Force the Catalyst drivers to work on a FireGL

[StooMonster]

Okay, so the solution ... was to edit the Catalyst installers, and add the FireGL cards (which is not much more than simply a copy and paste from FireGL installers) ... no SoftRad, no moding patches, no nothing, just a plain install that recognises my graphics card.

I now have Catalyst 5.6 plus CCC running on my FireGL V7100. Nice performance boost on some games, and now FarCry runs too.

Sweet.

StooMonster

PS: Omega drivers appear to use FireGL's OpenGL rather than the Catalyst version, plus have errors in the vendor references of cards too.

PPS: gonna test it all out on a friends set up too -- then may have to post to the net.

[a_c_30]

FireGL and Catalyst

Hi there,

I admire StooMonster's work but I know that people from other forums have been using Catalyst drivers on FireGL cards for months without any modification of any files. According to them (I have only saved their advice to a text file so I don't remember any links or nicks) you have to install Catalyst with a Radeon card in your computer. Then you turn your comp off, switch the cards, turn it back on, choose the Radeon model corresponding to your FireGL model (that would be X800 XT in StooMonster's case, if I'm not mistaken) and reboot.

If it's true, you could have been plying Far Cry for months now

Of couse, you would have to borrow a Radeon card from a friend or buy the cheapest one.

***I can't vouch for the info because I don't haven't tried it out so take it as is.***

If you want to read the original advice, do a search for "FireGL V7100 and Cinema HD 30". That's how I found it somewhere.

Any comments are welcome, my email is [email protected] in case you don't want to respond here.

[StooMonster]

Except I would have to buy a PCIe Radeon card just to swap it out. Also, to get it working perfectly you would have to match the cores too e.g. R423 (Radeon X800XT) with R423GL (FireGL V7100). So to follow that plan, I would need to buy a X800XT PCIe just to install some drivers? Madness!

Because no-one had done it before (in this thread), and the instructions at the top of this thread are somewhat convaluted, and people are in awe of Omega and other modified drivers, I thought it was hard to do ... until I tried modifying the driver install scripts for myself, and found that it took only a few minutes to convert Catalysts to work on FireGL, and it worked perfectly on my first attempt.

Enhancing Catalyst installers is way quicker than swapping a card ... especially as mine is in Zalman TNN500AF case and not easily changeable ... and swapping cards again at update time?

It's my friend who wants to play FarCry on his V7100, I finished it yonks ago ; but it has been annoying me that it's the only game (that I own) that wouldn't work on FireGL drivers.

StooMonster

[Shloppy]

I agree that converting the Catalyst drivers to add FireGL support is not a hard thing to do. I wrote the guide however out of frustration at ATI's then lack of DirectX 9 support in their drivers. Also, as I only have access to a FireGL X1-128 card there isn't a lot I could add to help others in the steps needed to add support for the latest FireGL cards.

What the guide was, was a then unique, 100% error free installation for FireGL X1-128 owners. Up until writing the guide a step by step, correct install process did not exist. Also, at time of writing, none of the modified driversets offered FireGL support either.

Yet still ATI persist even today. It's ridiculous that in 2005 ATI still offer workstation users awful configuration options and poor gaming support in their premiere product line.

[a_c_30]

Well, StooMonster's solution seems to be the best now, so let's hope it's gonna work on his friend's comp and that he'll post the necessary changes then.

[a_c_30]

Catalyst 5.6

I have installed Catalyst 5.6 but although the drivers installed fine I can't run Doom3. I guess OpelGL doesn't work. I don't see the 3D tab in the control panel but I can change the resolution to 2560x1600 which wouldn't be possible without the drivers installed. What am I doing wrong?

What's funny is that I can play FarCry using the original FireGL drivers. Any comments?

a_c_30

[StooMonster]

I wonder if FarCry wasn't working on the FireGL driver because I had it's resolution set to 2560x1600 -- because it doesn't work at that resolution on the Catalysts 5.6 either.

I have Doom3 and everything running sweetly on the Cat5.6 and even HL2 is about 10% faster; I guess there could be variation in the install scripts. You see what I do is force the R423GL chip to use R423 DLLs and ignor the FireGL specifics. Note: I run Doom3 at 1280x800.

I do have odd behaviour though, the Cat5.6 seem to have some sort of FireGL detection in them because in the CCC the 3d view doesn't render but I get an additional "workstation" mention (that has some controls as FireGL driver's menu).

Next week, when I'm less busy I'll post up my process and edits to the scripts; then we can compare.

StooMonster

[a_c_30]

Re:Far Cry

Hi, it must be some other problem because I can play Far Cry using the 2560x1600 and Medium settings without any issues. With higher settings than medium the water is corrupted.

I can install the Cat 5.6 even using the inf. file from Add Hardware in the Control Panel after installing WinXP but it's not working properly - I get lower 3DMark2005 results than with the FireGL drivers + no Doom3. CCC installs without problems once it sees I have the drivers installed.

Do you have the 3D tab in your control panel? With antialiasing settings etc, I mean the old Control Panel because CCC displays it but I don't think they have any effect (AI remains grayed).

[Sparky1]

Clarification

I've been reading through the thread and I just wanted to ask if the softmod guide that Shloppy has posted now works with the 5.6 cats. It seems that the latest version of rivatuner supports the 5.6s. Would someone confirm that the guide is applicable to the latest cats and the FGL X1 128? Are there still issues with the OpenGL drivers, or is it turn-key like it was for the 4.9s? That was the last time I successfully did the mod.

TIA

[phoyoco]

OK so I've got the Cat 5.8's with CCC working on my FireGL T2-128. Here's what I did...

1. Downloaded Cat 5.8 with CCC from ATI
2. Downloaded Mobility Modder 2.2 by Patje
3. Modded the drivers to work with the Mobility FireGL T2 using Mobility Modder. This takes most of the manual work out of editing the files.
4. Modified the driver install files to work with the FireGL T2 instead of the Mobility part by modifying the device ID in the XP inf file and then manually installing the driver followed by running the setup for CCC and rebooting.

So far everying appears to be working OK. I played Guild Wars for 3 hours straight.

[darkkloud]

Hello, long time lurker of this forum and love all the tips and guides people have posted. But I was curious if there was a way if anyone who successfully modded a FireGL x1-128 card for the 5.8's would be kind enough to post the way they did it ? I've tried manually modding it , I'm able to get it installed and run games in D3D , but none of my OpenGL games will work, I get the "This card is not supported" message on all my openGL games. Thank you in advance for whoever posts it.

[phoyoco]

I ended up reverting back to the latest build of FireGL drivers. While I was using the modified 5.8's, City of Heroes wouldn't run, it would come up with all sorts of errors while loading related to the display driver. After I reinstalled the FireGL drivers, the game runs although I get an error telling me that my drivers are old and to contact ATI for newer drivers. I haven't noticed any graphics issues so I'm going to leave it alone.

[Zenith251]

The question is, phoyoco, did you get a FireGL control panel, or Radeon?

[Shloppy]

I'm pretty sure that with his modified 5.8's he'd still be getting the FireGL control panel (Never bothered checking out CCC though). I believe that the control panel itself contains ASIC checks to determine which version of the panel is to be displayed.

Not that that would really matter, the whole point in the exercise for modifying these Catalyst drivers (for me anyhow) was originally in 2003 to enable DirectX 9 support and thus gain the gaming performance fixes and sheer compatibility for the primary API used when gaming, and in the vast majority of cases, that would be Direct3D.

Theres already several examples on these forums to show how you can go about modifying Catalyst / FireGL drivers but still be able to utilise the OpenGL advantages that the FireGL drivers offer.




I would have altered the 5.10 64-bit Catalyst's but no longer have to fiddle with these drivers, as I've since popped in an X800XL.

[phoyoco]

The question is, phoyoco, did you get a FireGL control panel, or Radeon?

I installed it with the catalyst control center but many of the options wouldn't function properly. I haven't tried again since. At ths point I think I'm going to look into an upgraded card, perhaps an x700?

[Lore]

I just got an ATI FireGL V7100 from a friend to play with.

I don't do any workstation work whatsoever, but I do play some games, so I was hoping that I could get the card to function properly with Catalyst 5.13 drivers and Doom 3. Well, I couldn't get the game to load properly with the Catalyst drivers, regardless of whether I forced the install scripts or not. The OpenGL stuff just wasn't working!

It took me probably an hour and a half to get it to work, but the end-result was I had to revert back to the latest Unified FireGL drivers from ATI's site (8.163.1). Only after that was I able to get Doom 3 to load.

If anyone has any suggestions or scripts or anything that they used to get a FireGL to work with the latest Catalyst drivers, I'm all eyes!

[Lancet]

FireGL v5200?

What about mobility FireGL V5200? it has the capabilities of X1600, can i force the Catalyst drivers to work on it? if so, where can i find the required DeviceID, Subsystem ID, etc.?

[Guy Named Bob]

What about Mobility FireGL V5200?

What about mobility FireGL V5200? it has the capabilities of X1600, can i force the Catalyst drivers to work on it? if so, where can i find the required DeviceID, Subsystem ID, etc.?

I have the exact same question!

I'm looking into buying a IBM (Lenovo) Thinkpad Z61p with the 256MB ATI Mobility FireGL V5200. Would this make a decent gaming rig if I were to force the Catalyst drivers to run on it?

Mind you I don't need the latest cutting edge games to play on it...I'll use a desktop machine for that. I think that Far Cry or BFII would be about the most demanding games that I would play on it.

[XiticiX]

I also have a laptop with a FireGL 5200 card, and am wondering how I can use the Radeon drivers on it. I'm assuming I will gain better gaming performance by doing so?
Links? Articles? please. thanks

[Splaktar]

Same problem here. I've got a T60p with an ATI Mobility FireGL V5200, but it locks up when I try to play games like WoW.

I've tried modded drivers and omega drivers, in addition to the normal Lenovo drivers. They all result in lock ups at some point.

I tried the Catalyst 7.4 Raedon drivers and the 7.4 'Mobile' drivers. While they get me better scores in 3dMark06, they still lock up in WoW.

Should I be trying to use older Catalyst drivers with this card or something?

[Splaktar]

Resolved crashes, still overheats like crazy tho

The problem wasn't with WoW. It ended up being tracked down to the RAM that came with the machine being known to be bad: http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic...afbf2e4d29cc6f

I don't crash anymore, but I still have massive problems with overheating due the poor ventilation system around the GPU. I normally run WoW at 110-115 C which is way too hot. This is with the fan set to max speed. More info at http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic...=303069#303069

The best drivers that I could find for benchmarks and stability have been from Lenovo either via their update software or Windows Update. The other specialized/hacked drivers have always tested slower.

[caveman-jim]

Anyone got a method/idea on installing Catalyst drivers on FireGL V3400?