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Graphics Card Drivers - Links |
Drafell Grand Admiral Mythica
Joined: May 30, 2003 Posts: 2449 From: United Kingdom
| Posted: 2005-12-03 10:54  
We will attempt to keep this thread up to date with the latest links for Graphics Card drivers for the Windows 98-Windows XP platforms.
Where possible we will link to 'reference' drivers as these tend to provide the best cross-platform stability as compared to manufacturers own drivers. Reference drivers may not, however, support manufacturer specific features.
nVidia G-Force/TNT2 Series ForceWare Unifed Drivers
Official driver download site for all nVidia graphics chipset based drivers.
ATI Catalyst 6.2 Windows ME/98SE driver - non-WHQL certified
These are the latest ATI catalyst drivers for Windows 98SE and ME systems. As of January 1, 2004, Microsoft no longer accepts certification submissions for the Microsoft® Windows® Millennium Edition operating system, although ATI are still commited to providing support for these operating systems.
ATI Catalyst 4.3 Windows ME/98SE driver - WHQL certified
These are the latest WHQL certified drivers for the Windows 98SE and ME operating systems (Supports Radeon 7000 through Radeon 9800 Series only).
ATI Catalyst 6.4 Windows XP-64 bit driver
For Windows XP-64 bit only. Suitable for all Radeon based chipsets.
ATI Catalyst 6.4 Windows XP driver
For Windows XP only. Suitable for all Radeon based chipsets.
ATI Catalyst 6.4 Windows 2000 driver
For Windows 2000 only. Suitable for all Radeon based chipsets.
[ This Message was edited by: Drafell on 2006-04-13 10:08 ]
_________________ It's gone now, no longer here...Yet still I see, and still I fear.rnrn
rnrn
DarkSpace Developer - Retired
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BackSlash Marshal Galactic Navy
Joined: March 23, 2003 Posts: 11183 From: Bristol, England
| Posted: 2005-12-03 11:29  
Note: The ATI 5.11 XP set of drivers increase the amount of times the memory is accessed and increase the temperature of your card by about 10-15 degree's, even with a very nicely cooled system. Do NOT be alarmed by this, as the card is (when idle), polling the memory and accessing any games you are running, and detecting if it needs to pull textures into memory. The reason the heat increases when not running a game, is because WindowsXP uses directx 8.1b to draw all its fancy-shmoles, and therefor uses the graphics card to draw it's own stuff. This will not decrease performance ingame though, and should instead, increase it quite dramaticly.
I advise upgrading to the 5.11 driver set ASAP if you're running a 9*00 series card or greater.
For those of you who like custome developed drivers for gaming, try the following site for custom developed ATI drivers. At current, this developer has put his Nvidia project on hold, as Nvidia have screwed up their drivers beyond understanding. Again, these drivers tend to have a 10-15% performance increase over 90% of games. IE, running the game at high detail will result in the same FPS you get at medium detail.
www.omegadrivers.net
These drivers are easy to install, and DO NOT void warranty on your card, and in some cases actualy SOLVE problems. I recommend them whole-heartedly.
[ This Message was edited by: BackSlash *Jack* on 2005-12-03 11:31 ]
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Doran Chief Marshal Galactic Navy
Joined: March 29, 2003 Posts: 4032 From: The Gideon Unit
| Posted: 2005-12-03 12:42  
my 9600 doesnt seem to like anything newer than the 4.12 drivers, messes up the refresh rate something fierce
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BackSlash Marshal Galactic Navy
Joined: March 23, 2003 Posts: 11183 From: Bristol, England
| Posted: 2005-12-03 12:50  
In the Control Panel it should have a refresh rate forcer. Or reforce.exe (google it).
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Drafell Grand Admiral Mythica
Joined: May 30, 2003 Posts: 2449 From: United Kingdom
| Posted: 2005-12-13 09:18  
As Posted By BackSlash:-
First thing you should do if you want the most performance out of your machine is try upgrade your graphic adapter drivers, or if you're having problems. I'll try keep this thread up to date with the latest drivers for each card manufacturer. I'll also try and find some custom moded ones for performance enthusiasts.
ATI:
RADEON BASED CARDS:
ATI's 5.12 for XP:
https://support.ati.com/ics/support/KBAnswer.asp?questionID=640
ATI's 5.12 for 2000:
https://support.ati.com/ics/support/KBAnswer.asp?questionID=1159
ATI's 5.9 for 9x/ME:
https://support.ati.com/ics/support/KBAnswer.asp?questionID=1160
RADEON + OTHER:
The Omega Drivers are compatible with all ATI Radeon cards:
(it doesn't matter if they are DDR, SDR, PCI, PCI-E, AGP, Mobile, Retail, OEM or 3rd Party)
Radeon All In Wonder
Radeon 7x00/VE/LE
Radeon 8500/LE
Radeon 9x00/SE/Pro/XT/TX
Radeon xX00/SE/Pro/XT/PE
All Mobility Radeons (M6 and up)
Omegadriver's 5.12 for 2000/XP: (NOTE: These are moded drivers for gaming performance)
http://www.omegadrivers.net/ati/win2k_xp.php
Omegadriver's 4.2 for 9x/ME:
http://www.omegadrivers.net/ati/win9x_me.php
New Features
The Catalyst® 5.12 software suite introduces dual core support for CPU bound cases. This feature provides improved graphics performance for DX 9 supported graphics adapters installed in systems running the Windows XP and Windows XP Professional x64 Edition operating systems.
Performance Improvements
Catalyst 5.12 improves a variety of CPU-bound performance cases when an ATI product is installed in conjunction with a dual-core or hyperthreading CPU. Performance gains include:
* 3DMark05 gains as much as 5.7%
* 3DMark03 gains as much as 3.3%
* 3DMark2001 SE gains up to 10%
* Aquamark 3 gains up to 16%
* Comanche 4 improves as much as 20%
* Far Cry gains as much as 25% on some product configurations
* Half-Life 2 performance improves as much as 8%
* Splinter Cell improves as much as 8% in certain parts of the game
* Tomb Raider Angel of Darkness runs as much as 10% faster
* Unreal Tournament 2004 framerates improve as much as 10%
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GEFORCE AND TNT2 BASED CARDS:
NVidia's 81.95 for 2000/XP:
http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_2k_81.95.html
NVidia's 81.85 for 9x/ME:
http://www.nvidia.com/object/win9x_81.85.html
(If anyone has some good custom moded drivers, I'll pop a link here)
Release Highlights for 81.95:
* Updated December 9, 2005: Updated application profiles to include Matrix: Path of Neo, Need for Speed Most Wanted, Conflict 4 and more. For information on SLI please visit SLIzone.com.
* WHQL Certified
* Adds support for GeForce 7800 GTX 512 and GeForce 6800 GS
* Improved performance for Quake 4
* Improved performance and compatibility for Call of Duty 2
* Mixed vendor support for NVIDIA SLI.
* TV-Out/HD-out support for NVIDIA SLI.
* Added support for VSync on Direct3D games when running NVIDIA SLI.
* Performance enhancements for dual-core CPUs.
* PureVideo high definition MPEG-2 de-interlacing support.
* Usability enhancements when connecting to an HDTV.
* Microsoft® DirectX® 9.0c and OpenGL® 2.0 support
* For a full list of fixed and known issues please view the Release Notes.
Release Highlights for 81.85:
* Support for the GeForce 6 series GPUs
* Microsoft® DirectX® 9.0c and OpenGL® 2.0 support
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Please Note:- Omega Drvers are NOT supported by the card manufacturers. So you use them at your own risk.
_________________ It's gone now, no longer here...Yet still I see, and still I fear.rnrn
rnrn
DarkSpace Developer - Retired
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BackSlash Marshal Galactic Navy
Joined: March 23, 2003 Posts: 11183 From: Bristol, England
| Posted: 2006-02-13 06:14  
Driver update:
ATi Catalyst 6.2
BattleField 2 Special Forces: A blooming or ghosting effect is no longer noticed when playing the game in night vision mode. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-21648
City of Heroes: Running Shadertest 7 no longer results in slow performance being noticed. Further details can be found in topic number 737-21463
Dragonshard: Playing the game under Windows XP Media Center Edition with CrossFire™ enabled, no longer results in the screen becoming out of sync, and a scrolling display image occurring shortly there after. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-20975
Fable: The Lost Chapters: Playing the game under Windows XP MCE may result in the shadows found within the game appearing jittery, when the desktop resolution is set to 1024x768 32bpp, and all the game options are set to default. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-21184
Half-Life2: Enabling Catalyst AI no longer results in the outer edges of the water appear dark or black in color. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number. 737-21649
Pacific Fighters: A stuttering effect at certain levels of the game is no longer noticed when playing the game with CrossFire enabled. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-21650
The Fall: A VPU Recover event or the operating system failing to respond no longer occur when playing the game. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-21651
World of Warcraft: Pixel corruption is no longer noticed when playing the game on systems containing an ATI Radeon X1600 series. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-21652
Attempting to install the integrated WDM driver under Windows XP no longer results in an error message being displayed indicating that the hardware is not installed because the install Wizard cannot find the necessary software. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-20784
Catalyst™ Control Center: The preview for the Deinterlacing aspect found in the Catalyst™ Control Center is now available when using the ATI Radeon® X1300. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-20986
The Video Preview found in the Standard Settings aspect within the Video option of the Catalyst® Control Center, no longer fails to provide a preview after hotplugging an LCD panel to an ATI Radeon® 9500 or 9800, when selecting to extend the desktop. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-21173
Connecting two display devices to the ATI Radeon X850 CrossFire Edition and one display device to the ATI Radeon X850 XT no longer results in the display device connected to the Radeon X850 XT still being active once
CrossFire is enabled. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-21177
The WDM Drivers is now enumerated and the Capture chip is now being detected when using the ATI Radeon® X850 XT (ViVo) as a slave card on a system containing an ATI Radeon® X850 CrossFire™ Edition. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-21178
The secondary display device no longer fails to activate when attempting to enable clone mode when using an ATI Radeon® X800 GTO. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-21179
Using the Custom option when installing the software driver no longer results in the Theater™ 550 software driver not being present. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-21183
The apply button no longer remains inactive when attempting to change the Hue and Saturation settings found in the TV PropertiesAvivo Color settings when enabling a TV as the primary display device and a CRT as the secondary display device. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-21264
The image for extended desktop and clone mode are no longer reversed when an external monitor is connected. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-21653
This release of Catalyst provides improved audio quality for European customers. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-21654
The radio seek option found in the Windows XP Media Center Edition operating system is now functioning properly. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-21655
The radio seek function found in the Windows XP Media Center Edition operating system is now functioning properly when using an ATI Radeon X800. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-21665
Connecting an HDTV to an ATI Radeon X1300 and attempting to apply any of the custom modes found in the Digital display panel properties of the HDTV, no longer results in the display failing to apply the underscan modes. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-21656
Attempting to hot-plug a DFP display device using the HDMI-DVI connector no longer results in the DFP display device failing to display an image. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-21657
The ADD button for the Custom mode option found in the Catalyst Control Center is no longer greyed out when attempting to add the custom mode of 1920x1080i@30Hz. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-21658
Viewing TV for several hours under Windows XP Media Center Edition on a system containing either an ATI Radeon X1300 or an ATI Radeon X1800 no longer results in an extraordinary long delay in the shut down and no longer results in Windows XP MCE TV failing to restart. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-21659
Also, since I missed last months Catalsyt pack, I should mention that the CCC panel made by ATI has been fixed and now uses a lot less memory, aswell as a few performance fixes to OpenGL games (significant performance increase).
Enjoy.
- Jack
[ This Message was edited by: BackSlash *Jack* on 2006-02-13 06:15 ]
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BackSlash Marshal Galactic Navy
Joined: March 23, 2003 Posts: 11183 From: Bristol, England
| Posted: 2006-05-24 16:45  
Cata 6.5's released.
http://www.ati.com
New Features
This release of Catalyst® introduces the following new features:
* Overlay Theater Mode Update
* Adaptive Anti-Aliasing for ATI Radeon® 9500 and above
Overlay Theater Mode Update
Catalyst® 6.5 introduces a new option for Overlay Theater Mode. The new option, Standard Dual Mode is available for Radeon® X1x00 series of graphics cards. This new feature now allows users to playback video using hardware acceleration when it is played on both displays (clone mode). Hardware acceleration decreases CPU utilization, allowing the PC to run smoother and faster. When using two displays in clone mode, video playback will be identically displayed on both display devices. For Radeon® X1000 series products (Avivo Video) overlay is per-display and true overlay will be used for both displays. For pre-Radeon® X1x00 boards, there is only one hardware overlay, so video on the second clone display device is either software-rendered (i.e. "Same on all" selection) or the Windows desktop is displayed but the video will not show through the color key (i.e., "Standard mode" selection).
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.
Performance Improvements
As with most Catalyst® releases, performance has increased in various situations. The PCI Express bandwidth optimization code in Catalyst® 6.5 brings performance improvements for both the ATI Radeon® X1600 and Radeon® X1300 Crossfire configurations, including:
* Up to 23% gain in UT2004
* Up to 20% gain in Splinter Cell
Issues Resolved in Catalyst® Software Suite 6.5
The following section provides a summary of the issues that are resolved in the latest release of Catalyst®. These include:
3DMark05: Running the application with CrossFire enabled and then attempting to hot un-plug and then hot-plug the CRT no longer results in 3DMark05 failing to respond. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22347
Aquamark 3: Exiting the Start Measurement benchmark test once it is complete no longer results in the display device displaying a black desktop image with only the mouse cursor being available. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22344
Doom 3: Beginning a new game and selecting the shotgun in the give all console no longer results in corruption being noticed when Ultra Quality is disabled in the in game video quality settings. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22350
Far Cry: Installing the v1.33 patch and selecting D3D along with setting the display to 1024x768 English no longer results in the operating system failing to respond when running the benchmark. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22314
Catalyst® Control Center: Enabling clone mode no longer results in the refresh rate being locked at 60Hz when using an ATI Radeon® X700 series product. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-21454
The MCE encoder no longer fails to install after the installation of the ATI display driver, WDM driver, and MMC software. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number. 737-22009
The display device no longer fades to black when attempting to do an inf install of the display driver. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22313
Connecting a CRT and disconnecting a TV followed by entering suspend mode and disconnecting the CRT no longer results in the LCD display failing to resume from suspend mode. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22379
Disconnecting a TV and connecting a CRT while in hibernation mode no longer results in the CRT failing to display an image when resuming from hibernation mode. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22379
Connecting a Sharp 32 inch LCD TV using the DVI connector no longer results in the a display mode of 659x496 being displayed when setting the display to 640x480. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number737-22316
Catalyst® Control Center: Advanced Mode: Incorrect text and cropped text is no longer noticed when selecting Japanese as the language for the Catalyst® Control Center. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22319
Clicking Start->All Programs->Catalyst® Control Center->Advanced->Catalyst® Control Center no longer results in the Catalyst® Control Center Basic View launching. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22318
The HDTV formats list no longer becomes empty after changing the display mode from extended desktop mode to clone mode. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22319
The Windows MCE operating system no longer fails to respond when doing a TV channel scan when using an ATI All-In-Wonder X1900 (PAL). Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22320
A .net 2.0 error message is no longer displayed during the installation under the Windows 2000 SP4 Chinese version. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number737-22321
Using the Catalyst® Control Center to change the skin to the ATI Catalyst® Crimson no longer results in the ATI Quicksilver skin being applied. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22322
Running the automated clock configuration utility found in the Overdrive aspect page of the Catalyst® Control Center no longer results in the operating system failing to respond. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22323
Enabling Picture-in-picture no longer results in the windowed TV image failing to respond when changing the TV channel. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22324
Catalyst® Control Center: A VPU Recover warning window no longer fails to be displayed when an ASIC reset occurs. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22325
Catalyst® Control Center: Connecting a secondary CRT display device no longer results in the LCD display device failing to display an image after completing the Catalyst® Control Center->Easy Setup Wizard. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22326
Applying the Custom settings found in the CV aspect page of the Catalyst® Control Center no longer results in the custom setting being lost when the system is rebooted. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22327
Running SFR in 720p on a system containing an ATI Radeon® X1800 series no longer results in line corruption being noticed when CrossFire is enabled. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22328
Connecting a TV and a CRT to a system containing an ATI Xpress 200 series no longer results in the secondary LCD being display when shutting down and disconnecting the TV. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22329
The operating system no longer fails to respond when connecting a DVO dongle to an ATI Radeon® 7000 series. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22330
Adding a new custom HDTV mode no longer results in the custom mode not being available in the Catalyst® Control Center Display Manager. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22331
The predefined HDTV modes are no longer missing from the CV aspect page in the Catalyst® Control Center. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22332
Catalyst® Control Center: Enabling clone mode may result in the refresh rate being locked at 60Hz when using an ATI Radeon® X700 series product. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22333
The display mode of 1024x768@60Hz is now included in Catalyst® Control Center for component video output. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22335
The HDTV Support aspect is now available under the Monitor Properties when using Advanced View in the Catalyst® Control Center. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22336
Connecting an HDTV using the CV dongle and setting the power option to turn the monitor off after one minute no longer results in the HDTV failing to resume. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22337
An HDMI detection message is now displayed when hot plugging an HDMI display device. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22338
Catalyst® Control Center: Truncated and cut-off text is no longer noticed in various supported languages. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22339
Black cubes and fog function no longer fail when testing GLView. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22340
Two error messages are no longer displayed in the event viewer after the installation of the driver. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22341
Using the hot-key function to change an LCD display panel setting no longer results in the LCD Panel Properties found in the Catalyst® Control Center failing to be updated with the current setting. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22342
Catalyst® Control Center: Basic View: Enabling Use Advanced view 3D settings in the 3D Quality and Performance Setting no longer results in the Catalyst® Control Center reverting back to Use Basic 3D setting below. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22343
Connecting a CRT to a system containing an ATI Xpress 200 series and toggling between a full screen DOS session and Windows, no longer results in vertical lines appearing on the secondary display device. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22345
The operating system no longer restarts multiple verdana after unplugging the power cable to the slave card and using only the master card. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22346
Using the composite connectors to connect a CRT and TVout to an ATI Radeon® X1600 or 1300 no longer results in the TVout failing to display the desktop image when attempting to resume from hibernation mode. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22348
NaviSet V1.1.10: Connecting an NEC display device to an ATI Radeon® X1600 series may result in the Monitor Adjustment dialog box stating No DDC/CI monitors detected. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22349
The Catalyst® Control Center TV Properties no longer lists H/PAL as an appropriate, third format for countries that do not support this format. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22351
An un-necessary hyphen next to the Go to ATI.com option found in the German version of the Catalyst® Control Center is now removed. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22352
Connecting two display devices using a DVI-CRT and DVI-CV dongles no longer results in extended desktop mode failing to be applied. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22353
The submenu Formats fields found in the TV Properties are no longer blank when setting the TV standard to PAL within the Catalyst® Control Center. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22354
[ This Message was edited by: BackSlash *Jack* on 2006-05-24 16:47 ]
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Eledore Massis [R33] Grand Admiral Templar Knights
Joined: May 26, 2002 Posts: 2694 From: tsohlacoLocalhost
| Posted: 2006-05-24 17:01  
for every one that actualy gets a increased adrenaline when ever new drivers come out.
get a life.
p.s. i have to say that i origionaly mist this treads creation.
but i Totaly agree with BackSlash's statement
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On 2005-12-03 11:29, BackSlash *Jack* wrote:
For those of you who like custome developed drivers for gaming, try the following site for custom developed ATI drivers.
....
http://www.omegadrivers.net
These drivers are easy to install, and DO NOT void warranty on your card, and in some cases actualy SOLVE problems. I recommend them whole-heartedly.
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I have been using trinidad's Omega Drivers for as long as i can remember (june 2002).
And i must say that i have come across manny people's problems that are as easly fixed as installing Omega Drivers. (yes the drivers solved the problem.)
[]
o wel my 3 cents.
_________________ DS Discordion
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BackSlash Marshal Galactic Navy
Joined: March 23, 2003 Posts: 11183 From: Bristol, England
| Posted: 2006-05-24 17:18  
Quote:
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On 2006-05-24 17:01, FIR3T0N3[NL] //PSYCHO\ wrote:
for every one that actualy gets a increased adrenaline when ever new drivers come out.
get a life.
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No one said anything about increased adrenaline...
Sometimes people wait and wait for new drivers for a certain fix for a game they baught and can't return. It has nothing to do with getting a life. I have a life, and I enjoy it (as much as is possible), yet I also try to keep ontop of driver updates, because new drivers 99% of the time fix problems and improve performance, and are therefor, good things.
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Drafell Grand Admiral Mythica
Joined: May 30, 2003 Posts: 2449 From: United Kingdom
| Posted: 2006-08-16 02:51  
One annoying issue with the Omega drivers in DS is that they cause the ship trails to 'pulse'.
_________________ It's gone now, no longer here...Yet still I see, and still I fear.rnrn
rnrn
DarkSpace Developer - Retired
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BackSlash Marshal Galactic Navy
Joined: March 23, 2003 Posts: 11183 From: Bristol, England
| Posted: 2006-08-16 06:01  
I don't get that with them, must just be you
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