CAT 4.6's

[Steve]

XP link

Others

How long before omega's then?

[Stoo]

usually a few days to a week

[Stoo]

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
* OpenGL Hardware Acceleration for ATI Rotation

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
* Resolved Game Issues
* Resolved Application Issues

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:

Caution: Forcing on Anti-Aliasing is now permitted. This will permit users to use Anti-Aliasing on games such as Madden 2004 (which users are requesting). Forcing on Anti-Aliasing (through the CATALYST™ control panel) in the the following games will cause corruption. Anti-Aliasing is not compatible with the following games:

· Prince Of Persia: Sands of Time
· Splinter Cell / Pandoras Box
· Race Driver (TOCA)
· Crazy Taxi 3

* 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.

[Stewart]

Yep, not very long at all, going on past experiance.

Only ever used them once though, and they made Far Cry go funny, so I change back to the Cats.

Other's swear by them though, so no harm in giving them a try.

[CrapshoT]

Great.I'll d/l these now then and give them a try.29.6mb they're getting bigger.Just as well i'm on BB.(not the tv show)lol
cheers.

[Steve]

Yep, not very long at all, going on past experiance.

Only ever used them once though, and they made Far Cry go funny, so I change back to the Cats.

Other's swear by them though, so no harm in giving them a try.

I use them, but am still on 2.4 - so I am just going to wait for the 2.6's instead of installing the 2.5's AND then the 2.6's.

[Stoo]

4.2's are still the best

[Spud1]

i'll wait for the omegas =) but thx for the heads up

[mrbios]

why dont ATI just hire the omega person, would be so much easier instead of having to wait a few days for him to release his own lol

[CrapshoT]

They seem ok so far!! 3d01 increase of around 150 marks and around 100 in 3d03 unnoticable in aquamark.Just played half an hour of far cry and ut2k4 with no crashes or freezes.

[Fuzz]

why dont ATI just hire the omega person, would be so much easier instead of having to wait a few days for him to release his own lol

Omega is actually on the ATI beta testing team and his version of the ATI drivers are actually aproved by ATI.

[nakajima]

same here, i gained about 100-150 points in 3d mark 03 with cat 4.6.

[Howard]

Downloaded and installed 4.6 drivers.

Will test them tomorrow if I have time

[steve threlfall]

Downloaded them. Will install later

[Swafe]

whats the diff with cats and omegas?

[Bindibadgi]

cat's are official ATI, omegas are 3rd party tweaked.