Maximum PC

I have a Dell Inspiron 8600 with an 128MB ATi MR 9600 Pro Turbo chipset. I was wondering is I am stuck using the well nigh year-old drivers from Dell, or can I use the latest Catalyst drivers?


thanks in advance for any help...

You should be able to use the Catalyst drivers.

They are (according to ATI's download page) compatible with any RADEON series card (which yours is)...

I just wanted to make sure, because if I try the "Mobile" option on ATi's driver page, it tells me I need to use the manufacturer's driver.


I think I am going to try the Catalysts and I'll let every one know how it goes.



peace....

Stick with Dell's drivers.

Laptop manufacturers enable and disable certain options on the graphics chip within the notebook. Some notebooks may offer different options with the same chip (ie s-video in, s-video out, etc) while other manufacturers shut these down because they're not using that option and want to save power.

By using the generic Catalyst drivers you may screw yourself out of a lot of power saving features and end up with a much shorter battery life. And that's if the catalyst drivers work at all.

it wouldn't be so bad if the drivers weren't from December...

Don't sweat it, my lappy is using video drivers from 2002

I guess I should stop complaining then, lol

If there's no issues or glitches that need to be resolved.....Dell really has no reason to update them. That's probably their stance on it at least.

true dat, but I can always use better performance...

Flytrap is right...

Unfortunetly you have to use Dell's drivers. Even if you downloaded ATI's drivers, you wouldn't be able to install them. So, you will just have to stick with what they give you.

I have a Dell Inspiron 8100 and the drivers are about two years old. I can still play all of the games that are out there for now.

You can install other drivers, but you may lose some functionality. I was using the dell drivers for my Latitude 5400 (or something - ATI Mobility 7500 on Win2K). I wanted to use the dual monitor option. It worked for a while, then (I think after a windows update), it stoped working; I could only mirror the desktop, not span it.

Eventually I downloaded the latest Omega drivers (not supporded by ATI or Dell) and they work like a beast. I can now span the desktop and have more options available than the Dell drivers.

I can't comment on the loss of functionality because, any functionality I may have lost I didn't use in the first place (and am not using now), so I don't notice it.