Mobile GPU driver update?

[Delavan]

Hi!
I own the laptop here in my sig...ATI Radeon HD4650. The laptop is from HP and runs Vista Home premium 64 bit. Is it OK to download the latest catalyst drivers, or I should wait until HP provides newer drivers? I just checked and they have no newer drivers yet for my laptop.

I feel it's a little risky, and it's my first lappy ( and first non-custom/branded computer), so I don't know better. I heard horror stories about rigs playing nice only with proprietary drivers...what should I do?

[enaberif]

Originally Posted by Delavan

Hi!
I own the laptop here in my sig...ATI Radeon HD4650. The laptop is from HP and runs Vista Home premium 64 bit. Is it OK to download the latest catalyst drivers, or I should wait until HP provides newer drivers? I just checked and they have no newer drivers yet for my laptop.

I feel it's a little risky, and it's my first lappy ( and first non-custom/branded computer), so I don't know better. I heard horror stories about rigs playing nice only with proprietary drivers...what should I do?

You'd simply have to see if the latest Catalyst actually had support for your GPU; sometimes they do and sometimes they don't.

[Delavan]

Well,

The laptop has the latest HP BIOS in it (May 2009), but the oldie Catalyst 8.5 loaded.
Apparently, OEM's are giving ATI a hard time, forcing them not to support mobile chips in their catalyst updates...at least for Mobility HD4xxx series...
My best option would be to install Catalyst 9.3 and mod it manually, which seems to be a PITA...leaves some more ATI bad tastes in my mouth...

Mobility Modder - DriverHeaven.net

This piece of software let you mod the drivers, although not having support from ATI catalyst right off the bat is NOT acceptable...

[clone63]

Unless there is some kind of problem with the current driver setup, I wouldn't be too quick to update, since it just adds conflicts and unsupported dilemmas into the mix.

[Delavan]

Ok,
I figured that Catalyst 8.5 was old enough to warrant an update, so I tried the DNA-ATI/Vista 64 drivers (From donotargue)

It didn't work, and it took me at least 2 hours to recover from that failed attempt.
Guess I'll stick with HP Provided drivers until they "feel" it's about time to update to a newer version. IMHO, incoming Win 7 might force HP to work on a new driver set for future laptops (sold when WIN7 will be out in October)...