I may buy the MSI K7T PRO 2-A (what a name), and I'm considering putting a Radeon in it. In Anandtech's review of the Radeon, they said the following:
The first problem with the Radeon's drivers on VIA-based systems is that the install program actually replaces any version of the VIA GART found on the system with version 3.30, which is packaged with the drivers. Although this may end up helping some with older GART drivers, it will hurt power users in the long term as the install program replaces any GART driver on the system with the packaged version, even if the drivers on the system are newer than those in the video card install program. For example, in our Athlon KX133 test system, the older GART version actually prevented us from getting into Windows, forcing us to boot in safe mode to restore the new GART drivers. The newest version of GART, version 4.03, is available from VIA's website.
This flaw will result in decreased card performance, as the older GART versions almost never have the same speed as the new ones. In addition, some systems may even be inoperable with the older GART drivers, forcing the user to boot in safe mode to replace ATI's GART driver with the previous one. Luckily, these problems only arise under the normal install. The custom install option does bring up a check box for "upgrading" the GART drivers which can be unchecked. We highly suggest that everyone with a VIA chipset in their system uncheck this option and gets the newest GART version from VIA's website.
Has anyone had similar problems or other conflicts with this chipset?
David M
The first problem with the Radeon's drivers on VIA-based systems is that the install program actually replaces any version of the VIA GART found on the system with version 3.30, which is packaged with the drivers. Although this may end up helping some with older GART drivers, it will hurt power users in the long term as the install program replaces any GART driver on the system with the packaged version, even if the drivers on the system are newer than those in the video card install program. For example, in our Athlon KX133 test system, the older GART version actually prevented us from getting into Windows, forcing us to boot in safe mode to restore the new GART drivers. The newest version of GART, version 4.03, is available from VIA's website.
This flaw will result in decreased card performance, as the older GART versions almost never have the same speed as the new ones. In addition, some systems may even be inoperable with the older GART drivers, forcing the user to boot in safe mode to replace ATI's GART driver with the previous one. Luckily, these problems only arise under the normal install. The custom install option does bring up a check box for "upgrading" the GART drivers which can be unchecked. We highly suggest that everyone with a VIA chipset in their system uncheck this option and gets the newest GART version from VIA's website.
Has anyone had similar problems or other conflicts with this chipset?
David M
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