Are these drivers necessary for a fresh XP SP2 install?

holdemrico · #1 (**permalink**) 28-12-06, 07:27 AM

I installed the Hyperion Pro drivers (5.10a) on my system that has an ASUS k8v-se deluxe mobo, 6600GT and an amd 3400+ cpu. I didn't have any previous ones installed. After the update, CS:Source and HL:Lost Coast benchmarked a few FPS less and Oblivion was noticeably choppy. I just reformatted; are these drivers necessary at all or do the default Windows ones suffice? I am not running a RAID or any SATA hard drives. I tried looking around for an explanation as to what each driver does. I'm not sure what specific "fixes" the INF, AGP and IDE drivers address. The readme is too vague. Thanks!

Mr. Chris · #2 (**permalink**) 28-12-06, 08:05 AM

XP with SP2 already has the VIA drivers built in. If you are not having any problems, I would just stick with them. Chris.

SaphireX · #3 (**permalink**) 28-12-06, 07:30 PM

.....I disagree---Your K8V Deluxe SE board has a VIA Northbridge as well as a VIA Southbridge and thus the Hyperion Pro 5.10A or the 5.09A should be installed. The key here is the install sequence. Which is...

1. Right after XP is installed (in your case an IDE drive) RUN the SETUP from the main directory of the extracted Hyperion Pro 5.10A or the 5.09A (as there is no real marked difference except in the inf file that added newer VIA Northbridge models) and the installer is smart and will not install the VIA SATA/RAID drivers nor the VIA RAID Tool because you are not using SATA(s) [standalone, RAID ect]. The VIA AGP driver will be installed since you have a VIA Northbridge (ie the core logic) and the IDE drivers (again core logic)

2. After rebooting install your Onboard Sound drivers from your mobo CD or an updated version from the manufacturers website-Reboot!

3. Next install your OnBoard LAN drivers

4. Install the latest version of the ASUS Probe (as you need the ATK Virtual Device drivers that are installed with that application

5. Now install the latest NVidia Forceware for your Nvidia AGP card (unless your XP install CD is pre-SP2 in which case I recommend the 7000 series of drivers -- even if your XP cd is XP w/SP2 I recommend installing the earlier Forceware because that vintage of XP has several DirectX updates/fixes not integrated that you only get after going to windows update)

http://www.3dchipset.com/drive...official/nt5/index.php

6. Update XP vis a vis the Windows Update Site

7. Update your DirectX (that is not part of windows update)

http://www.microsoft.com/downl...2CD92A3&displaylang=en

8. Later on uninstall the old Forceware (run Drive Cleaner if you want)

http://www.drivercleaner.net/index.php

or

http://www.3dchipset.com/utili...iver_removal/index.php

then install the latest Forceware

9. Install the AMD64 CPU driver even if you are not planning to use the Cool n' Quiet Mode of ops

http://www.amd.com/us-en/Proce...0_182_871_9706,00.html

Any questions post back

Happy Holidays

Saphire

holdemrico · #4 (**permalink**) 29-12-06, 09:28 AM

The walkthrough was nice and all SaphireX, but it didn't really answer my question. What benefit will I get from these drivers, do they change anything that will actually change the way Windows works for the better? Last time it lowered my benchmarks. Same question for the ATK drivers; I've never installed them on my system. I'm not too sure any of these drivers will significantly impact my system. As for the AMD site, there's no option for Cool'n'Quiet on XP, is that automatically enabled by installing the drivers and setting it to minimal power management? When I installed it in the past there were two files one needed to download. I could always use the ones on the ASUS site. I'll be booting back into Linux for a while; I don't want to tweak Windows until then. Thanks!

SaphireX · #5 (**permalink**) 29-12-06, 12:13 PM

...the short answer is I have had my rig and experimented very heavily with it for almost 4 years to determine what software provides the best reliability and performance. Nothwithstanding hardware upgrades/changes.

--->Because of the way that VIA has architectured the Northbridge and the AGP in the chipset (differebt then Nforce 3/4+ boards and newer Intel chipsets...the benefit of installing the Hyperion Pro set of drivers, inf, agp ect ...that are in the package has proven to me that they are indeed a plus! as opposed to the default settings that XP uses for VIA chipsets.

As far as the AMD64 CPU drivers they too were designed for the CPU in the Operating System. Your rig will not run in Cool n' Quiet mode unless you enable that in your System BIOS as well as Enable ACPI 2.0 Support and ACPI APIC Support in your BIOS and within windows set the Power Management to "minimal power management) Like I said before even if you don't configure the Cool n' Quiet to run --installing the AMD64 CPU driver is a Plus!

Happy Holidays

Saphire

holdemrico · #6 (**permalink**) 29-12-06, 09:42 PM

Alright, sticking with the default XP drivers. Do you have any benchmarks (3dmark, pcmark) to show this improvement? Sorry, "a plus" is a little to vague for me [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img] Also, are the USB drivers only for the USB to PCI card? Thanks for all the help!

SaphireX · #7 (**permalink**) 30-12-06, 01:58 AM

...I used to have a collection of before and after "benchmarks" in my photobucket account but I cleaned them out awhile ago....

Anyways..."real world" use of applications such as video encoding, burning DVD's, creating complex adobe and word docs or simply watching high bitrate vids without a gltch, ((((gaming))) ect ect--- is my definition of plus! and no artificial benchmark can measure how your rig is going to actually perform when using apps and treats in real-time .....than your own observation and experience.

What do you mean by:

"are the USB drivers only for the USB to PCI card? "

You lost me on that one........

Saphire

holdemrico · #8 (**permalink**) 30-12-06, 03:47 AM

Eh, there's some USB drivers on the VIA page too. I'm not sure if those are for just any USA port or extra ones you add in a PCI slot.

tcsenter · #9 (**permalink**) 30-12-06, 01:54 PM

Just install the INF from Hyperion, not the IDE driver. The AGP driver hasn't been updated for Windows XP/2000 since 2003 and has in fact been discontinued, replaced by Microsoft's Universal AGP driver. The last few Hyperions won't install the AGP driver on XP/2000, anyway, unless you force it to using command line switch.

The USB driver is intended for and will install on VT8235 and VT8237 but it shouldn't be unless you run into any particular problems with USB devices.

The IDE driver is, well, let's just say it is a VIA driver (i.e. crap shoot). I have it and experienced no problems but then I don't game nor put my PC through any demanding I/O stuff, anyway.

SaphireX · #10 (**permalink**) 30-12-06, 02:34 PM

......the USB driver is native to XP w/SP2 so you won't need to install that. However there is an update to that vis a vis windows update.

I beg to differ with TSCenter's reply...

Besides the INF driver in the Hyperion Pro package by default the VIA AGP and the VIA PATA/SATA IDE drivers will be checked for install for an XP, as well as the VIA V-RAID driver if your OS install is on a SATA drive. So it is not correct to say that you have to force those to install by a command switch because they are already checked by default by the installer.

Again the benefits of the VIA AGP driver in concert with the embedded UGART3.5 AGP that's in XP w/SP2 is to streamline the core-logic for VIA Northbridges in particular that the default UGART3.5 which was generically designed for all Northbridges (Intel, NVidia, SIS .... The driver has indeed been updated and again the info that TS has is simply incorrect.

Likewise the same logic applies to the PATA/IDE drivers to streamline the I/O Buss on VIA chipsets.

Saphire