AMD Radeon Issues

[Hiryo]

Of course this is all stemming from FFXIV but this is a pretty general issue that I have right now. Basically, everyone recommended using Driver Sweeper to do a clean install for my AMD HD Radeon 3500 on my HP Touchsmart All-In-One. I did the driver sweep, the resolution tanked as expected and now I'm in the process of trying to reinstall the driver. Before the first reboot, device manager had the yellow "!" on my graphic device, and none of my install options were working for me (Right click in device manager, driver download from HP's website, ATI-Catalyst). So we rebooted again, windows was "able to succesful activate the device" so it no longer has the "!", but i still need to download the driver in order for it to work(my resolution is still in its "uninstalled look"). So right now, all my attempts at driver downloads are failing. Going through Device Manager, windows says that it "cannont complete installation". Going through this download I got from HP's website fails to complete installation. And idk wtf ATI-Catalyst is supposed to do for me. I think i've deleted and downloaded it 10 times already and I only EVER remember seeing my driver listed ONCE when doing the custom component installation. Even now the only items on the list are
-Catalyst Control Center
-ATi Catalyst Install Manager (checked and grayed out)
-The Lord of the Rings Free Trial
-Microsoft Visual C++ (grayed out, uncheckable)
-Communication Opt-in
I don't remember how or which version I downloaded to get it to actually install driver components instead of all that other nonsense. Even downloading just the Driver Components from the ATI site results in the above options.

So as of right now, i have 0 ati.dll files and having a really hard time (finding)getting the correct download to work. And the device manager only has the standard VGA card listed and not the Radeon.

Some specs:
HP Touchsmart 300-1000(?)
Windows 7 64bit
AMD Radeon HD 3500

All i wanted to do was get the atiumdag.dll filee i was missing and now I have nothing lol.

[jdog]

Try installing in safe mode?

[Hiryo]

Hmm, in safe mode, the HP program still failed to complete still(i guess this program is just the updater for the driver and what i need is to get my driver back?) and the ATI Catalyst program is having trouble "loading the detection driver" while in safe mode.

[Hiryo]

Tried to get the original drivers from HP's website, which had it listed as Radeon 3200 and 4200, and I was pretty sure mine was a 3500. /sigh trying system restore to see if i can get the driver back.

[Isiolia]

Likely you have an HD3200, not 3500 - integrated 3000-series graphics are HD3200 on the 780G chipset, and HD3300 on the 790G. Discrete cards are 3400/3600/3800 series. 785G has the 4200 I think, with newer versions of that (4250, 4290) on the 800-series integrated chips.

You may want to try going straight to the source for Catalyst, if you haven't - sometimes integrated graphics (particularly) can't use the standard release, but most can.

'course, the integrated 3000-series are significantly below minimum spec for FFXIV anyway...so...

[Hiryo]

So the ATI HD Radeon 3200 is below an ATI Radeon HD 2900?

Going to try to get the specific dll files that aren't in my system32 folder since the restore set my driver back.

[Isiolia]

So the ATI HD Radeon 3200 is below an ATI Radeon HD 2900?

Very much so. The bigger thing to look at with GPUs tends to be the second number. An HD3200 is an integrated GPU, the bottom of the barrel as far as the 3x00 series goes. A 2900 was the top of the pile for the 2x00 series. While performance per generation does go up, it's not usually that large an increase.

One reference to look at is the chart here. Your HD3200 is comparable to the solid enthusiast cards from 2002 or so, whereas the 2900 cards were mid/high end cards from '07.

So, yes, there's a rather sizable peformance gap.

[Hiryo]

lol hate life. Thanks for the help