I just bought an X1900XTX. Which drivers are best?

[DaveyTN]

Should I just get a stand alone ATI driver? If so, where can I go to get the latest driver. And, what about the tray tool people are talking about - do they have one for the X1900 series cards? Thanks !!

 

[dguy6789]

I have had no issues by going with the latest drivers. I personally have had no problems with Catalyst Control Center. Most people simply get angry because it requires .net framework to run, and people do not like that because they hate Microsoft for some reason.

Either way, if you do not like how CCC works, then simply install ATI Tray tools and change your settings from that(I have heard that the newest version of ATI Tray Tools supports the new gpus, so you should have no problem).

Just download the very latest drivers and do not worry about it.


Here is the Cat 6.3

https://support.ati.com/ics/support/def...deptID=894&task=knowledge&folderID=293


Here is ATI Tray Tools:

http://www.guru3d.com/article/atitraytools/189/

 

[DaveyTN]

Thanks dguy! On that first link you provided for cat 6.3, when I get to the download screen - there are two sections.

Section 1 has High Speed Cable and Section 2 has Low Speed Dial up.

Correct me if I'm wrong, if I go the CCC route, I need the .net framework and the CCC, which are downloads 1 and 2 in the high speed section.

If I go the display driver only route, I then need the "Display Driver Only" in the Low Speed Dial up section and the ATI Tray tools in the second link that you provided.

Is that correct? Thanks!!

 

[SpeedZealot369]

What is ccc?

 

[Munky]

Originally posted by: SpeedZealot369
What is ccc?

Catalyst Control Center. It replaced the Ati control panel, and a lot of people hate it because it's an unnecesary additional resource hog. I'm using the bare driver and ATT, and that combination works well. Also, Ati Tool (another program, not to be confused with Ati Tray Tools) has some additional tweaks, like enabling AAA and overclocking.

 

[Elfear]

Originally posted by: DaveyTN
Thanks dguy! On that first link you provided for cat 6.3, when I get to the download screen - there are two sections.

Section 1 has High Speed Cable and Section 2 has Low Speed Dial up.

Correct me if I'm wrong, if I go the CCC route, I need the .net framework and the CCC, which are downloads 1 and 2 in the high speed section.

If I go the display driver only route, I then need the "Display Driver Only" in the Low Speed Dial up section and the ATI Tray tools in the second link that you provided.

Is that correct? Thanks!!

That's correct.

 

[boshuter]

I tried going the driver only route and using ATI Tool for overclocking... turns out that was a mistake. After numerous posts on a couple of overclocking forums on why my card was getting crappy scores in 3Dmark05 it was suggested that I install the CCC and try the benchmark again. My score with drivers only was only 11281 overclocked using ATI Tool, after installing CCC and tweaking it and using the same overclock in ATI Tool my score jumped to 12882. You need ccc to set the 3D stuff in the drivers to "performance" and changing the "mipmap" setting helps also.

 

[VERTIGGO]

ATI tray tools has AAA in the Advanced Tweaks but still does not support OCing. CCC may be stable, but its such a resource hog.

.

 

[Munky]

You can use Ati Tray Tools to set performance options. But I never run games at those settings, so I dont benchmark at those settings either, because I feel it makes the score invalid.

 

[Elfear]

Originally posted by: boshuter
I tried going the driver only route and using ATI Tool for overclocking... turns out that was a mistake. After numerous posts on a couple of overclocking forums on why my card was getting crappy scores in 3Dmark05 it was suggested that I install the CCC and try the benchmark again. My score with drivers only was only 11281 overclocked using ATI Tool, after installing CCC and tweaking it and using the same overclock in ATI Tool my score jumped to 12882. You need ccc to set the 3D stuff in the drivers to "performance" and changing the "mipmap" setting helps also.

Did you disable the ATI Hotkey and ATI Smart services when you oced with ATI Tool? It's been working great for me (13,344). CCC works for ocing but it limits you to 690/790 (??,not sure about the mem clocks).

ATI Tray Tools has all the functionality of CCC but leaves a smaller footprint. You can set mipmap and texture preferences using it.

 

[Ackmed]

Sadly, ATi Tool doesnt support my motherboard yet, so I cant overclock with it.

I use CCC, dont have any problems with it, other than Id like to overclock higher.