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McGuillicuddy

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 25, 2004
26
0
Cambridge, UK
I've just got my new iBook and I was wondering about the drivers for the ATi MR 9200 GPU. I know that some new drivers came with the latest OS X update (10.3.6) but are they the best ones? Are there better ones around. I know that for Windows-based machines Omega's ATi drivers are the drivers of choice since he tweaks them considerably. Does anybody know if these can be used for Mac as well (I don't expect they would)? Any suggestions?
 
The ATI drivers that came with the latest version of OS 10 are the latest and greatest drives for the card. ATI even advises not to install any drives downloaded from their site if you already have the latest version of 10 because it could replace the newest drivers with old ones.


*EDIT* I don't believe you need to use the ATI ROM updater either as your's is not a retail card, but built into the iBook, however if I'm wrong someone please correct me.
 
do not install drivers - Apple has taken care of that

McGuillicuddy said:
I've just got my new iBook and I was wondering about the drivers for the ATi MR 9200 GPU. I know that some new drivers came with the latest OS X update (10.3.6) but are they the best ones? Are there better ones around. I know that for Windows-based machines Omega's ATi drivers are the drivers of choice since he tweaks them considerably. Does anybody know if these can be used for Mac as well (I don't expect they would)? Any suggestions?

Don't worry about drivers at all for OSX. Anything worth updating is done via software update. Definately do not install any other drivers into your iBook or you will stuff things up real good. Just remember, these are not windows machines, no need to update all the time - just use them ;)

aussie_geek
 
Unless you're using a retail card you installed yourself (like the aftermarket 9800 Pro cards in the G5) you're pretty much guaranteed that the latest (and best) drivers are installed automatically as part of the OS. Apple keeps the drivers for any card it shipped (or is built into the computer, in the case of a laptop) up to date in the core OS.

Installing the ATI driver update will unlock a couple of features on a couple of cards (specifically, it lets G5 owners access some settings that Apple doesn't, and lets you do per-program overrides for certain 3D features), but even then it's just providing access, not giving you newer drivers than 10.3.6. The drivers included with it will only work on retail cards.

Also, for what it's worth, BareFeats found that 10.3.6 is at least as fast as and in some cases measureably faster than 10.3.5 on 3D games.
 
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