FS2002 and the Radeon 9700Pro

[Guest Bigshot]

No "hate" for Nvidia. Just suspicious! Two of my three computers are equipped with Nvidia Cards. Nice cards. My gaming machine has an ATI. Two of my three computers are equipped with XP. The other has Win98 standard and the accessories I call "illegal operation" and "fatal exception" modes. :-lol

[Arklight1 140]

>No "hate" for Nvidia. Just suspicious! Two of my three >computers are equipped with Nvidia Cards. Nice cards. My >gaming machine has an ATI. Two of my three computers are >equipped with XP. The other has Win98 standard and the >accessories I call "illegal operation" and "fatal exception" >modes. :-lol LMAO!!!!!!!!!!!All of us who have used Win98 in the past know those modes well!!!VERY WELL!!:-lolShane

[Guest alanrco]

I've only had this card a few days but, with only one exception, all games fail graphically in some way or another. I think there are still serious isuse with the ATI drivers.I found a great improvement after turning off anisostropic, but the level of graphics I can have is LESS than my GeForce 3 before problems occur. Other problem games are:1. Grand Prix Legends stuttering replays and corrupted mips2. Medal of Honour fails to run and actually crashes the system3. Unreal2 was not improved whatsoeverWhen I upgraded from my 3DFx Voodoo 5500 to the GeForce 3 it was quite painless. This is what one should expect. Not everyone is technically minded enough to problem-solve like this. I'm a network manager and even I've found this card really difficult. Surely ATI do themselves no PR favours by releasing a new adapter (months ago) and still haven't got it right.I don't think there is basically anything wrong with the card itself (3D Mark 2003 of 4370 on a P4-1.8Ghz system) just a bad set of drivers.I've read so much about this now on the internet that anyone who says they don't have issues with this card must be lying!Maybe we should charge ATI for our Beta Testing time :)One totally frustrated owner

[Arklight1 140]

I hear the same reports from others Alanrco.....But when I tell people they either, A: Don't believe me or B: Tell me I'm wrong.*sigh*Shane

[Guest ront1]

Hi alanrco, I hear your frustration. I have a very similiar setup to yours. I have very little problems with it. I have a Radeon 9500PRO. I play Grand Prix Legends and Medal of Honor also. All play very well on my system. Some people have complained some about the Cat3.1 drivers. Try the Cat3.0 drivers. Try this little program from Driverheaven (http://www.driverheaven.net/cleaner/). I have used it to remove ATI drivers and it works very well. Are you totally against a format of your harddrive and reinstall of everything? Short of their actually being something wrong with your video card, everything should work great. I am very happy with my 9500PRO. Hope this may help a bit.There is also quiute abit of info over at this link(http://rage3d.com/board/index.php?s=).Ron

[Guest]

I have the card and no problems. Try this from the Rage3d forums:shashaRadeonRegistered: Mar 2002Location: Posts: 254 Foolproof Uninstall/install method Posted here form the AIW forum by popular request. It is a few months old, but still works well.This is geared towards the AIW versions, but if you disregard all the WDM and MMC references it is aplicable to all Radeons.The biggest problems I have heard about ATI drivers is that they do not always uninstall/update very well so I have my own foolproof method to make sure that everything goes as planned. The latest issue is that the WDM drivers on the ATI site are the same version number, but are in fact different (proven by the fact they are a different size and that the previous one does not work) Edit: They did in fact release "new" drivers though they are the same as a few days ago. The next issue is that the drivers need to installed in a specific order and even if you are prompted to reboot, you are not supposed to in all case (taken from the ATI install notes). I have upgraded drivers about 15-20 times with my card in the last 4 months without a hitch, so I know that it can be done. This is geared towards WinXP, but the principles are the same in all Windows OS's.Here is my 100% foolproof, completely anal, over the top method for a completely clean ATI driver/MMC install. This the closest I can get to a clean install of ATI drivers/SW that I have figured out short of a reformat. UPDATE It has been brought to my attention that you may need to disable Windows File Protection (WFP) or do the file deletions in the system32 folder while in safe mode depending on your system configuration. To disable WFP, I use X-Setup by X-teq (free very powerful system tweaker) and you should have no problems deleting any file. Otherwise SafeMode should work just fine. Items you will need before you start:Download all of the necessary drivers from hereDownload MMC 7.6noDVD.exe here if you don't already have it. You need it even if you are installing MMC7.7 (it's an ugrade patch).Download and install Regcleaner (the best registry tool out there) from here.System purging procedure:Uninstall all ATI SW, drivers, hydravision, MMC, remote SW, whatever because it makes it easier to clean up your system and it won't cause problems when restarting. Don't reboot until everything is uninstalled.Delete the following directories:C:ATIC:Program FilesATI MultimediaC:Program FilesATI TechnologyC:Program FilesCommon FilesRaviscent Sharednote: you may not have all of these depending on your card type, just delete the ones you haveClean out the C:WindowsTemp directory. There is a chance there are some driver files in there as well.Go to the C:Windowssystem32 directory, make sure you are in detail view and right click on the header (where name, file type, date modified...is) and select more and check the box for Company. Then double click on the Company header and then delete all of the ATI files in there. Do the same for the C:Windowssystem32drivers directory.Go to the C:Windowsinf directory and delete any file that starts with ATI (open the inf files in notepad). Then go down to each file named oemxx.inf and open it, delete any that refer to ATI. Make sure that you delete the corresponding .pnf file as well.Run Regcleaner. Delete any ATI entries.Empty the Recycle Bin.Unplug your internet connection or disable it. (Mainly for WinXP) If you don't Windows will try to download a driver for you and install it.RebootDriver/SW installAll Radeon cards need the Catalyst drivers and the Control Panel. AIW cards will need the WDM drivers and the MMC SW. Make sure that you get all of them and some of them need the older versions, as they are upgrades (MMC SW).Install the WDM drivers. Do not reboot.Install the Display drives (Catalyst). Do not reboot.Install the Control Panel. Reboot.On startup Windows will install all of your HW went it boots and it will take a few minutes. Relax, you are almost done. Install MMC-7-6-noDVD.exe. Reboot.Install MMC-7-6 DVD.exe. RebootRun the MMC-7.7.0.1 (latest version) update. Reboot.Like I said, I have done this more than a few times and it always works for me. I wouldn't have spent all of the time formatting this message if I didn't believe in it. __________________WinXP Pro MSI K7T266 Pro2RU AMD XP2000 512M PC2100 DDR ATI AIW Radeon 8500DV Catalyst 2.2, MMC 7.7.0.1Promise FT100 at RAID0 (2 WD 40G) 60G WD System drive Turtle Beach Santa Cruz 3Com NIC Ricoh 9120a combo DVD/CD burnerMy 3D Mark2001SE scoresMy PCMark 2002 scores My system picsLast edited by shasha on 01-20-2003 at 03:36 PM

[Guest Mike94]

i only can say that the Radeon 9700-pro works without any problems here.I had the geForce2 GTS2-pro before, i just uninstalled the drivers, put the new Radeon in, installed the Catalyst drivers, and it worked without ANY problems!Maybe your problems are motherboard related. I saw some issues with motherboards with the Radeon at www.rage3d.com .I have the ASUS A7N8X-deluxe board with WinXP, and as i said, i have no problems AT ALL. I never regreted that i bought this card, it performs sooo good!Cheers,Michael

[Arklight1 140]

^^That's why I like Nvidia drivers.That is WAY to much to do just to install drivers.Shane

[gosta 0]

>2. made sure that in dxdiag AGP texture acceleration is enabled (after card install this was set to disabled by default - how is one supposed to know that!!!)http://hifi.avsim.net/activesky/images/wxrebeta.jpg

[Guest]

You guys make everything seem SOOOooo difficult... why not just buy a whole new computer? Saw a nice one on an info-mercial, last night! lol

[Guest FPSFREAK]

You didnt mention what version drivers you are running.( or at least I didnt see it ) but if you are trying to run the Cat 3 series w/out DirectX9 installed you will set yourself up for major problems. Uninstalling the drivers is not as hard as everyone is making it out to be. Uninstall them through device manager and than search your registry for any ATI or crucial entries. Delete all the keys or entries found.Download and reinstall the most current drivers for the card.Yes ATI is a little bit tricky w the drivers but at least we don't have to deal w a driver update every week just so our video card can still lag behind ATI's 9700. (Before anybody loyal to Nvidia starts spouting I owned a Ti4600 before my 9700 Pro UPGRADE)I'm currently running the 3 series cat's w DX9 installed, 6X AA and anisotropic filtering. I can almost gaurantee that there is not an Nvidia card out thats pumping the rates my card is. This is not a show off or a put down to those who still run Nvidia products. I just think they have dropped the ball in the last year and still continue to fumble it.Also, and this is very important, Make sure you have downloaded and installed the latest Intel Chipset drivers for your MB.The board and your setup is a nice rig. Most people need to realize that almost 90 percent of system problems are traced back to incorrect operator setup or hardware conflicts. Not the hardware itself. This is not meant as a put down to you. I learned by making those same mistakes over the years myself. Keep me posted. Hope this helps...Just some numbers...3DMark2001SE http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k1=59204953DMark03 http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k3=316977Bobby

[FlyinMisfit 0]

hi Bobby, my setup is very similar to yours. i recently decided to give the Audigy2 a try and ran into some probs. with fs2k2. i was getting alot of static during throttle increase/decrease as well as "panning" especially in "spot" view. after a few minutes of flying i would loose all sound. i could get the sound back by hitting the Q key a couple of times but whenever i would change views the sound is gone again. also, when i get the sound back the "atc, flaps, and gear" sounds don't come back with the rest of the sound. (this is the strange part) i haven't noticed these probs. with the prop. planes only with the jets. i've tried moving the card into another slot-doesn't help. tried uninstalling and reinstalling the card as well as the updated drivers...still no go. i've tried uninstalling and reinstalling FS as well....still same results. any suggestions would be much appreciated. see specs. below happy flyin, fmp4 3.06asus p4t533-c (bios 1008)768mb pc1066 ramradeon 9700 (cat.3.1)wd 80gig hd(went back to original audigy)winxp home sp1 (ntfs) dx9fs2k2 - Cas Stephens replacement textures for 737,747,777Bill Molonys Atl. skyline & Atl. airport addon sceneryPSS World Airliners 747/777

[Guest]

I too just replaced my ti4600 with the 9700pro, and there is no comparison at all. Used to be a Nvidia fan but not anymore.This card is owesome.My specsWinXP SP1AMD XP 2100+ n/oGigabyte mobo40gig Western Digital512 High performance CAS2 PC133 Mushkin mem n/o (no DDR here)9700pro n/o Omega drivers (3.1)Dx9.0Hercules Fortissimo II sound cardCDRWDVD romViewsonic 17" flatPowermax 450 power supply3Dmark 2001 score 118003Dmark 2003 scores 4600

[Guest FPSFREAK]

Nice setup FM!. I noticed that you are currently running the 1008 Bios. Did you know that the current bios version is now 1009?. You may want to try Flashing to the newer Bios and reinstalling the card along with the most up to date Creative drivers. I have experienced none of the problems that you speak of. Try that first. You are disabling any anti-virus software you currently run when playing..Right? These apps are known resource hogs. Also, try setting your preference to real time in device manager under proccesses. Noticed quite an increase in smoothness and performance w this little known tweak. Keep me posted..Bobby

[Noel 4,483]

Flawless, amazing performance with impeccable visual contrast, smoothness and clarity--I guess I'm one lucky cus! I was loathe to try the 9700 Pro, but it is a dream on this box. Good luck--if you really want to find out about the card do a clean install. I did a total virgin install of everything having just built this 2 weeks ago. It's a whole new ballgame with this now . . .Noel