Help!...Confused!

brodyhooperquintbrodyhooperquint
edited March 2004 in Hardware
http://www.short-media.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4820

I was reading the above thread last night and follow-up thread as it's now closed and I'm a little worried and concerned by what it contains...It never really reached a solid conclusion as to what drivers to install for the Radeon 9800 PRO (my card)...My catalyst version is 03.8 (driver number in device manager is 6.14.10.6387)...does this mean I am running the questionable 3.8 catalyst as discussed in the threads?..and if so should I install 3.7 instead?...My card has only been in for a few days so it has'nt been stressed with hours of game-play yet therefore I cannot tell if it is overheating or not.
Can someone put my mind at rest as to which catalyst to use?...Many thanks from Colin. :confused:

Comments

  • Straight_ManStraight_Man Geeky, in my own way Naples, FL Icrontian
    edited March 2004
    Trty looking here

    http://www.short-media.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=5804

    at the latest post, see if the 3.9's work if your 3.7's do not do not do what you want... If you have a regular monitor, skip the Catalyst 3.8's and go straight to 3.9 or stay with the 3.7's. General rule 1, if not broke do not fix. General rule 2, if broke, research (which you are trying to do by asking, that is good) before fixing.

    It looks like mostly a monitor-video card issue between regular monitors (not LCDs, which have lower refresh rate defaults), versus the 3.8 driver specs for refresh rates overheating the cards and possibly damaging some monitor power supply circuits (when you feed a video card too fast a refresh rate to use, versus what the monitor can handle, the power supply circuits in monitor go unstable, you can get voltage feedback right back into the card through the cable). Run the target refresh up too far, and you can get a card with overheating RAM and GPU if the heat exceeds the heatsinking supplied for card and a monitor that locks due to video card lock or refresh going GRADUALLY WAY out of range for monitor. Then you can get a feedback from monitor dumping overvoltage from an unstable monitor power supply circuit right back at card. Heat and feedback probably killed these cards.

    SAFEST thing to do, if no major issues with your drivers now, is to stay with the Catalyst 3.7's and wait for longer time for more feedback about the 3.9's as they are heavily used for a month, see if problem really got fixed. I have an LCd here, not willing to blow my test monitor's power supply circuits slowly but catastrophically, so will play the waiting game as far as the 3.9's go.

    Next safest now is the 3.9 Catalysts, but keep an eye out for flakes and roll back if many and let ATI know via the support email link. They often do not reply unless something catastrophic happens except by releasing point releases that fix things. Thier reply IS the fix.

    John D.
  • Mt_GoatMt_Goat Head Cheezy Knob Pflugerville (north of Austin) Icrontian
    edited March 2004
    The 3.8's didn't really offer much over the 3.7's and the latest seem to be working for most people. The 3.8's did give some problems while many had no problems at all. My personal thinking says that while many didn't have a problem there are other drivers that will work just as good or better tan the 3.8's. So to be on the safe side I wold pass on that particular driver. ;)
  • rykoryko new york
    edited March 2004
    try the cat 4.3's. I know they are new, but the work for me and my sapphire radeon9800pro without any issues whatsoever.
  • brodyhooperquintbrodyhooperquint
    edited March 2004
    Thanks guys for all your input...really appreciated. I'm gonna stick the latest 4.3 catalyst drivers in just to be on the safe side. :D
    Thanks Colin
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