Catalyst 5.4 vs BETA help

probably a stupid question, but i kept getting the reference memory could not be read error on Plan of Attack mod for Half life 2 so i consulted the steam powered forums.
I have had a bitter taste in my mouth as far as ATI drivers go ever since i changed my 5.2's to 5.3's, then i got the 5.4's and i'm seeing no improvements
finaly i just opted for the BETA driver which i downloaded from a direct link on a steam suport page at steampowered.com
i'm curious
when a hardware company releases new drivers these days, are they any help to last generation hardware?
i run a 9800PRO and i am very aware that ATI focuses on it's X8xx generation now, same as nvidia focuses on its 6X00 line.
does this mean that all new drivers are only updates for new hardware?
with the beta driver i get no errors, and i get conciderably higher FPS rates, however, the FPS actualy LOOKS slower, now an average 80 FPS looks like what ive come to recognize as around 45-55 FPS
everything runs smoothly, with no hiccups, but player models and animations just look as though theyre moving in less frames than the world around them.
also Aliasing has become a much more apparent issue on the afforementioned models.

sory for writing a book here, i always get carried away, but a little real information would be nice here
thanks in advance :thumbup:

wow thanks for all the feedback :huh:

juste to show you i read your topic, and i sympatize, i will only say i'm not ATI......


And also, below 50 fps your eyes doesn't make the differnece and exept if you've got 12.5/12.5 at your eyes, i don't think you make the differnece between 45 and 50 ; 50 and 55 fps. But it all depends if you have CRT monitor or TFT .
On CRT, the images looks like fluider, but on TFT, it looks sharper. the drivers improves performances of the high end GPU's, right now, i'm using a 6800gt and the 71.89 drivers. i've noticed a drop in the fps, but improvment in the image quality, check out the walls of the games that are using some shaders, if you see difference between the colours, then change you driver. if the image seems perfectly sharp and fine colours, then keep it even if your framerate isn't very impressive!!