ATI 3.9 Drivers Radeon 9800 Pro Graphics Card

[Guest Stanner1953]

It seems that the new ATI 3.9 drivers for the Radeon 9800 Pro Graphics card has cured all the prior problems, flickering etc., is this correct?Is it worth to upgrade to the 3.9?I have never downloaded drivers before, and I am assuming that I should first remove the old drivers by going to the software removal in Win XP. Is this correct?After I have downloaded the drivers to my desktop, is the installation automatic via an .exe file? I would appreciate if you could give me some detail instructions on installing the new drivers.Thank you.PS I do not want to go into my Registry, since I am afraid I will screw up my computer.I have a Dell XPS on Win XP Pro and a Radeon 9800 Pro graphics card.Stanner

[W2DR 1,859]

Yes, the 3.9's have solved all the flickering issues. Updating the drivers is easy to do. The driver you will download (from www.ati.com) is a self-executing .exe file. Just double-click it and reboot when the installer is finished - it's that simple. It's always a good idea to remove both the old drivers and the ATI control panel before the update (Control Panel/Add Or Remove Programs). WinXP has an automatic driver rollback feature so that if the new drivers aren't to your liking it's very simple to get the old ones loaded back again. (But you won't want to do that with the 3.9's :-) ).Doug

[NWATech 95]

ATI has a utility to remove the old files here:http://www.ati.com/support/drivers/misc/catalystutils.htmlYou can remove them by this method also:http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread.php...readid=33656771Jay:-wedge_______________________________

[Guest Stanner1953]

Doug, Jay,Thank you.Stanner

[Guest GiZBUG]

Id wait for the omega drivers....

[W2DR 1,859]

Why?

[Guest GiZBUG]

> Why?www.omegacorner.comThey seem to be a lot faster and better than the default ATI drivers.

[Guest Bockscar]

>> Why?>>www.omegacorner.com>>They seem to be a lot faster and better than the default ATI>drivers.Welllll, that's not entirely true. The creator of the Omega drivers has said on several occassions that his drivers are optimized for image quality and game playability. Not speed. If you want the fastest drivers out there, these probably aren't them.In the end, MSFS is a really CPU limited game. Short of fixing compatibility or bug problems (always a plus) newer drivers aren't going to change frame rates much if at all.To the original poster, there is a program at the ATI site that will remove all previous ATI software installed (including demos). Get that program and download the Driver and control panel (which are both bundled in same file nowadays.)1) Run the uninstall program, follow the instructions, reboot.2) When Windows comes up, it will say "Found new Video card" or some such. Click "Cancel" Do not install any drivers! You'll get a warning and then you'll be at your desktop.3) Go to where you downloaded the install program, execute the program by double clicking on it. Follow the instructions, reboot, you're done!Scott M.

[W2DR 1,859]

I agree Scott. I've tried the Omega's a couple of times and they were slower on this system. The 3.9's are really quite good.Doug

[ShezA 176]

Can you overclock with the 3.9s? Omegas allow overclocking which make a big difference to my 9600.Shez

[greg100o 12]

I can confirm that the drivers fix the problems with the flashing screens etc. However, now inexplicably on landing when I look to the left only there is terrible stuttering with frame rate of about 2 but not straight ahead or to the right. Go figure.Never happened before.Even with Aiutogen on sparse. And I still get inexplicable freezes of the program on landing at times, that others experience and cannot solve.FS 2004 is an amazing program with great graphics, clouds etc. But what I notice is that the rewards of flight simming are overwhelmed by the problems. It is a very time consuming hobby because it takes a long time to complete a flight, and most of the time, something goes wrong to make it impossible to complete the flight. At some point this frustration along with the endless tweaking, replaying scenarios to find out what went wrong simply, loading new drivers, exceeds the payback of pleasure from the program.Insteasd of playing the game, I am always trying to fix it.I find it interesting that Microsoft expects the flight simming community to come up with solutions. They are mum on what is going on, or say, "reinstall the program" the most famous advice support techs offer.I note also that PSS released their New Airbuses to great fanfare, and all those who bought it right away got the reward of more frustration due to lots of bugs. It has been nearly two months now since the release and still the bugs are not solved. I wonder why it has been so difficult to iron out the problems with this version of FS 2004.Greg