Latest Nvidia/ATi Drivers [Archive]

fedz

01-29-2005, 08:12 PM

For optimal performance, please ensure that your drivers are up to date:
_________________________________________________________________

Nvidia:

Driver home page (http://www.nvidia.com/content/drivers/drivers.asp)

Forceware 66.93:
Windows 2000/XP (http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_2k_66.93)

Forceware 66.94:
Windows 95/98/Me (http://www.nvidia.com/object/win9x_66.94)

Forceware 67.66 BETA:
Windows 2000/XP (http://www.nzone.com/object/nzone_downloads_winxp_2k_67.66.html)
____________

ATi:

Catalyst 5.1:

Driver home page (http://www.ati.com/support/driver.html)

Windows XP (http://www.ati.com/support/drivers/winxp/radeonwdm-xp.html?type=xp&prodType=graphic&prod=productsXPdriver&submit.x=9&submit.y=11&submit=GO%21)

Windows 2000 (http://www.ati.com/support/drivers/win2k/radeonwdm-2k.html?type=2k&prodType=graphic&prod=products2kdriver&submit.x=9&submit.y=9&submit=GO%21)

Windows 98/ME (http://www.ati.com/support/drivers/winme/radeonwdm-me.html?type=me&prodType=graphic&prod=productsME98driver&submit.x=8&submit.y=4&submit=GO%21)

Release notes (http://www2.ati.com/drivers/Catalyst_51_release_notes.html)
_________________________________________________________________

Any further updates/drivers will be posted on this thread

:) fedz

fedz

01-29-2005, 08:35 PM

Firstly, Catalyst 5.1 is unstable in Windows XP, causing cli.exe error messages on some systems. ATi are aware of this, and will release an update shortly to solve the problem. It is recommended that people stick with Catalyst 4.12 for the moment.

Secondly, although Nvidia Forceware 71-- beta drivers are already available, stay away from them for the moment as they suffer from image quality problems (see nvidia driver comparison below). Nvidia's latest Forceware drivers (66.93 for 2000/XP and 66.94 for 98/ME - no difference except in name) are relatively stable and problem free for the moment.

Several alternative drivers also exist:

ATi:

Omega have made their name making modded ATi drivers. Many people use them/have used them, including me. However, many other alternatives are available, two big names being DNA and TechConnect.

A comparison is available here. (http://blaze.ausgamers.com/utopiatech/forums//index.php?s=&act=ST&f=26&t=1303)

Omega drivers home page. (http://www.omegadrivers.net/)

DNA ATi drivers home page. (http://www.dna-drivers.nl/page.php?id=2)

TechConnect ATi drivers mirror. (http://blaze.ausgamers.com/utopiatech/forums//index.php?code=techconnect)
______________

Nvidia:

Although Omega has stopped making new Nvidia drivers for the moment, there are several new kids on the block, notably DNA and TechConnect. Note that Nvidia's 71.24 drivers are BETA, and that the image quality comparison halfway down the chart (see link below) may not be representative of Nvidia's final drivers.

A comparison is available here. (http://blaze.ausgamers.com/utopiatech/forums//index.php?s=&act=ST&f=26&t=1494)

DNA Nvidia drivers home page. (http://www.dna-drivers.nl/page.php?id=3)

TechConnect Nvidia drivers mirror. (http://blaze.ausgamers.com/utopiatech/forums//index.php?code=techconnect)

Hope that helps

:) fedz

cr4zy

02-05-2005, 05:57 PM

one thing I found pretty cool about ATI's new drivers for their newer cards is that they have added optimizations for certain applications. An example would be that Nvidia has always been much better then ATI when it came to benchmarks in Doom 3 but now with the optimizations they added to their drivers ATI has closed the gap quite well and is pretty much on par with Nvidia's scores in that area.

As a little side note Nvidia has been using optimizations in their drivers for some time now.

fedz

02-05-2005, 06:29 PM

Disagree: ATi's new drivers (5.1) are massively buggy, and Nvidia still leads by a mile and a half in Doom 3. ATi's optimisations have been to use brilinear filtering - basically lower image quality, better performance. Considering that Nvidia got labelled cheats for doing that (and now no longer do it) that's a bit rich from ATi, who've now lost moral high ground both in dual-slot coolers and image quality.

:) fedz

cr4zy

02-07-2005, 02:48 AM

:(

I am depressed now.

Jester

02-08-2005, 12:12 PM

The omega drivers for catalyst 5.1's are out and fixed now. I get 20 more fps on CSS source. :D

netnamakan

02-28-2005, 07:11 PM

Fedz, maybe you or one of the mods could edit your post, seeing as the ati catalyst 5.2 is out :cool:

namakan

fedz

02-28-2005, 08:33 PM

Mods should be able to, I'll ask later
Cat 5.2's are much more stable, I've switched back from Omega :D

:) fedz

netnamakan

02-28-2005, 09:42 PM

Yeah the 5.2s are great, I just installed them for a friend and they brought his aquamark score up another 10,000, and there was a noticeable fps gain in everything :)

I wonder when nvidia will have thier next ones. For some reason my 6600gt only runs well on the older forcewares, anything else and I get major artifacts and lockups.

namakan

David M

03-04-2005, 11:18 AM

Any idea why ATI does not have any drivers for the X800 card? Their website says to use the drivers that came with the manufacturers CD.

Are there any better/faster alternatives out there?

The Sapphire Radeon x800 platinum card I have goes blank for a few seconds then comes back. Its rare, but irritating enough to look for a solution.

Thanks

Panama Red

03-04-2005, 11:23 AM

I use Omega drivers for all my ATI cards. They serve me well. Here's a link:

http://www.omegadrivers.net/

netnamakan

03-04-2005, 12:36 PM

David, if you don't use the omegas, ATI's catylyst 5.2 are for almost all of the cards, x800 series included. The friend I installed them for has a x800xt PE
and the difference was amazing, much better than the 5.1s. I have not, however tried the omegas on his pc. so maybe try both and see which you prefer.

ATI catalyst 5.2 (https://support.ati.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=894&task=knowledge&folderID=27)

spyder003

03-13-2005, 07:34 PM

New Forceware's 71.84 (http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_2k_71.84.html) are out.

ComputerNut

03-13-2005, 08:10 PM

Has ATi already got Catalyst 5.3 out? thats what it says on the linky netnamakan gave instead of 5.2.

netnamakan

03-13-2005, 08:57 PM

wow thats wierd... the 5.2's just came out.. maybe a typo or something, although unlikely. :confused:

namakan

Yuanji

03-13-2005, 09:07 PM

ComputerNut

03-13-2005, 10:17 PM

no, that would make sense. the way ATi names their drivers are the end number of the year, and the month. they come out with a new driver every month. So the 5.2s are the 2005 feb drivers. the 5.3s just came out since it's march now.

Wow, thats a different way of doing it. I figured that it was simply a version number, and new versions would come as the need for fixes and improvements become apparent.

CN :)

fedz

04-09-2005, 08:40 AM

Here are the latest drivers from ATi
https://support.ati.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=894&task=knowledge&folderID=27

and from Nvidia
http://www.nvidia.com/content/drivers/drivers.asp

:) fedz

fedz

05-18-2005, 02:20 PM

Nvidia's latest drivers will always be here:
http://www.nvidia.com/content/drivers/drivers.asp

Nvidia's betas here
http://www.nzone.com/object/nzone_downloads_rel70betadriver.html

ATi's latest will always be here:
https://support.ati.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=894&task=knowledge&folderID=27

:) fedz

ATi catalyst 5.5 and forceware 71.89 are currently the latest

kevinf

06-09-2005, 10:36 AM

catalyst 5.6 just came out https://support.ati.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=894&task=knowledge&folderID=27

fedz

06-09-2005, 12:12 PM

Thanks I was looking forward to that one so much - up to 20% performance improvement according to ATi...

:) fedz

fedz

06-10-2005, 07:10 PM

Again, until further notice:

Nvidia's latest drivers will always be here:
http://www.nvidia.com/content/drivers/drivers.asp

Nvidia's betas here
http://www.nzone.com/object/nzone_d...betadriver.html

ATi's latest will always be here:
https://support.ati.com/ics/support...dge&folderID=27

For alternative drivers look at the second post of this thread.

:) fedz

JusB

08-29-2005, 11:50 AM

I just built a new box with ABit AN8 Fatality SLi, AMD x2 4400, 2 gigs of Corsair Pro, Ultra X-Connect 500+, and an All In Wonder X600 Pro.
The installation CD has 2 sets of sound drivers, AC 97, and NVidia for the AC 97. I have Klipsch speakers, and my goal is to use digital or optical out. Since I have no digital coax out, I settled on the Optical. Pronlem is, if I use the NVidia, I get no sound from the optical, and if I use the AC 97, I have no control over volume.
Can anyone advise?
JusB@aol.com

Panama Red

08-29-2005, 12:21 PM

JusB

08-29-2005, 12:23 PM

I posted here because it is a driver issue.
Wont happen again.

RazorDX

09-21-2005, 11:50 PM

Just in case you didn't know, ATI has just released new Catalyst drivers. All of you with ATI cards should update ASAP.

pam123

10-12-2005, 09:47 PM

Release 5.10 : https://support.ati.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=894&task=knowledge&folderID=27

Two|Bit

10-15-2005, 11:59 PM

Whats the difference in getting the driver "With Control Panel" and "With Catalyst Control Center"?

pam123

10-16-2005, 08:01 AM

Whats the difference in getting the driver "With Control Panel" and "With Catalyst Control Center"?

The CCC requires .NET and it's a good deal fancier, read uses more resources, and allows more tweaking. The cli.exe of it isn't really accessing the net though, it seems tcp stacks are used just not the net even though it must have net permission.
I'm one of those people for whom it works badly,when I did finally get it to work, so I don't use it now.
The CP is the old one, doesn't use much in the way of resources, allows less tweaking and if you want to overclock the video card you'll need to dwonload the ATI tray tool.
ATI says that it will be switching everything to CCC but it's been more than a year now and they still haven't done it.

fedz

10-17-2005, 10:58 AM

To put it bluntly, the CCC uses a nicer user interface and allows more complex options, as said above. However, its overclocking feature is an absolute joke and, as well as being a massive resource hog, it crashes more often than I´d ever care to know about. As a result, I´ve ditched it, and so have many other people.
My system isn´t exactly a slouch, you´d expect it to work best with that graphics card, but no. As a result, I think the expression `don´t touch it with a barge pole´comes to mind.
However, it seems to work for some, so I´d just advise you to try it and see what works best.
Best of luck with that

:) fedz

Spearball

10-25-2005, 09:42 PM

Hey can someone please tell me if any audigy 2 sound card is compatible with my older dell optiplex GX400 in any way. If not i would like to know some ideas on some other sound cards like those.

netnamakan

10-25-2005, 09:43 PM

Welcome to PCM spear.

You will be better of if you start your own thread.

Spearball

10-25-2005, 09:44 PM

Ok thanks

rspassey

11-28-2005, 09:38 PM

ForceWare Release 80
Version: 81.95
Release Date: November 22, 2005
WHQL Certified (http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_2k_81.95.html)

I haven't installed yet, but will this weekend when I have time to test them out with benchmarkings.

blue60007

12-22-2005, 12:30 AM

Catalyst 5.13 Released (https://support.ati.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=894&task=knowledge&questionID=640)

Not a whole lot new this time around.

kram 2.0

01-19-2006, 08:10 PM

First drivers of 2006 out by ATI - Cat 6.1. Nothing much more than bug-fixing.

https://support.ati.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=894&task=knowledge&questionID=640

kram

rspassey

01-22-2006, 11:12 AM

ForceWare Release 80
Version: 82.12
Release Date: December 22, 2005
BETA Driver (http://www.nzone.com/object/nzone_downloads_winxp_2k_32bit_82.12.html)
I know it is a little late.... sorry.

erawanprawira

01-26-2006, 03:50 AM

If you guys accessed to www.omegadrivers.net, you guys could download the ATI Omegadrivers. The spec is on the website.

Antykain

01-31-2006, 10:52 PM

ForceWare Release 80
Version: 82.12
Release Date: December 22, 2005
BETA Driver (http://www.nzone.com/object/nzone_downloads_winxp_2k_32bit_82.12.html)
I know it is a little late.... sorry.

This driver set was, more or less, an add-on support driver for the GeForce 6800GS. But also supports most other cards as well.. But, many people are experiencing problems with the Beta driver. So, unless you have a GS model 6800, I would stick to the previous version until the new driver set comes out, hopefully soon this month.

fedz

02-01-2006, 02:24 PM

The latest drivers can /still/ be found through the links that I gave here (http://forum.pcmech.com/showpost.php?p=929906&postcount=22), and if anyone took the trouble of reading my posts following that, there is also mention and analysis of the alternative drivers here (http://forum.pcmech.com/showpost.php?p=865140&postcount=2).
I hope that helps, and thanks for keeping the thread updated!

:) fedz

pam123

02-10-2006, 11:02 AM

They're here : https://support.ati.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=894&task=knowledge&folderID=293

The problem is the new "Wizard" which is particularly boneheaded so if you want to change your refesh rate, for instance, from what 'it' thinks is optimum you'll have to go into Display in Control Panel.
Otherwise the install was painless and it's gone back to working with .NET 2.0 so if you need that one to get the CCC working for you can stop patching in an old version of the CP (Unless you just hate the CCC in which case continue.).
If you have one of the X1000 cards this is the version that will work with it, so you can now update instead of using the drivers on the cd ( You're stuck using the CCC with those cards by the way so resign yourself.)

erawanprawira

02-16-2006, 04:35 AM

Forceware 81.98 is out
http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_2k_81.98.html

pam123

03-08-2006, 06:43 PM

Catalyst Drivers 6.3 are now out : https://support.ati.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=894&task=knowledge&folderID=293

Spearball

03-10-2006, 05:55 PM

Can installing the newest drivers for your video card improve video and sometimes performance?

Alaron

03-10-2006, 06:12 PM

Can installing the newest drivers for your video card improve video and sometimes performance?

Yes.

pam123

03-10-2006, 06:12 PM

The short answer is yes but depending on how you use your computer you may not have much choice.
An app like iTunes can turn downright nasty if you let your drivers get too far out of date, and DVD software players, that now run Divx and MPEG-4, can be just as touchy.
Also the Radeon X1000 series of cards only came into their own with the 6.2 drivers that released the Avivo function of the cards.
The simplest way to sort everything out is to read the release notes that come with each new set of drivers and to keep in mind the other apps you run on your computer.

rspassey

03-15-2006, 05:25 PM

Two new Drivers from Nvidia.

Windows XP / 2000 (Version 84.20) << BETA
Release Date: March 9, 2005

Windows XP / 2000 (Version 84.12) << BETA
Release Date: March 2, 2005

http://www.slizone.com/page/slizone_downloads.html

blue60007

05-24-2006, 09:56 PM

Catalyst 6.5 out: https://support.ati.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=894&task=knowledge&questionID=640

Looks like they've officially turned on Adaptive AA for the older cards:

Adaptive Anti-Aliasing for ATI Radeon® 9500 and above
Adaptive Anti-Aliasing smoothes out the surfaces in an entire scene unlike Multi-Sample which works only on edge surfaces. Adaptive AA has the ability to work on transparent or opaque texels, like those that comprise a surface texture. Previously this feature was available on the ATI Radeon® X1000 family products. Starting with Catalyst® 6.5, Adaptive AA support is now available to ATI Radeon® 9500 products and above.

pam123

05-24-2006, 11:34 PM

Thanks.
Down loading them now.

flawedreality5

05-27-2006, 05:24 PM

I stumbled across this today. Catalyst 6.5 with Control Panel, NOT the bloatware Control Center.

http://www.ngohq.com/showthread.php?t=6306

blue60007

05-27-2006, 06:50 PM

Thank you!!!

blue60007

06-26-2006, 10:05 PM

Catlyst 6.6

https://support.ati.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=894&task=knowledge&questionID=640

Far Cry performance improves 4-5%. Larger gains of up to 18.3% can be seen when using anisotropic filtering.
Fear performance improves as much as 8.5% on X1800 and X1900 Single card systems and as much as 14% on X1800 and X1900 Crossfire systems.
Splinter Cell (original) performance improves as much a 7% on X1300 and X1600 Crossfire systems.

hardtarget

07-05-2006, 12:56 PM

anyone know what are the latest drivers for nvidia 6100?

pam123

07-29-2006, 02:38 PM

http://www.ati.com/index.html

pam123

08-18-2006, 07:39 PM

Judging by the release notes the speed improvements are all for the X1000 cards.
http://www.ati.com/

I'm sticking to the 6.6 version for now.
There's a new MMC so if you've had trouble with the last one it's worth trying out.

edit : The CCC will continue to show 6.7 . Catalyst Maker says ATI didn't want to wait for the WHQL that would have changed it to 6.8.
It's annoying but that's all.

artushka24

09-11-2006, 09:11 PM

Which drivers would you guys recommend for the New XFX GeForce 7900GS? XFX recommends 91.47. Are those any good? And are manufacturer or forceware drivers better? Thanks

pam123

10-31-2006, 06:24 PM

Catalyst 6.10 are now out : https://support.ati.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=894&task=knowledge&folderID=293

Panama Red

10-31-2006, 06:54 PM

Catalyst 6.10 are now out : https://support.ati.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=894&task=knowledge&folderID=293

Worth a reminder here that these new Catalyst drivers do NOT support the 92xx series or earlier cards. The old drivers are still available thru ATI/AMD's site tho. Same support issue for those using the ATI drivers modified by Omega - no support for 92xx boards.

pam123

11-16-2006, 01:00 PM

http://ati.amd.com/support/driver.html

For those of you who have the new 1650XT card it's not supported in this release :

Note: The Radeon® X1650 XT is not supported in this driver release. However, AMD Customer Care can provide replacement software drivers for customers who have damaged or mis-placed their original installation CD. To obtain replacement software drivers for the Radeon® X1650 XT, visit knowledgebase article :http://support.ati.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=894&task=knowledge&questionID=23867

As with the X1950 and the 6.10 drivers the new card will take another month to reach download support, so if you want to try it's at your own risk.

teamo

12-03-2006, 11:35 AM

I am pretty new to computer building/tweaking. I just downloaded the latest graphics card drivers and beta drivers. Which one would be better? I have an MSI 7600 GT card.

pam123

12-03-2006, 11:48 AM

I am pretty new to computer building/tweaking. I just downloaded the latest graphics card drivers and beta drivers. Which one would be better? I have an MSI 7600 GT card.

Beta drivers are still in development and are not formal releases.
If you want to consider be a beta tester, and keep nVidia updated on what you find out, then download and install them.
There's a good chance that they'll glitch at some point so be sure you can deal with trouble ( I would not put them on my only computer ).
Otherwise stick to the formal releases.

pam123

12-14-2006, 08:38 AM

If you are running Folding@Home do not update to these drivers.

However, AMD warned users not to apply the update if they're running Stanford University's Folding@Home protein synthesis app - the new fixes un-fix something in the Stanford code. AMD pledged to sort this out in the next Catalyst release.

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/12/14/amd_updates_catalyst/