Is Upgrading to PD6.0 really worth it?

[DataOrb]

Currently I run the 5.22 Drivers on a G400 card, now I just wonder if upgrading to the PD6.0 BETA drivers are worth it.
any preformnace boost? An change to the driver interface? and are there "Beta" bugs in them?

Thank you very much.

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"Excuse me for butting in, but I'm interrupt-driven..."
__________________________________________________ ____
Worstation Specs:
Asus P3B-F w/Celeron@680mhz
Matrox G400
IBM 'Pluto' 34Gb UDMA66 7200
Seagate U8 4.1gb Hdd,
SBlaster Live! Digital.
17" Mag InnoVision PrefectVision 770Ti TrinitronFR Monitor (Amazing VQ, the sharpest screen on the market).
Logitech MouseMan Wheel USB (on Everglide Giganta)
and Focus 127keys MM Keyboard.
HP SCSI Cd-Rw 7200Si
Aopen X48 Optical Disc Drive.
3Com NIc @ Tevel/3Com Cable Modem
Modded case, the "banshee". 6 fans.
3Com Palm IIIx + GoType + AxxPAC

[DuRaNgO[MU]]

yes
jim



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Abit BE6-2 with P3 700(cb0) @ 7*150=1052 using an MC-1000!
15.3 gb Maxtor ata66 and Twinmos 128mb pc-133 ram
G400 vanilla 32mb @ 168/210 @ 2x
Sblive with Altec Lansing speaker combo
384k DSL and Realtek nic
Windows 98se with DX7a
Worn out reset button :O)

[WarFlail]

No benefit whatsoever for me - in fact, for some games the PD 6.0 beta is worse than before.

For example, with PD6, Quake2 suffers from bizarre flashes of colours and shadows every time a weapon is fired - this does not occur with 5.55.

No change in the results of 3DMark2000, either - if anything, it seems slower.

I have gone back to PD 5.55 (using PKY's driver pack v1.5) for now. I will upgrade to PD 6.0 (final release) when I see a benefit to doing so.

-=W=-

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My system specs:
Intel Pentium III 650MHz
Asus P2B motherboard
128MB PC-100 SDRAM
Matrox G400 32MB SH @ 141/188/141MHz (no additional cooling), ParaKnowYa's driver pack v1.5 installed
Creative Sound Blaster Live! Value with latest drivers
Quantum Fireball ST 6.4GB & 4.3GB
I/O Magic 8X DVD-ROM (region-free)
Kenwood 42X TrueX CD-ROM
CTX PR711 17" Monitor, currently running 1152x864x32@85Hz
Microsoft Intellimouse with IntelliEye
Logitech SoundMan X1 speakers and subwoofer
Windows 98 (not SE)
3DMark2000 v1.1 default benchmark score: 3009

[Rags]

PD6 works great here. No problems in any games that I have played so far. UT, Q3A, Q2, HL/TFC/CS, STVEF, all work great.

Rags

[mike_k]

No it's not.
I am using 5.55 and it's better than 6.00 and it's not beta.

[Chris Blake]

Well QIII now works for me on the 6.0 drivers, so it's been worth it.

I haven't been able to run QIII on any drivers above 5.41.

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Chris Blake

Home System:
Epox MVP3G5, K6III450, 256Mb RAM, 13.6Gb ATA66 HDD G400Max DH, SBLive! Value and whole load of other stuff

Work System:
Dell Precision220 Dual PIII 533, 128Mb RAM, 20Gb ATA66 HDD, G400Max DH, and even more other stuff



[This message has been edited by Chris Blake (edited 10 July 2000).]

[WarFlail]

Oh, and speaking of Q3A, with the PD6 drivers, the iD logo doesn't animate at all - I can hear the stamping sounds of the logo, but there is no movement. After the sounds have finished, I get sent into the menu as normal. This has NEVER occurred in previous PowerDesk versions - the iD logo has always animated.

Okay, so the logo doesn't animate. Who cares, right? But if that doesn't work right, then what else doesn't?

With no apparent performance gain, and instead getting these weird quirks, I can't see any benefit to upgrading from 5.55 yet.

-=W=-

[Gorf]

I get the same thing happening with the new drivers too war flail.

[Indiana]

Here (Asus K7M, Athlon 600@630, 256MB, AGPx2) the PD6.0 Beta drivers seem to be the most stable ones since 5.41.
BUT I also got lower performance with 6.0 than with 5.55.022 (ParaKnowYa's Driver set 1.5). In Q3, in 3DMark2000 (I had 3085 with 5.55.022, with PD6 this went down to 2780),...
A good thing about the PD6 drivers for Q3, however, is that the shadow-bus is fixed - but then with the old 5.55.022 drivers you can use TurboGL and get rid of the corrupt shadows as well...

I'm back to PKY's 1.5 driver pack at the moment.

[TopCat-FCD]

PD6 Made my comp ILL! It wouldnt behave and threw up over UT,Q3,HL etc. No go for me .Back to PD 5.52 thanks.

I'd say dont touch 'em.

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AMD Athlon 550
128mb ram
21 Gig IBM HD
Soundblaster Live!(LW3)
Matrox G400 Max 32mb DH(PD5.52)
2x 19" Iiyama VM pro's
FIC SD11 M/B
Win98 SE
Samsung 32x
Mitsumi CDR 4x8
Desk
Chair
Sticky Mouse
Dirty Keyboard
Wife
3 Hyenas and a teenager
FatCat
Some fish
2 Rabbits
Hamster
......er......
Ah..Winnie the Pooh phone!

[Chris Blake]

War flail:

I got the same thing with all the FMV (ID logo included) in Q3A with the TurboGL driver installed, when I turn off TGL the FMV works. I've left it off because I don't see any porformance gain.

I haven't encountered any other problems with the beta driver so far.

------------------
Chris Blake

Home System:
Epox MVP3G5, K6III450, 256Mb RAM, 13.6Gb ATA66 HDD G400Max DH, SBLive! Value and whole load of other stuff

Work System:
Dell Precision220 Dual PIII 533, 128Mb RAM, 20Gb ATA66 HDD, G400Max DH, and even more other stuff