I have some annoying problems with the rig I purchased on last page, the thing I hoped for (USB boot) somehow don't work. It just gave repetitive beep after POST when there is bootable USB drive is connected. So I resorted to install Windows using DVD and I only found Windows 7 DVD.
The 9550 overclocks like a champ, stock clock is 250MHz core and 200MHz memory, the core went all the way up to 450MHz, the memory is not so good at 243MHz (because using slow 256MB chips). But gaming didn't feel quite as snappy as I remember it should, everything feels jittery (like bad frametime), despite using 800x600 or 1024x768 resolution on the games I know it should run smoothly like Max Payne and MoHAA.
One thing I really wanted to test with this old GPU is Truform tech, ATi answer to tessellation back in the day. Back then when I'm using Radeon 9000 and 9600XT it didn't quite capture my attention because lack of exposure despite most of the games I loved at that time supports the technology! (RtCW, SS: TFE and SS: TSE, CnC Renegade, UT2004) I tried a couple of games, RtCW and SS: TSE for now. In RtCW whenever I enabled Truform, it just got reverted back and in SS: TSE the Truform setting is just greyed out. Very odd, GPU-Z driver detail marks N-patches as 'no' so I done some digging...
After few hours digging though various (old) site and forum threads, I found out that ATi for some reason decided to ditch Truform from their driver entirely starting from Catalyst 5.9. Sadly Windows 7 don't support such old driver, so I search for old stacks of CD boxes just to find Windows XP CD's, and I did! My dad keeps one stack of random XP/7/Linux of various versions inside CD/DVD for rainy days. Thank God for that!
After half an hour waiting for Windows to install, I installed all drivers and the crucial Catalyst 5.8 I needed (scouring for this driver alone took quite some time as a lot of mirrors has expires). I loaded up SS: TSE and bam! Truform is supported at last! Loaded up the Technology demo and go to the last room where it demonstrate what Truform can achieve and.....it was worth it. Seeing it side by side compared to non tessellated model truly shows what it can be achieved. Serious engine is very flexible too, you can chose to enable Truform on all models or the models the engine has specified. I read there is some artifacts like bloated/balooned model but I've yet to see it. I'll try to post some comparison pics if I have time, the PC isn't connected to the net.
Also gaming in Windows XP feels VERY snappy, like what I experienced back when using Radeon 9600XT. No more jittery performance and framerate is high as it should.
(jk)
