Total ATI / AMD Driver Confusion
Posted: 2014-01-31 19:17
I am currently using an Acer Aspire 5553g-5357 with an ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5470. My computer also says it has an ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4250.
I always assumed that no matter what technological advances were made in drivers, that I would be stuck with what Acer would give me, and that any drivers for my computer would be on their website. There is one such driver: Chipset_AMD_8.723.3.2000_W764_A. This is what I have been using forever.
Out of curiosity today, I went to the AMD website to download the latest Catalyst Suite, 13.12 (13-12_win7_win8_64_dd_ccc_whql.exe) for my ATI mobility Radeon 5470. When this was complete, I noticed that the suite had absolutely no options for me to choose from. No AA, no color controls, no monitor controls. Nothing. So I proceeded to uninstall this completely, which caused my computer to revert back to 800x600 resolution.
Out of curiosity, I then downloaded the legacy version of the Catalyst Suite, 13-9-legacy_vista_win7_64_dd_ccc_whql.exe. Now, instead of Catalyst Control Center, I have AMD VISION Engine Control Center and have many more options available to me than the previous versions, such as being able to control Color Temperature, Tessellations, and other things.
Device manager says I have driver version 8.9 for the 4250 and 9.2 for the 5470. Before all of this I believe they were both at 7.1 or something.
My Question Is should I revert back to the older AMD chipset driver recommended by Acer, or should I continue using the one I have now, which offers more options and says is a higher driver version?
Side Question: Why do I have two graphics cards?
Thank you all in advance.
I always assumed that no matter what technological advances were made in drivers, that I would be stuck with what Acer would give me, and that any drivers for my computer would be on their website. There is one such driver: Chipset_AMD_8.723.3.2000_W764_A. This is what I have been using forever.
Out of curiosity today, I went to the AMD website to download the latest Catalyst Suite, 13.12 (13-12_win7_win8_64_dd_ccc_whql.exe) for my ATI mobility Radeon 5470. When this was complete, I noticed that the suite had absolutely no options for me to choose from. No AA, no color controls, no monitor controls. Nothing. So I proceeded to uninstall this completely, which caused my computer to revert back to 800x600 resolution.
Out of curiosity, I then downloaded the legacy version of the Catalyst Suite, 13-9-legacy_vista_win7_64_dd_ccc_whql.exe. Now, instead of Catalyst Control Center, I have AMD VISION Engine Control Center and have many more options available to me than the previous versions, such as being able to control Color Temperature, Tessellations, and other things.
Device manager says I have driver version 8.9 for the 4250 and 9.2 for the 5470. Before all of this I believe they were both at 7.1 or something.
My Question Is should I revert back to the older AMD chipset driver recommended by Acer, or should I continue using the one I have now, which offers more options and says is a higher driver version?
Side Question: Why do I have two graphics cards?
Thank you all in advance.