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ATI Catalyst™ Software Suite Version 7.4


This release note provides information on the latest posting of AMD's industry leading software suite, Catalyst™. This particular software suite updates both the AMD Display Driver (version 8.36), and the Catalyst™ Control Center (version 7.4). This unified driver has been further enhanced to provide the highest level of power, performance, and reliability. The AMD Catalyst™ software suite is the ultimate in performance and stability.

This release note provides information on the following:

Web Content

The Catalyst™ software suite 7.4 contains the following:

  • Radeon® display driver 8.36
  • Multimedia Center 9.16
  • HydraVision
  • HydraVision™ Basic Edition
  • Remote Wonder 3.04
  • WDM Driver Install Bundle
  • Southbridge/IXP Driver
  • Catalyst™ Control Center Version 7.4

Caution: The Catalyst™ software driver and the Catalyst™ Control Center can be downloaded independently of each other. However, for maximum stability and performance AMD recommends that both components be updated from the same Catalyst™ release


Caution: The Catalyst™ Control Center requires that the Microsoft .NET Framework version 1.1 or 2.0 be installed. Without .NET version 1.1 or 2.0 installed, the Catalyst™ Control Center will not launch properly and the user will see an error message.


Note: These release notes provide information on the Radeon® display driver only. For information on the ATI Multimedia Center, HydraVision, HydraVision Basic Edition, WDM, Remote Wonder™, or the Southbridge/IXP driver, please refer to their respective release notes found at: https://support.ati.com/

AMD Product Support

The Catalyst™ software driver version 7.4 supports the following ATI Radeon™ products.


Caution: Catalyst™ 7.4 does not support the Radeon™ X1600 Pro with HDMI, please continue to use Catalyst™ 7.3

AMD Desktop Product Family Support for both Windows Vista and XP
ATI Radeon™ X1950 series
ATI Radeon™ X800 series
ATI Radeon™ X1900 series
ATI Radeon™ X700 series
ATI Radeon™ X1800 series
ATI Radeon™ X600 series
ATI Radeon™ X1650 series
ATI Radeon™ X550 series
ATI Radeon™ X1600 series
ATI Radeon™ X300 series
ATI Radeon™ X1550 series
ATI Radeon™ 9800 series
ATI Radeon™ X1300 series
ATI Radeon™ 9700 series
ATI Radeon™ X1050 series
ATI Radeon™ 9600 series
ATI Radeon™ X850 series
ATI Radeon™ 9500 series
AMD Multimedia Family Product Support for both Windows Vista and XP
ATI All-in-Wonder® X1900 Series
ATI All-in-Wonder™ X600 Series
ATI All-in-Wonder® X1800 Series
ATI Theater™ 550 PRO
ATI All-in-Wonder® 2006 Edition
ATI All-in-Wonder® 9800 Series
ATI All-in-Wonder™ X800 Series
ATI All-in-Wonder™ 9600 Series

Note: ATI All-In-Wonder and VIVO variants listed above are supported in the display driver only under the Windows Vista operating system.


Note: The capture driver for these products installed on systems running Windows Vista is not being updated at this time

AMD Chipset Product Support
ATI Radeon™ Xpress 1250 Series
ATI Radeon™ Xpress 1150 Series
ATI Radeon™ X1250 Series
ATI Radeon™ Xpress 1100 Series
ATI Radeon™ X1200 Series
ATI Radon™ Xpress 200 Series

Operating systems supported

The latest version of the Catalyst™ software suite is designed to support the following Microsoft Windows platforms:

  • Windows Vista (32 and 64 bit versions)
  • Windows XP Professional
  • Windows XP Home Edition
  • Windows XP Media Center Edition (graphics driver support only)

Note: When installing the Catalyst™ Vista driver for Windows Vista, the user must logged on as an Administrator or have Administrator rights in order to successfully complete the installation of the Catalyst™ Vista driver.

Caution: Once the driver installation is completed under the Vista operating system (32 and 64 bit), the driver log file may report that the ATI T200 Unified AVStream Driver failed to install. A reboot of the operating system resolves the issue.

New Features

This release of Catalyst™ introduces the Avivo Video Converter for the Vista (32-bit) operating system. The Avivo Video Converter is a tool that provides a quick and easy way of converting videos from one format to another. The Avivo Video Converter found within the Catalyst™ Control Center accepts a wide variety of file formats as a source, and outputs to file formats such as MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4/DivX, WMA, H.264/AVC and more.

Performance Improvements

OpenGL performance under the Microsoft Vista operating system improves for all Radeon™ X1000 series of products, in both single card and hardware CrossFire™ configurations. Typical Improvements of 15% or more can be seen in games such as Doom 3, Quake 4 and Prey, with enthusiast class of products seeing improvements of 30% or more.

ATI's Folding@Home

Folding@Home is a distributed computing project designed by the Stanford University. The application performs intensive simulations of protein folding. This simulation will help researchers uncover how certain diseases develop. Folding@Home uses distributed computing to simulate protein folding, the workload is broken up into small work units and distributed across hundreds of thousands of computers over the internet. You can help find the cure to many different diseases! To join Folding@Home, follow these steps:

  1. Download ATI's Catalyst™ software suite
  2. Download the Folding@Home GPU client application
    Note: If you have an ATI Radeon™ X1600 or higher, download the GPU client (either console or GUI version) not to be confused with the CPU "Graphical client". If you do not have an ATI Radeon™ X1600 or higher, then download the CPU client.

  3. Enter the ATI team number 51394 and start folding!

For more information on Folding@Home visit: http://ati.amd.com/technology/streamcomputing/folding.html

Resolved Issues for the Windows Vista Operating System

This section provides information on resolved issues in this release of the ATI Catalyst™ Software Suite for Windows Vista. These include:

  • Battlefield 2: A momentary split screen is no longer seen when launching the game with AA enabled. Further details can be found in topic number 737-27052
  • City of Heroes: Changing the display resolution to 2560x1600 or higher no longer results in the game failing to run. Further details can be found in topic number 737-25518
  • Never Winter Nights->Shadows of Undrentide: Attempting to play the game under the Windows Vista operating system (64bit version) no longer results in the opening cinematic failing to play when using an LCD display device. Further details can be found in topic number 737-25521
  • Never Winter Nights->Shadows of Under tide: Attempting to play the game on a system containing an ATI Radeon™ X800/850 series of product and running the Windows Vista operating system no longer results in game failing to respond after playing the opening cinematic. Further details can be found in topic number 737-25512
  • Quake 4: game corruption is no longer noticed when playing the game under the Windows Vista operating system when using an ATI Radeon™ 9800 XT product. Further details can be found in topic number 737-25510
  • Romance of the Three Kingdoms XI: Texture corruption is no longer noticed in the terrain of the game. Further details can be found in topic number 737-27049
  • Unreal Tournament 2004: Playing the game on a system containing an ATI Radeon X1600 and running the Vista operating system no longer results in display corruption being noticed. Further details can be found in topic number 737-27053
  • OverDrive™ now functions as expected under the Windows Vista operating system when running an OpenGL application. Further details can be found in topic number 737-25524
  • The Reactivate ATI color controls option found in the Catalyst™ Control Center->color aspect no longer remains greyed out when attempting to reactivate the option. Further details can be found in topic number 737-26682
  • Catalyst™ Control Center: Making changes to the color depth for the first time no longer results in the color depth reverting to 8bpp. Further details can be found in topic number 737-26684
  • Attempting to run TV in the Windows Vista media center no longer results in the operating system rebooting. Further details can be found in topic number 737-26748
  • Connecting a TV as a secondary display device no longer results in the extended desktop feature failing to be applied on the first attempt. Further details can be found in topic number 737-27055
  • Catalyst™ Control Center: The 60Hz option is no longer listed twice in the Display Option->3D Refresh Rate Override. Further details can be found in topic number 737-27056
  • Catalyst™ Control Center->Color aspect: An unhandled exception error is no longer displayed when clicking both the mouse buttons on the sliders. Further details can be found in topic number 737-27057
  • Catalyst™ Control Center->Video->Color Page: The Help page is now displayed when pressing F1. Further details can be found in topic number 737-27058
  • Catalyst™ Control Center->Basic View->3D: Setting the slider to Balanced mode followed by exiting the Catalyst™ Control Center and then re-launching the Catalyst™ Control Center no longer results in the slider position moving to High Performance. Further details can be found in topic number 737-27059
  • Catalyst™ Control Center->Basic View->Incorrect Current Setting is no longer shown in Content Viewing Selection for Component Video aspect. Further details can be found in topic number 737-27060
  • The product name no longer fails to be displayed when editing the custom view of the Catalyst™ Control Center. Further details can be found in topic number 737-27061
  • Catalyst™ Control Center->Hotkeys Manager: The option to Toggle Internal Panel Scaling modes is no longer listed when connecting a non-LCD display device. Further details can be found in topic number 737-27062
  • The ATI OverDrive™ Defaults button is now enabled. Further details can be found in topic number 737-27063
  • Multiple entries are no longer listed for some the aspects found in the Catalyst™ Control Center Help contents. Further details can be found in topic number 737-27064
  • The Force TV option is no longer active after deselecting the option and then re-launching the Catalyst™ Control Center. Further details can be found in topic number 737-23547
  • The LCD brightness level is now be retained when resuming from an S3 or S4 state. Further details can be found in topic number 737-27044
  • Attempting to resume from an S3 state no longer results in the display remaining blank and only the mouse cursor becoming active. Further details can be found in topic number 737-27045
  • Connecting a CRT and a TV to a system containing an ATI Radeon X1200/1250 series of product no longer results in the TV going blank when changing the TV format from NTSC to PAL or visa versa. Further details can be found in topic number 737-27046
  • Connecting a CRT to a system containing an ATI Radeon X1200/1250 series of product no longer results in the Windows Vista operating system may fail to respond when attempting to resume from an S3 state by pressing the power button. Further details can be found in topic number 737-27047
  • The Catalyst™ Control Center no longer fails to launch under the Windows Vista operating system. Further details can be found in topic number 737-27048
  • The Windows Vista operating system no longer reports and incorrect amount of shared system memory on 512MB integrated systems. Further details can be found in topic number 737-27050
  • Performing a custom un-install of the graphics driver no longer results in the Vista operating system failing to respond. Further details can be found in topic number 737-27051
  • Connecting a TV using an S-Video cable to a system containing an ATI Radeon X1650 series of product no longer results in a blank display when attempting to resume from an S3 state. Further details can be found in topic number 737-27054

Resolved Issues for the Windows XP Operating System

This section provides information on resolved issues in this release of the ATI Catalyst™ Software Suite for Windows XP. These include:

  • 3DMark03-GT3: Display corruption is no longer noticed when running the application on a system using an ATI Radeon X1650 product. Further details can be found in topic number 737-27069
  • Call of Duty: Setting AA to either 2 or 4x no longer results in display corruption or the Vista operating system failing to respond when using an ATI Radeon X800/850 series of product. Further details can be found in topic number 737-25523
  • Dungeon Lord: Minor and intermittent display corruption is no longer noticed when playing the game with CrossFire™ enabled. Further details can be found in topic number 737-27070
  • Prey: Using the mouse to maneuver around the game screen no longer results in corruption being noticed. Further details can be found in topic number 737-27077
  • Tribal Trouble: Launching the game on a system containing an ATI Radeon X1900/1950 product and running Windows XP no longer results in the game failing to load and the operating system failing to respond. Further details can be found in topic number 737-27076
  • Choppy playback of media previews and captured files is no longer noticed in the media center and movie maker after applying WMP 11 update. This issue may also be experienced under the Windows Vista operating system. Further details can be found in topic number 737-25807
  • A Microsoft .NET Framework error no longer appears when switching between user accounts and or toggling between Catalyst™ Control Center skins. Further details can be found in topic number 737-26746
  • Making changes to the 3D-All Setting aspect no longer results in the SmoothVision slider and labels failing to be redrawn properly. Further details can be found in topic number 737-26747
  • The response time for the Catalyst™ Control Center no longer appears slow when attempting to make changes to the display devices when having both a CRT and HDTV connected and extended desktop mode enabled. This issue may also be experienced under the Windows Vista operating system. Further details can be found in topic number 737-25806
  • Catalyst™ Control Center->3D: Setting AA to 4x and attempting to read a PDF using Adobe PDF Reader version 8.0 no longer results in corruption being noticed when setting the reader preferences to Page Display found within the Categories options. Further details can be found in topic number 737-27068
  • Desktop brightness is now restored on the secondary display device after a full screen OpenGL game exits. Further details can be found in topic number 737-27071
  • Momentary display corruption is no longer noticed when changing the color depth on a system running Windows XP and containing an ATI Radeon X1800 series product. Further details can be found in topic number 737-27075

Known Issues Under the Windows Vista Operating System

This section provides information on known issues associated with the ATI Catalyst™ Vista RTM driver for both the 32bit and 64bit versions of the Microsoft Windows Vista operating system. These include:

  • Doom3/Quake 4: Setting the in game options for Video Quality to Medium and Screen Size to 1024x768 may result in display corruption being noticed when setting AA to 4x. Further details can be found in topic number 737-25802. Resolved in 8.37
  • Homeworld2: Setting the game options to default and starting a single player game may result in display corruption being noticed. Further details can be found in topic number 737-26692
  • IL2 Sturmovik->Forgotten Battles: Setting the in-game hardware options to custom and landscape detail to perfect may result in the water textures appearing corrupt when playing the game under the Windows Vista operating system. Further details can be found in topic number 737-26687
  • NHL 07: The in-game display settings may fail to be applied when playing the game under the Windows Vista operating system when using a supported ATI Radeon™ product. Further details can be found in topic number 737-23549
  • Quake 4/Serious Sam: Attempting to launch the games with AA set to 2x or higher and the Catalyst™ Control Center->Advanced View->3D preview running in the background may result in the operating system failing to respond. Further details can be found in topic number 737-26690. Fixed in 8.361
  • X-Plane: Playing the game under the Windows Vista operating system may result in display corruption being noticed when using an ATI Radeon™ X1900/1950 series of product. Further details can be found in topic number 737-25522
  • A "Fatal Uninstall Error" of ATI Catalyst™ Install Manager may be experienced on some hardware configurations running Vista. Further details can be found in topic number 737-27083
  • On certain hardware configurations the Catalyst™ Control Center "Content Viewing selection for Component Video" page is blank in the Basic view with only a HDMI display connected. Further details can be found in topic number 737-27084
  • CrossFire™: The text and buttons found in the CrossFire™ disable warning message are cropped in all supported languages excluding English. Further details can be found in topic number 737-27085
  • Switching between users with Catalyst™ Control Center->Color aspect open, may incorrectly enable "Reactivate ATI Color controls" button on some hardware configurations. Further details can be found in topic number 737-27086
  • In the Catalyst™ Control Center the localization "Select a Skin" window page is not localized with the appropriate languages on some hardware configurations. Further details can be found in topic number 737-27087
  • In the Catalyst™ Control Center, a blank page may be seen in the basic view when changing extended desktop to clone mode with CRT and SDTV connected on some ASIC families. Further details can be found in topic number 737-27088
  • In the Catalyst™ Control Center, the Help buttons drop down box appear towards left side of the window instead of right side for some languages on certain hardware configurations. Further details can be found in topic number 737-27089
  • In some Cross Fire configurations, enabling CrossFire™ automatically but incorrectly enables 'Triple Buffering' and disables 'Support DXT texture format' in 3D->More Settings. Further details can be found in topic number 737-27090
  • Playing a DVD under the Windows Vista operating system using the Windows Media Player may result in the DVD failing to play when switching between display devices using the hot-key function. Further details can be found in topic number 737-24472. Fixed in 8.39
  • Resuming from an S3 state may result in a longer than expected time for the Windows Vista operating system to resume. Further details can be found in topic number 737-25798
  • Hot-plugging a CRT to a system running Windows Vista and containing an ATI Radeon™ X1100/1150 series of product may result in extended desktop mode failing to be applied. Further details can be found in topic number 737-25801
  • The desktop shortcut to the Catalyst™ Control Center may disappear after performing a Windows Anytime Upgrade on some hardware configurations running Vista. Further details can be found in topic number 737-27078
  • IL2 Sturmovik->Forgotten Battles: Setting the in-game hardware options to custom and landscape detail to perfect may result in the water textures appearing corrupt when playing the game under the Windows Vista operating system. Further details can be found in topic number 737-26687
  • The position of the TV as reported by the Catalyst™ Control Centre when switching from underscan to overscan differs between the OS'es Win XP and Vista leading to incorrect behavior. Further details can be found in topic number 737-27079
  • Mode changes including extending the desktop may be observed to be extremely slow with two monitors attached and enabled on the ATI Radeon X1800 series of products. Further details can be found in topic number 737-27080
  • On some hardware configurations the CIM video driver installer lists "The Catalyst™ Install Manager" and "Microsoft Visual C++" among components of the Component Selection Menu whereas these should not appear since they are mandatory and not optional. Further details can be found in topic number 737-27081
  • Overlay Theater Mode may fail under the conditions that the desktop is extended to a secondary display on ATI Radeon X1300/X1550 series of products. Further details can be found in topic number 737-27082

Known Issues Under the Windows XP Operating System

The following section provides a summary of open issues in the latest version of Catalyst™. These include:

  • Call of Duty: An error message may appear when task switching between the game and the Windows desktop. This issue may also be experienced under the Windows Vista operating system. Further details can be found in topic number 737-26750. Fixed in 8.361
  • Homeworld 2: The application may fail to run when CrossFire™ is enabled and an Anti-Aliasing setting of greater than 2 is selected on certain ATI Radeon X1800 series of products. Further details can be found in topic number 737-27094
  • Just Cause: The game may fail to run cinematic at 1600x1200 game resolution on ATI Radeon X1200/1250/1270 series of products. Further details can be found in topic number 737-27093
  • Neverwinter Nights: Shadows of Undrentide may show dithering corruption on the loading screen(s) with Anisotropic Filtering enabled on certain graphics families. Further details can be found in topic number 737-27095
  • Starwars Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords: Setting the in-game display option to low settings may result in corruption being noticed within the game. Further details can be found in topic number 737-25173
  • Enabling CrossFire™ may result in display corruption being noticed when playing a DVD or media clip using either WinDVD 7, Windows Media Player or PowerDVD 6. Further details can be found in topic number 737-22806
  • Catalyst™ Control Center->OverDrive™: The OverDrive™ setting are not retained for individual accounts. This issue may also be experienced under the Windows Vista operating system. Further details can be found in topic number 737-25805
  • Installing an ATI Radeon™ X1900 CrossFire™ Master and X1900 slave under Windows XP may result in AA settings failing to be retained when rebooting the system. This issue may also be experienced under the Windows Vista operating system. Further details can be found in topic number 737-25808. Fixed in 8.37
  • Launching the release notes under the Japanese or Chinese version of Windows may result in the release notes displaying a blank page. This issue may also be experienced under the Windows Vista operating system. Further details can be found in topic number 737-26749. Fixed in 8.371
  • Uninstalling the graphics drivers may result in some of the files and folder failing to be removed in the Program File folder. Further details can be found in topic number 737-23715. Fixed in 8.361
  • Some pixilated corruption may be observed while running the game Prey while hovering over the health packs from a distance on some hardware configurations running Win XP. Further details can be found in topic number 737-27091
  • The system may become unresponsive and require a reboot while randomly moving Video Player window from primary to extended desktop under certain hardware configurations where the second adapter is an ATI Radeon X1200/1250/1270 series of product. Further details can be found in topic number 737-27092
  • When operated from the Start Menu->All Programs->Catalyst™ Control Center, the Catalyst™ Control Center fails to display the expected choices "Catalyst™ Control Center->Wizard" and "Catalyst™ Control Center->Advanced" on some hardware configurations. Further details can be found in topic number 737-27096

For further information and general help on software driver installation, game issues, and more, visit ATI Customer Care.

Installing the Catalyst™ Vista Software Driver

Installation information can be found at:Windows Vista drivers

Installing the Catalyst™ Vista Software Driver

Installation information can be found at:Windows Vista drivers

AMD Customer Care

The AMD Customer Care website provides a high level of technical support and easy of navigation. The AMD 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 AMD 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 AMD 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.

Installing the latest ATI Catalyst™ Software Suite

Installation information can be found at: ati.amd.com/install

ATI Catalyst™ Crew Driver Feedback

This driver release incorporates suggestions received through the ATI Catalyst™ CREW Driver Feedback program. To provide us with your feedback, visit: ATI Catalyst™ Crew Driver Feedback.


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