Help, real easy driver question

compn00b

Distinguished
Jul 14, 2003
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Hey guys. I did finish building my system and did open and use the PowerColor 9700 Pro. It isnt underclocked or anything, runs great. However, I'm wondering if I can use the Cat 3.10 from ATIs site on my card, or do they have to be from PowerColor? Because PowerColor only has the 3.9s on their site and its taking a long time to download (5 Kbytes per sec on my 3 megabit connection) So is there any difference than the ones ATi provides on their site and the ones from PowerColor?
 
The only reason to use the PowerColor drivers over the reference ATIs is if Powercolor offers some special features in their drivers not offered by ATI's base drivers. Look hard at the driver features of both (maybe download the ATI equivalent of the drivers that shipped with your card and compare the two. Often the difference is cosmetic (PC logo here and there).
However the ATI drivers should work no problem on your card. The ATI drivers should work on every ATI partner's cards, but it just may not offer you some features (like the Tyan board had thermal sensors long before the rest of the ATI line, and their drivers help monitor that [although you could achieve the same with the reference drivers and rivatuner]).

I would download the ATIs and give them a spin if I were you, the 3.10 drivers have some stability/game/bug fixes in them in addition to the 3.9s. And since you have broadband these downloads/checks should be pretty simple to perfrom.

BTW, glad to see the purchase worked out for you.


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