omega drivers for both my 9500pro and 9600pro cards

glenpinn

hi there.
this is my first trip here to driver heaven, and i need some real advice re my graphics.

firstly, this is my rig.
asus a7n8x del mobo
athlon xp2500 cpu
512 corsair xms3200c2 ram
80gb w/dig 7200/8mb h/drive
saphire 9600pro card at 400/600
saphire 9500pro card at 275/540
omega 3.9 (2.4.96) drivers

i installed the 9600pro card with the ati 3.8 drivers, but had some issues with that so i installed the new omega 3.9 (2.4.96) drivers so i can overclock if i want to.
the omega drivers dont require any uninstall of prevoius ati or omega drivers, u just install over the top, but u do need to uninstall the old ati control panel, as the omega driver has its own control panel.

now that i installed the omega drivers on the 9600pro, i took that card out and put my 9500pro in to see how it goes, but im not sure if i should have re-installed the omega drivers after i put the 9500pro into the case.
when i look in the display properties/settings/adaptor tab it tells me its a 9500pro/9700, but there is no reference to the omega drivers like there is when i put the omega drivers in with the 9600pro card in the case, and i ran a 3dMark test on the 9500pro, and only got 1170 points, as opposed to my 9600pro i got 3026 points.

a guy in another forum told me i need to uninstall my hardware and my drivers b4 i swap cards in my pc, but i know i dont need to uninstall any of the drivers cos the omegas are designed to install over the top of any other drivers.
what hardware do i need to uninstall ???
can someone please help, im just a learner, and i want to know why my 3dMark03 score on my 9500pro is so crappy.................THANKS........GLENPINN

BTW, what is the best way to check that the 9500pro is what it says it is, mine has a red pcb and the ram is 4 inline, the display adaptor says its a radeon 9500 agp pro (0x4E45) internal dac is 400mhz, 128mb, radeon 9500pro/9700, bios info is BK-ATI-ver800-004-008-015, does this make any sense ????

eyeguy616

Nice rig, glenpinn!
Firstly, you should reinstall the drivers when you put in a new card. Windows is just not good at really knowing what's good for hardware when you swap like that. Obviously uninstall the CP and then reinstall the driver and everything should be peachy (I hope ).
Second, your 9500 Pro. All 9500 Pros have their memory chips lined up in an "I"-like formation (like how you discribed). The reason it's detected as a 9700 is that the 9500's (Pros as well) have the same exact chip as the 9700's, just with a little modification for the 9500 non pros to disable half the pipelines.
Lastly, welcome to Driverheaven! Hope you enjoy the site as much as I do!

~eyeguy616
Add: 9600 (Pro)'s use a scaled back version of the 9800's chip. Its chip IS different and cheaper to make.

mainman

Welcome to DH bud.

glenpinn

hi there.
thanks for your replies, but u wont believe that not long after i posted my thread, i went for it and just reinstalled the omega drivers with my 9500pro card. i wasnt sure if u had to considering both my cards are saphire (radeon) cards, but i thought it couldnt harm anything, so i did it and the result was absolutely amazing.
with the omega drivers its great not having to uninstall previous ati or omega drivers, as these are designed to install over the top of any other driver.
also, the only time u need to uninstall the display control panel is when u have the ati drivers on your pc, so i do believe that once u have the omega control panel, u only have to reinstall the driver over the top of the last drivers from the other card (or is it better to uninstall the control panel anyway considering the omega driver has a built in control panel as well) and omega says to also disable the DDC in the displays/monitor control panel as well, which i have done.

b4 i reinstalled the omega drivers, my 9500pro was only getting 1170 in 3dmark03, now its a different story ill tell u.
heres my final 3dmark03 results on both my (brilliant) saphire cards.

9600pro stock @400/600 = 3026 points (cpu = 491)
9600pro o/c @450/650 = 3333 points (cpu = 481)

9500pro stock @ 275/540 = 3608 points (cpu = 498)
9500pro o/c @ 304/608 = 3975 points (cpu = 497)

so as u can see a vast improvement, and im very proud to be the owner of 2 of these great saphire cards.
my 9600pro cost me $340au in aug when i built my new rig, and i got the 9500pro last week for $320au which was 3 mths old, and still under warranty. im constantly in touch with the guy i got it from in ebay, he is a great help with advice.
i think at the time i got my 9500pro, it was the only known 9500pro listed for sale in any place in australia, so im very luck and priveledged to own it.
my son has noticed a difference in the picture quality (he is the gamer, not me) but not in the speed, and he is very dissapointed that he will be getting the 9600pro in his new pc that im about to build for him.
im getting a new xp3200 cpu, and he will have my xp2500, apart from the cpu and graphics, we both will run identical machines, down to the last nut and bolt.

eyeguy616, u obviously seem to know what your talking about, i get a bit tired of going into forums (pchardwareforum) and seeing the same forum junkies posting stupid replies into every thread that u visit, i have this one guy who replies to every thread in that place and he has no idea what he is saying. i posted a thread just like this one to try to get a decent answer, and there he was, posting stupid replies to my thread and saying i was exagerating my 3dmark03 score for my 9600pro card with my xp2500cpu. i mean, i got 3236 once running it stock at 400/600, but i offered him my futuremarks url link for him to look at for himself, but he wouldnt take it.

anyway, ive gone on about this topic, im just glad i got the issue resolved, now im going to get my bios updated and checked out if i can, i think theres a few things my nephew forgot to do on my bios when he reformatted my h/drive last week without me knowing about it (thats another story in itself)
thanks for all your help, and i hope to se u guys in here another time....CHEERS....GLENPINN
(BTW, im an aussie, dont hold it against me, but if u ever over sydney way, ill shout u a real aussie beer ok)