ATI upgrade

[kleinmeister]

I'm moving from the Stone Age into the Dark Age with my video (Radeon 7200 AGP --> Radeon 9600Pro AGP) and have a question regarding drivers:

If ATI's Catalyst driver is a unified driver, do I need to uninstall my existing Catalyst 5.x and install whatever comes with the new card or can I just plug the new card in and have it hum along with the same driver?

BTW, I'm running Win XP SP1 on an Athlon XP 1700+ w/256 MB DDR266 RAM.

 

[EllisD420]

Thats a good question. Im not sure if its totally necessary though its really a good idea. When replacing any hardware, its always good practice to uninstall all the old drivers before installing.

 

[Vokofpolisiekar]

You should always reload drivers with new hardware - the ATi driver package has all INF files that Windows needs to run a graphics card, but when installing these drivers it will check what card is present and then install the INF files for this particular card into the OS.

So it doesn't automatically check for which card is present (although it would be a nice feature - but a redundant feature as the majority of users don't switch that much in terms of graphics cards).

 

[Crashman]

You don't need to uninstall anything, just pop in the driver CD at boot and let Windows detect the different files it needs. Or, if you have a newer driver, extract that to a file.

 

[kleinmeister]

Well, I can report that simply swapping the video cards DID work. However, to enable additional functionality I installed the version of Catalyst that came on the CD with the card.

As far as uninstalling the previous drivers, ATI always says to uninstall previous versions of ATI software before installing newer versions. I've been through some pretty hairy driver updates w/W98 and earlier versions of Catalyst, but the updates I've done under XP have all been very smooth. I've had some problems getting a new version of the control panel to work with the driver (wondering if it's an SP2 vs SP1 issue), but right now under Catalyst 5.9 everything is running like a dream. 😀

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

I've had some problems getting a new version of the control panel to work with the driver (wondering if it's an SP2 vs SP1 issue), but right now under Catalyst 5.9 everything is running like a dream. 😀

Control Panel no longer exists persay. Now ATi uses Control Centre, and to use that you need the Micro$oft .NET Framework. Older control panels will still function if you install just the video driver without the control panel but you lose all the updated functionality, which may mean little to you. If you just want the plain drivers, stick with the control panel you currently have and then download the display driver ONLY verion and install the latest version of that.

If you use control centre then you need .NET, it's a little more piggish than the control panel, but if you want advanced video features you can only get them from the ControlCentre version (IIRC Omega nor GuRu add that part with their adaptations).

For the R9600P though (speaking from experience), I'd say sticking with the control panel and adding functionality through ATiTrayTools is your best bet IMO.

 

[malphadour]

You could try Omega's tweaked ATI drivers (as mentioned above). They use a far simpler interface for controlling your card, and come with built in copy of ATI tool.

http://www.omegadrivers.net/

The current set are based on the Cat 6.2 driver.

In case you are wondering how good they are, Angel is an official beta tester for ATI and ATI also recognise his drivers officially.

 

[bluntside]

-Bluntside- Responding

If u r going to upgrade your old ATI card w/ a new one, U wont need 2 worry a thing. What I did is left my old catalyst driver, installed my new ati card and I was set. I recommend uninstalling the catalyst driver first, install the card and then reinstall the driver. I know 4 a fact it will work flawlessly

 

[kleinmeister]

Control Centre is what I meant. Do all versions of Control Centre require .NET? I don't know if I have the .NET framework installed or not. I like the enhanced controls of the Control Centre, but it's been hit-or-miss whether it will work when I update the drivers. The current setup, Cat 5.9 off of a CD install, works flawlessly, but when I tried installing Cat 6.2 Control Centre failed to initialize. I kept getting an error anytime I tried to start it.

I'll have to check out ATITrayTools. Never heard of 'em, but if the Cat 6.2 drivers give a significant improvement over 5.9 and I can't get the Control Centre to work with it(provided I DO have .NET installed) I'll definitely give 'em a look-see.

Thanks for the input.

 

[Vokofpolisiekar]

Yes, for CCC you must have .Net installed. Stupid I might add. I really don't like CCC - the idea is nice, but it consumes resources and adjusting settings can take time seeing that CCC doesn't startup fast.

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

Yep to use Control Centre you need .NET, and if you're just adding it be sure to use 2.0 and not 1.1 since 2.0 is a little better with the resources, crashes, and such.

 

[kleinmeister]

I downloaded and installed the Omega (Cat 6.2) drivers last night. It came bundled with ATITrayTools. I like. :lol: Not only that, it appears to contain CCC as well...at least, under Display Properties > Advanced all the ATI advanced tabs are there. They just have the cool Omega logo on them.

Thanks for the tip.