I don't have the Catalyst thing

[Ciara]

Hi , After looking at the box (its full of cables now) and taking the side of my PC case and getting on the floor so I can see the bottom or top I have found I have a ATI ASUS Radeon HD 4830 Video Card EAH4830, but I don't have the Catalyst thing (its not in programs so do I need it ?) appreciate any help on this

 

[Mark Phelps]

Opinions will vary, but IMHO, unless you're doing multiple monitors, or 3D gaming, or SLI (Crossfire), or overclocking your video chipset, or messing around with the finer details of video settings, you don't really need the Catalyst suite and its drivers.

Back in the XP days, these drivers, and the suite, were a MUST if you wanted large screen resolutions and crisp text, but today, I have an "older" X1650 Radeon card, and I'm hard pressed to see any difference running the default Win7-installed drivers and Catalyst 10.2 (the most current available for my card).

However ... that said, others having more modern cards may have a very different opinion.

 

[mickey megabyte]

my opinion is that you don't need ccc at all.

it's awfully written and a pain to navigate - at least the last few versions that i tried were.

if you really need more control over your gfx card (which it doesn't seem like you do, Ciara) then there are much better alternatives such as ati tray tools (my personal fave for 4xxx series) or radeonpro

 

[Ciara]

Hi Mark Phelps thank you for answering and I will go with your advice I don't do any gaming etc.

And thank you mickey megabyte I will stay with the Win7-installed drivers, thanks for your advice

 

[Wishmaster]

I like and use CCC personally, but I have many different settings/profiles for games.

It is also good for Video settings, if you're using HW acceleration.


But as already stated, you don't "need' it, the driver itself is all thats needed.

Its only useful if changing or having control of these settings is important to you, in which case it would be good to have.

 

[DirtyElf]

wishmaster: what type of settings do you use for certain situations... i currently have just the driver installed because i didnt want to mess with the ccc. id be comfortable with adjusting settings to get better results.. just didnt really think it was worth the hassle. your opinion would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Wishmaster]

Perhaps not everyone will find it useful, but I certainly do.

Adjusting Video properties for one, as I use HW acceleration for video playback.

In the AVIVO (Video) settings there are several settings you change.
Dynamic Contrast, Edge Sharpening, De-Noise, Color Vibrance, Flesh Tone Correction, as well as the standard settings for example.


For Games I have several profiles for certain games.
While many can just be set in game, I've found there are quite a few that benefit from forced settings.
(AF, AA and Vsync settings).
So with profiles, you can switch back and forth from forced settings to the default, app managed settings.

Also, if you OC, you have the ATI Overdrive.
Another good use of Profiles IMO.
1 Profile for default clocks, a second profile for OC settings.

I just find it easer for enabling/disbaling things when needed.



As far as games go, as an example, I have FEAR.
When I want to play, I right click the CCC and choose my Fear profile.
This forces x16AF and x8 AA Edge Detect with Vsyc+Tripple Buffering.

Then, as with any game, enable my GPU OC profile, which overclocks the GPU.

When done playing, I can simply go back to profile and set the default 3D settings, which sets all 3D settings back to App managed.
I then choose the Default Clock profile, which turns the Overclock back to standard settings.

Then again, perhaps I prefer this method just because Im used to it too.

 

[mickey megabyte]

you can do similar profile things with ati tray tools.

it goes a bit further by allowing you to make shortcuts which will load your d3d profile, overclocking/fan control profile and the game with any parameters.

you'll see my 'beef' profile too.

finally there's the OSD feature, which allows you to display info onscreen in-game, such as fps, time, gpu temps, fan speed etc etc

...and a whole host of over/under-clocking, fan control, voltage tweaking stuf that i haven't shown screenshots for. it's great for 4xxx series cards and under, but not so good for the newer models i believe.

one thing it lacks though is the avivo features, which i've never explored. i've been happy watching hd playback without it.

 

[Wishmaster]

Thanks I have never really used ATI tools so that was good info for me.



With that info. , I think it would be safe to say:

Which one to use would likely just be user preference
And neither is actually needed for the card to perform its basic operations, only if you want more control.

 

[mickey megabyte]

yes - ati tray tools is best suited to the tweaking geeking gaming type.

 

[stormy13]

You can create shortcuts with the CCC Profile Manager as well,



For me I just use a couple of hotkeys as I only use 2 profiles at the moment.

Haven't plated around with it much but there is also RaedonPro,

RadeonPro BETA: Automating 3D settings - Guru3D.com Forums

 

[mickey megabyte]

thanks for that stormy - it's good to see that ccc has improved since i last took a look.