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ATI Graphics Card Drivers for Windows 7 - When?

T

tomhanser

Member
I'm probably not the only one hoping to upgrade to Windows 7, but I at this point I can't find drivers for either of my ATI graphics cards in either of my machines.

I have an ATI FireGL 3100 in my Dell Precision 380 and an ATI Radeon X1050 in my Alienware DHS 2 box - I can't find drivers for Windows 7 on the ATI/AMD site for either of these cards.

Any guesses on how long it will take for these drivers to be available?

I won't bother installing Windows 7 until then - what good will it do me if there's no driver for a graphics card?

I downloaded and ran the Windows 7 compatibility utility yesterday and it indicated I would have a problem with my ATI card - apparently there is no driver available yet.

Thanks.
 
Well, good question.

I've never worked with 64 bit until now - I see that my Dell Precision 380 is a 64-bit Intel® Pentium® dual-core and supports Windows XP x64.

I just bought this Dell (refurbished) earlier this year and wasn't even aware that it had Windows XP 64 bit installed. Great machine, too.

In the past I've only used 32 bit processors and OS.

Thanks.
 
Thanks, everyone.

Now that I know Vista drivers will work with Windows 7 it might save me from shelling out for a new graphics card.

Thanks again.
 
Yeah Vista and 7 use the same driver model. Similar to how 2000 and XP used the same basic driver model, XP had a little more capability (and 7 will have some more than vista) but generally the older driver will work just fine.
 
SparkyJJO said:
Yeah Vista and 7 use the same driver model. Similar to how 2000 and XP used the same basic driver model, XP had a little more capability (and 7 will have some more than vista) but generally the older driver will work just fine.
Click to expand...

Not precisely true. Vista uses WDDM 1.0 for video drivers, Win7 uses WDDM 1.1.

Among other things, multiple hetrogenous WDDM 1.1 drivers can exist on the system. This is not possible with WDDM 1.0.

Win7 is backwards compatible though, so you can use WDDM 1.0 drivers if you have to.
 
So...

This is a dumb question but I thought I'd ask:

If I do a clean installation from a Windows 7 installer disk on a box that has a graphics card that DOESN'T have a current Windows 7 driver available, does Windows 7 use a Vista driver? Or maybe a driver available when running Windows Update? Or I have to download an install the Vista driver myself?
 
tomhanser said:
So...

This is a dumb question but I thought I'd ask:

If I do a clean installation from a Windows 7 installer disk on a box that has a graphics card that DOESN'T have a current Windows 7 driver available, does Windows 7 use a Vista driver? Or maybe a driver available when running Windows Update? Or I have to download an install the Vista driver myself?
Click to expand...

Windows 7 will install a Win 7 WDM driver. If you want to use the ATI Vista driver then you need to download and install it.
 
When it come to Video cards many drivers that comes from Vista would work, and even some that comes from XP.

Regardless of the Drivers success to install (or not) there are differences on support along the line of WDM, and DX level.

E.g. There might ways to install an old card that support only old DX bellow 9 but any application that needs DX 9-10 would be in trouble.

For regular use it would not matter, but if One has special application that are "Particular" about their needs, One must check in specific the demands of Memory, WDM, and DX.
 
Last edited:
mmntech said:
According to AMD, the X1050 is now considered to be a legacy card. That means there will be no "official" Windows 7 drivers for it. However, Vista drivers will work, they lack some newer Windows 7 features.

http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownlo...spx?type=2.4.1&product=2.4.1.3.6&lang=English
Click to expand...
Those drivers will work for the Radeon X1050 but not the FireGL. The latest FireGL drivers for Vista/Win7 are:

http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/fire/Legacy/Pages/fire_vista64.aspx

Might want to try installing the ATI driver package in compatibility mode for Vista SP2. Right click on the driver package, switch to the Compatibility Tab to find the setting.
 
I do not know about other people experience, but whenever I tried installing drivers in compatibility mode it got no where.
 
JackMDS said:
I do not know about other people experience, but whenever I tried installing drivers in compatibility mode it got no where.
Click to expand...

i didnt have an issue running a few drivers this way under the win 7 RC build. ati drivers (4870) worked, sound drivers worked, motherboard drivers worked (asus am3 board)
 
I've got the x1800xt up and running on Windows 7. I used the Vista 64 drivers, worked OK... but generally it works better if I just let Windows handle the driver (uninstalling the ati stuff oddly enough makes things run better, though I had to reinstall drivers for Modern Warfare 2 to play properly). *shrug*

And even though it makes sense for AMD to stop supporting cards after awhile (though I heard we will get quarterly driver releases instead of monthlies), it still feels arbitrary and annoying, since doing so didn't effect the overall size of the drivers. the actual display driver doesn't need an update imo, but CCC does, because I think it has issues with Windows 7. Oh well.
 
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