Are the newest video drivers really needed ?

[Trillock]

I mean for example, I run a pair of Gigabyte 4870X2 in CF....old cards now and just wondering if there are any benefits to installing latest drivers (10.3) ?

I also have other problems. Currently running W7 Home Prem 32/64 versions (along with Vista Ult 32/64) and find that in W7 some games will not display properly.

Main culprit is BF2 and the AIX2 mod (which I like....a lot).
All is displayed ok until I enter a map to play...........the ground is missing. All above ground is fine, but the ground is sort of transparent, making it hopeless to play.
SupCom and C&C Gens/ZH play just fine, as does UT GOTY (very old) and some others.

Vista 32/64 doesn't seem to be affected with this problem.

I did get AIX2 to run properly by reverting back to 9.2 drivers.........so perhaps older drivers are better than brand spanking new ones ?

I know you chaps/chapessess know your stuff in here and would appreciate any help/advice.

The answer..........get a 5850/5870/5890/GF470/480 is not an option...........I don't have the money that I had when I put together this machine over a year ago......newly retired and a bit poor

 

[Sly]

Newer drivers aren't really critical unless it has a new feature you want or there's a bug you're hoping gets fixed.

In my case, it's the latter.

 

[jordan12]

I typically always go for the latest driver. I feel that I do gain some stability benefit,(most of the time).
So I recommend it. Especially if you are having display issues.

And if a new driver doesn't fix it, then look at hardware from there..

 

[Trillock]

Thanks for taking the time to reply.

Just wondering if it is because W7 is DX11 it is not playing nicely with AIX2.
Vista is DX10 and doesn't have these issues.

I was running 9.2 drivers and BF2 had missing ground, but AIX2 didn't and played just fine.

I just installed the 10.3 drivers and now AIX2 is missing the ground, so I am back to square one

Looks like I will have to revert back to a 9 series driver and hope it works.

I don't think my hardware is at fault as some old and very old games like original UT play ok. I only seem to have the problem with BF2 which I have to instal (but don't play much) so that I can instal AIX2 which I do play a lot.

BF2142 installs and plays fine.

Thanks for advice/help....appreciated.

 

[jordan12]

Thanks for taking the time to reply.

Just wondering if it is because W7 is DX11 it is not playing nicely with AIX2.
Vista is DX10 and doesn't have these issues.

I was running 9.2 drivers and BF2 had missing ground, but AIX2 didn't and played just fine.

I just installed the 10.3 drivers and now AIX2 is missing the ground, so I am back to square one

Looks like I will have to revert back to a 9 series driver and hope it works.

I don't think my hardware is at fault as some old and very old games like original UT play ok. I only seem to have the problem with BF2 which I have to instal (but don't play much) so that I can instal AIX2 which I do play a lot.

BF2142 installs and plays fine.

Thanks for advice/help....appreciated.

have you tried it without Crossfire mode so you run off of one card?

If you did this, does the video issues go away?

 

[WabeWalker]

Drivers - if it isn't broken, then don't fix it.

A recent example of this for me would be Empire Total War: on day one, this game was working perfectly for me. Now, after the sixth patch, and running the latest drivers, the game is unplayable, because the cities on the map just aren't there (a known issue that neither Nvidia nor CA seems to feel the need to address).

The only way I was able to get Empire running was to roll back my drivers to May of 2009 - and when I did that, suddenly Fallout 3 seemed to be working better again.

I've just bought Bad Company 2 however and the graphics are completely wonky, making the game look almost like that screen saver thing you see in iTunes. I'll have to choose between playing Bad Company or Empire.

The other thing about drivers is that the driver notes will always communicate percentage gains in games - there will be boasts about 15% increases in performance. For the most part, you'll never see these gains. If your game is running at 45 frames per second, then obviously you're not going to notice a 15% gain. Even if you were running close to 30 frames per second I have my doubts you would notice a change either.

I'm not saying you shouldn't ever update your drivers, because that's obviously nonsense - but update them when you need to.

A game just isn't working at all - then update. Just bought a new card - then update. Haven't updated in 18 months - hmm, maybe update; but even then, if every game you own is working....

 

[Trillock]

have you tried it without Crossfire mode so you run off of one card?

If you did this, does the video issues go away?

Yep, had one card out completely to try it (and basically to see how one card handled all the other games) and it didn't make any difference.

But thanks for the tip.

 

[zellthemedic]

I've seen drivers that increase performance by 30%...so I tend to get the newest drivers when I can.

 

[kllrnohj]

The other thing about drivers is that the driver notes will always communicate percentage gains in games - there will be boasts about 15% increases in performance. For the most part, you'll never see these gains. If your game is running at 45 frames per second, then obviously you're not going to notice a 15% gain. Even if you were running close to 30 frames per second I have my doubts you would notice a change either.

Not necessarily. I just updated to ATI's 10.3b preview driver and the boost in performance in Dirt 2 allowed me to bump up to "Ultra" post processing from medium. Dirt 2 is now completely playable for me at 5760x1200 w/ everything maxed and 2xAA. When I first set up Eyefinity I had to drop one or two settings down a notch and no AA.

So OP, I would definitely suggest giving the 10.3b preview drivers a good look - ATI provides them on their site (so they are "official", just not WHQL), and performance improvements were pretty solid in a few games (on both 5xxx and 4xxx series cards)

 

[Trillock]

Drivers - if it isn't broken, then don't fix it.

A recent example of this for me would be Empire Total War: on day one, this game was working perfectly for me. Now, after the sixth patch, and running the latest drivers, the game is unplayable, because the cities on the map just aren't there (a known issue that neither Nvidia nor CA seems to feel the need to address).

The only way I was able to get Empire running was to roll back my drivers to May of 2009 - and when I did that, suddenly Fallout 3 seemed to be working better again.

I've just bought Bad Company 2 however and the graphics are completely wonky, making the game look almost like that screen saver thing you see in iTunes. I'll have to choose between playing Bad Company or Empire.

The other thing about drivers is that the driver notes will always communicate percentage gains in games - there will be boasts about 15% increases in performance. For the most part, you'll never see these gains. If your game is running at 45 frames per second, then obviously you're not going to notice a 15% gain. Even if you were running close to 30 frames per second I have my doubts you would notice a change either.

I'm not saying you shouldn't ever update your drivers, because that's obviously nonsense - but update them when you need to.

A game just isn't working at all - then update. Just bought a new card - then update. Haven't updated in 18 months - hmm, maybe update; but even then, if every game you own is working....

I normally update drivers when they come out, and have noticed a few slight differences in C&C Gens as the USA vehicles are camouflaged whereas before they were just plain grey...

I figure it is Windows 7 with DX11 cocking things up as I've tried both 32 and 64 bit versions.

It only seems to apply to BF2 and the AIX12 mod...............so if the OS won't play some of my old games nicely, then frankly it's not a very good OS for daily use.

I don't have these problems in Vista32/64 and have just updated the V64 drivers to the new 10.3's and all works as it should...................so I blame W7 and think I will stick to Vista as my regular OS as it does everything as it should....

 

[Trillock]

Drivers - if it isn't broken, then don't fix it.

A recent example of this for me would be Empire Total War: on day one, this game was working perfectly for me. Now, after the sixth patch, and running the latest drivers, the game is unplayable, because the cities on the map just aren't there (a known issue that neither Nvidia nor CA seems to feel the need to address).

The only way I was able to get Empire running was to roll back my drivers to May of 2009 - and when I did that, suddenly Fallout 3 seemed to be working better again.

I've just bought Bad Company 2 however and the graphics are completely wonky, making the game look almost like that screen saver thing you see in iTunes. I'll have to choose between playing Bad Company or Empire.

The other thing about drivers is that the driver notes will always communicate percentage gains in games - there will be boasts about 15% increases in performance. For the most part, you'll never see these gains. If your game is running at 45 frames per second, then obviously you're not going to notice a 15% gain. Even if you were running close to 30 frames per second I have my doubts you would notice a change either.

I'm not saying you shouldn't ever update your drivers, because that's obviously nonsense - but update them when you need to.

A game just isn't working at all - then update. Just bought a new card - then update. Haven't updated in 18 months - hmm, maybe update; but even then, if every game you own is working....

I normally update drivers when they come out, and have noticed a few slight differences in C&C Gens as the USA vehicles are camouflaged whereas before they were just plain grey...

I figure it is Windows 7 with DX11 cocking things up as I've tried both 32 and 64 bit versions.

It only seems to apply to BF2 and the AIX12 mod...............so if the OS won't play some of my old games nicely, then frankly it's not a very good OS for daily use.

I don't have these problems in Vista32/64 and have just updated the V64 drivers to the new 10.3's and all works as it should...................so I blame W7 and think I will stick to Vista 32/64 as my regular OS as they work without all the hassle with W7.

 

[Trillock]

Not necessarily. I just updated to ATI's 10.3b preview driver and the boost in performance in Dirt 2 allowed me to bump up to "Ultra" post processing from medium. Dirt 2 is now completely playable for me at 5760x1200 w/ everything maxed and 2xAA. When I first set up Eyefinity I had to drop one or two settings down a notch and no AA.

So OP, I would definitely suggest giving the 10.3b preview drivers a good look - ATI provides them on their site (so they are "official", just not WHQL), and performance improvements were pretty solid in a few games (on both 5xxx and 4xxx series cards)

Thanks for the reply, I will give them a go

See, I don't have any really modern games..........can't afford them these days and all mine are pretty old now..............BF2, BF2142, SupCom, C&C Gens/ZH, Tiberium Wars, the complete UT series to name most of them.

Vista plays them all without fuss.......which is DX10............W7 with DX11 seems a bit picky to me

p.s. Just had a look at the 10.3b drivers and not really sure they apply to me...........more for eyefinity boys and various tweaks for people running modern games.
My PC is reasonably modern gear playing old games on one monitor....

 

[kllrnohj]

Vista plays them all without fuss.......which is DX10............W7 with DX11 seems a bit picky to me

No, you are mistaken. Windows and DirectX are not linked. Vista runs DX9L, DX10, DX10.1, and DX11. Windows 7 runs DX9L, DX10, DX10.1, and DX11. They both run the *same* versions of DirectX. Games also target a specific version of DirectX and use that specific version, regardless of other versions that are installed. There are multiple versions of DX9.0c, for example, and a DX9.0c game will always use DX9.0c, even on Win 7.

I'm not saying that you have games that work with Vista that don't with Win 7 - that is perfectly possible and not unusual. Rather, I'm saying it has nothing to do with DX 10 vs. 11 - especially since you are talking about DX9 games anyway.

 

[Trillock]

Thanks kllrnohj for putting me straight on DX.

It was the only thing I could think of that was different between Vista and W7, I am very ignorant on these things.

BF2 +AIX2 runs fine with latest drivers on Vista 32/64............it doesn't on W7 32/64.

I have tried clean installs of W7 with latest drivers and the game fails on both versions.

It looks like the only way is to revert back to the 9 series of drivers as I think that is the only way the game will play, and then I can use W7 as my daily OS.

I am trying very hard to like W7, but it is making it difficult

P.S. Is there anyway I can stipulate in W7 which version of DX to run a game, or does it just do it automatically ?
Sorry if a daft question, but this forum is the place to find out...

 

[Conker]

The newer drivers give better performance for 4xxx cards also. There was recent boosts for both 4xxx/5xxx series cards. It helps also when having crossfire so that you get the latest crossfire profiles

 

[mesyn191]

Unless you've got a major bug that makes the game unplayable or the system unusable then new drivers aren't needed but you usually want them anyways since they most always improve performance at least a little bit and fix all sorts of new and interesting bugs that you may or may not run into.

This goes double for you if you run Crossfire/SLi. AMD/nV have been doing a real good job lately of improving performance and support for those who use 2 or more video cards lately, and not just for the newer GPU's but for the older ones too.

 

[Trillock]

Thanks for the replies.

Just a bit confused as to why it is only one game (so far) that I have trouble with. Does no one else have trouble with BF2 (and any mods) on W7 ?

I always get the latest drivers for everything....chipset, sound, video etc, and this is the only game I have trouble with on W7.......................Vista not affected.

I have noticed some little differences in C&C Gens/ZH (my games are old ) where the USA vehicles are camouflaged, whereas before they were just grey...nice little touches in W7.

Like I said, I took one card out to see if CF was the problem, but it wasn't so put the card back in again.

Ah well, that's computers for you....

On a side note, if I found a pot of gold somewhere, what would be the upgrade path from 2 x 4870X2's ?

This would mean I would then be modern and have a DX11 card, which would then allow me to hitch it up to the display port on my Dell monitor and make use of it.

Thanks, all help appreciated.

 

[Yikes2000]

On a side note, if I found a pot of gold somewhere, what would be the upgrade path from 2 x 4870X2's ?

How much gold?

2 x 5870 2GB version.

If you even more gold, then buy 3 x 24" (or bigger) monitors for Eyefinity.

 

[Trillock]

Just give me the winning numbers on the lottery and I will be hitting the 'buy' button pretty damn quick

Would 1 x 5870 2GB be an upgrade to the 4870X2's ?

 

[mesyn191]

The difference would probably be unnoticeable, except perhaps in a few benchmarks or DX11 games.

Best to keep what you have and wait until either the Evergreen refresh (Hecatoncheires) which is supposed to come out late this year and if the rumors on SA are correct seems to be on schedule, or for AMD's new GPU arch. (Northern Islands) which looks to be coming out very late this year or (more likely) early next year.

e: actually re-reading SA it seems due to TSMC's fuck ups they may go with Southern Islands instead of Northern Islands. SI is supposed to be a mish mash of NI "uncore" bits and pieces and Evergreen ALU's, so it probably won't be a huge improvement over Evergreen unfortunately. It'll probably still meet or beat nV's B rev. of GT300 though. Personally I hope AMD just switches to GF permanently for doing their high and mid range GPU stuff from now on, we won't know exactly what they're gonna do until early next year.

If you still feel the need to rid yourself of the money burning a hole in your pocket you could always pick up a HD projector for some 90"+ screen action which would probably be the biggest single visual improvement you could do for gaming.

 

[kllrnohj]

P.S. Is there anyway I can stipulate in W7 which version of DX to run a game, or does it just do it automatically ?
Sorry if a daft question, but this forum is the place to find out...

Its automatic. Have you tried launching the game in compatibility mode? Right-click on the game shortcut and go to the compatibility tab. Try launching BF2 in Vista or XP compatibility mode - it might help.

 

[Trillock]

Thanks, I will try that next time I boot to W7.