Voodoo3 Beta Drivers?!?

[Splork]

I did a search and found nothing on the topic. Actually my question is; Has anyone had any problems with the v3 beta drivers released on the 18th of August? I just want to make sure my 7 meg download is worth it. Comments? Thanks in advance.

-sp

 

[BFG10K]

I have briefly tried each release of the beta drivers since 1.04.9c was out, but the problem is the beta drivers usually have poor OpenGL performance and you will find your Q3 performance drop from the normal WHQL drivers.

However I have been using the beta 1.05.01 drivers and they actually run Q3 the fastest from all of the drivers, and in about 2 months I have have had one crash. I think the release date of these drivers is 17 July so you can find them in the "archives" section of the drivers page.

There are reports of certain P3 and AMD systems refusing to boot afterward so make sure to read the readme before you download the drivers and install them.

Think about what your reasons are for using the beta drivers. If you don't really need them don't take the risk, although as I said I haven't had any problems with them. But remember your system may be different to mine.

My system is:
Intel Celeron 500
192 MB 133 MHz SDRAM
3dfx Voodoo 3 2000 PCI
Microsoft Windows 98 SE

 

[Splork]

BFG10K - Thanks for the comments. After thinking about it, my only interest with the newer beta drivers was just to tinker with them and see if there was an increased performance. So, I will probably stay with my current drivers until the newer WHQL drivers are available. Thanks again.

-sp

 

[BFG10K]

After thinking about it, my only interest with the newer beta drivers was just to tinker with them and see if there was an increased performance.

Well if you want faster Q3 perfomance the 1.05.01 beta drivers will certainly give it to you. My scores went up from 50 fps to 55 fps which is quite a good increase (10%).

If you want to stay with the WHQL drivers for now I suggest using the 1.04 drivers, not the newest 1.05. The 1.05 drivers are slower in Q3. Of course going back to 1.04 will make you lose the new control panels, so I guess its going to be a trade-off.

 

[Johnnie]

i'm using the 1.05.01 beta drivers .. no problems here.