ATi driver updates

About to buy myself a new laptop and have a question.

My current machine has an old 64mb Mobility Radeon 9000. So i've pretty much stopped buying games of any kind. But the main problem was that ATi did NO updated drivers for this card over the 3+ years i've had my laptop?

Not wanting to get stuck in the same situation I wondered if ATi does driver updates for the x1600 as this is the card in one of the laptops i was looking into buying ( http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?quicklinx=42MG&InMerch=1&v=2)

On a related note; Omega Drivers? anybody recommend them or similar if ATi again fails to provide any updates for a product of theirs?

Thanks

 

Omega for ATI is solid. Not a single hitch with my x300 and 160 more points on 3dmark05 just from drivers. Also seems to be more stable when overclocking, but that could just be me. DO make sure to get Driver Cleaner Pro (freeware) and follow all instructions for installation EXACTLY. You can look in the dell forums for my nividia 7800 driver fiasco.... But ATI, i've used Omega on several computers both laptop and notebook without a problem.

 

Welcome to NBR

ATI does in fact update the mobility X1600 drivers. The downside to this is that after a while they stop releasing updated drivers for their older GPU's (that's the problem you are having).
The link is here.

However, I would recommend the Omega drivers since many users have reported significant performance increases without any loss in stability using them.

 

It's odd, I can't go to the ATI "downloads" link off the ATI website but I can direct link to download their drivers...Maybe dell has a block on the website But either way, Omega is superior.

 

That's not true . . the drivers work for most of their cards, all the way back to the Radeon 7x00 series (desktop drivers). The Mobility ones are compatible back to the 9600 series.
If you get the Omegas:

I would also recommend the Omega drivers, they are very stable and deliver good performance. I've been using them for a while.

 

When I said "older", I meant cards like the Rage 128 Pro series, not Radeon. These cards are about SIX (6) years old. I know because I owned one and their last driver for a Rage 128 Pro was released in 2001! See link.

I stand by my statement.

Edit: Added link.

 

Wasn't sure what you meant by 'older,' so there was no way of telling that you meant ancient stuff like the Rage Pro.

Chaz

 

Chaz i installed the Oega Drivers on my Toshiba that has the X200M and they didnt seem compatible.. The screen kept resetting to 1024*768 res every time i restarted my laptop and no matter what i did i couldnt stop this from happening.. Ever time i restarted, i had to set the resolution back myself. Also i lost the option to set how much UMA memory i wanted to use.
In the end i had to revert back to my old drivers which work fine.
Im surprised by the Omega drivers as i have heard good things about them and i carried out the installation process perfectly..
Id like to know how to simply overclock my Gpu core as this should have some benefit..?

 

I don't know if others have reported issues with the ATI Radeon Omega drivers . . you're probably incurring problems due to the fact that you have an integrated GPU. ATI donates the difference on their support site:
https://support.ati.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=894&task=knowledge&folderID=293

They separate "Motherboards with ATI Graphics" from the dedicated laptop or desktop cards.