ATI Mobility Drivers vs Omega & DNA

deeman · Jun 23, 2005, 02:32 AM

I am just wondering what performance increases, if any, people noticed when upgrading their default drivers that came with their notebook to the Omega or DNA drivers. I am going to wait until the 5.6 catalyst drivers as I hear they're a great improvement over the 5.4 series however I am just curious what performances increases people noticed straight away when upgrading to these drivers compared to the default ones, thanks.

FYI I have a 256Mb ATI Radeon 9700

Aligokalppeker · Jun 23, 2005, 08:45 AM

Cat. 5.6 is already out , you would probably say Omega 5.6,wouldn't you?

deeman · Jun 23, 2005, 01:19 PM

Yeah my bad; thats what I meant, the Omega/DNA drivers based off the 5.6 catalyst drivers. Just wondering if anyone on mobility cards noticed a significant increase in performance compared to the default drivers after switching to omega or dna.

Aligokalppeker · Jun 23, 2005, 04:23 PM

Most of the tweaks can be done by hand,but some tweaks really increases performance like AI,it's not specific to Omega or DNA , it 's ATI's own technic.Omega is better than DNA....powerful and stable

deeman · Jun 24, 2005, 01:52 AM

So the Omega set based on the 5.6 catalyst drivers is the way to go? Significant performance increase over the default notebook ATI drivers?

Aligokalppeker · Jun 24, 2005, 08:26 AM

Significant but Omega drivers activates Truform property of card.A technic that increases graphics quality with a little bit slowdown in some games.But it's not compatible with all games.For example unreal 2 engine.....if you disable that property you can see the performance increase significantly in games.But with compatible games(Properly ATI branded games),quality increases with no slowdown.You have to disable that by using radeonator 2 or 3.Also cat. version is very important. Cat. 5.6 is more optimized than 5.5 , for example.

deeman · Jun 24, 2005, 10:43 AM

Thanks for the detailed information there; one thing I did notice as of late is that on the ATI site prior to the 5.6 cats being realeased all it used to say under Notebook drivers was that they recommend the ones that the manufacturer provides. Obviously they're not going to plug Omega drivers there; but I was just looking on there just then and now some weeks later they infact recommend the 5.6 cats for the X700 and X800 mobile cards...

I think that is interesting; obviously something was changed in this release to make them suddenly suitable for notebooks according to ATI. I just wonder why they dont recommend other mobile GPUs either? I guess it cant hurt; I only imagine that the GPU may perhaps use more voltage when under stress using these drivers so maybe they dont recommend such a thing to all mobility cards due to it effecting power consumption more than the manufacturers minimum specs. *breath* I dont really know I'm just fishing, seeing if an answer is fesable as to why they'd do this. I use my notebook on AC for 90% of the time so it's not an issue for me. Interesting none the less I thought...

deeman · Jun 24, 2005, 10:59 AM

It now says this on the site actually:

The Catalyst™ Mobility™ software suite for Windows XP is designed to support the following ATI Mobility™ products:
Mobility™ Radeon® X800 XT
Mobility™ Radeon® X800
Mobility™ Radeon® X700
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note: Certain mobile products are blocked from downloading the Catalyst™ Mobility™ software driver available from the ATI web site. This is to protect systems from installing drivers that may disable features or functionality provided by the system manufacture.

deeman · Jun 25, 2005, 05:31 AM

I just tested them out with fantastic results... Riddick ran crazy fast on the display settings I had configured prior to installing the Omega driver set. This enabled me to basically turn everything up to max, including AA and resolution with similar if not better fps than earlier whilst looking 5x better!

The biggest difference i noticed was with NFSU2; putting the overal game detail on max previously made the whole screen black, and the light trails where all whack and just showing as dots over the screen. With the omega set everything turned up high works perfectly; so much so I am going to upgrade to 2GB of ram in my notebook just to uitlize all this extra shader/lighting ability!

Truely brilliant improvement over the default ATI drivers! Ooo; and 5.6 based Omegas coming soon aswell I hear? Even more power... W00t!

Aligokalppeker · Jun 26, 2005, 08:35 PM

Next official mob. cat. releases will support all mobilities.....Advice for notebook manufacturers is for all manufacturers use their own architecture for card as you say input voltages and its additional laptop properties,for example UMA technology.Omega 5.6 will be better than previous versions because CAt 5.6 is high optimized and Omega rewrites codes for driver

tntoak · Jun 28, 2005, 07:56 PM

In all honesty, the Catalyst series has always been able to support the full series of Mobility GPUs - it is a matter of changing some lines in the .inf file. I have a MR 9600 in my laptop, and I have been using the stock 5.3 - 5.6 Catalyst (64-bit) drivers by modding two lines in the .inf. I don't know the exact changes needed for other Mobility cards, but I can attest to the fact that it works, and works well.

Jun 23, 2005, 02:32 AM	#1
deeman DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Jun 2005 Posts: 28 Rep Power: 0	ATI Mobility Drivers vs Omega & DNA I am just wondering what performance increases, if any, people noticed when upgrading their default drivers that came with their notebook to the Omega or DNA drivers. I am going to wait until the 5.6 catalyst drivers as I hear they're a great improvement over the 5.4 series however I am just curious what performances increases people noticed straight away when upgrading to these drivers compared to the default ones, thanks. FYI I have a 256Mb ATI Radeon 9700

Jun 23, 2005, 08:45 AM	#2
Aligokalppeker DriverHeaven Lover Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: TR Posts: 184 Rep Power: 0	Cat. 5.6 is already out , you would probably say Omega 5.6,wouldn't you?

Jun 23, 2005, 01:19 PM	Thread Starter #3
deeman DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Jun 2005 Posts: 28 Rep Power: 0	Yeah my bad; thats what I meant, the Omega/DNA drivers based off the 5.6 catalyst drivers. Just wondering if anyone on mobility cards noticed a significant increase in performance compared to the default drivers after switching to omega or dna.

Jun 23, 2005, 04:23 PM	#4
Aligokalppeker DriverHeaven Lover Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: TR Posts: 184 Rep Power: 0	Most of the tweaks can be done by hand,but some tweaks really increases performance like AI,it's not specific to Omega or DNA , it 's ATI's own technic.Omega is better than DNA....powerful and stable

Jun 24, 2005, 01:52 AM	Thread Starter #5
deeman DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Jun 2005 Posts: 28 Rep Power: 0	So the Omega set based on the 5.6 catalyst drivers is the way to go? Significant performance increase over the default notebook ATI drivers?

Jun 24, 2005, 08:26 AM	#6
Aligokalppeker DriverHeaven Lover Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: TR Posts: 184 Rep Power: 0	Significant but Omega drivers activates Truform property of card.A technic that increases graphics quality with a little bit slowdown in some games.But it's not compatible with all games.For example unreal 2 engine.....if you disable that property you can see the performance increase significantly in games.But with compatible games(Properly ATI branded games),quality increases with no slowdown.You have to disable that by using radeonator 2 or 3.Also cat. version is very important. Cat. 5.6 is more optimized than 5.5 , for example.

Jun 24, 2005, 10:43 AM	Thread Starter #7
deeman DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Jun 2005 Posts: 28 Rep Power: 0	Thanks for the detailed information there; one thing I did notice as of late is that on the ATI site prior to the 5.6 cats being realeased all it used to say under Notebook drivers was that they recommend the ones that the manufacturer provides. Obviously they're not going to plug Omega drivers there; but I was just looking on there just then and now some weeks later they infact recommend the 5.6 cats for the X700 and X800 mobile cards... I think that is interesting; obviously something was changed in this release to make them suddenly suitable for notebooks according to ATI. I just wonder why they dont recommend other mobile GPUs either? I guess it cant hurt; I only imagine that the GPU may perhaps use more voltage when under stress using these drivers so maybe they dont recommend such a thing to all mobility cards due to it effecting power consumption more than the manufacturers minimum specs. breath I dont really know I'm just fishing, seeing if an answer is fesable as to why they'd do this. I use my notebook on AC for 90% of the time so it's not an issue for me. Interesting none the less I thought...

Jun 24, 2005, 10:59 AM	Thread Starter #8
deeman DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Jun 2005 Posts: 28 Rep Power: 0	It now says this on the site actually: The Catalyst™ Mobility™ software suite for Windows XP is designed to support the following ATI Mobility™ products: Mobility™ Radeon® X800 XT Mobility™ Radeon® X800 Mobility™ Radeon® X700 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Note: Certain mobile products are blocked from downloading the Catalyst™ Mobility™ software driver available from the ATI web site. This is to protect systems from installing drivers that may disable features or functionality provided by the system manufacture.

Jun 25, 2005, 05:31 AM	Thread Starter #9
deeman DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Jun 2005 Posts: 28 Rep Power: 0	I just tested them out with fantastic results... Riddick ran crazy fast on the display settings I had configured prior to installing the Omega driver set. This enabled me to basically turn everything up to max, including AA and resolution with similar if not better fps than earlier whilst looking 5x better! The biggest difference i noticed was with NFSU2; putting the overal game detail on max previously made the whole screen black, and the light trails where all whack and just showing as dots over the screen. With the omega set everything turned up high works perfectly; so much so I am going to upgrade to 2GB of ram in my notebook just to uitlize all this extra shader/lighting ability! Truely brilliant improvement over the default ATI drivers! Ooo; and 5.6 based Omegas coming soon aswell I hear? Even more power... W00t!

Jun 26, 2005, 08:35 PM	#10
Aligokalppeker DriverHeaven Lover Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: TR Posts: 184 Rep Power: 0	Next official mob. cat. releases will support all mobilities.....Advice for notebook manufacturers is for all manufacturers use their own architecture for card as you say input voltages and its additional laptop properties,for example UMA technology.Omega 5.6 will be better than previous versions because CAt 5.6 is high optimized and Omega rewrites codes for driver

Jun 28, 2005, 07:56 PM	#11
tntoak DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Jun 2005 Posts: 6 Rep Power: 0	In all honesty, the Catalyst series has always been able to support the full series of Mobility GPUs - it is a matter of changing some lines in the .inf file. I have a MR 9600 in my laptop, and I have been using the stock 5.3 - 5.6 Catalyst (64-bit) drivers by modding two lines in the .inf. I don't know the exact changes needed for other Mobility cards, but I can attest to the fact that it works, and works well.