I had the odd stutter earlier playing the demo so ill give this a try cheers

Dont install this if you have an AGP X1950 Pro, they install the 7.8 cats and its taken me over an hour to get my PC up and running again, they also knackered the Bioshock install up and i have ended up using system restore in the end.

Hotfix my arse!

hmmm thanks for the heads up Alnath almost installed that... damn 7.8...

I only get some preloading stutter, other than that it is ok but i thought i would try the fix, bad idea LOL FWIW i thought the system restore has sorted it and it hadnt, i needed to fully install the working graphics driver once again as Biosock wouldnt start due to errors.

I wish I had read that sooner Alnath.

I installed and started the demo and the intro ran fine (the "my parents said i was special " part) , but when the game started it was full of "Missing/black surfaces and/or display corruption"

So I figured I'd try the hotfix drivers ..

After that the game wouldn't even start .. and worse neither would Half-life 2 and some of my other games.

And THEN I find out that apparently Bioshock requires a card capable of Shader Model 3.0 and my ATI 9700 is only capable of SM 2.0
The official requirement says ATI X1300 or better .. - They should have made it more clear that by "better" they mean "newer"

There are a lot of X800 owners that won't like this as an X800 would surely have been fast enough to run the game fairly well if only the developers had bothered making SM 2.0 shaders (the Unreal 3.0 that Bioshock runs on is perfectly capable of this)

Well may need this on the weekend if my new toys arrive .. fingers crossed


I understand your frustration with the AGP issues with the Cat 7.8 drivers and thanks for the heads up but a question / suggestion for you in the future Bro. If any manufacturer releases a hotfix for any software it is going to be based on the latest driver release is it not ?

Just common sense here and perhaps a reminder for yourself and all of us to double check before installing anything .... frees up more time for valuable gaming

When Microsoft releases a hotfix does it reinstall XP or Vista? I think not and given ATI are aware that the 7.8 is the worst AGP driver ever to disgrace this planet of ours then maybe they should have thought about what they were doing before shovelling it out to save face about not being ready for the greatest game to hit since HL2.

I really appreciate ATi have given those of us with AGP systems a lease of life but i cant help feeling AMD are stood behind them saying "go on, he's got Socket 939 system the fool, twist the knife a little more to make it really hurt"

I understand your point Alnath and agree on the AGP issue but how would a hotfix for a game possibly fix the AGP issue when an official driver release hasn't been released to do so ... see my point ?

Not trying to be a prick trust me but this hour you spent restoring your system after installing the hotfix and inadvertently reinstalling the Cat 7.8 that gave you and others issues could have been avoided. I have never in my entire life or my 25 years of being involved in computers and electronics seen a "global" driver fix as serious as the AGP issue hidden in a hotfix for a game. It would have been an official release and when they have it sorted I am sure it will be.

Hope they sort it soon and hope you understand what I am saying .. Cheers and like I said thanks again for the heads up ... I am sure all our ATI AGP card owners thank you

OK don't like to double post but I have not been able to install this hotfix because my 9800 is done and still awaiting my new card. This is a question for Alnath and other members with AGP cards having issues with the 7.8 Cats.

I am running onboard viddy right now but DLed and tried installing this hotfix as I was looking for something and I found it. During the install the ATI driver install screen did come up but since I don't have an ATI card installed right now it came up I dont have the needed components to install the driver.

Alnath just curious because usually during that stage of Cat driver installation it prompts you to ask if you wish to install ver .. ie 7.8 .... did it and did you select to do so ?

If you didn't see this it is an ATI / AMD issue ... if you did then the issue was your own despite the AGP issues with the 7.8 Cats ... am I making sense