ATI CATALYST 5.7 Released

[Steve]

Get them while they're fresh, from ATI. ATi apparently had record downloads of their 5.6 CATALYSTs, I wonder if the same will be true for July's release?

Consulting the release notes, there's an array of performance enhancements. Here's what you can expect to run quicker:

5-15% gains in 3DMark05 on some products
20-60% gain in Far Cry Regulator across multiple settings
25-60% gains in Half-Life 2 at 1600x1200 4xAA 8xAF
40-60% gains in UT2004 at 1600x1200 6xAA 16xAF
50-100% improvement in Comanche4 at 1600x1200 6xAA 16xAF
50-200% gains in certain ShaderMark tests at high resolution

Bug fixes for the likes of Flight Sim 2004, Warcraft III and Trackmania can be found too, but there's a couple of notable new features too. First up is 1080p display support option on X300 cards and up. Possibly the best new feature, however, is the uninstall option.

When a user chooses to remove the Catalyst™ Control Center, all desktop shortcuts, user defined profiles, and hotkeys will be completely removed from the system. All custom setting will need to be recreated when the Catalyst™ Control Center is installed once again.

Graphics driver conflicts from incomplete uninstallations have plagued many of us, so this feature will, if it works properly, save a lot of hassle.

You can of course check out the ATI Website for more info or a special flavour of the Catalyst Control Suite (e.g. the mobility edition.)

[HarrySingh]

1080p display support option on X300 cards is all well but where can I get the DVI to component adapter in the UK. Although I have found sites in the US willing to deliver to the UK, I prefer to order here in the UK(various reasons). Blisware used to stock a good range of ATi spares and cables but they seem to have gone out of business. Any help would be appreciated.

[Dougal]

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...tem=6783515386

Something like one of them

[Rys]

The stated gains are limited to low framebuffer parts as far as I can tell.

[yamangman]

Hmm, the gains listed are all in popular benchmarking software, how odd. Another awful release, graphical corruption in lock on and FB/PF, and an "issue" list longer than the bug fix list. I think i'll stick with catalyst, that's right, 4.6.

[alterion]

i gained a mighty 1 3dmark05 point on my x800xl.. so that was a bit of a let down.. i was hoping these would push me over 5k...

[Nikumba]

[b]1080p display support option on X300 cards[b]

The earlier versions offer this support, since this is what i run my projector on VGA connection or DVI connection

Nikumba