Saphire or ATI drivers?

CDsDontBurn

Ok.....i've bought only built by ATI cards in the past, and i will be purchasing a saphire 9600pro 128Mb within the month for another system i will be building. However, the card i will be purchasing is a saphire card. For the drivers, do i have to get the saphire drivers, or can i get the drivers from ATI's website ?

mkk

You can use any package you like. I'd suggest trying out ATI's own or an alternative package like the Omega's for some extra features.

Curious_101

Technically if you browse the documentation, you will find that the drivers are slightly different. Hence "Built By ATI" as opposed to "Powered By ATI". That is
one of the reasons that ATI provides a partner list. If the card is a Sapphire card such as I have, I would use the Sapphire drivers.

Also, if you happen to have a VIA chipset, VIA Arena has up to date drivers as well.

TwistedMetal

Omega Drivers support Sapphire 9000-9600 Pro series.

Danhill

I have a Powercolor 9800 pro, what is the differences beetween the drivers from ATI & the drivers from Powercolor except that p.c drivers are older??

TwistedMetal

To be honest, the actual driver files are the same. It's the setup or installing the drivers, that makes them different. The .inf files in the 2KXP_INF folder looks for these IDs:



Which is listed in the inf files as:

"RADEON 9700 PRO (Omega 2.5.22)" = ati2mtag_R300, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_4E44&SUBSYS_00021002

If the IDs are not found in the .inf files, then the drivers will not install.

So, the vendors create custom .inf files with the their IDs to install the drivers. They can adjust the settings and or use a different logo or whatever.

Omega can add any brand of card in the .inf files, but he would need the information that is circled in RED. He supports a wide range of brands, but right now the Omega Drivers only supports PowerColor 9200 series.

All he would need is the model of the GPU, 9700 Pro is a R300. Your Powercolor is a R350 and add a new entry in the .inf files. It's not that hard if the model of the GPU is already in the .inf files. Almost all should be by now, all it would take is a simple entry of the IDs and the card is now supported. I could even do it, it's that simple.

If any powercolor users with a 9800 Pro would send me in PM of the above circled in RED I could forward it to Omega and see if he could get in his next drivers. If you don't think your card is supported and would like it to be send me the brand (Powercolor, Sapphire, Asus, and so on), what kind of card (9600, 9700, 9800, and so on) and the IDs. I will look into getting them added.

Just trying to help out everyone and Omega.

To get the IDs. Go to Display, Settings, Advanced, Options, Details

Danhill

Thanks, I will do that (I am not home right now)

CDsDontBurn

The board is an MSI kt4 Ultra (MS-6590). Board specs are:

VIA chipset
8x AGP
400 FSB
ATA 133
2x S-ATA

Hope these board specs help in determining the problem.

Al_Vampyre

I have a Sapphire 9700Pro and always use Omega's drivers with no problems

CDsDontBurn

ok, but would I be able to use ATI drivers, or Saphire drivers for the 9600pro is all i'm asking. I do not want to have video driver issues with the system. And what is the benefit of having Omega drivers vs. ATI drivers?

Cyan007

I've never had any problems with any drivers with my PowerColor 8500LE card or my current Sapphire 9800Pro card... I never even though about this before.

swimtech

To have your card added to the installer for Omegadrive's driverset, post here:

Is Your Video Card Supported By Omega Drivers?

ATI's driver should support your card at present, as well as Sapphire's.

The Omegadrive driverset is tweaked by Omegadrive to enhance visual quality and gameplay.

Danhill

Twisted Metal,

I cannot insert an print screen here (don't know why) but here are the info you were looking for;

4e48
1002
0002
1002