard is only AGPx4 (XP2400/ 512M266DDR). I'm sussing out a new one with AGPx8 to upgrade to in the next month or so.

I loaded and tried 3DMark03 last night and get 16K

Thanks

Andy

[Delta_]

Agp 8x over 4x is only 1% faster so it does not warrent an upgrade.

[andy2]

The Fsim benchmarks I was looking at on Tom's Hardware website were around 46fps, about 16 better than I reliably get, so assumed it was due in the main to my AGp 4 MB etc. I've already promised this one to one of the kids and don't want to go back on that.

3DMark03 reported 16076 on the test I saved for later upload, 16050 on a second run. Will test again tonight in case there was a decimal point but I didn't think so.

[Delta_]

AGP 8x over 4x will not be noticeable at all.

16k in 03 may be close to the highest score ever.  I am not sure that it is accurately saying what you have.  I recommend you try Aquamark 3 that is the best benchmark there is.

[andy2]

I ran the tests again and got 16062 this time. It's strange because the tests seem to be in slow motion. The second counter takes about 4 to 5 seconds to roll over so you could be right about it being in error. It came on a CD with a PC mag I bought. Will look for the one you mentioned.

The 4.3 driver itself seems to be going very well. I have also opened up from 30 to 45fps and reliably get around 35 to low 40's down to low 20's over airfields etc. I'm happy.

[Delta_]

I am very sure that is an error, a stock 9800xt gets around 6k.  You should try AquaMark3, that should give you accurate results.

[andy2]

Sorted out that high score issue after I went back to the Saphire 4.1 driver/control panel(couldn't access the ATI 4.3 drivers to get the control panel, 3.10 up instead?).

I now get around 3.6k in 3dmark03. The problem I discovered was running under a clean boot mucks it up. It's haywire again now. At least we know what it was.