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ATI FireGL™ Unified Driver Verison 8.353.1.1


ATI's FireGL™ cards are designed to accelerate 3D workstation applications based on OpenGL and Microsoft DirectX 9.0. With full certification on the leading computer aided design (CAD), architecture/engineering/construction (AEC) and digital content creation (DCC) applications, ATI FireGL™ is the high performance choice for graphics professionals working in Windows. These release notes provide information on the ATI FireGL™ Unified Driver version 8.353.1.1.

These release notes provide information on the following:

API and Operating System Support
OpenGL® 2.0 + extensions
OpenGL Shading Language
Microsoft® DirectX® 9.0
DX9 HLSL
Windows® XP (through SP2)
Windows XP Professional x64 Edition
Windows 2000
Linux® 32/Linux 64

Note: The ATI FireGL™ Unified Driver for Windows XP Professional x64 Edition does not support the Intel Itanium 2 processor based server platforms.


Note: Linux users can obtain the software display driver at: http://www.atitech.com/support/driver.html


Caution: Pre-unified drivers (7.88 or older) should be un-installed before installing the ATI FireGL™ Unified Driver.

Minimum System Requirements

This section provides information on the system requirements for successful installation and operation. The following is a list of minimum system requirements:

  • Intel Pentium 4/Xeon™, AMD Athlon/Opteron™ or compatible CPU
  • PCI-Express x16 Bus for PCI-Express products
  • AGP bus for AGP Products
  • 128MB of system memory (256MB or more recommended)
  • Installation software requires CD-ROM drive
  • 300 watt or greater power supply (recommended)

ATI FireGL™ Product Family Support

The ATI FireGL™ Unified Driver version 8.353.1.1 is designed to support the following ATI FireGL™ product family:
ATI FireGL™ V7350
ATI FireGL™ V3350
ATI FireGL™ V7300
ATI FireGL™ V3300
ATI FireGL™ V7200
ATI FireGL™ V3250
ATI FireGL™ V7100
ATI FireGL™ V3200
ATI FireGL™ V5200
ATI FireGL™ V3100
ATI FireGL™ V5100
ATI FireGL™ T2
ATI FireGL™ V5000
ATI FireGL™ X3-256
ATI FireGL™ V3400


Software Overview

The ATI FireGL™ family of workstation products provides the performance, quality, and stability that is required for the most demanding projects.

The ATI FireGL™ Unified Driver provides users with a stable, user-friendly, and flexible software experience. Some of the features of the ATI FireGL™ Unified Driver include:

Overlay/Theatre Mode Controls

This release of the ATI FireGL™ Unified Driver introduces an Overlay option in the ATI Control Panel. The Overlay option allows users to control the brightness, contrast, gamma, and other options of video playback when using a Media Player. The Overlay option provides sliders that automatically become active when playing a video file that supports overlay adjustments. Otherwise the sliders remain grayed out. In addition, there is a Theater Mode option (full screen video) when using a secondary monitor with clone mode enabled.

Additional Default Profiles

Three new default profiles are now available in the Configuration tab of the ATI Display Control Panel (and the Workstation page of the Catalyst Control Center). The new profiles are:

  • Default - CAD
  • Default - DCC
  • Default - Visualization

If users encounter performance or other issues with applications not specifically listed in the Profiles list, they should select and use whichever of these default profiles most closely matches their application.

Quad Buffer Stereo Sub Options

The Enable Quad Buffer Stereo option is available in both the ATI Control Panel and the ATI Catalyst Control Center. The Enable Quad Buffer Stereo sub-buttons provides two options:

  • Stereo Sync - Select this option if a display device is attached to the graphics card's stereo sync connector.
  • Auto-Stereo (Vertical Interleaved) - Select this option if an Auto-Stereo (vertical interleaved) flat panel is connected.

Quad Buffer Stereo is available when using either a single display or when Extended Desktop Mode is enabled (multiple displays with the taskbar being display on the primary monitor only). Quad Buffer Stereo functionality is only available on the primary display regardless of Extended Desktop Mode being enabled. Quad Buffer Stereo support is not available in Span Mode (dual screen with both displays using the identical display resolutions and the operating system taskbar is running across both displays). When using Span Mode, the Enable Quad Buffer Stereo checkbox is greyed out and is unavailable for selection.

Shared Front/Back/Z Dual Screen Mode Option

The ATI Control Panel and the ATI Catalyst Control Center provides a Shared Front/Back/Z Dual Screen Mode checkbox option. This option is available when extended desktop mode is enabled. Enabling the option allocates a shared primary frame buffer surface for both displays when they are set to the same resolution. This allows the OpenGL driver to use a shared front/back/depth frame buffer layout which can enhance performance when using multiple OpenGL windows.

ATI 3ds Max Maximum Driver

3ds Max is a professional 3D modeling, rendering and animation software. The ATI 3ds Max Maximum Driver provided with the ATI software driver package allows for impressive hardware accelerated rendering in the 3ds Max viewport. To successfully install the ATI 3ds Max Maximum Driver, the 3ds Max software application must be installed first, and started once. Failing to install the 3ds Max software application prior to the installation of the ATI 3ds Max Maximum Driver will result in the ATI 3ds Max Maximum Driver not installing to the appropriate directory.

Automatic Application Detection When Using the Default Profile

When the Default Profile setting is selected, the driver will automatically attempt to recognize the application upon its launch; and if the application is recognized, the driver will use the Profile settings defined for that application instead of the actual Default settings. Users will no longer need to manually select the application specific profile for recognized applications to obtain the full optimized driver performance for the application. In addition to this, users can now obtain the full optimized driver performance for multiple recognized applications that are running simultaneously, by simply using the Default Profile. This allows for each and every recognized application to use the Profile settings defined for that particular application. When the Default Profile is selected, the Default Profile settings are used for applications that are not recognized.

The tables below lists the professional applications and OpenGL games that are automatically recognized when using the Default Profile.
3ds Max
ArchiCAD
Discovery Studio
IronCAD
OneSpace Designer Modeling
Teamcenter Visualization
ABAQUS
AutoCAD
Femap
LightWave 3D
Petrel
TEBIS
Adobe After Effects
Autodesk Inventor
Fluent
Maya
Pro/CONCEPT
UGS NX
AliasStudio
Autodesk Revit
FreeForm Modeling Plus
MicroStation
Pro/ENGINEER
Wildfire
Vitrea
Altair
HyperWorks
Autodesk VIZ
Houdini
Modo
SOFTIMAGE|XSI


ANSYS
AxioVision
ICEM Surf
MSC.Patran
Solid Edge


ArcGIS
CATIA
I-DEAS
Opticore
Realizer
SolidWorks


Table 3: Recognized OpenGL Gaming Applications

Chronicles of Riddick
Doom 3
Jedi Knight II
Quake 3
Quake 4
Return to Castle Wolfenstein

Summary of Resolved Issues

The following is a summary of the issues that have been resolved in this release of the ATI FireGL™ Unified Driver.

  • The StudioTools profile is now named AliasStudio. Further information may be found in topic number 737-27668
  • The I-DEAS NX profile is now named I-DEAS. Further information may be found in topic number 737-27669
  • The Catalyst Control Center now provides an option to control the OpenGL sync to the vertical refresh. Further information may be found in topic number 737-27670
  • Inventor R11: Corruption is no longer noticed when extended desktop mode is enabled along with Wait for Vertical Retrace. Further information may be found in topic number 737-27671
  • The Multisampling function of SolidWorks no longer results in some portions of the view being fuzzy. Further information may be found in topic number 737-27022
  • A shaded sphere is no longer rendered incorrectly when a linear reflection shader is used. Further information may be found in topic number 737-27020
  • Some of the 24x24 buttons are no longer blank when running the application Autodesk Toxik. Further information may be found in topic number 737-27017
  • The CrossFire aspect found in the Catalyst Control Center no longer appears for unsupported products. Further information may be found in topic number 737-27672
  • x29: Moving the PBfuTest window around the desktop no longer results in the window taking a longer than expected time to refresh. Further information may be found in topic number 737-27673

Open Issues Report

The following is a summary of open issues found in this release of the ATI FireGL™ Unified Driver.

  • Solidworks 2007: Launching the Graphics Test 2007/shaderstest.sldasm, texture1 and texture2. tests may result in an Out of memory error message followed by an Application has to be terminated error message. Further information may be found in topic number 737-23400
  • Maya: Enabling Span mode followed by selecting items from the time slider on the second screen may result in the item selected failing to appear correctly. Further information may be found in topic number 737-23398
  • Maya: Enabling dual screen mode and dragging the Maya application slowly around the desktop may result in the time line disappearing and reappearing as the application window is being moved across the desktop. Further information may be found in topic number 737-23399
  • Host memory usage may not be optimized under some circumstances when running CATIA V5. Further information may be found in topic number 737-27021

ATI Customer Care

ATI Customer Care website provides a high level of technical support and easy of navigation. The ATI Customer Care website provides accurate and up-to-date product support for optimum usability and performance. Technical issues are categorized and personalized to enhance user experience. The ATI Customer Care Website can be found at: support.ati.com

To view a known or resolved issue, do the following:

  1. Go to: support.ati.com. The ATI Customer Care web page is displayed.
  2. In the top left hand pane, click Advanced Search. The Advanced Search pane is displayed.
  3. Under Search Type: Select the By: ID option.
  4. Enter the Topic number.
  5. Click Go.

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