Replaced NVidia with ATI = bad!

Replaced the old NVidia 7600GS with a Sapphire ATI HD 4830.

Windows works perfectly, but games are screwed up. I have used TrackMania as
a test and there are visual artifacts (traingles and blocks of colour) all
over the place. The game is unplayable. If I didn't know better, I would
blame faulty memory on the card (already sent 1 card back because of this).
The problem must be drivers, but I have uninstalled NVidia. I have run
Driver Cleaner Pro, and installed the latest Catalyst drivers from the ATI
website, but nothing seems to help.

Any advice welcome. Just don't say re-install windows - I have done this
many many times over the last couple of years and frankly can't be bothered
again! There must be an easier way!

Windows XP Pro (32)
Core 2 e6400
2 GB DDR2
600w PSU
HD4830
2xSata HD
couple of PCI cards.

Only change is new GFX card and new PSU.

Second point - anyone recommend a good overclocking utility for HD4830 - I
actually want to underclock it when in windows (to shut the fan up), but let
it run at normal speed in 3D.

GT wrote:
Replaced the old NVidia 7600GS with a Sapphire ATI HD 4830.

Windows works perfectly, but games are screwed up. I have used TrackMania as
a test and there are visual artifacts (traingles and blocks of colour) all
over the place. The game is unplayable. If I didn't know better, I would
blame faulty memory on the card (already sent 1 card back because of this).
The problem must be drivers, but I have uninstalled NVidia. I have run
Driver Cleaner Pro, and installed the latest Catalyst drivers from the ATI
website, but nothing seems to help.

Any advice welcome. Just don't say re-install windows - I have done this
many many times over the last couple of years and frankly can't be bothered
again! There must be an easier way!

Windows XP Pro (32)
Core 2 e6400
2 GB DDR2
600w PSU
HD4830
2xSata HD
couple of PCI cards.

Only change is new GFX card and new PSU.

Second point - anyone recommend a good overclocking utility for HD4830 - I
actually want to underclock it when in windows (to shut the fan up), but let
it run at normal speed in 3D.


The reviews here for the card don't seem to be that bad. Some other brands
seem to have more problems that look speed related.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102822

The RV770 used, is the third bin for the chip. Higher bins would be
the 4870 and 4850.

http://www.gpureview.com/videocards.php

For tools, there are a couple examples here.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atitool

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rivatuner

The thread here, notes that Atitool hasn't had a release
in a while. But the author is working on it.

http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=88662

Paul

GT wrote:

Replaced the old NVidia 7600GS with a Sapphire ATI HD 4830.

Windows works perfectly, but games are screwed up. I have used TrackMania as
a test and there are visual artifacts (traingles and blocks of colour) all
over the place. The game is unplayable. If I didn't know better, I would
blame faulty memory on the card (already sent 1 card back because of this).
The problem must be drivers, but I have uninstalled NVidia. I have run
Driver Cleaner Pro, and installed the latest Catalyst drivers from the ATI
website, but nothing seems to help.

Any advice welcome. Just don't say re-install windows - I have done this
many many times over the last couple of years and frankly can't be bothered
again! There must be an easier way!

Windows XP Pro (32)
Core 2 e6400
2 GB DDR2
600w PSU
HD4830
2xSata HD
couple of PCI cards.

Only change is new GFX card and new PSU.

Second point - anyone recommend a good overclocking utility for HD4830 - I
actually want to underclock it when in windows (to shut the fan up), but let
it run at normal speed in 3D.

The latest drivers are not necessarily the best drivers for your
particular software configuration. For example, I had games that would
not play correctly (they wouldn't even load or they hung) when I
downloaded and installed the latest Catalyst 8.x driver at the time.
Instead I had to back off to prior versions of Catalyst. I eventually
found the best (most compatible) setup with their Catalyst 7.8 (although
one day I may go back further to 7.6 to get rid of the bogus Event
Viewer entry for ati2mtag's "CRT invalid display type").

As they update their driver to support newer games, new bugs creep in
with the new code and older games are less likely to play well under the
newer version. However, with the HD video card, you may be restricted
as to how far back in Catalyst versions you can go since, at some point,
they won't have support for when the HD card was later released.
TrackMania was released in April 2005 (4 years ago). I don't know when
the HD4830 was released or the minimal Catalyst version needed that has
support for that video card.

Initially I found the latest Catalyst version was failing the 3D tests
in dxdiag.exe, so I progressively moved to earlier Catalyst versions to
determine when the 3D tests would no longer fail in my hardware and
software configuration. I'd test, see the 3D tests fail, move back a
prior Catalyst version, and retest until the 3D test passed. I then
tested my games and still had to move back a couple versions for the
Catalyst driver before the games played correctly.

You probably won't find a version of any video driver that works 100%
will both [very] old and new games. You'll probably have to use one
driver version for the old games, uninstall the old games, and then use
the newer version for the new games. As the driver progresses through
its version changes, compatibility wanes for the older games.

"VanguardLH" wrote in message
...
GT wrote:

Replaced the old NVidia 7600GS with a Sapphire ATI HD 4830.

Windows works perfectly, but games are screwed up. I have used TrackMania
as
a test and there are visual artifacts (traingles and blocks of colour)
all
over the place. The game is unplayable. If I didn't know better, I would
blame faulty memory on the card (already sent 1 card back because of
this).
The problem must be drivers, but I have uninstalled NVidia. I have run
Driver Cleaner Pro, and installed the latest Catalyst drivers from the
ATI
website, but nothing seems to help.

Any advice welcome. Just don't say re-install windows - I have done this
many many times over the last couple of years and frankly can't be
bothered
again! There must be an easier way!

Windows XP Pro (32)
Core 2 e6400
2 GB DDR2
600w PSU
HD4830
2xSata HD
couple of PCI cards.

Only change is new GFX card and new PSU.

Second point - anyone recommend a good overclocking utility for HD4830 -
I
actually want to underclock it when in windows (to shut the fan up), but
let
it run at normal speed in 3D.

The latest drivers are not necessarily the best drivers for your
particular software configuration. For example, I had games that would
not play correctly (they wouldn't even load or they hung) when I
downloaded and installed the latest Catalyst 8.x driver at the time.
Instead I had to back off to prior versions of Catalyst. I eventually
found the best (most compatible) setup with their Catalyst 7.8 (although
one day I may go back further to 7.6 to get rid of the bogus Event
Viewer entry for ati2mtag's "CRT invalid display type").

As they update their driver to support newer games, new bugs creep in
with the new code and older games are less likely to play well under the
newer version. However, with the HD video card, you may be restricted
as to how far back in Catalyst versions you can go since, at some point,
they won't have support for when the HD card was later released.
TrackMania was released in April 2005 (4 years ago). I don't know when
the HD4830 was released or the minimal Catalyst version needed that has
support for that video card.

Initially I found the latest Catalyst version was failing the 3D tests
in dxdiag.exe, so I progressively moved to earlier Catalyst versions to
determine when the 3D tests would no longer fail in my hardware and
software configuration. I'd test, see the 3D tests fail, move back a
prior Catalyst version, and retest until the 3D test passed. I then
tested my games and still had to move back a couple versions for the
Catalyst driver before the games played correctly.

You probably won't find a version of any video driver that works 100%
will both [very] old and new games. You'll probably have to use one
driver version for the old games, uninstall the old games, and then use
the newer version for the new games. As the driver progresses through
its version changes, compatibility wanes for the older games.

I have tried a few other games now too...
STALKER has the same visual artifact problem as trackmania. Stalker is
pretty new. Red Orchestra works just fine and it is several years old old
now too. I suspect its because I had NVidia in here before, but I have
followed various help topics on removing all drivers.

"GT" wrote in message
...
"VanguardLH" wrote in message
...
GT wrote:

Replaced the old NVidia 7600GS with a Sapphire ATI HD 4830.

Windows works perfectly, but games are screwed up. I have used
TrackMania as
a test and there are visual artifacts (traingles and blocks of colour)
all
over the place. The game is unplayable. If I didn't know better, I would
blame faulty memory on the card (already sent 1 card back because of
this).
The problem must be drivers, but I have uninstalled NVidia. I have run
Driver Cleaner Pro, and installed the latest Catalyst drivers from the
ATI
website, but nothing seems to help.

Any advice welcome. Just don't say re-install windows - I have done this
many many times over the last couple of years and frankly can't be
bothered
again! There must be an easier way!

Windows XP Pro (32)
Core 2 e6400
2 GB DDR2
600w PSU
HD4830
2xSata HD
couple of PCI cards.

Only change is new GFX card and new PSU.

Second point - anyone recommend a good overclocking utility for HD4830 -
I
actually want to underclock it when in windows (to shut the fan up), but
let
it run at normal speed in 3D.

The latest drivers are not necessarily the best drivers for your
particular software configuration. For example, I had games that would
not play correctly (they wouldn't even load or they hung) when I
downloaded and installed the latest Catalyst 8.x driver at the time.
Instead I had to back off to prior versions of Catalyst. I eventually
found the best (most compatible) setup with their Catalyst 7.8 (although
one day I may go back further to 7.6 to get rid of the bogus Event
Viewer entry for ati2mtag's "CRT invalid display type").

As they update their driver to support newer games, new bugs creep in
with the new code and older games are less likely to play well under the
newer version. However, with the HD video card, you may be restricted
as to how far back in Catalyst versions you can go since, at some point,
they won't have support for when the HD card was later released.
TrackMania was released in April 2005 (4 years ago). I don't know when
the HD4830 was released or the minimal Catalyst version needed that has
support for that video card.

Initially I found the latest Catalyst version was failing the 3D tests
in dxdiag.exe, so I progressively moved to earlier Catalyst versions to
determine when the 3D tests would no longer fail in my hardware and
software configuration. I'd test, see the 3D tests fail, move back a
prior Catalyst version, and retest until the 3D test passed. I then
tested my games and still had to move back a couple versions for the
Catalyst driver before the games played correctly.

You probably won't find a version of any video driver that works 100%
will both [very] old and new games. You'll probably have to use one
driver version for the old games, uninstall the old games, and then use
the newer version for the new games. As the driver progresses through
its version changes, compatibility wanes for the older games.

I have tried a few other games now too...
STALKER has the same visual artifact problem as trackmania. Stalker is
pretty new. Red Orchestra works just fine and it is several years old old
now too. I suspect its because I had NVidia in here before, but I have
followed various help topics on removing all drivers.

Correction. Red Orchestra does show the problems too, only occasionally and
almost unnoticable, but a tank 'lid' appeared in front of my head a minute
ago, only it was behind me!

In Stalker, it seems to be other characters in the game that go wrong -
their texture just appears as a stretched line to infinity. In trackmania,
I'm not sure which textures, but something or somethings stretch across the
whole screen and block the view for a few seconds while driving along. Its
consistent, so probably not memory problems on the card.

Just about to try a different driver - will report back if its any better.