9.0c, Omega, DNA, Cat's 4.8's

[jackal]

I just read my x800 pro does not support directx 9.0c, but yet i see people with x800's d/l the beta version.... I read on a post hear earlier I will still see the benefits, although i dont see how. Also, I am waiting for the official release of 4.8's (just to be safe). What version of these are you guys gonna grab? I've never messed with anything besides the catalyst's

 

[blahblahblah]

K, bunch of questions you asked so bear with me.

DNA and Omega drivers are modified Cat drivers. They provide more speed, but provide slightly less in the image quality department. DNA and Omega drivers have a good reputation, however they are not directly supported by ATI.

DX 9.0c has been giving people a slight performance improvement in games. This can be caused by any number of reasons even if you video card doesn't support DX 9.0C features. DX 9.0c has been officially released on Microsoft's website.

People are going crazy for the 4.8 Cat's because of a dramatic increase in performance in Far Cry and supposedly a performance increase in OpenGL games (like Doom 3). For me personally, the leaked 4.8's provide a 10 fps improvement in Far Cry at 1280 resolution with 4AA and 8AF with my X800 Pro. The 4.8's do not appear to give a dramatic performance improvement to older cards. I would stay away from the beta 4.8 Cats since they are beta's. Wait for the official release sometime in early August.

 

[Shuzer]

I thought the Omega drivers were more-so for image quality enhancement, while the DNA drivers were more-so for performance?

Atleast, that's what I heard last.. (I've only ever used the official drivers and the omega drivers, never used DNA.. so.. correct me if I'm wrong )

 

[bosox188]

What kind of image quality enhancement? Anything that could help with my 5200? I know they have Nvidia drivers there.

 

[snak3y3z1001]

I always seen omega drives as a way to increase image quality while not sacrificng performance.

 

[jackal]

Thx guys, keep me updated with what dirvers you use and how they performed. Do yall think 3dc gonna be a big deal? or just another marketing tool? That is, if there is a game ever gonna support it.

 

[blahblahblah]

Thx guys, keep me updated with what dirvers you use and how they performed. Do yall think 3dc gonna be a big deal? or just another marketing tool? That is, if there is a game ever gonna support it.

I use the stock ATI drivers, though I do update my drivers as soon as new ones come out.

I think 3Dc will be a big thing since there is no standard way to compress normal maps. Right now, normal maps are not compressed in games (save Doom 3 which uses a technique for Nvidia cards and another technique for ATI cards) which means that video card memory and memory bandwith is being choked with huge normal maps. 3Dc is a method of compressing the normal maps so it uses less bandwidth and less video card memory.

So far no game out has 3Dc support, but several games are on the way (like Far Cry patch 1.3 and Half-Life 2). 3Dc will become more important as games start to use larger and larger normal maps.

 

[Gunner]

DX 9.0c has been giving people a slight performance improvement in games. This can be caused by any number of reasons even if you video card doesn't support DX 9.0C features. DX 9.0c has been officially released on Microsoft's website.

Yeah, I just benchmaked my pc using 3DMark03 & Aquamark3 again using DX9.0c this time and here are the scores:

3DMark03: 6031 (DX9.0b: 6029)
Aquamark3: 32713 (DX9.0b: 31917)

Now the 3DMark score hasn't improved greatly but I almost got a thousand points increase in Aquamark, it's not bad

I'll benchmark again when Catalyst 4.8 comes out.