so i bought a Radeon 9800 pro
before i was a happy NVidia user with no probs

first i deinstalled all Nvidia Graphic driver
and some NVFiles for Driver
then i wanted to install the Cat 4.3

mhhhh....only 16 colours
after restart, the same, only 16 colours
then i tried the Omega (4.2), these i could install and they worked with 1024x768x32bit

then i wanted to upgrade the resolution
pöhhhh....i didn´t work
the desktop was in higher resolution but my monitor was in 1024x768

then i wanted to try the Cat 4.3
pöhhh....i couldn´t install
i had to install these drivers in the "VGA MODUS" !!!
i had NEVER those probs with NVidia !

then the same prob with the resolution
after hours i chatted to Mertsch
then i found out, that the ATI Driver detects my Monitor at a resolution of 1024 because it´s a 17"
ok, but i want a 1280x1024 res

so then i tried to write these numbers in the driver for my Monitor
pööhhh---didn´t work
again after hours, i don´t know who, it worked
i could upgrade my monitor and desktop to 1280x1024
wow...i was happy
and now....all games run at 60hz.....
AHHHhHHH

ok now i installed Refresh Force....i hope it works
NVidia has the same prob, ok, but they include this Refresh Force Future in their Driver....better Job :-)


i think it´s only the beginning of my ATI Driver SAGA.....
tooo bad....
if the drivers wouldn´t go better, then my first ATI is my last ATI !

ATI got 2 ways of putting in drivers,the FULL install (including other app.) and the SEPERATE (drivers and app separate).

You might ahve some remains on your system that give you these problems,I recommend clean your registry then put in a new card.

Welcome to the world of ATi. My first and last ATi experience was a 9700 PRO with an unshielded PCB for the VGA output (like 99% of the 9500/9700s). I'm not touching again a company that doesn't even shield its PCB's and releases ghetto drivers. Cards might be fast but the extra speed is not worth the ghetto PCB and unstable drivers.

i tried to install the full drivers.....with Control Panal etc.

oh yes....welcome to the world of ATI ...how right

For ATi to work for sure you need an intel based system and a DVI screen. On non-intel systems and VGA screens it's the nightmare. If you want to take a look at the ATi nightmares some ppl suffer check this url :

http://rage3d.com/board/forumdisplay.php...forumid=58

I sadly visited that forum thanks to my 9700 PRO pos card.

I have a 17" and I get 1280 fine.

I have an AMD and a VGA screen. I don't have nightmares.

The drivers are very good if installed properly.

Killer .... those problems apper totally randomly and with out any real problem ...
most problems I had with ati cars got fixed with newer drivers ...
but pooooooooooof ... now that I reinstalled windows NOTHING CHANGED ON HARDWARE/BIOS !!!
with cat 4.3 I can only get 4bit / 640x480
with cat 4.2 I can at least have 32bit but need to reset the resolution any restart ... never had this before ... why now ???
it seems to be a damn script within the drivers ... generating a number and if the number does fit your birthday it will suck ....
or give me any answere why now the driver does not work ... it always had before

"For ATi to work for sure you need an intel based system and a DVI screen"
LOL - thats my only comment to that.

when you change graphics chip you gotta atleast reinstall your windows before complaining too much.. theres known to be problems with leftover nvidia bits and pieces.

I've had every generation of radeons on my Athlons, no problem...
sure it's not a "error code 40"?

I own a Radeon 9700 since Catalyst 3.4 was the current version. I've never experienced any problems with that card. My system runs 24/7 and absolutely flawless. I have an Athlon XP and an nForce2 Board. But I must admit I once encountered a bug that let the card run only at a 640x480 resolution with 16 colours. It was straight after the installation of the drivers. After a reboot the problem was gone though. Maybe some systems do not undergo this change my system did while the mentioned reboot process.
The 60 Hz problem also isn't a real problem anymore. You don't need a special hack for it like messing with inf files. There's a tab available after you install the driver and the control panel where you can set the refresh rate for every resolution. Many games also offer a refresh rate setting these days themselves. I also suggest that you don't install any 3rd party monitor drivers. My monitor is just configured as Plug and Play monitor. Furthermore I don't use the all-in-one driver package. First I install the driver-only package, then I install the control panel. That's it.

Mine , too :-)

After reboot nothing changed !

where is it? i can´t find it

i know a handfull....not more

i use an original Driver of my Monitor

I´ll try it next time

Try to reinstall your Operating System. I can assure you it works (98%). 8)

I have Athlon XP and a ATI card, and my system still works perfectly.

Display properties > Advance (setting) > Display > Monitor. (setting that you need to play with.)

Don't blame ATi for the crap NVIDIA's drivers leave behind, its been known since the 3dfx days that you have to either run a good driver cleaner program or reinstall windows when you change video brands, otherwise you're asking for trouble.


AMD+VIA+Radeon9k without a single prog here.

El_Coyote before lol'ing check rage3d forums, there's less issues on intel systems with ATi cards. It's a fact.

You have a problem with left over driver crap fron nVidia. I've been running ATI's on AMD systems for years and have never experienced anything like that.

Oops! That's what the nVidia driver has. My mistake. :oops:

But in the "Displays" tab there is a "Refresh Rate Override" option in the "Monitor properties" section. I dunno if this changes more than the according setting in the DirectX Diagnostic Tool (dxdiag).