[Trik]

Hi


I have a PowerColor EvilMaster II (ATI Radeon 8500 64MB DDR DVI+TV 275MHz)

When doing searches on the AVS forum about the gamma problem and other radeon 8500 questions, I've come across the phrases Powered by and Built by ATI.


Aparantly they require different drivers and perhaps the Powered by have some disabled features?


I've seen references to people flashing the Retail ATI bios onto their 2nd/3rd party cards to be able to use the ATI drivers...


Since my card is PowerColor I assume its *Powered by*


Should I search out these flash util's and ATI retail bios and flash my bios?


Can someone explain the difference between PB and BB ATI? and any lost features I may have because my card is PB?


Or if you know where this info is provide a link to it?


Thanks

Trik

 

[Namlemez]

I think the names are self-evident.


ATi sells cards under their own name. These are Built By ATi. They also sell their chips to other companies who make cards. They are just Powered By.


Powered By cards will not accept ATi drivers since they are not ATi cards. A flash utility makes them think they are and accept the drivers. People do this because the 3rd party drivers tend to not work so well.

 

[Trik]

I have installed the ATI drivers.

The instlation didn't fail and wasn't aborted because my card isn't Built By...


So I guess my card is a remarked ATI card....

 

[Phat Phreddy]

Please refer to the same search tips I gave our Dutch member here

 

[Trik]

Hi,


Thanks.

I tried that and recieved 11 pages of topics that built by and powerd by were in.


I was hoping someone would know of a condensed or combined thread.


Scanning thru 220 or so threads, where many are multipage is kinda time consuming.


Also some may contain inaccurate, incomplete info.


I had hoped to find a final say on the subject.


Thanks anyway


Trik


Sorry for asking.

 

[e vey]

Boy are you lucky, Trik.


I have a Powercolor 7500LE card.
http://61.59.36.233/web/product_inside.asp?prd_id=RV2LE


And there is no flash or drivers that will work in it except the 7500 reference drivers. Can't edit the inf file and trick the driver installtion, either.


I did manage to get the latest ATI 7500 drivers to load using safe mode, but had a bunch of ati2dvag errors in XP, so I took them out.

 

[Phat Phreddy]

Hi Trik,


Did you follow my links or assume i was preaching !! Follow link one and then in the advice link 2...


If perhaps your card does not flash then I admit defeat but the info is there... Happy hunting

 

[Trik]

I followed the links.

They led to info/sites about flashing non-built by ati cards with retail bios's.


Most of the info and bios's seemed to pertain to overclocking the radeons.

All usefull info and I did bookmark it, but doubt I'll ever OC my radeon or flash its bios.


I guess I was looking for some info about driver confusion and what if anything ATI will be doing about it.


I'm begining to regret buying a radeon 8500.


If ATI doesn't want to support users of 3rd party hardware, they really shouldn't sell hardware to 3rd party mfg's.


Thanks

Trik

 

[Namlemez]

Since you managed to get the ATi drivers on there, where is the problem?


I agree it is a little funny to not allow their perfectly fine drivers to go on 3rd party cards. NVidia does exactly the opposite. I've had a Geforce 1, 2 and 3 (Hercules, ELSA and VisionTek respetively) and don't think I ever used anything but the NVidia reference drivers.

 

[Trik]

I'm having problems with random lockups in 3dapps and video.

It started after a reformat / reinstall.


Nothing seems to help.


It'd be nice to be able to eliminate drivers.

To have access to a known good driver.

 

[Trik]

Powercolor has a new bios for the 7500's

http://210.62.129.189/driver.htm (less than 1/4 down the page)

more info here:
http://210.62.129.189/rv2sbios.htm


Not sure if thats your card, but it'd be worth checking out.


I've given up trying to get my r 8500 working stable (lockup free) on the k7s5a and ordered a Soyo Dragon Ultra.

 

[e vey]

Those were the first I tried.

Scrambled screen on post.

I tried a bunch of things. No go on any of them.

 

[nutcase_1uk]

I think ATI's respoonse to not allowing their ownn drivers to be used on the 3rd party cards was the the 3rd parties tend to drift from the reference design that ATI provide much more thann teh Nvidea card manufacturers do. Basically, to cate for all designs the driver package would be huge (not to mention hte additional time taken to produce the package). They did say thet the intention was for 'powered by ati' drivers to be released at the same time as 'built by ati' ones. How succesful at achieving that they and teh 3rd parties have been I don't know.