Dear All,
Just lately there have been many questions re. graphics drivers on the A-series laptops. I thought I would try all of the main driver options on my VGN-A115Z, one after the other, using the following games:
Half-Life 2
DOOM3
Command and Conquer Generals
Simcity 4
Quake III Arena
Return to Castle Wolfenstein
The drivers tested were:
Standard Sony Driver (factory installed)
Modded Catalyst Driver (4.11 latest from ATi web site)
Tech Magazine Half-Life 2 modded Ati driver (suggestion of TygerType)
OmegaDriver 2.5.90 (Catalyst 4.10 Beta) - NOTE: this will be updated next week with the drivers based on Catalyst 4.11!
These are my findings:
Standard Sony - CRAP, DOOM3 and Half-Life 2 only work for a limited time and then stall! They also run relatively slowly! 
Modded Catalyst - Would still not install correctly even after running the mod tool! 
I have succesfully installed the modded 4.10 driver, but the perfomance boost over the above is negligable (it's does'nt hang as much though!) 
TechMagazine - Installed OK... ..but made absolutely no difference compared to the standard Sony Drivers! DOOM3 and Half-Life 2 still hang in the same places (which seems to coincide with large amonts of HDD data retreival).
Omega Drivers- Installed OK, and all games run flawlessley! The games also run faster! The only issue I have noticed is that if I start the laptop and then do nothing for an extended period of time (several hours) the graphics do break up and then correct... ...but then the screen update is slowed. However, that is the only issue I have seen and when do you usually start the computer up only to do nothing with it?
Winner (on my system) the Omega Drivers! :smileygrin:
It will be interesting to see how the new ones perform after their release next week! http://www.omegadrivers.net
Hope this helps!
CW
PS buy the way, I have had no graphics driver problems on my PS2... ....ha ha! 
I wouldn't
Well actually, think about it for a moment!
They are only modified ATi drivers, which are made for all compatabile graphics cards (9700, 9200 etc.)!
So I tried them!
Result..... ......They installed and run perfectly on a 9200 based system... ...and no more game crashes!
Actually, compared to the new Omega Drivers (not much change from pervious) I think they run better (to my amazement), even on a 9200 based system!
So I'm keeping them on my VGN-A115Z.
I have tested all the games, DVD films, Click-to-DVD (uses the overlay function), kept the computer running constantly for over 24 h, suspend, hibernate, projector, all NO PROBLEMS!
In display properties it relates the new driver number and that it is working with a 9200 chip and Sony 1280x800 display at 32 bit depth! What can I say they seem to work perfectly (and don't have that glitch that the Omega drivers had it you left the computer on for long periods of time)!
I think that Sony has only released them for the 9700 series as VAIOs containing these cards had big display problems (lower part of screen missing etc.). The 9200 chips only real issue was that they stalled on some games. I don't think Sony would consider this as a big problem and therefore don't issue them for those systems!
Remeber the catalyst drivers etc. are only one set of drivers for all of the ATi based cards. I'm not really that suprised that these updated Sony drivers for 9700 cards also work on 9200 cards!
Anyway.... ....Winner updated Sony Drivers?!?
Never thought I would be saying that at the end of my tests!
CW
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