ATi CAT 5.12 out

[BUFF]

http://www.ati.com/support/driver.html

incl. improved performance with dual-core/HT CPUs.

[Ricco]

Thanks

[Smokey21]

Yeah, just tryed a quick 05 run and i scored only 200 less than my best score, with much higher clocks.

They look good, the gains in Far Cry ive heard are very sweet. Good news, cause im gonna play it throuhg again ASAP! and it fixes Quake 4 Ultra quality issues.

[Elessar_VPR]

X-bits labs have a pretty comprehensive review of the Cat 5.12's vs. the Forceware 81.89's for a range of cards.

The 7800GTX 512 takes the crown overall, but is beaten by the X1800XT in a couple of cases when you crank up the detail. Looks to me the best choice considering current prices is the X1800xt, unless you play a lot of AOEIII!

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/vid...ames-2005.html

[Smokey21]

Yep, exactly. The ATI cards are just awesome with IQ, Nvidia have always been behind in this.

MY GTX was pathetic at AA/AF compared to this XT. Another thing is the XT is still early, it should have a fair few increases in newer drivers, where the GTX won't as much. The XT also overclock like hell, if you were to water cool, id def go for the X1800XT.

This is my 05 score at 735/870 on stock air! http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm05=1537302

[JimNastics]

Don't they usually release a version with the Control Panel rather than the Catalyst Control Centre? Excuse me if that's idiocy, I'm new to ATI having always gone nVidia When I tried installing the 5.11 drivers with CCC I go errors on Windows boot, so I just used the ones with Control Panel.

[steve threlfall]

Don't they usually release a version with the Control Panel rather than the Catalyst Control Centre? Excuse me if that's idiocy, I'm new to ATI having always gone nVidia When I tried installing the 5.11 drivers with CCC I go errors on Windows boot, so I just used the ones with Control Panel.

You need SP2 and .net framework to ensure compatability.

I have just installed the 5.12's with CCC but in the control centre it says its version 05.3 ? whats going on there, definately installed the 5.12's...

[JimNastics]

You need SP2 and .net framework to ensure compatability.

I have just installed the 5.12's with CCC but in the control centre it says its version 05.3 ? whats going on there, definately installed the 5.12's...

Doh, just realised I hadn't reinstalled .net framework after new WinXP install All sorted, got 5.12's running now My CCC says 5.12 in the Information window, so not sure what's happened there mate.

[BUFF]

They've been saying all through '05 that they were going to stop the Control Panel version & just have the CCC version - I wonder if that time has arrived?

[steve threlfall]

Doh, just realised I hadn't reinstalled .net framework after new WinXP install All sorted, got 5.12's running now My CCC says 5.12 in the Information window, so not sure what's happened there mate.

Glad you have it sorted mate i have had that problem before myself.

Could be Buff. They were definately the 5.12's i downloaded, strange.

[Octavean]

I downloaded the Catalyst 5.12 drivers as well.

I downloaded a CCC version and one that seemed to use the control panel. Usually the control panel version has CP in the name but this one was named:

“5-12_xp-2k_dd_28472”

ATI must have been getting pounded at the time since their sight was really sluggish.

Anyway, I usually download both the CCC and the CP version.

Since I basically only run MCE 2K5 I already have SP2 and .NET Framework installed automatically but I have found that CCC wouldn’t work right (usually some sort of language pack error). I had to install both the “Microsoft .NET Framework Version 1.1 Redistributable Package” and the “Microsoft .NET Framework 1.1 Service Pack 1” to get things working right.

Supposedly the 5.12 cats have optimizations for dual core CPUs so I may have to test this out with some benchmarks.

***edit***

A max of 6427 3Dmarks in 3Dmark05, to 6600 3Dmarks that’s a slight performance improvement,…in 3Dmark that is.

[prehensile]

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2629

Some dual core driver benchmarks

[Smokey21]

They definatly improve my benchmarks a lot, haven't tryed any games yet, busy with my new phone.

[5aboy]

any major improvements or is it all for the newest gfx cards?!

i really hate the fact that us people with the older generation (9800PRO - amazing card!) chipsets get lost, and the bulking up of the drivers is just to support newer cards!

[Smokey21]

any major improvements or is it all for the newest gfx cards?!

i really hate the fact that us people with the older generation (9800PRO - amazing card!) chipsets get lost, and the bulking up of the drivers is just to support newer cards!

Well that life. I don't think you can expect ATI to keep releasing drivers for cards, than over 3 years old. They would never get any drivers finished.