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How Good are the DNA-Drivers for ATI Cards?

Posted by Cliff on from the worth-the-download dept.

dark_requiem asks: "I've been digging around online to find some way to pump a bit more power out of my Radeon 9800 for Half-Life2, and I ran across DNA-Drivers. According to the developer, these are hacked versions of the official Catalyst drivers, optimized for speed and image quality. I've been trying to find a good review of the performance of these drivers, but haven't found much. Has anyone tried these before? Are they stable? What kind of performance advantage do they offer?"

5 of 67 comments (clear)

  1. Get an NVidia by afd8856 · · Score: 3, Informative

    Much better Linux support, less problems in high-end application such as XSI, better OpenGL drivers,much larger user base, better suport from open source application (I've been a "fan" of ATI until I really started to use Nvidia cards. I don't want to go back. )

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    I'll do the stupid thing first and then you shy people follow...
    1. Re:Get an NVidia by j.bellone · · Score: 5, Informative

      That's funny, because ATi's drivers are one of the main reasons why a lot of people's Half-Life 2 games are failing right now. Driverheaven.net has information on the problem. nVIDIA's drivers are probably the best video drivers you'll ever find, and their support for Linux is nearly as good as the Windows. ATi's has recently gotten better.

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      I'm f#$king magic!
  2. A more commonly used hacked driver by CNERD · · Score: 3, Informative

    http://www.omegadrivers.net

  3. Tested by Phluxed · · Score: 3, Informative

    I've tried Stock ATI, Omega and DNA on my 9800Pro @XT Speeds, and my Mobility 9600 Pro. For HL2 with the DNA drivers I can honestly say I did notice a difference. It was enough for me to go from 1280x1024 2xAA 8xAF to 1280x1024 4xAA 16AF and keep a framerate above the 30 barrier. The omega drivers also gave a similar performence boost, but not quite as much.

  4. Agree - these are NOT new Drivers by @madeus · · Score: 3, Informative

    I have tried endlessly to explain to fsckwit forum kids that these are not magical new binaries, and won't give performance gains above and beyond what you can get with the ordinary drivers and a small amount of clue.

    There are plenty of tools avalible (including free GPL'd tools) to modify the large array of avalible registry settings through simple point-n-click interfaces. Most of them will tell you what the options do too.

    Of course the normal ATI control panel provide the most useful set of options (balanced with simplicity), but the tragically 1337 kids who install these don't usually understand the options avalaible in the default drivers, because they never RTFM.