Reader Comments on the Update: (most recent first)
"
A tip for choppy Diablo II playback:
The old idea of 24/32-bit being faster than 16-bit because of the
translation required is now showing its head. When I started DII and changed
the driver from Software over to RAVE, I chose 16-bit because of a lack of faith
in my "little" RAGE128 card. Pretty bad decision. My G4/450 was choppy as heck
throughout the game. Wondering what would happen I switched it over to millions
and now I can turn all the video effects on their max levels and have no
problems; the choppiness was completely gone (and the graphics and lighting were
spectacular!).
When in doubt, trust your card: use 24/32-bit mode. =)
(he later wrote)
I had everything but the cinematics installed. I'd
followed most every tip I could find for performance and in the end I had 16-bit
graphics with all effects turned off and was still getting some choppiness now
and again. Then I turned on the 32-bit mode and I'm running with all effects
and no problems. The RAGE128 likes to be in native mode, apparently. Does the
same thing in UT for me as well. OEM card/Sawtooth 450.
Adam Knight"
Another tip for better performance with Diablo II is noted in the
Games section of the FAQ - copy the music file to the hard drive.
"
Mike ,
I tryed the startup with my monitor off trick, and was able to select
a higher refresh rate , but only the first time . I stumbled onto
1024X768At 100(85/100) mix only after going to 640 . I was checking all
the available resolutions to see which would load .
I started high and then (just being curious) I tryed the low(640 & 600)
settings . All of a sudden , the 1024X768 at 100 showed in my monitors
window ????
The 1024X768 at 120 shows , but refuses to load . Bear in mind that this
only
happens after the boot with monitor off trick ....??
OK , I thought , maby it will stick . Nope !! I shut down and booted ,
and my monitor
started at another resolution altogether , and then switched to 1152
after the finder
finished ?????? Strange , No ??
I also get one of the 1900 resolutions
to load, but those are usless to me .
I smell a driver problem . I'm still impressed with the card . ATI has
yet to return an email about this problem , but that's no supprise .
Thanks to the guy who discovered the monitor off trick , it leads me to
believe ATI could fix this. If we can trick it into a better refresh, they should
solve the drivers.
Eric
"
Diablo II Comments:
"
Hey Mike,
I installed the ATI driver update on my G4/400 Sawtooth (M7824LL/B)
with OEM Rage 128 Pro AGP. I also installed OpenGL 1.1.5.
Since installing the update I have noticed a couple visual
differences while running Diablo 2 1.03c in RAVE mode. (Note that I
have a Rage 128 Pro, so I was always able to do that).
- The experience bar is offset by a couple of pixels up, so it
touches its border instead of having a nice outline. Harmless, but
distracting.
- The text/location indicators for where you and other characters are
on the automap function seem to be anti-aliased or shaded in some
way. This has the irritating effect of making them move in a jumpy
fashion instead of smoothly.
Other than that I haven't detected any difference. I can't test
Quake3 framerates because for some reason my Quake3 won't do the
timedemos. Going to try reinstalling it.
-Matt Lee
"
A VR128 owner reports problems:
"
Things are definitely worse with the new update. My 8600/300 w/ XclaimVR
128 just hasn't functioned the same. I've lost UHF channels on my TV
tuner, after LOTS of mucking around I was able to get Diablo II to work,
and I've been forced to upgrade my system software just to use the
update. I had been running 8.5.1 which has been the most stable OS on
this box except for 9, which runs noticably slower. Also, the installer
doesn't smartly install files. I've got support for the Radeon... The
bright spot is an annoying audio bug when using the Xclaim Video Player
has finally disappeared...
Devin
"
This reader notes slower performance in some areas
after the update:
"
hi mike,
I installed this update after carefully moving my existing ATI and
OpenGL extensions. I can't comment on gaming or 3D apps performance,
but the new extensions *slowed down* my Mac in functions that are
important to me:
1. page scrolling in Netscape 4.76
2. Finder window list view scrolling
I've gone back to what I had and all's speedy again.
PM8500
Powerlogix G3/350/175 @ 400/160
ATI Xclaim VR 128
Rob
"
This reader also noted a loss of some resolutions
after the update, but said he did not have
the Voodoo5 issues I did with my G4/500 (USB mac)
running OpenGL 1.1.5 (noted in my Radeon review game
tests page)
"
Mike,
In my beige G3/466 MT I also note the resolution problems others have
noted. I even trashed the old display prefs and the two older ATI
prefs and that didn't help. Switching to "all" shows a few more
choices but not all that I had before.
I also have a 3dfx 5500 in this two monitor setup and I am having no
problems with Quake 3 as you have mentioned when using openGL 1.1.5.
Of course I am using adb input devices so maybe that is the
difference.
These drivers seem to work fine with OS8.6 even though they are not
qualified for OS8.6, although I don't really see any substantial
performance gains (with either card) or added functionality with my
ATI 128VR card.
I may try them in my Powerbook G3/Firewire (which does use OS9.04)
when I get a chance.
Best,
Matthew
"
This Rage128 Pro owner notes the update solved Lightwave v6 issues he had
previously:
"
It appears that initial tests of the new Ati Radeon Drivers and OpenGl 1.1.5
have solved the display glitches that were apparent when using the ATI Rage
Pro's (that shipped with new Apple G4's) and Lightwave 6.
I can't confirm it works with the G4 cubes, but my Dual G4/500 display
problems are no longer present from within LightWave anymore! :)
Scott
"
"
Mike,
I installed the update on my rev.1 B&W. One item of note is that the ATI updater is a universal installer and will install files that aren*t necessary for the PCI Rage128.
You will notice that after the installation a new ATI menu bar icon is present. With the PCI Rage128 the only thing you can really do with this is turn off 3d acceleration and launch the help system. Both quite useless for most users. To disable this little waste of menu bar space just disable the extension ATI extension 2.8. I*ve also disabled the extensions ATI Mac2TV Monitor 2.8 and ATI Radeon 3D Accelerator 6.1 as well as the ATI Displays 2.8 Control Panel.
Diablo II now operates like it should have when we purchased it!
Regards,
Ricci Dias
"
One note - as I mentioned in my retail Radeon review, I normally disable the ATI extension but when I did this with the retail Radeon card drivers, the ATI control panel would not open (required the extension). The control panel doesn't work with OEM/BTO cards, so that would be no loss for anyone with those cards.
"
Mike,
Just installed the new drivers for an OEM Rage 128 on a rev 2 B&W G3, oc'd
to 450. It seems more responsive and a faster refresh rate. I didn't have
time to bench the new drivers, but Ati installs more extensions such as a
little icon to the menu bar, although it cannot be used on Rage 128. It also
installs Open GL 1.1.5, but you probably knew that. I'll try it next on a PB
Pismo 400.
Ron
"
As mentioned before the control panel doesn't recognize the OEM/BTO cards. Although not officially supported, I've wondered if the Rage128 Mobility chip in the PB Firewire (reviewed here) would benefit, or if it would be like the Rage128 Pro AGP and show lower than previous driver performance (based on my tests with the Radeon drivers I had for my Radeon retail review).
"
I installed the Radeon drivers hoping for a bit of a performance boost on the
Nexus 128 (for which the update was also designed) in my 7600/G3
What I got instead was LOST FUNCTIONALITY. With the new drivers installed I
have access to only a small fraction of the resolutions previously available
on my Diamond Plus 100e 21" monitor. This includes my main working
resolution, 1280 x 960 (over which things get a bit fuzzy). It skips that
resolution (and many others) and goes up to only 1600x1200 instead of
1920x1440. Strangely my monitor is also now called "TFW1105" instead of "VGA
Display" in the Monitors & Sound control panel.
The only way I have found to restore my original range of resolutions under
these drivers is to have the monitor switched off during startup until the
Finder loads. Because of this, I have reverted to the old drivers and
thankfully everything is back to normal. I haven't tried resetting the PRAM
yet because of all the other settings I'd lose.
It's still early, but I wonder if anyone else has experienced this problem or
knows what might be causing it. I'd sure like to know of any workarounds
other than reverting to the ATI universal 4.2 set of drivers.
Thanks for the always informative site,
Greg Glover
"
I asked if he had selected the "All" resolutions list or just
"recommended". The next thing I'd try is trashing a prefs file.
"
My new Radeon Card...
Installed on a G4/500 AGP and pushing a Hitachi Mc 801hr monitor .
Very supprised to only see a 75 refresh rate - thought it would be
120 or so at 1024X768 .
The card definately draws well and colors are nice and vivid , but I
find myself wondering about the refresh . I was getting 100&120
with an Orion(16m) card on my previous G3 to the same monitor .
Maby it's a software/driver problem ?????
E
"
(I asked if he had selected the "All" resolutions list.) I think I noted in my review that 120hz at 1024x768 was available with the retail radeon using my Sony F400 here.
"
Mike,
It took me a while to download the update for my 9600/g3 with a
rage orion. I reverted back to universal 4.2 because I could not get the
right screen resolution (ie. 1280x 1024 at 85 mhz) that I used before. I
wonder if adding some of the new extensions would help?
DR
"
Again I asked if the "All" list of resolutions was chosen but not sure that is the issue.
This reader notes a performance gain with the new drivers on his Radeon:
"
Well, a fairly unscientific test with RAVE Quake timedemo shows an increase from 78.3 fps to 85.8 fps (no attempt to optimise anything). G4/400 with BTO Radeon card -- 10% increase from drivers alone is plenty damn good. Of
course, with the Radeon card, I usually say, "Damn, this sucka is FAST." :-)
Charles
"
This reader notes a bug related to mpeg movies (looking for other reports of this)
"
Hey Mike,
I've had the new ati drivers for a few weeks now, or the beta ones, they are almost identical to the new ones, except the new 1.0 ones are a little bit faster in the games I play, myth2, quake3, diablo. But this 1.0 update
still has the bug that was present in the beta drivers also. That is, if I
try to play a mpg movie full screen via the present movie feature in
quicktime, it crashes my mac, reverting back to previous version of ati
drivers fixes this. But on to the good news, Myth 2 now looks smooth and
shows no jaggies at all, as does quake3 at 16bit looks smooth with no
blurriness and diablo II runs great. Im running quicktime 5 and just tried
it with quicktime 4, but mpg videos still crash;(
My setup is a Beige G3 rev C rom, 350mhz g3 zif(oced to 433mhz) 160ram, ati xclaim vr 128, ati 128, and
built in rage pro 6meg driving 3 monitors. Guess I'm going back to old drivers unless a fix for this quicktime issue comes soon...
Great Site,
Sandy
"
If anyone else has seen this mpeg bug, please let me know. I've not had time to install the update here yet to test.
"
I have a blue and white G3 with PCI rage and it installed great and allows open gl and rave on diablo 2, a bit choppy but way faster than software. Ati displays and the control panel don*t work because it doesn't find ati hardware but the extension allows ati acceleration in the menubar
Sandy W.
"
I welcome feedback on the driver update. | 
