Tested all Win9x drivers - new drivers major flop!

[dZeus]

Maybe the performance drop is caused by AGP not being used with the drivers? I don't see any performance drop on my system, but I don't get the AGP disabled problem either...

[Harri Hirvonen]

Forgive me if I am new with these forum posts. At first I didn't understand these flame-things...
I was just wondering how my framerates dropped, without any explanation...
I don't test systems as a hobby. Still I know lots of things about these problems (I've had couple of hundred), but I don't want to make conversations. I was posting some solid info (not very accurate though) and pointing that the problem is we need more information as consumers. Wish Matrox would be more generous on giving info about everything, rather than showing a sleek facade.
Gamers are serious professionals because of these repeating problems, not dumb starters. It would be nice to read the info "bugs fixed, slowing performance" rather than keeping continious testing lab running...

Habba

[dZeus]

again, it's probably not a 'bug fixed slowed performance' but a bugs fixed, bug introduced that can potentially slow down performance on certain systems... at least, if the slowdown is caused by AGP not being used on your system with that driver. Check dxdiag to see if AGP is enabled, will you?

[Electric Amish]

I KNOW they fixed something in the latest drivers. In the 6.21 drivers 3dMark 2k as well as Age of Empires II:Conquerers would lock up on me at any processor speed. With the upgrade to these new drivers, I've not had problem one with either app!

Go Matrox!

amish

[xortam]

Of course its always possible to inject new bugs when fixing existing bugs: Programmers refer to this as the "balloon effect" wherein you push on the code in one place and the code "bulges" in another place. Performance can be unnecessarily negatively impacted when fixing bugs or adding features and the impact of the changes should be spec'ed and checked. I would hope that Matrox has performance testing as part of their acceptance criteria but many SW companies (even some of the biggest) skimp or skip on this effort for every release (and sometimes all releases). Matrox may not want to expend the resources to concentrate on performance since its mainly a business oriented company whose majority of customers aren't as focused on framerates.

[TdB]

with older drivers you had to stand pretty close the mirror or teleporter, before they were rendered correctly, if you were far avay from the mirror/teleporter the reflection/teleportation-destination-image looked like, something you would see from inside a wall, trough a magnifying glass. it looked really weird. I always thought it was a driver bug.

[Ghostman]

Im useing the latset drivers. version 6.23.005. I mainly play UT. I reinstalled my entire system and now my FPS are 2 to 3 times higher than with the older drivers. Maybe installing 6.23 over previous versions mess something up to give the lower performance. Also the OpenGL on UT works, and it looks better that Direct 3D also I get higher FPS on Opengl than Direct 3D

I dont know why I got a completely oppsite reaction

My sys specs are
P3 866
512 Mb RAM
40 Gb HD
G400 MAX
Soundblaster Live!MP3+
Rainbow Runner
3com 3cr990

[SCompRacer]

Hello Harri Hirvonen. I think thats what forums are for, to discuss the very things you brought up. I side with Rags, and believe one can say anything they want as long as it is done tactfully.

I agree with Kruzin. I look at Matrox and their first priority is quality. They stick to what they are good at, so if frame rates drop and the drivers have less overall problems, they did their job. For them to post disclaimers to please everyone seems unrealistic to me, so enter the forums.

I have a seperate hard drive set up for games and have the 5.52 drivers with Direct X7. To me they give the best performance, and I get the highest 3D Marks. My working op system always has the latest drivers.

[antdude]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Ghostman:
Maybe installing 6.23 over previous versions mess something up to give the lower performance.</font>

Didn't Matrox's site/readme recommend that you should uninstall the old version and install the new one?

[impact]

6.10 may be fast, but they have some serius texturing problems in the FIFA series from EA.

[CMB]

Hi,
im running 6.10 too.

Has anyone else found that dvdmax output in 6.23 is broken? it says in the release notes you get with it that it may stutter and skip when been output to a tv but the monitor display being fine.

I havent installed 6.23, i tried 6.21 and noticed the dvdmax problem straight away,

so went back to 6.10

anyone else experienced this with 6.21 or 6.23 the 'may stutter' intrigues me?

CMB

[Ghostman]

quote: Originally posted by antdude:
Didn't Matrox's site/readme recommend that you should uninstall the old version and install the new one?

Do you actually believe widows will allow a complete removal of any software as if it was never there, no matter what program you use to remove it? I dont.

[xortam]

Say Ghostman ... just because you're paranoid, doesn't mean they're not after you.

"I'm not afraid of no ghosts."