ATI 9000, 9700 will still support Win98 and win nt systems

[Adul]

from hard|OCP front page

Please read the following statement from Microsoft, "WHQL will no longer accept certain submissions".

Beginning 01 July 2002, at 12:01 A.M. PST, WHQL will no longer accept submissions for all hardware devices and systems for the following operating systems. This includes all submission types for all devices and systems.

Microsoft Windows 98 Second Edition (SE)
Windows NT 4.0 Workstation
Windows NT 4.0 Server

As a reminder, WHQL previously stopped accepting submissions for Windows 98 Gold in the latter part of 1999.

statement

Now what ATi has to say:

The only operating systems that Microsoft currently accepts as part of their WHQL (Windows Hardware Quality Labs) certification process are:

Windows 2000
Windows ME
Windows XP

Since the RADEON 9700 and RADEON 9000 series of cards from ATI were released after the July 1st date, there was no way to obtain certification for these drivers. Microsoft certification of drivers is the most significant 3rd party qualification of a devices stability and quality. ATI's CATALYST drivers are based on the foundation of stability and quality and as such every driver that ATI makes available must go through Microsoft certification.

Although Microsoft no longer certifies devices under those operating systems, ATI still supports them. Users of Windows 98 and Windows 98 (SE) just simply need to use the WHQL certified Windows ME driver provided both on our shipping CD's and on our website. ATI also has an NT4 driver available for the RADEON 9000 and RADEON 9000 Pro which will be made available shortly.

Furthermore users of those operating systems are still supported by ATI's customer care program and can still obtain technical support.

Hope this clarifies the situation, and alleviates concerns.

 

[Thor86]

Win98SE = Best platform for gaming! ATI 9700 will rock in Doom3!

 

[MadRat]

Win98SE will run my game machine until I have reason to move to an new OS. I absolutely hate Windows XP for multiple users and applications.

 

[Adul]

Originally posted by: MadRat
Win98SE will run my game machine until I have reason to move to an new OS. I absolutely hate Windows XP for multiple users and applications.

i love the multiple user feature there

 

[MadRat]

You could do multiple user interfaces all the way back in Windows 3.0, so its not really something new.

 

[CQuinn]

Previously you would end up shutting down all the running apps of one user to switch to another though.

I only wish they had made it so different users could run at different resolutions.

As for ATI's statement, this is cool, but I think they already had gone to a plan like this a couple of
months ago. After the response they got from users when they did release WHQL drivers that
were not meant to work on Windows 98.

I would think there might be some additional drivers needed to support legacy features that are
no longer controlled under the WHQL, but ATI seems to be good about making any additionals
available for download.

What is really cool is that ATI is continuing to communicate more with their userbase.

 

[WyteWatt]

Windows 2000 = The best ms os in history and the ulimate gaming os. Windows 2000 is very stable espically more stable than 9x, not a ram hog like windows xp (Windows 2000 pro takes 45MB on first bootup and windows xp pro takes 65MB of ram on first bootup you do the math. I know ram is cheap but so its still a ram hog that changes nothing), faster than windows xp, etc! No ifs or buts about it. None. Zero.

 

[Jeff7]

Makes sense to do so - Win98 is still on quite a few systems out there.
"Win98SE = Best platform for gaming! ATI 9700 will rock in Doom3!"
Yeah, it just might be; WinXP might offer some better performance, but Win98SE will run pretty much any game out there - XP might not run some slightly older titles.

 

[bacillus]

this thread reminded me of matrox being slow to put out paherlia drivers for win98/ME which still haven't been released!

 

[HikkiFan]

That is where you peoples are wrong, in fact the window xp played alot more games that the win 98se can't . If you peoples were actually smart enought to install the code pages you can play most of the foreign games that requires something like a chinese window or something. You can't not do that in 98!!!

 

[43st]

My first thought when I read the news about the 9700 and Win98 was that MS wasn't going to make a DirectX 9 port for Win98. I highly suspect that Microsoft will not make DirectX 9 for Windows 98. I think ATI slipped up and kinda admited that Win98 will not support DX9. I think ATI will make a simple set of drivers that will allow those old computers to run the new card.

What do you think?

 

[JackBurton]

I'm glad MS is putting 98 in the archives. XP or 2000 is the only way to go (for MS OSes). I personally LOVE XP! I would NEVER go back to 98 or any other 9x OS.

 

[43st]

I did some searching. It looks like DX9 will work with 98.

The sooner they mothball that OS the better. Good riddance to bad rubbish.