How do Anzak drivers perform compared to Omega, DNS, Catalyst 4.12?

stubby · Dec 31, 2004, 05:58 PM

Anyone try the Anzak drivers based on Cat 4.12s?

They are specifically tailored for OpenGL games

Available:

http://www.valancestudios.com/anzak/catcomfull.exe (full version)

http://www.valancestudios.com/anzak/catcomlite.exe (lite version)

How do these compare to the Omega, DNS drivers?

pir8nyc · Dec 31, 2004, 06:27 PM

I tried the omegas, anzaks, and unian. If memory serves, the benches in aqua marks 3 were 29,400, 29,800 and 30,400, respectively for my 9600xt.

In terms of actual gameplay, the omegas were the smoothest, but I had to set to 4X AGP for stability. Anzak was very stable even at 8X, but there were small stutters, and it also ran and stayed a little hotter even in normal windows and after a couple of hours of gameplay, I had to shut down to let the system cool off, after I was getting too many reboots. Also, the installation script for anzak is a little confusing. But its not a bad driver.

stubby · Dec 31, 2004, 07:26 PM

tried all three myself just now. Omega's are by far the best for gaming, am getting massive performance increases compared to the other drivers

riles9262 · Dec 31, 2004, 08:53 PM

According to this thread on rage http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread.php?t=33797149
some ppl are using them and are liking them a lot. Everybody's perceptions of drivers are different though. I like the omegas myself, mostly because I am a radlinker fan.

>GSXR<mrbusa · Dec 31, 2004, 09:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pir8nyc

I tried the omegas, anzaks, and unian. If memory serves, the benches in aqua marks 3 were 29,400, 29,800 and 30,400, respectively for my 9600xt.

In terms of actual gameplay, the omegas were the smoothest, but I had to set to 4X AGP for stability. Anzak was very stable even at 8X, but there were small stutters, and it also ran and stayed a little hotter even in normal windows and after a couple of hours of gameplay, I had to shut down to let the system cool off, after I was getting too many reboots. Also, the installation script for anzak is a little confusing. But its not a bad driver.

how can a driver make your card or whole system for that matter overheat at all

MindlessOath · Dec 31, 2004, 11:11 PM

the drivers dont overheat anything, however mabe some setting is doing something that we dont know, possibly overclocking it by default without someone knowing... im not sure i havent checked them out. i have replied to the guy to use some kind of installer like http://nsis.sourceforge.net hopefully he does use that.

i use nothing but unians now adays, because their the mOST stable of them all. omega is good but it has radlinker issues for some people, but overall works for most all video cards, with good performance.

Ne0_MoRTiZ · Jan 1, 2005, 06:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MindlessOath

i use nothing but unians now adays, because their the mOST stable of them all. omega is good but it has radlinker issues for some people, but overall works for most all video cards, with good performance.

I was using the latest Unians for the past few days and am very happy with them and like you I was staying away from the new Omegas but this morning I decided to give it a go and installed it plus I found out that ChrisW has release a patch for the Radlinker issues. Anyway, installed the latest Omegas and everything's running sweet.

MindlessOath, I remembered you used to publish benchmarks between drivers as well. Why not do it again as alot of people are really anxious to see any performance benchmarks between those drivers, especially the new modded drivers hitting the scene. You know a great deal about modded drivers so it'll be nice to read some new articles about these from you.

Sticking on topic though, Anzak drivers are also very good but I find it tends to stutter more often in HalfLife2 than the other drivers.

pir8nyc · Jan 1, 2005, 12:43 PM

The drivers definitely run the card up to different temperatures based on the tweaks, this is true even for the official cats. In fact, there are many reports of cards especially XTs and the 9800 series overheating at stock speeds to the point of failure with Cat 3.8, although ATI never admitted to this.

The XTs have a core temperature diode, and you can log the core temps. I've noticed up to 10 degree C difference between the drivers, after playing for many hours at stock speed, my computer starts rebooting. Of course this can be avoided by fixing on an aftermarket cooler (voids the 3 year warranty), playing with the case side panel open (got to clean out the dust), or RMAing the card for one with a better core (the cores vary in quality so it is luck of the draw), or having a good circulation (round cables, multiple fans).

MindlessOath · Jan 1, 2005, 03:47 PM

hrm... im not sure why it would make a temp change, but mabe one or the other driver is making the card do more work.... lets say one card didnt enable instancing, then that would make the card work harder mabe increasing load/heat. i dunno for sure.

anyways.....

i might do some benchmarking, i mean i have hl2, cs:s, farcry, battlefeild, unreal2k4, and some other stuff, HOWEVER im slim on time, i did get two new hard drives :O but i need to backup the stuff i have on their before i do that. my previous reviews were not really benchmarks persay, but more of an opinion orianted article including all the drivers their were at the time.

i myself am waiting for neon_cowboy to do annother driver review