ATI's Catalyst 3.8 Drivers: ATI Sanctioned Overclocking
by Derek Wilson on October 8, 2003 3:02 PM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
Eager to get started with testing, the next stop on the list was the 3D tab.
Rather than having separate tabs for DirectX and OpenGL, ATI has combined them into one panel with a radio button selecting which API we are working on at the moment.
Since the selection of AA, AF, and quality options has been removed to a separate dialog box (activated by clicking on the "Custom" button), it seems like ATI is pushing the use of the Quality/Performance slider, which I don't personally like but is used to simplify things for the masses who don’t know what AA/AF are. Of course, they have made up for this by adding a feature to save a settings profile. Since people tend to tweak their settings for each game they play, there is much less hassle involved in the settings process.
What we would really like to see in the future is the ability to associate settings with an actual game executable file, so we can set all our games the way we want them and never have to touch the control panel.
The properties dialog opened by the customize buttons on the D3D and OGL panel brings us to a rather familiar looking list of selections. Nothing has really changed here other than the separation from the rest of the controls.
Of course, when we look at the top, we see the smartshader tab. We didn't expect this feature to be any good at all, but honestly we were strangely fascinated with it. Still definitely only an oddity, but its interesting for a few minutes.
That’s it for UI and functionality enhancements, lets check out the performance.
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Anonymous User - Saturday, October 18, 2003 - link
BFG Asylum nVidia FX 5950 Ultra 256MBGrab it @
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Anonymous User - Tuesday, October 14, 2003 - link
From a technical / technological aspect I find the Overdrive technology very interesting.I equate it to my background in automobile tuning. Carburated engines had a set timing. You set that timing sso the car would not knock and ping. Electronically controlled fuel injection allowed using different timing / fueling at different load point to extract the most from the engine. Same engine could maybe get 10% more power. Now you see very detailed EFI, where the engine computer advances and retards timing dynamically depending on octane, load and many other inputs, always giving near maximum possible output.
I see this as the beginning of the same trend in graphics cards. It makes sense.
Anonymous User - Tuesday, October 14, 2003 - link
This review was done with stock cooling. Those cards get hot real fast.Since Overdrive stops overclocking when it gets too hot, I would have like to see some form of ultra cooling on some cards like (at least) water-cooling.
The way I see it, Overdrive it pointless.
Anonymous User - Sunday, October 12, 2003 - link
ahaha @ 57Anonymous User - Sunday, October 12, 2003 - link
How long before we can buy a XT watercooled out of the box? I think that's the question remaining now.Anonymous User - Saturday, October 11, 2003 - link
cause your an idiotAnonymous User - Friday, October 10, 2003 - link
why i cannot run halo i have a radeon 9000Anonymous User - Friday, October 10, 2003 - link
52 - That is exactly what Anand did. They ran a benchmark - recorded the results - then ran another benchmark, and so on. That sounds like they did let it cool every 10 minutes or so. Unlike a real user.50 is partially right. The bus speed improvement when OC is enabled would give much better indication of what the XT is doing over some statistically ambivalent fps count.
Anonymous User - Friday, October 10, 2003 - link
The HL2 stolen code setback seems to be perfect timing. Nivida has to be loving it, the bastards!The only good Dx9 game that should have been out with the Radeon XT would have put a nail in Nvidia.
Now Nvidia has breathing room. Lets see if they squander it.
Right now the clear winner for Dx9 is the ATI XT. That is if you are comparing the XT to the 5900 and not some vapour hardware.
You made the charts, take a look at them. ATI is clearly better at DX9 PS2.0. All the new DX9 games are not going to run better on Nvidia. The benchmarks for HL2 were already shown.
I don't see why you can't recommend a card at this time?
If you had 10,000 to bet which card would you pick to be the best dx9 card? If you bet on Nvidia your gonna be 10,000 poorer.
Anonymous User - Friday, October 10, 2003 - link
I agree, its much better than the last review. Thanks for the Fps in Tomraider.Do you know what the cap is for the XTs auto overclocking?
Wonder what it would do if you put water cooling on the ATI?