ati CATALYST 3.7 released

[ayoub_ibrahim]

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

The CATALYST™ software suite 3.7 contains the following:
• RADEON™ display driver 7.93
• Multimedia Center™ 8.6
• HydraVision™ 3.21
• Remote Wonder™ 2.0
• WDM version 6217v1
Desktop product family support:
The CATALYST™ software suite is designed to support the following ATI desktop product family.
• RADEON™ 9800 series
• RADEON™ 9700 series
• RADEON™ 9600 series
• RADEON™ 9500 series
• RADEON™ 9200 series
• RADEON™ 9100 series
• RADEON™ 9000 series
• RADEON™ 8500 series
• RADEON™ 7500 series
• RADEON™ 7200 series
• RADEON™ 7000 series

Operating systems supported:
The latest version of the CATALYST™ software suite is designed to support the following Microsoft Windows platforms.
• Windows XP
• Windows 2000
• Windows Millennium Edition (ME)
• Windows 98/98SE through the ME driver

New Features:
The CATALYST™ driver now provides a Triple Buffering Option. Enabling Triple Buffering has the potential to increase performance under certain conditions. Please refer to the help file of the feature for additional information. This new feature is located in the OpenGL Compatibility Settings tab.

Performance Improvements:
As with most CATALYST™ releases, the performance has increased in numerous situations. Here are some examples observed in CATALYST™ version 3.7. These include.
• Pixel Shader processing has been enhanced across all of our DX9 products. As a result, certain PS 2.0 ShaderMark tests are now running as much as 12% faster.
• Unreal Tournament 2003 performance is up considerably for DX9 products running with Anti-Aliasing enabled. This is due to improvements in the driver code for rendering character shadows. For example, the Anubis botmatch test gains as much as 23%
• The result of this optimization is also apparent in Dungeon Siege, where gains ranging from 3-10% are observed on our DX9 product line-up, when Anti-Aliasing is enabled. Other game titles may also be improved
• RADEON 7000 gains as much as 25% in Direct3D titles when running at very high resolution (1600x1200). Aquamark, Comanche 4, Dungeon Siege, Expendable, Giants and Re-Volt all gain approximately 20% at this setting. OpenGL titles are not affected
• Modest gains of approximately 5% are noticed for our DX8 class of products (RADEON™ 9200, 9000, and 8500) in OpenGL games such as Quake III Arena, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, and Serious Sam
Resolved Game Issues
This section provides information on game issues that have been resolved in the latest release of CATALYST™.
• Running MS Links 2003 with Anisotropic filtering and Anti-Aliasing enabled results in vertical and horizontal lines being displayed within the game. This issue is known to occur under Windows XP with a RADEON™ 9700 series card installed
• Switching the display resolution mode when playing Jedi Knight II or Quake 3 no longer results in display corruption being displayed on the top of the menu screen
• Unreal Tournament 2003 highlight corruption is no longer seen when the pull down menu bar is used to choose a selection
• The Windows XP system not responding when attempting to launch IL2 Sturmovik Forgotten Battles if the display resolution is set to 1024x768 32bpp is now resolved. This issue was known to occur on the RADEON™ 9700, 9600, and 9500 series of cards
• The Windows XP operating system no longer stop responding when switching the display resolution from 1280x1024 to 1600x1200 when playing Jedi Knight II
• Configuring the game NASCAR Racing to 1600x1200 32 bpp under Windows ME with a RADEON™ 9600 series card installed no longer results in the system not responding
• Selecting the pin camera in the game MS Links 2003 no longer results in the ground not being drawn correctly in the sub window. This issue was known to occur under Windows XP with the RADEON™ 9000 series card installed
• Playing a multiplayer game in the lost city map in the game Will Rock no longer results in the sky flashing black images. This issue was known to occur under Windows XP with the RADEON™ 9000 series card installed
• Slow playback of the game Remington Big Buck Trophy Hunt is now resolved. This issue was known to occur under Windows XP with a RADEON™ 9700, 9600 TX or 9500 series card installed
• Configuring the game NeverWinter Nights with Nice 4 Sample Anti-Aliasing enabled and attempting to launch the game no longer results in the system failing to respond. This issue was known to occur under Windows XP with a RADEON™ 9800 SE or 9500 series card installed
• Enabling Anti-Aliasing and attempting to take a screen shot results in a corrupt capture when running OpenGL games such as, CounterStrike, Half-Life, Quake III or Medal of Honour: Allied Assault
• The Tron 2 demo no longer runs slowly on the RADEON™ 7200 and 9000 series
• Anti-Aliasing support is now available for the game Giants Citizen Kabuto

[Novdid]

Good reminder!

[Indiana]

One thing:
There seems to be a bug in the seperately downloadable ControlPanel archive that leads to missing features (SmartGART, TruForm,...).

Just download the "All inclusive" archive (unfortunately >20MB), there the included ControlPanel is OK.

[Novdid]

Doesn't seem to like the new Homeworld2 demo...

Oh well, I can live with that as UT is much faster with these.

[The PIT]

Arh backup time and then install the new drivers.

I bet the speed updates is a load of rubbish. They say it each time by now my UT2003 should be running 900 fps

[Kooldino]

I'm half tempted to give them a try. What install order do you guys use?

[knirfie]

download, and take a chance, double-click the setup file...

uninstall old drivers??? why?

[The PIT]

Becuase some files may not get overidden properly is one reason.

I either uninstall or do a manual update over the top.
I never do a install from the setup due to the buggy dumdfart that ATI insist on burdening us with.

Impressions theres one funny problem. Another problem is with UT2003 some maps are faster really silky smooth but irondeity has got slower and really chugs no doubt there are some other maps that do the same. A lot more improvement needed on that. Playing top res under d3d and everything maxed.
All D3D games got stuck at 60hz wheres under 3.6 if you ran at a different res you got 85hz.
Solution turn off DDC and set at whatever frequency you want. Fails in UT2003 for some unknown reason.
TW2003 seems smoother.
Haven't had time to try any others.

[Chrono_Wanderer]

Few years ago when ATI drivers suck:

1) Download the whole package thing
2) Uninstall (Except for Matrox cards... only nVIIDA and ATI cards)
3) Reboot
4) Unpack
5) Click next
6) Click more next
7) Click even more next
8) Wiat for the driver to install.
9) Wait for the control panel to install.
10) Reboot
11) Found out that there are driver conflicts between new/older version
12) Go into safe mode
13) Go uninstall the drivers
14) Reboot
15) Redo steps from 4-9
16) Doesn't work, shut down
17) Take out the ATI card
18) Burn it
19) Go out and buy a Matrox
20) Come back home and install it
21) Doesn't wokr, more dirvers conflict
22) Edit registry
23) Edit more registry
24) Reboot
25) Windows gets unexpected error
26) Format
27) Reinstall Windows
28) Install Matrox drivers
29) Works

But with the newer ATI drivers

1) Download
2) Unpack
3) Install
4) Reboot
5) Change back resolution and refresh rates to pervious settings
6) Enjoy

[BuddMan]

Does Triple Buffering work with AA still on (it's been added via the CP)? Does the option make use of the vid card memory to make a 4th buffer? Just wondering...

[ALBPM]

So, some of you actually installed the 3.7s over your older drivers and Control pannel???

[Indiana]

Originally posted by ALBPM
So, some of you actually installed the 3.7s over your older drivers and Control pannel???

Yes, I did. No problems whatsoever.

[BuddMan]

I uninstalled the CP but kept the drivers and had no problems. For Omega's 3.7s though I uninstalled everything. I haven't had problems with either set.

[The PIT]

I uninstalled becuase of suddenly having four monitors. Seems to be a feature of 3.7's.