To Via or Not to Via... That is the question?

[knowley]

Hi people

I have just installed an abit kr7a-raid, duron1.3, 512mb 2700 ddr, raid0 ibm 60gb, sblive, dvd, cdrw, usb2 card, Leadtek ti4200.

Everything working fine on windows xphome, with latest drivers for everything including the BIOS and raid controller APART from I have not installed any VIA drivers yet.

Should I bother as everything is working ok?

or do they offer new features, enchanced performace?

These are the ones I have seen:

VIA ServicePack 4in1 Ver 4.45
VIA AGP Driver Ver 4.40
VIA USB Filter Ver 1.10
VIA IDE Driver 3.0.1.4

Please help me decide if to do them all/some/none or more?

Thanks a lot!!!

 

[j@cko]

all u need the the 4in1 driver.

 

[knowley]

and is there an advantage to installing that version?

 

[j@cko]

what does the name imply to you???

4in1..... it includes the AGP driver, and other stuff.. not sure what they are.
It's like updating your video card driver... same thing....
what advantage does updating video card driver have? better compatibility and perhaps the support of new features.

 

[Budman]

To Via or Not to Via... That is the question?

No VIA stick with intel and SIS chipsets.

 

[j@cko]

or even better... go with nVidia....

 

[bgeh]

Originally posted by: knowley
Hi people

I have just installed an abit kr7a-raid, duron1.3, 512mb 2700 ddr, raid0 ibm 60gb, sblive, dvd, cdrw, usb2 card, Leadtek ti4200.

Everything working fine on windows xphome, with latest drivers for everything including the BIOS and raid controller APART from I have not installed any VIA drivers yet.

Should I bother as everything is working ok?

or do they offer new features, enchanced performace?

These are the ones I have seen:

VIA ServicePack 4in1 Ver 4.45
VIA AGP Driver Ver 4.40
VIA USB Filter Ver 1.10
VIA IDE Driver 3.0.1.4

Please help me decide if to do them all/some/none or more?

Thanks a lot!!!

it has updated drivers and in the latest service pack, performance is increased by a little

 

[SuperSix]

Too many other good alternatives out ther.. Intel, SiS, nVidia.. Via is my 3rd or 4th choice (depending on platform)

 

[chizow]

Geezus, what's wrong with you people??

He asked if he needed to install the 4-in-1's and everyone thinks he's asking for opinions whether or not to upgrade his brand-new mobo .

Ugh.

Anway knowley,

The reason you don't think you installed the 4-in-1's is b/c Microsoft includes a reference set in XP Home. However, the older an OS gets, the more dated those drivers become. Generally, I would say don't upgrade the drivers if everything else is working fine. Upgrade if something starts giving you a problem or you can't sleep at night b/c you might gain some unnoticeable performance increase.

In the past with Via chipsets, there were all kinds of 3rd party tweaks, but those are pretty unnecessary now. Via has come a long way with their drivers, and I've owned a few excellent boards with their chipsets.

Chiz

 

[knowley]

Yeah Thanks Chiz!

 

[Mem]

Geezus, what's wrong with you people??

He asked if he needed to install the 4-in-1's and everyone thinks he's asking for opinions whether or not to upgrade his brand-new mobo .

Exactly! As usual the anti-VIA members are around,I would just install the latest 4-in-1 VIA 4.45 drivers,by default it only updates the VIA AGP and Inf files,and yes I`ve them installed in my XP and VIA combo .

 

[knowley]

cool thanks!

 

[Lonyo]

I went from the 4.4 to 4.45 i think it was, no noticeable perf increase or decrease. Always best to have the latest drivers tho. Abit KR7A w/XP 1900+

 

[MadRat]

Sometimes video cards don't like Turbo mode in the AGP drivers. Switching to the normal mode generally solves the problem.