These release notes provide information on the latest posting of ATI's industry leading software suite, CATALYST™. This particular posting updates the ATI Display Driver to version 8.02. This unified driver has been further enhanced to provide the highest level of power, performance, and reliability. The ATI CATALYST™ software suite is the ultimate in performance and stability.
The CATALYST™ 4.6 Release Notes provides information on the following:
- Web Content
- Desktop product family support
- ATI Integrated Product Support
- Operating systems supported
- New Features
- Performance Improvements
- Issues Resolved in CATALYST™ Version 4.6
- Known Issues
- Downloading the ATI CATALYST™ Software Suite
- Uninstalling the ATI Control and Display Driver
- Installing the latest CATALYST™ Software Suite
- CATALYST™ CREW Feedback Program
- Customer Care Service
Web Content
The CATALYST™ software suite 4.6 contains the following:
- RADEON™ display driver 8.02
- ATI MULTIMEDIA CENTER™ 9.0
- HydraVision™ 3.25.0006
- HydraVision Basic Edition 3.25.9006
- REMOTE WONDER™ 2.4
- WDM version 4.05
Note: These release notes provide information on the 8.02 display driver only. For information on the ATI MULTIMEDIA CENTER 9.0, HydraVision™ 3.25.0006, HydraVision™ 3.25.9006 Basic Edition, WDM version 4.05, or the REMOTE WONDER™ 2.4, please refer to their respective release notes found at: http://ati.com/
Desktop product family support
The CATALYST™ software suite is designed to support the following ATI desktop product family:
Note: ATI All-In-Wonder variants based on the above are also supported.
Note: All ATI RADEON™ PC Graphic cards are optimized for Microsoft's Media Center Edition when coupled with a supported video capture card.
ATI Integrated Product Support
The CATALYST™ software suite is designed to support the following ATI integrated product family:
- RADEON™ IGP 320
- RADEON™ IGP 330
- RADEON™ IGP 340
- RADEON™ 9000 IGP
- RADEON™ 9100 IGP
- IXP 150
- IXP 200
- IXP 250
- IXP 300
Operating systems supported
The latest version of the CATALYST™ software suite is designed to support the following Microsoft Windows platforms:
- Windows XP
- Windows 2000
Note: As of January 1, 2004, Microsoft no longer accepts certification submissions for the Microsoft® Windows® Millennium Edition operating system. ATI Technologies Inc. can no longer obtain WHQL certification for this operating system. For more information refer to the following Microsoft® website: http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/hwtest/search/details.aspx?ID=800
Note: Windows Millennium Edition users can obtain the CATALYST™ 4.3 software suite at: http://www.atitech.com/support/driver.html. Windows 98/98SE is supported through the ME driver.
New Features
This section provides information on new features found in this release of the CATALYST™ Display Drivers. New features include:
User Defined Component Video HDTV Modes
The CATALYST 4.5 driver provided a new interface that allows users to define the optimized modes for their HDTV's. This allows for images to be properly centered on their HDTV. The interface allows users specify a mode through a test window. Once the user saves this information, it will be saved as a user defined preference. This feature was not available in 4.5 and is now enabled.
OpenGL Hardware Acceleration for ATI Rotation
OpenGL Hardware Acceleration for ATI Rotation Mode. This feature is supported across the current shipping ATI Desktop product line, and is supported under both Windows XP, and Windows 2000.
Performance Improvements
As with most CATALYST™ releases performance has increased in various situations. The following performance gains are noticed:
- Pixel Shader compiler improvements bring significant performance gains to PS 2.0 applications such as Halo (2-3%), Tomb Raider (4-5%) and Mother Nature (4-5%). ShaderMark 2 shows numerous gains in the 3-6% range. The High Dynamic Range scenes in ShaderMark (Tests 20 & 21) gain 10-15%.
- RADEON X800 driver tuning improves performance for several Vertex-Shader-heavy tests. For example, Battle of Proxycon, Troll's Lair and Mother Nature gain 9-15% on the RADEON X800 PRO.
- Improvements in our surface allocation and texture management code have increased performance for resource-challenged cases. Re-Volt scores improve 25% at 1600x1200 across several RADEON configurations. ShaderMark Test 14 (Veined Marble) improves dramatically (up 380% at 1600x1200) on some 256MB products.
- Improvements in OpenGL driver efficiency bring numerous small gains (1-3%) in Call of Duty, Wolfenstein - Enemy Territory, Star Trek - Elite Force II, Serious Sam, Return to Castle Wolfenstein and Quake III Arena.
- X800 memory tuning improves Anti-Aliasing performance in a number of games and benchmarks. For example, at 4xAA, 3DMark2001 gains 4-7%, UT2003 Antalus and Asbestos Flybys improve 2-7%, and the CodeCreatures score rises 15%.
Issues Resolved in CATALYST™ Version 4.6
The following section provides a summary of the issues that have been resolved in the latest release of CATALYST™ 4.6. These include:
Resolved CATALYST™ Driver Issues
This section provides information on CATALYST™ driver issues that have been resolved in the latest release of CATALYST™. These include the following:
- Display corruption is no longer seen when rotating the primary desktop 90 degrees or 180 degrees under Windows 2000 with extended desktop enabled
- Display corruption is no longer seen when running the ATI demo Dolphin v1.1 with the Truform option set to Application Preference
- The operating system no longer fails to respond when doing a monitor swap while running an overlay image on the secondary display
- Rotating a display of 1024x768 60Hz followed by entering standby mode no longer results in display corruption being seen briefly when resuming
- Using the ATI icon in the system tray or using a hotkey stroke to rotate the display image no longer results in the operating system intermittently failing to respond for approximately 90 seconds
- Playing a DVD with DXVA enabled and attempting to rotate the display 90 degrees no longer results in the operating system failing to respond
- Moving an OpenGL window around the Windows desktop no longer results in the operating system intermittently failing to respond
Resolved Game Issues
This section provides information on game issues that have been resolved in the latest release of CATALYST™. These include the following:
- While playing the game Halo, under certain conditions, images that should be hidden behind solid foreground objects are no longer showing through
- Starting a game of Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow under Windows XP with an ATI RADEON 9000 PRO installed and the display set to 1024x768 and the graphics quality set to high no longer results in flickering textures
- Display corruption is no longer seen when using particular air craft in "Century of Flight" games found in Flight Simulator 2004
- Textures are now applied correctly in the game Silent Storm when setting the resolution to 1024x768 32bpp and the quality option set to high
- Enabling AF to 8x and running the game Battlefield Vietnam with the graphics set to high and the display set to 1280x1024 32bpp no longer results in display corruption being seen at a certain point of the game
- The display menu for the game 4x4 EVO 2 is now available when the rotation option is used to set the display to 180 degrees
- Circular grid corruption is no longer seen when launching World Fables under Windows XP with Anti-Aliasing enabled at 4X
- The Windows XP operating system no longer intermittently fails to respond when restarting the game Homeworld 2
- Adobe Gamma and other colour calibration software now have the ability to adjust their independent gamma values. Note: In certain situations when closing the application, the default desktop gamma is not restored.
Resolved Application Issues
This section provides information on application issues that have been resolved in the latest release of CATALYST™. These include the following:
- The wireframe in edit UVWs is now drawn correctly after zooming in on an object in 3ds max
- Running Solidworks 2004 under Windows XP and dragging the grapicstest2004.sldprt window to a secondary display no longer results in the planes being highlighted after the mouse is moved off the plane
- The Solidworks 2004/SP3 application no longer fails to respond when opening the shaderstest.sldasm test with Real View enabled
- Enabling extended desktop followed by setting the display resolution to 1280x1024 on the secondary display adapter no longer results in the application ProEngineer terminating
Known Issues
The following section provides a brief description of known issues associated with the latest version of CATALYST™. These include the following:
- Enabling multi-monitors at different display resolutions results in Direct3D or OpenGL game images appearing off center on the secondary display. Further information on this issue can be found at: www.ati.com/support/infobase/4406.html
- Launching EVE Online under Windows XP with an ATI RADEON 8500, 9100, or 9200 series results in a VPU recover error before the terms and conditions is displayed. Further information on this issue can be found at: www.ati.com/support/infobase/4555.html
- Playing the game Need for Speed Underground under Windows XP with an ATI RADEON 8500 installed results in the road ahead not being lit up by the car's headlights. Further information on this issue can be found at: www.ati.com/support/infobase/4556.html
- A split screen is noticed when loading the game Return to Castle Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory with AA set to 2X or 4X. Further information on this issue can be found at: www.ati.com/support/infobase/4559.html
- Display corruption and missing polygons are noticed in the game Indian Jones and the Emperors Tomb. Further information on this issue can be found at: http://www.ati.com/support/infobase/4563.html
- Playing the game Beyond Divinity with FSAA set to 2x results in display corruption when scrolling the display by moving the mouse to the left of the display. Further information on this issue can be found at: www.ati.com/support/infobase/4562.html
- Specular lighting issues and incorrect textures is noticed when playing the game City of Heroes under Windows XP. Further information on this issue can be found at: www.ati.com/support/infobase/4561.html
- Inconsistent lighting and shadow flicker is noticed when playing the game Thief 3 under Windows XP with an ATI RADEON X800 XT Platinum Edition or the RADEON X800 PRO. Further information on this issue can be found at: www.ati.com/support/infobase/4557.html
- Setting the display resolution to 1024x768 16bpp under Windows XP with an ATI RADEON X800 XT Platinum Edition or an RADEON X800 PRO installed results in flashing lines being noticed on the corner edges of the walls in the game Horizons: Empire of Istaria. Further information on this issue can be found at: www.ati.com/support/infobase/4558.html
For further information and general help on driver or software installation, game issues, and more, visit the ATI FAQ website.
Downloading the ATI CATALYST™ Software Suite
This section provides information on downloading the CATALYST™ Software Suite for your ATI RADEON™ product. The ATI CATALYST™ Crew recommends that you create a central location for your ATI CATALYST™ downloads. To do this, follow these steps.
- Right-click on any open area of your desktop. A drop down menu is displayed.
- Select New->Folder. A new folder is created on your desktop.
- Name the folder CATALYST™ Downloads.
- Navigate to the ATI software download web page, and select the software driver you require.
- Click Download. A File download dialog box is displayed.
- Click Save. The Save As dialog box is displayed.
- Navigate to the CATALYST™ Download folder, and click Save.
You have successfully saved the software driver to your desktop.
Uninstalling the ATI Control and Display Driver
This section provides information on uninstalling the previous versions of your ATI Control Panel and ATI Display Driver for your RADEON™ product.
Note: If your are using Windows 2000 or Windows XP, ensure that you have logged in with system administrative rights.
Before you can install the latest CATALYST™ software driver for your RADEON™ product, you must uninstall the previous ATI Control Panel. To do this, follow these steps:
- Navigate to the Add/Remove programs tool provided by Microsoft. This tool is found in the Control Panel.
Note: Ensure all other applications are closed before continuing with the uninstall of the ATI Display Driver.
- Click the Change/Remove button. The ATI Control Panel Setup window is displayed.
- Select Remove, and click Next. A Confirm File Deletion dialog box is displayed.
- Click OK. The ATI Control Panel Setup window is displayed.
- Select No, and click Finish. You are returned to the Add/Remove Program tool.
You have successfully uninstalled the ATI Control Panel.
You are now ready to uninstall the ATI Display Driver. To do this, follow these steps:
- Select ATI Display Driver in the Add/Remove Program tool.
- Click the Change/Remove button.
Note: If you have multiple display adapters installed, a dialog box will appear instructing you to choose which ATI Display driver to uninstall. Click the Select All button.
- Click Yes when prompted to confirm the uninstall of the ATI Display Driver.
- Reboot your system as prompted to compete the uninstall of the ATI Display Driver.
Note: If you are prompted to start the installation of a display driver upon boot up, click CANCEL
You have successfully uninstalled the previous version of the ATI Display Driver and ATI Control Panel.
Installing the latest CATALYST™ Software Suite
This section provides information on installing the latest CATALYST™ Software Suite for your RADEON™ product. To install the driver, follow these steps:
- Navigate to the CATALYST™ Download folder on your desktop. Double-click on the folder to view its content.
- Double click the CATALYST™ display driver. Accept all the default prompts.
- Restart your system as required.
You have successfully installed the latest CATALYST™ software driver.
CATALYST™ CREW Feedback Program
This driver release incorporates suggestions received through the CATALYST™ CREW feedback program. Please refer to http://apps.ati.com/driverfeedback/ and provide us further feedback.
Customer Care Service
The ATI Customer Care Center is focused on delivering accurate, up-to-date product support for optimum usability and performance. Should you require assistance with your ATI product visit, http://www.atitech.com/support/index.html
| ATI Technologies Inc. http://www.ati.com Voice: (905) 882-2600 Fax: (905) 882-2626 |
