New ATI drivers out

[jamesclarke555]

As very recently promised, ATI has just released the Catalyst 4.9 suite.

Performance Improvements for CATALYSTââ€à ƒâ€¦Ã‚¾Ãƒâ€šÃ‚¢ Display Driver Version 4.9


As with most CATALYSTâ„ ¢ releases performance has increased in various situations. The following performance gains are noticed:

Doom3 performance improves 10-15% on ATI RADEONââ€Ã⠀¦Ã‚¾Ãƒâ€šÃ‚¢ X800 XT products when anti-aliasing is enabled. UT2004 performance improves considerably on the ATI RADEONââ€Ã⠀¦Ã‚¾Ãƒâ€šÃ‚¢ 9500 PRO, RADEONââ€Ã⠀¦Ã‚¾Ãƒâ€šÃ‚¢ 9700 PRO RADEONââ€Ã⠀¦Ã‚¾Ãƒâ€šÃ‚¢ 9800 PRO and RADEONââ€Ã⠀¦Ã‚¾Ãƒâ€šÃ‚¢ 9800 XT products. The benefit can be 25% or more in some circumstances, particularly at extreme graphics settings such as 6xAA + 16xAF.



Issues Resolved in CATALYSTââ€à ƒâ€¦Ã‚¾Ãƒâ€šÃ‚¢ Display Driver Version 4.9

The following section provides a summary of the issues that have been resolved in the latest version of CATALYSTââ€à ƒâ€¦Ã‚¾Ãƒâ€šÃ‚¢. These include:

• XIII: Light map artifacts are no longer noticed in the game when loading a saved game under Windows XP with an ATI RADEONââ€Ã⠀¦Ã‚¾Ãƒâ€šÃ‚¢ 9200 installed
• Far Cry v1.2: Texture corruption is no longer seen on the ground
• IL2 Forgotten Battles: Playing the game under Windows XP with an ATI RADEONââ€Ã⠀¦Ã‚¾Ãƒâ€šÃ‚¢ X800 series installed no longer results in the display corruption and the game failing to respond when FSAA is enabled and display is set to either 1200x960 or 1600x1200
• Indian Jones and the Emperors Tomb: Display corruption and missing polygons are no longer noticed in the game
• PainKiller: missing textures are no longer noticed on the ground and light artifacts are noticed when moving around within the game or when moving in and out of the light.
• Serious Sam SE: Running the game under Windows XP with an ATI RADEONââ€Ã⠀¦Ã‚¾Ãƒâ€šÃ‚¢ X800 PRO installed no longer results in lens flares showing through solid objects within the game
• Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic: An access violation error no longer occurs when using the function Alt-Tab to get out of the game and then using the function Alt-Tab to get back into the game
• Tabula Rasa: Video rendering issues are no longer noticed playing the game under Windows XP with an ATI RADEONââ€Ã⠀¦Ã‚¾Ãƒâ€šÃ‚¢ 9700 PRO installed
• Tony Hawk 4: playing the game under Windows XP with an ATI RADEONââ€Ã⠀¦Ã‚¾Ãƒâ€šÃ‚¢ 9100 installed no longer results in white pixels being seen around the edges of objects
• Connecting an HDTV 7pin dongle to the video card no longer results in TV detection issues when both the TV and YPbPr (HDTV) are active
• Playing a DVD with PowerDVD on the primary display and playing an MPEG clip with Windows Media Player on the secondary display device no longer results in flickering and corruption being seen.

Full release notes are here.
Start downloading here.

[jamesclarke555]

ATI has decided to make the 8.07 beta driver available to the public for a variety of reasons:

• The 8.07 beta driver fixes a random hang issue with Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic when loading / switching levels. We have received a significant number of bug reports for this issue and feel that it should be addressed as quickly as possible.
• ATI wants to provide its RADEON X700 customers with the same level of performance and gaming experience as shown in the recent RADEON X700 reviews. Unfortunately due to the time requirements to ship RADEON X700s to retail shelves a now out-dated 8.04 driver had to be used for the software CD.
• The 8.07 beta driver includes a memory allocation bug fix for all AGP RADEON products with 256 of MB of memory that significantly improves performance for applications that make intensive us of graphics memory.

The 8.07 beta driver has been submitted to FutureMark and will be approved for use with 3DMark05 shortly.
ATi's Beta of 8.07 (just click on the "DRIVER HOTFIX" text to download the driver.

[Bifta]

Catalyst 4.10 is now available.

[Richard M]

Yep, running those ATM without the crappy, buggy and annoying new control panel.

[downquark1]

What benefits can I get from the CC atm, or would it just be bloatware?

[downquark1]

oooh these help that game i'm not allowed to mention a lot.

[jamesclarke555]

Just to compliment Bifta's post, here are some links and info':

Direct Downloads

• Catalyst 4.10 Windows XP/2000 driver
• Catalyst 4.10 Windows XP/2000 driver with Catalyst Control Center
• Catalyst 4.10 Display Driver
• Catalyst Control Panel
• Catalyst Control Center
• WDM Capture driver

More downloads

CATALYSTââ€à ƒâ€¦Ã‚¾Ãƒâ€šÃ‚¢ A.I. CATALYSTââ€à ƒâ€¦Ã‚¾Ãƒâ€šÃ‚¢ A.I. allows the driver to intelligently analyze applications and textures to maximize graphics performance and enhance stability while delivering the absolute highest visual quality


Performance Improvement
As with most CATALYSTââ€à ƒâ€¦Ã‚¾Ãƒâ€šÃ‚¢ releases performance has increased in various situations. The following performance gains are noticed in the game Doom3:

• Performance improves 5 to 8% on the ATI RADEONââ€Ã⠀¦Ã‚¾Ãƒâ€šÃ‚¢ 9500 PRO product
• Performance improves approximately 5% on the ATI RADEONââ€Ã⠀¦Ã‚¾Ãƒâ€šÃ‚¢ 9600 XT
• Performance improves 5 to 9% on the ATI RADEONââ€Ã⠀¦Ã‚¾Ãƒâ€šÃ‚¢ 9700 PRO
• Performance improves 4 to 6% on the ATI RADEONââ€Ã⠀¦Ã‚¾Ãƒâ€šÃ‚¢ 9800 PRO
• Performance improves approximately 4% on the ATI RADEONââ€Ã⠀¦Ã‚¾Ãƒâ€šÃ‚¢ 9800 XT when using higher resolutions
• Performance improves 3 to 14% on the ATI RADEON X800 PRO
• Performance improves 5 to 8% on the ATI RADEONââ€Ã⠀¦Ã‚¾Ãƒâ€šÃ‚¢ X800 XT
• Performance improves approximately 3% on the ATI RADEONââ€Ã⠀¦Ã‚¾Ãƒâ€šÃ‚¢ X300 product
• Performance improves approximately 4.4% on the ATI RADEONââ€Ã⠀¦Ã‚¾Ãƒâ€šÃ‚¢ X600 product

Complete release notes are here.

EDIT: It's worth noting that this "new" 4.10 driver is older than the 8.07 "Hotfix" driver I posted earlier. I have it on good authority that the 4.10 driver still has the 256MB memory allocation bug, so expect lower performance if you upgrade

[downquark1]

10.11 are out

The following section provides a summary of the issues that have been resolved in the latest version of CATALYSTââ€à ƒâ€¦Ã‚¾Ãƒâ€šÃ‚¢. These include:

* Breed: Playing the game with the display device set to 1024x768 32bpp and AA set to 6x along with AF set to 8x and texture preference set to high performance no longer results in the game failing to respond
* HALO: Attempting to launch the game under Windows XP with an ATI RADEON X800 PCI-E series installed no longer results in the game failing to load. Further information on resolving this issue can be found at: http://www.ati.com/support/infobase/4679.html
* Joint Operation Typhoon Rising: An error message is no longer displayed when exiting the game under Windows XP with an ATI RADEONââ€Ã⠀¦Ã‚¾Ãƒâ€šÃ‚¢ X700 installed. This issue occurs when the game option for Quality Performance is set to 1600x1200. Further information on resolving this issue can be found at: http://www.ati.com/support/infobase/4641.html
* Postal 2: The staircase now displays spots of red instead of becoming entirely red when a protester is killed using a machine gun
* Roller Coaster Tycoon 3: Playing the game under Windows XP with an ATI RADEONââ€Ã⠀¦Ã‚¾Ãƒâ€šÃ‚¢ 7500 series installed no longer results in the building looking bright and appearing to flash
* Serious Sam: Playing the game under Windows XP with either an ATI RADEONââ€Ã⠀¦Ã‚¾Ãƒâ€šÃ‚¢ 9000, 9200, or 9250 installed no longer results in Truform not being applied to OpenGL models
* Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. The Windows XP operating system no longer randomly fails to respond when loading multiple levels
* Will Rock: Display corruption and missing textures are no longer noticed in the game
* CATALYST 4.11 includes a memory allocation bug fix for all AGP RADEONââ€Ã⠀¦Ã‚¾Ãƒâ€šÃ‚¢ products with 256 of MB of memory that significantly improves performance for applications that make intensive us of graphics memory
* Importing files that have been captured using Pinnacle Media Center into Windows Movie Maker 2 no longer results in the Windows XP operating system failing to respond when an ATI RADEONââ€Ã⠀¦Ã‚¾Ãƒâ€šÃ‚¢ X300 or X600 is installed
* Display corruption is no longer seen when preview the 3D Pipes screen saver when the display device is set to 2048x1536 16bpp
* Using Windows Movie Maker 2 under Windows XP with an ATI RADEONââ€Ã⠀¦Ã‚¾Ãƒâ€šÃ‚¢ X300 or X600 installed no longer results in corrupt colors being displayed in the preview window
* CATALYSTââ€à ƒâ€¦Ã‚¾Ãƒâ€šÃ‚¢ CONTROL CENTER: The profile manager is now functioning properly when attempting to launch games such as Doom 3 and Quake 3
* CATALYSTââ€à ƒâ€¦Ã‚¾Ãƒâ€šÃ‚¢ CONTROL CENTER: Using the option "Restore factory defaults" no longer modifies the previously saved Custom view
* CATALYSTââ€à ƒâ€¦Ã‚¾Ãƒâ€šÃ‚¢ CONTROL CENTER: Changing the position of the gamma slider for display adapter 1 no longer changes the position of the gamma slider for display adapter

[Halcyon]

Now my PC is up and running I was wondering if I should update the graphics drivers.
Its a Radeon 9800 128mb RAM card and I['ve installed the drivers off the CD.
Now is it worth it downloading newer ones and if so can it do more damage or good ?
Or should I just stick with the ones that came with my car d?

Thanks.

[Stephen]

Get the new ones. they will be a lot more reliable and usually better for newer games.

[Neil]

Originally Posted by Halcyon

Now my PC is up and running I was wondering if I should update the graphics drivers.
Its a Radeon 9800 128mb RAM card and I['ve installed the drivers off the CD.
Now is it worth it downloading newer ones and if so can it do more damage or good ?
Or should I just stick with the ones that came with my car d?

Thanks.

Official: http://www.ati.com/support/driver.html

Not so official! http://www.tcmagazine.info/modules.p...ticle&sid=8386

[Halcyon]

Thank you