ATI CATALYST 3.8 Driver

[Derek]

This latest release from ATI fixed a lot of bugs. You can download the latest ATI Catalyst drivers from ATI's site: http://www.ati.com/support/driver.html

Fixed in this driver:
• Setting the Landscape details to Perfect in the game IL2 Stumovik Forgotten Battles no longer results in the system not responding during the track playback

• Playing the game Tiger Woods with the game options set to 1280x1024 32bpp and graphic parameters set to high, no longer results in the game failing to respond after the scorecard is displayed

• Setting the game Flight Simulator 2004 to display at 1024x768 or 1280x1024 followed by starting a new flight results in the menu being flipped just before the new flight is about to begin

• Setting the display to 800x600 32bpp 100Hz followed by enabling triple buffering no longer results in display corruption when playing CounterStrike

• The correct ATI board name is now display in the configuration window of the game Serious Sam 2

• A dark screen image and texture corruption is no longer seen when playing the game Project A3

• Running the game eRacer with clone mode enabled no longer results in corruption on the secondary display during the opening introduction

• Playing the game Midnight Club 2 with the default setting no longer results in the texture coordinated being corrupted. This issue occurred under Windows XP with an ATI RADEON™ 7500 installed

• Fog issues have now been resolved in the game Neverwinter Nights

• Image corruption is no longer noticed in the game Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness. This issue was known to occur under Windows XP with an ATI RADEON™ 9000 series installed

• Playing the demo game Midnight Club 2 under Windows XP with the default modes enabled for the game no longer results in the fog being missing from the game

• Playing the demo game XIII under Windows XP with an ATI RADEON™ 9500 or 9800 series card installed no longer results in texture corruption when moving the mouse around the game area

• The ATI RADEON™ 7500 series card no longer experiences texture and geometry corruption in GL application samples

• Setting the display size to 1600x1200x32 bpp under Windows ME with a 256Mb RADEON™ 9700 series card installed and running 3D Mark2003 no longer results in the system failing to respond

• The CodeCreatures benchmark score dropping by approximately 10-12% on DX8-class hardware (RADEON™ 9200, 9000, and 8500) is now resolved

• When updating to current or future CATALYST™ releases your current color control panel profiles are no longer lost

• Setting the main OpenGL slider in the ATI 3D tab to quality no longer results causes games to run in 16bpp mode

• Disabling Extended Desktop when two display adapters are connected to four Displays no longer results in corruption on one display

• Help file is now available for brightness of TV under Windows XP with a RADEON™ 9800 series card installed

• The large desktop resolution setting are no longer displayed in the Setting tab once large desktop has been disabled

• Selecting the 3D screen saver during DVD playback when the display resolution is set to 1280x1024x16bit no longer results in display corruption being noticed on the overlay

• Repeatedly switching between a Full Screen DOS session and the window desktop no longer results in corrupt horizontal red lines on the CRT

• Entering the screen saver tab in the display properties and selecting 3D Flying Objects followed by entering standby mode no longer results in the Windows 2000 operating system rebooting

• The ability to extend the desktop while playing an MPEG file is now resolved

• The system no longer reboots when playing NEC dvd4 after changing the display from extended mode to clone mode

• The ATI Problem Report Wizard is now functioning properly under Windows XP

• The ATI RADEON™ 8500 no longer suffers from a Direct 3D performance decrease when the Windows XP desktop resolution is set to 32bpp

• Setting the display resolution to 1152x864 32bpp under Windows XP and playing an MPEG or AVI file no longer results in display corruption on the TV output

• Texture banding issues under OpenGL is now resolved

[InactiveX]

I've been using it for a few days, and although I haven't had any problems, it didn't improve 3DMark scores at all (YMMV).

To my mind, the main advantage is VPU Recover.

VPU Recover (patent pending) allows the CATALYST™ display driver to reset the graphics accelerator when it is no longer responding to the display driver. Without VPU Recover, a reboot of the system would be required when the graphic accelerator is not responding to the display driver. Depending on the state of the system when VPU Recover is activated, applications that are running may be able to fully recover from the graphics processor reset. If this is not possible, the active application may be closed and the system will return to the desktop. VPU Recover will significantly reduce the number of system crashes caused by graphics hardware hangs. This allows for fewer interruptions and virtually eliminates situations where work can be lost, as well as increasing system stability.

[Wolfram]

Rumours say this 3.8 driver overheats certain cards and also sometimes sets the refresh rate to dangerous values.

http://www.short-media.com/forum/showth ... eadid=4820
http://www.short-media.com/forum/showth ... #post52230

ATi denies that:

http://www.warp2search.net/modules.php? ... &sid=14979

[fazer]

installed the new driver. its good to see my radeon 7000 considered a modern card and treaded as such. . Works fine, and i dont loose my settings this time!