New ATI Control Panel to be Released

[Big Booger]

http://www4.ncsu.edu/~eghalley/ace.jpg

Had to hotlink that because it just looks too sweet. They have done a fine job bringing all the tabs together into a more user friendly interface. The rounded grey frames look outstanding, and well the whole thing looks more refined from what I can tell of the above image.

Can't wait for these drivers to be released. :D I wonder if omega will brand this new control panel as I like their drivers much better.
:D

Source: Warp2search (http://warp2search.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=3236)

[Conan]

I saw that with the X800 tests.

[rik]

It looks very nice indeed.

[SupaStar]

Looks better than nVidia's offerings...

Got to get me an ATI :D

....hmmm I think I'll grab one tonight after work!

[cash_site]

Looks better than nVidia's offerings...

Got to get me an ATI :D

....hmmm I think I'll grab one tonight after work!

YES, this looks great... excellent improvements !! Hopefully not as buggy as earlie Catalyst Panels.

Supa, so how did you go, do you own more Asus products now ?? ;)

[SupaStar]

Supa, so how did you go, do you own more Asus products now ?? ;)

I do :D

Picked up an ASUS A9600 XT/TVD (http://au.asus.com/products/vga/r9600xt/overview.htm) which is simply a Radeon 9600XT VIVO. I'm extremely pleased with the card so far. Games run much better than on my 32MB card (as expected) but enough so to justify the spend. Load times are considerably shorter and lag is almost non-existant.

There's a small issue with my monitor whereby it doesn't always start up in the refresh rate that it was when i switched it off, but I may have found a workaround by launching MultiRes at startup. It's a funny problem because my refresh rate is set at 120Hz before I shutdown my PC, but often when I switch it back on, it has dropped to 85Hz. :confused:

All in all, a great card IMO. Very well built and within my budget.

(Thanks to Conan for the initial recommendation and to Cash_site for telling me that MSY has a store closer to home :D)

[Conan]

Wow finally, congrats on the new card! :D With regards to your refresh rate bug, do you have the Reg Tweak "Fast Shutdown" enabled? That caused havoc with my Zone Alarm forgetting every setting on start-up. My problems went away when I disabled that tweak.

[SupaStar]

Wow finally, congrats on the new card! :D With regards to your refresh rate bug, do you have the Reg Tweak "Fast Shutdown" enabled? That caused havoc with my Zone Alarm forgetting every setting on start-up. My problems went away when I disabled that tweak.

Thanks, I'll check it out Conan. My XP settings are default. I have applied no tweaks yet.

[zipp51]

Can the new control panel be installed over the old one?Will it matter if I don't have the latest ATI video drivers installed.? :D

[FastGame]

@SupaStar, make sure the refresh over ride in the control panel is checked, you shouldn't need any refresh fix program. Also make sure your monitor drivers are installed correctly, when you restart PC ATI SmartGart is checking your system. If monitor doesn't support the refresh then SmartGart resets it.

@zipp51, you should uninstall the old control panel first, usually the control panels are driver specific. but ??

[SupaStar]

@SupaStar, make sure the refresh over ride in the control panel is checked, you shouldn't need any refresh fix program. Also make sure your monitor drivers are installed correctly, when you restart PC ATI SmartGart is checking your system. If monitor doesn't support the refresh then SmartGart resets it.

Hey thanks for the tip. Sounds like you know your sh*t. I'll check that when I get home too :D

[PIPER]

Looks better than nVidia's offerings...

Got to get me an ATI :D

....hmmm I think I'll grab one tonight after work!

That is exactly what I did....so long nvidia...hello ati...card is running sweet so far...and farcry sure does put a card to the test.

[SupaStar]

That is exactly what I did....so long nvidia...hello ati...card is running sweet so far...and farcry sure does put a card to the test.

Yeh, thats the next game I need to get!! :D

[SupaStar]

@SupaStar, make sure the refresh over ride in the control panel is checked, you shouldn't need any refresh fix program. Also make sure your monitor drivers are installed correctly, when you restart PC ATI SmartGart is checking your system. If monitor doesn't support the refresh then SmartGart resets it.

Hey FastGame I cant seem to find any refresh override checkbox. Can you point me in the right direction?

With reference to my monitor, it is a 19" Compaq P900. I dowloaded and installed the drivers found here (http://h18000.www1.hp.com/support/files/monitors/us/download/14322.html) but it is still shown as a 'Default Monitor'. Will this make a difference? I have read on a spec sheet that the monitor can do 1600X1200@120Hz so I'm not sure why it keeps reverting to 85Hz. :confused:

[FastGame]

When your in the control panel click on the monitor tab and make sure it says the name of your monitor, if it doesn't then it may be using the native XP drivers and they might not support the refresh at your running resolution. While your there set the refesh rate on the pull down tab.

Now go to the Disply tab and click on the rectangle that says monitor, you should see DDC information with the name of your monitor with Max Resolution & Refresh, make sure info is correct. Look below and you'll see the Refresh rate over ride, set and click apply.

I think 85mhz is plenty;) My monitor supports up to 160mhz but I use 85mhz because thats the max refresh on my monitor @1600x1200 the res I play my games at, I disable V-sync :)

If you use 120mhz make sure you disable V-sync, if you don't and your FPS drop to a certain level you'll lose a bunch of performance in Open GL unless you enable Triple Buffers ;) You should have your games set at a high resolution with everything in the game turned on and set to the highest levels, I highly doubt you be running at 120FPS so you'll be in the danger zone of needing Triple Buffers in OpenGL....

If you want to run @120mhz & V-sync then go to the 3D tab, click the OpenGL and click on Compatibility. You'll see where you can set Triple Buffers.

I would just set D3D & OpenGL to disable V-sync......

[edit]= according to this http://www.monitorworld.com/Monitors/compaq/additional/QSMONPERF.pdf your monitor only does 85mhz @1600x1200...scroll down page for your monitor.

[SupaStar]

[edit]= according to this http://www.monitorworld.com/Monitors/compaq/additional/QSMONPERF.pdf your monitor only does 85mhz @1600x1200...scroll down page for your monitor.

Thanks for that FG. I'll try it all tonight!

That PDF shows 85Hz as the preset mode...I'm sure i read somewhere that the MAX is 120Hz, i'll have to try dig up the document, it was from Compaq I think.

And my monitor does work at 120Hz...it just resets to 85Hz...LoL

[lynchknot]

I don't understand about screen resolution. If you have a big screen isn't everything tiny? What are the advantages of a high resolution? Thank.s

[SupaStar]

I don't understand about screen resolution. If you have a big screen isn't everything tiny? What are the advantages of a high resolution? Thank.s

Well for me it means that I can fit more on the screen. In other words, no need to scroll down web pages because they already fit.

I can have more apps open at once and see all of them at once. Especially useful for when I edit movies and create (S)VCDs.

It also means I can browse the web, watch TV in a window, keep an eye on my messenger list and monitor my downloads...all at once :D

I have no eye problems (yet) so high resolution is fine with me.

[SupaStar]

Thanks for that FG. I'll try it all tonight!


Well so far so good. PC has stayed at the same refresh rate using the 'lock' option. The monitor driver didn't seem to make a difference.

I'll give it some further testing tonight :)

Thanks for your input!