NEW Official Beta Drivers for R8500 & R9700 @ ATI.com

***Zardon*** · Oct 11, 2002, 03:16 PM

For Radeon 9700 (6193 XP/2K) (9068 98/ME)

NHL 2003 - crashes and/or hangs the system
This issue affects RADEON 9700 PRO based products when running NHL 2003 by Electronic Arts.
During certain scenes in the game the system may lock up. Alternately, the game may exit back to the Windows desktop.
Customers have also reported that this issue occurs with the NHL 2003 Demo.
<a target="_blank" href="http://www.ati.com/support/infobase/4095.html">http://www.ati.com/support/infobase/4095.html</a>

------------------------------------------
For Radeon 8500 (6193 XP/2K) (9068 98/ME)

No One Lives Forever 2 - System may hang during gameplay
This issue affects RADEON 8500 series products when running No One Lives Forever2.
While playing Chapter 8 in the game, a system hang may be experienced.
<a target="_blank" href="http://www.ati.com/support/infobase/4094.html">http://www.ati.com/support/infobase/4094.html</a>

discuss in our forum <a target="_blank" href="http://driverheaven.net/thread.php?id=5836">http://driverheaven.net/thread.php?id=5836</a> thanks to convert for the heads up.

hazeldene · Oct 11, 2002, 03:46 PM

Do these support the R8500? There is no mention of it on the site

hazeldene · Oct 11, 2002, 03:48 PM

mmmm stupid..... I was looking at the 9700 page

Alistair · Oct 11, 2002, 04:00 PM

0.4kbps this is gonna take a while

***Zardon*** · Oct 11, 2002, 04:05 PM

yes, ATI really need to start looking into some server upgrades, they obviously still dont understand the demand for these which baffles me ....... if anyone has the sets and can get them to me, ill get them hosted on DH..... in the meantime all I can suggest is to keep trying or look around on other sites for other links, if anyone has the sets already, please just post links for the other users, thanks.

RIV@NVX · Oct 11, 2002, 04:13 PM

Wait - they will soon have a lot of available bandwidth - probably tomorrow already because everyone is downloading now.

digitalwanderer · Oct 11, 2002, 04:29 PM

...and I'll toss up a thread to a link at another site that a lot of us probably know where there are some working mirrors listed?

[SIZE=xx-small]<For some reason I find it humorous that I'm linking to there 'cause of all the times they've gotten mad at me for linking to here.>[/SIZE]

shuki · Oct 11, 2002, 04:41 PM

wooohooo 137Kbps from http://138pc222.sshunet.nl/Drivers/w...0-6193-efg.exe

Furious · Oct 11, 2002, 05:16 PM

They've fixed Medieval: TW also. Cool.

jcastill · Oct 11, 2002, 05:43 PM

Ok, so slow I mirrowed the W2k/Xp 8500 driver:

http://www.prodigyweb.net.mx/castill...0-6193-efg.exe

Please post your speeds

RIV@NVX · Oct 11, 2002, 05:45 PM

Wow - 15k/sec! From ATI's mirror. Looks like it's not bombed anymore.

digitalwanderer · Oct 11, 2002, 06:58 PM

That link I posted has a mirror for the 8500 & 9700 9x/me drivers too now, and they're FLYING!

***Zardon*** · Oct 11, 2002, 07:28 PM

For those of you having problems getting the 9700 XP set here is a link on Driverheaven
http://www.driverheaven.net/drivers/...0-6193-efg.exe

digitalwanderer · Oct 11, 2002, 09:07 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Zardon
For those of you having problems getting the 9700 XP set here is a link on Driverheaven
http://www.driverheaven.net/drivers/...0-6193-efg.exe

What about those of us having a problem getting a 9700?

(Damned wife and her lousy, "But honey, the kids HAVE to eat!" attitude towards my IT budget!)

Rayder · Oct 12, 2002, 12:37 AM

A flickering overlay problem with "Demolition Derby & Figure 8 Racing" after about 5 minutes of play is also fixed with these drivers. At least with Win98, I haven't tried the ones for XP yet (which exibited the same problem with the 2.3's)

I also gained about 100 marks in 3DMark.

Alistair · Oct 12, 2002, 01:20 AM

they seem to have added in a SMARTGUART menu in which you can enable fastwrites, and change your AGP speeds.

Shaith · Oct 12, 2002, 01:41 AM

For those of you without the megabucks to buy the 9700 and who need the *8500* drivers, we've got those for you too!

http://www.driverheaven.net/drivers/...0-6193-efg.exe

Get 'em while they last.

Rayder · Oct 12, 2002, 02:31 AM

Do 8500's NOT support fast writes? I turn it on, it wants a reboot and it's off again. If I hit "retest all" it will switch to on, reboot, off again. Whassup wit dat? I have fast writes turned on in BIOS. Is there another setting in BIOS required for it to work? Does it make much difference to performance? Should I worry about it?

JLP · Oct 12, 2002, 06:58 AM

Great they have finally fixed the problem with corruped sky in Descent 3 OpenGL mode. I hope they don't break it again and that they will fix other problems much faster then they did this.

RIV@NVX · Oct 12, 2002, 09:24 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by digitalwanderer
What about those of us having a problem getting a 9700?

(Damned wife and her lousy, "But honey, the kids HAVE to eat!" attitude towards my IT budget!)

LOL... It is not funny, but hey... it is either have kids or 9700.

Alistair · Oct 12, 2002, 01:54 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Rayder
Do 8500's NOT support fast writes? I turn it on, it wants a reboot and it's off again. If I hit "retest all" it will switch to on, reboot, off again. Whassup wit dat? I have fast writes turned on in BIOS. Is there another setting in BIOS required for it to work? Does it make much difference to performance? Should I worry about it?

hmm your right it went back to off when I restarted too.

RIV@NVX · Oct 12, 2002, 04:14 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Alistair
hmm your right it went back to off when I restarted too.

Same thing here. Change it - restarts - Off.

Rayder · Oct 12, 2002, 08:20 PM

Maybe it's just not fully implemented yet, hmmmm....at least I'm not the only one, that's refreshing.

I've noticed that these drivers also corrected graphic corruption problems in GTA3, good deal.

It seems to me that they found some flaw in their drivers and have finally located and fixed it. Way to go ATI!

digitalwanderer · Oct 12, 2002, 09:17 PM

But I'm still really liking this driver set, BIG time improvement over anything I've seen out of ATI in a while in terms of all-around stability/compatibility/quality. Very nice indeed!

***Omegadrive*** · Oct 12, 2002, 11:38 PM

These drivers are AWESOME!!!
ATI finally has done a very GREAT JOB

Before telling you what I mean, let me tell you a little background...
I just bought an ATI Radeon 9700 Pro (my wife still doesn't know how much it cost

) and my first impression of the card:

Now, after using my own 2.4.66, these where my benchmarks (as I remember, I'm not now in my PC, so the scores are not exact):
Quake 3, 1600x1200@32, all MAX, FSAA4x, Aniso 16X = 78FPS (using my own recorded demo)
3DMark2k1 1024x768, 24Z, Triple Buffer (no FSAA or Aniso)= ~13225 (Nature test: 88FPS)
3DMark2k1 1024x768, 24Z, Triple Buffer (FSAA 4x and Aniso 16x)= ~8850
Codecreatures 1024x768@32 = 41.x Nature, 29.7 Water

Now, I have just downloaded the new 9068 drivers, rebuilt them (using my optimizations and settings), and now these are my new scores:
Quake 3, 1600x1200@32, all MAX, FSAA4x, Aniso 16X = 96FPS (almost a 20FPS increase)
3DMark2k1 1024x768, 24Z, Triple Buffer (no FSAA or Aniso)= ~13785 (500+ marks) (Nature test: 101FPS)
3DMark2k1 1024x768, 24Z, Triple Buffer (FSAA 4x and Aniso 16x)= haven't tested
Codecreatures 1024x768@32 = 47.x Nature, 29.9 Water (a little improvement)

My veredict:
1- ATI is doing a great job with the drivers

2- The TRUE power of the 9700 haven't been shown

3- nvidia is gonna have to do something special with the NV30 if they want to compete, as I don't think they will do it, maybe they can do just a "little" improvement, but it will not be enough (specially with Aniso and FSAA).

BTW, I have the new win9x drivers are ready, but haven't uploaded them yet, I have to do some more tests with the 2D display drivers, I don't think they work correctly with 9000 or lower cards, as the previous drivers had this flaw and I had to correct them using the old 2D cores, and I have exprienced so far a couple of lockups with the new drivers, but the lockups had to do with the 2d drivers as they occurred when the applications are changing resolutions after they finish the app, so I think the new method they are using for 2d display is a little bugged, maybe I'll use the 8500 2D drivers, but I have to test it with the 9700.

I'll test, pack and upload as soon as I get home, so be patient.

See ya!

RIV@NVX · Oct 13, 2002, 04:47 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Omegadrive
These drivers are AWESOME!!!
ATI finally has done a very GREAT JOB

Before telling you what I mean, let me tell you a little background...
I just bought an ATI Radeon 9700 Pro (my wife still doesn't know how much it cost ) and my first impression of the card:

O, what will happen when she finds out.

BTW, agree with you - 6193 for XP and 8500 work excellent.

johnc339 · Oct 13, 2002, 09:01 AM

I like these new drivers and now I am finally able to play Mafia again on my 9700 Pro without it locking up right away (though I have experienced one dump to the desktop so far). The problem is the SMARTGART feature. It only gives me the option of off, 1x or 2x. MY card is running at 8X according to my Bios. What is the deal with this? Anyone else with this problem. I tried to turn it off but it keeps coming back on after reboot.

***Zardon*** · Oct 13, 2002, 09:19 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by johnc339
I like these new drivers and now I am finally able to play Mafia again on my 9700 Pro without it locking up right away (though I have experienced one dump to the desktop so far). The problem is the SMARTGART feature. It only gives me the option of off, 1x or 2x. MY card is running at 8X according to my Bios. What is the deal with this? Anyone else with this problem. I tried to turn it off but it keeps coming back on after reboot.

im guessing that as these are beta drivers (just offical betas) that certain functions dont always work the way they should on certain mobos/configs. My friend has the same issue with fast writes, and ive heard alot of people reporting the same issues.

Oct 11, 2002, 03:16 PM	#1
*Zardon* enchanted Join Date: May 2002 Location: Driverheaven Posts: 32,275 Rep Power: 3150	NEW Official Beta Drivers for R8500 & R9700 @ ATI.com For Radeon 9700 (6193 XP/2K) (9068 98/ME) NHL 2003 - crashes and/or hangs the system This issue affects RADEON 9700 PRO based products when running NHL 2003 by Electronic Arts. During certain scenes in the game the system may lock up. Alternately, the game may exit back to the Windows desktop. Customers have also reported that this issue occurs with the NHL 2003 Demo. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ati.com/support/infobase/4095.html">http://www.ati.com/support/infobase/4095.html</a> ------------------------------------------ For Radeon 8500 (6193 XP/2K) (9068 98/ME) No One Lives Forever 2 - System may hang during gameplay This issue affects RADEON 8500 series products when running No One Lives Forever2. While playing Chapter 8 in the game, a system hang may be experienced. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ati.com/support/infobase/4094.html">http://www.ati.com/support/infobase/4094.html</a> discuss in our forum <a target="_blank" href="http://driverheaven.net/thread.php?id=5836">http://driverheaven.net/thread.php?id=5836</a> thanks to convert for the heads up.

Oct 11, 2002, 03:46 PM	#2
hazeldene DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: Cornwall, UK Posts: 53 Rep Power: 0	Do these support the R8500? There is no mention of it on the site __________________ Coolermaster ATC201B With 4 x SilenX 80mm 11dBa Fans Tagan 480w PSU ABIT AT8-32X Athlon X2 4800 2 x 1024MB Crucial Ballistix 2 x GeCube X1600XT Crossfire 2 x Maxtor +9 80Gb SATA RAID 1 x WD1200BB Thru Rocket head 1 x Maxtor +9 80GB Thru Rocket head LG GSA-4163B Supermulti Artec 52x24x52x16 Combo Hyundai Q17S Display Benq FP737S-D

Oct 11, 2002, 03:48 PM	#3
hazeldene DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: Cornwall, UK Posts: 53 Rep Power: 0	mmmm stupid..... I was looking at the 9700 page __________________ Coolermaster ATC201B With 4 x SilenX 80mm 11dBa Fans Tagan 480w PSU ABIT AT8-32X Athlon X2 4800 2 x 1024MB Crucial Ballistix 2 x GeCube X1600XT Crossfire 2 x Maxtor +9 80Gb SATA RAID 1 x WD1200BB Thru Rocket head 1 x Maxtor +9 80GB Thru Rocket head LG GSA-4163B Supermulti Artec 52x24x52x16 Combo Hyundai Q17S Display Benq FP737S-D

Oct 11, 2002, 04:00 PM	#4
Alistair Spoos Join Date: May 2002 Location: State College, PA, USA Posts: 441 Rep Power: 0 System Specs	w00t 0.4kbps this is gonna take a while __________________ - Alistair

Oct 11, 2002, 04:13 PM	#6
RIV@NVX Freedom is a feature. Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Croatia, Rijeka Posts: 4,480 Rep Power: 53 System Specs	Wait - they will soon have a lot of available bandwidth - probably tomorrow already because everyone is downloading now. __________________ -- Vedran

Oct 11, 2002, 04:05 PM	#5
*Zardon* enchanted Join Date: May 2002 Location: Driverheaven Posts: 32,275 Rep Power: 3150	yes, ATI really need to start looking into some server upgrades, they obviously still dont understand the demand for these which baffles me ....... if anyone has the sets and can get them to me, ill get them hosted on DH..... in the meantime all I can suggest is to keep trying or look around on other sites for other links, if anyone has the sets already, please just post links for the other users, thanks.

Oct 11, 2002, 04:29 PM	#7
digitalwanderer Colour Commentator Join Date: May 2002 Location: Highland, IN USA Posts: 5,621 Rep Power: 0	Well, how's about we do something a little different then... ...and I'll toss up a thread to a link at another site that a lot of us probably know where there are some working mirrors listed? [SIZE=xx-small]<For some reason I find it humorous that I'm linking to there 'cause of all the times they've gotten mad at me for linking to here.>[/SIZE] __________________ WTF is up with the sigs?

Oct 11, 2002, 04:41 PM	#8
shuki DriverHeaven Senior Member Join Date: May 2002 Location: in the hidden place Posts: 1,975 Rep Power: 0	wooohooo 137Kbps from http://138pc222.sshunet.nl/Drivers/w...0-6193-efg.exe

Oct 11, 2002, 05:16 PM	#9
Furious I'm blind not deaf!! Join Date: May 2002 Posts: 260 Rep Power: 0 System Specs	They've fixed Medieval: TW also. Cool. __________________

Oct 11, 2002, 05:43 PM	#10
jcastill Mexico Man! Join Date: May 2002 Location: Mexico Posts: 87 Rep Power: 0	Ok, so slow I mirrowed the W2k/Xp 8500 driver: http://www.prodigyweb.net.mx/castill...0-6193-efg.exe Please post your speeds

Oct 11, 2002, 05:45 PM	#11
RIV@NVX Freedom is a feature. Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Croatia, Rijeka Posts: 4,480 Rep Power: 53 System Specs	Wow - 15k/sec! From ATI's mirror. Looks like it's not bombed anymore. __________________ -- Vedran

Oct 11, 2002, 06:58 PM	#12
digitalwanderer Colour Commentator Join Date: May 2002 Location: Highland, IN USA Posts: 5,621 Rep Power: 0	UPDATE That link I posted has a mirror for the 8500 & 9700 9x/me drivers too now, and they're FLYING! __________________ WTF is up with the sigs?

Oct 11, 2002, 07:28 PM	#13
*Zardon* enchanted Join Date: May 2002 Location: Driverheaven Posts: 32,275 Rep Power: 3150	For those of you having problems getting the 9700 XP set here is a link on Driverheaven http://www.driverheaven.net/drivers/...0-6193-efg.exe

Oct 12, 2002, 12:37 AM	#15
Rayder Mostly lurking lately.... Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: U.S.A. Posts: 2,043 Rep Power: 51	A flickering overlay problem with "Demolition Derby & Figure 8 Racing" after about 5 minutes of play is also fixed with these drivers. At least with Win98, I haven't tried the ones for XP yet (which exibited the same problem with the 2.3's) I also gained about 100 marks in 3DMark. __________________

Oct 12, 2002, 01:20 AM	#16
Alistair Spoos Join Date: May 2002 Location: State College, PA, USA Posts: 441 Rep Power: 0 System Specs	they seem to have added in a SMARTGUART menu in which you can enable fastwrites, and change your AGP speeds. __________________ - Alistair

Oct 12, 2002, 01:41 AM	#17
Shaith DriverHeaven Senior Member Join Date: May 2002 Posts: 914 Rep Power: 0	R8500 XP Drivers available here as well For those of you without the megabucks to buy the 9700 and who need the 8500 drivers, we've got those for you too! http://www.driverheaven.net/drivers/...0-6193-efg.exe Get 'em while they last.

Oct 12, 2002, 02:31 AM	#18
Rayder Mostly lurking lately.... Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: U.S.A. Posts: 2,043 Rep Power: 51	Do 8500's NOT support fast writes? I turn it on, it wants a reboot and it's off again. If I hit "retest all" it will switch to on, reboot, off again. Whassup wit dat? I have fast writes turned on in BIOS. Is there another setting in BIOS required for it to work? Does it make much difference to performance? Should I worry about it? __________________

Oct 12, 2002, 06:58 AM	#19
JLP DriverHeaven Lover Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: Slovenia Posts: 249 Rep Power: 0	Descent 3 fixed Great they have finally fixed the problem with corruped sky in Descent 3 OpenGL mode. I hope they don't break it again and that they will fix other problems much faster then they did this. __________________ Get Firefox! Get Thunderbird!

Oct 12, 2002, 08:20 PM	#23
Rayder Mostly lurking lately.... Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: U.S.A. Posts: 2,043 Rep Power: 51	Maybe it's just not fully implemented yet, hmmmm....at least I'm not the only one, that's refreshing. I've noticed that these drivers also corrected graphic corruption problems in GTA3, good deal. It seems to me that they found some flaw in their drivers and have finally located and fixed it. Way to go ATI! __________________

Oct 12, 2002, 09:17 PM	#24
digitalwanderer Colour Commentator Join Date: May 2002 Location: Highland, IN USA Posts: 5,621 Rep Power: 0	No-go on the fastwrites for me either. But I'm still really liking this driver set, BIG time improvement over anything I've seen out of ATI in a while in terms of all-around stability/compatibility/quality. Very nice indeed! __________________ WTF is up with the sigs?

Oct 12, 2002, 11:38 PM	#25
*Omegadrive* Drivers? What Drivers??? Join Date: May 2002 Location: Puerto Rico Posts: 1,612 Rep Power: 59	Believe it or not... These drivers are AWESOME!!! ATI finally has done a very GREAT JOB Before telling you what I mean, let me tell you a little background... I just bought an ATI Radeon 9700 Pro (my wife still doesn't know how much it cost ) and my first impression of the card: Now, after using my own 2.4.66, these where my benchmarks (as I remember, I'm not now in my PC, so the scores are not exact): Quake 3, 1600x1200@32, all MAX, FSAA4x, Aniso 16X = 78FPS (using my own recorded demo) 3DMark2k1 1024x768, 24Z, Triple Buffer (no FSAA or Aniso)= ~13225 (Nature test: 88FPS) 3DMark2k1 1024x768, 24Z, Triple Buffer (FSAA 4x and Aniso 16x)= ~8850 Codecreatures 1024x768@32 = 41.x Nature, 29.7 Water Now, I have just downloaded the new 9068 drivers, rebuilt them (using my optimizations and settings), and now these are my new scores: Quake 3, 1600x1200@32, all MAX, FSAA4x, Aniso 16X = 96FPS (almost a 20FPS increase) 3DMark2k1 1024x768, 24Z, Triple Buffer (no FSAA or Aniso)= ~13785 (500+ marks) (Nature test: 101FPS) 3DMark2k1 1024x768, 24Z, Triple Buffer (FSAA 4x and Aniso 16x)= haven't tested Codecreatures 1024x768@32 = 47.x Nature, 29.9 Water (a little improvement) My veredict: 1- ATI is doing a great job with the drivers 2- The TRUE power of the 9700 haven't been shown 3- nvidia is gonna have to do something special with the NV30 if they want to compete, as I don't think they will do it, maybe they can do just a "little" improvement, but it will not be enough (specially with Aniso and FSAA). BTW, I have the new win9x drivers are ready, but haven't uploaded them yet, I have to do some more tests with the 2D display drivers, I don't think they work correctly with 9000 or lower cards, as the previous drivers had this flaw and I had to correct them using the old 2D cores, and I have exprienced so far a couple of lockups with the new drivers, but the lockups had to do with the 2d drivers as they occurred when the applications are changing resolutions after they finish the app, so I think the new method they are using for 2d display is a little bugged, maybe I'll use the 8500 2D drivers, but I have to test it with the 9700. I'll test, pack and upload as soon as I get home, so be patient. See ya! __________________ DRIVERHEAVEN ADMINISTRATOR <<E-MAIL>> <<PC SPECS>> GOD BLESS YOU ALL!

Oct 13, 2002, 09:01 AM	#27
johnc339 DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Oct 2002 Posts: 2 Rep Power: 0	Having problems with SMARTGART function...... I like these new drivers and now I am finally able to play Mafia again on my 9700 Pro without it locking up right away (though I have experienced one dump to the desktop so far). The problem is the SMARTGART feature. It only gives me the option of off, 1x or 2x. MY card is running at 8X according to my Bios. What is the deal with this? Anyone else with this problem. I tried to turn it off but it keeps coming back on after reboot.