To OMEGA or not to OMEGA?!?

[Spinner]

I heard the OMEGA ATI drivers have some great features and support for the TV output modes. Is this correct?

Also, more generally speaking, what are the benefits of using the Omega drivers over that of the standard official catylst driver suite?

Thoughts, opinions, random observations? (okay, just kidding with the last one).

Any input would be appreciated.

Cheers

[SimGuy]

I don't touch Omega's. The Catalyst driver suite works perfectly fine, provides acceptable performance and enables all features on my video card.

I'm not a hardcore benchmarker, so the performance benefits for benching that is included with the Omega's doesn't appeal to me.

[Enverex]

I'm a hardcore bencher and I get exactly the same speed and quality with either, so I just use ATi's to make life easier.

Ns

[keto]

I tried out a version of Omegas on my R9700Pro about 5-6 months ago. Totally could NOT get em to work right so went back to Cats, which have always been fine.

[Creep]

As a gammer they are a god sent. Like they say, opt'd for GAMES, not benches. In some of my more tougher FPS games like Ghost Recon, Splinter Cell, (Sadly) Counter-Strike/Day of Defeat Steam @ 32Bit they work wonders with my older Radeon 9000.

[Jimborae]

I use omega's drivers cos it makes it very simple to turn my soft modded 9500 into a 9800 np. It also makes my games look very purty.

Jim

[Leonardo]

My experience with Omega drivers versus ATI's:

- slightly lowered benchmarks

- more overclocking flexibility

- better 2D and 3D quality, and better color rendering

- will hose your system if you don't completely remove all traces of previous drivers

I've bounced back and forth between ATI and Omega. Frankly, I could be happy with either, but I give the nod to Catalyst.

[Enverex]

Leonardo said
I've bounced back and forth between ATI and Catalyst. Frankly, I could be happy with either, but I give the nod to Catalyst.

Er........ guessing you meant "ATi and Omega" ?

NS

[Leonardo]

Indeed - Omega versus ATI.

[EMT]

Hmm... I probably won't install Omega next time just because they do something funny with the flying stars in the frontend of Worms Armageddon. Not important enough to switch but whenever I end up upgrading I'll stick with ATI. Although if it does help TV-Out I would eagerly try it again.

[TheLostSwede]

Omegas tv-out worked a lot better for me for some reason, even if the cats worked after some tweaking. You will loose some 3dmark points with Omegas comparing clock-to-clock with the catalysts. The fastest Cats for 9700 series are the 3.2 with its panel. For 9800 series, the 3.5 is the fastest together with its panel. Also, win 2k SP2 with DX 8.1 a is alot faster than SP3 and DX 9.

[Spinner]

Okay thanks guys. When I get chance, I'll probably give the Omega's a go, see if I like them, if not, I'll just move back to the official cat's.

Cheers

[Sputnik]

oh.... like said before, make sure you remove EVERY LAST TRACE of your old drivers.

I had a few, let's call them 'issues' getting my system working correctly with the drivers and still couldn't get the 2d to work (start menu took 1 full second to come up), and that was the easy part. getting the Cats to work again was, how you say, hellish at best


give 'em a shot, they might help, might not

[pseudonym]

I wouldn't touch em now with the new cat 3.8s coming out.

[Spinner]

Pseudonym said
I wouldn't touch em now with the new cat 3.8s coming out.

Good point.

[FormFactor]

What's better with omegas and TV out?

The reason I ask is I have a 9700 pro I hook up to a HDTV over DVI. Cats recognise the TV as a digital display rather than a TV.

I can choose 2 resolutions 1900x540 and 848x640. Bothe of these resolutions look a little funny.

Think I might benefit from the Omegas by haveing other resolution options?

Thanks

[GHoosdum]

Pseudonym said
I wouldn't touch em now with the new cat 3.8s coming out.

Huh? Omega's already got his Cat 3.8 out...

I swear by 'em. It seriously pumps up my R9500 Pro, and gives better image quality overall. Works better in games, but gives slightly lower benches. But if the games are working, I don't really care about the benchmarks.

[Leonardo]

It seriously pumps up my R9500 Pro, and gives better image quality overall. Works better in games, but gives slightly lower benches. But if the games are working, I don't really care about the benchmarks.
Exactly my experience for both the AMD and Intel boxes.