ATI Catalyst 6.8 Released

[midfingr]

Hi all
I was looking on ATI's site and noticed they've release Catalyst drivers v 6.8

Download

Plus a new ATI Multimedia Center 9.15 release. Note that the newest components are dated 08-18-06; those being the Encoder and the Multimedia Center.

ATI Catalyst 6.8 Release Notes

ATI Desktop product family support

The Catalyst® software suite is designed to support the following ATI desktop products:

* Radeon® X1900 series
* Radeon® X1800 series
* Radeon® X1600 series
* Radeon® X1300 series
* Radeon® X850 series
* Radeon® X800 series
* Radeon® X700 series
* Radeon® X600 series
* Radeon® X550 series
* Radeon® X300 series
* Radeon® 9800 series
* Radeon® 9700 series
* Radeon® 9600 series
* Radeon® 9550 series

Note: ATI All-in-Wonder® variants based on the above are also supported.
Radeon® 9500 series
Note: All ATI Radeon® PC Graphic cards are optimized for Microsoft's Media Center Edition 2005 when coupled with a supported video capture card.
Note: Software driver support and release notes for earlier ATI products can be found at: support.ati.com
ATI Chipset Product Support

The Catalyst® software suite is designed to support the following ATI chipset products:

* CrossFire™ Xpress 3200
* CrossFire™ Xpress 1600
* Radeon® Xpress 200 series (for both Intel and AMD Processors)

Operating systems supported

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

* Windows XP Professional
* Windows XP Home Edition
* Windows XP Media Center Edition (graphics driver support only)

Note: Catalyst® 6.8 is not supported under the Windows Vista operating system. Catalyst® software drivers for the Windows Vista operating system can be found at: support.ati.com
Performance Improvement

As with most Catalyst® releases, performance has increased in various situations.

Improved shader compiler and transform engine optimizations have led to many significant performance gains in OpenGL applications across the entire Radeon® X1000 series of products. These include:

* Doom 3 performance improves as much as 6.5%
* Quake 4 (v1.2 or higher) performance improves as much as 18%
* Chronicles of Riddick performance improves as much as 20%. Average improvements of 5-10% are commonly seen
* Prey performance improves as much as 16%

Optimizations made to ATI's graphics memory manager have led to significant gains in DirectX applications that make heavy use of graphics memory on 256MB ATI graphics cards:

* 3DMark06 performance improves as much as 22% on single ATI Radeon® X1000 series cards with 256MB of graphics memory at 1280x1024 and higher when anti-aliasing is enabled. The largest gains are found on the ATI Radeon® X1800 series and ATI Radeon® X1900 series of products
* Call of Duty 2 performance improves as much as 30% on single ATI Radeon® X550 cards or higher with 256MB of video memory at 1280x1024 and higher when anti-aliasing enabled. The largest gains are found on the ATI Radeon® X1800 series and ATI Radeon® X1900 series of products

Issues Resolved in Catalyst® Software Suite 6.8

The following section provides a summary of the issues that are resolved in the latest release of Catalyst®. These include:

* Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle Earth: Playing the game under Windows XP SP2 using an ATI Radeon® X800 series product no longer results in intermittent display corruption being noticed. Further details can be found in topic number 737-21458
* Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones: Setting the 3D slider to Optimal Quality in Catalyst® Control Center->Advanced View->3D->Standard Settings aspect no longer results in corruption being noticed in the water when playing the game under the Windows MCE operating system with an ATI Radeon® X19x0 series product installed. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22975
* QQ Fantasy: Playing the online game under Windows XP with an ATI Radeon® X1600 or X1300 no longer results in the an error message being displayed and the mouse pointer control becoming erratic. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22985
* Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory: Corruption is no longer noticed during the playing the opening cinematic when AA is enabled at 8x. This issue was known to occur under the Windows XP operating system when using an ATI Radeon® X8x0 series product. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22983
* Playing a DVD for an extended period of time when using the Windows Media Player on a system containing an ATI Xpress™ 11x0 series of product no longer results in the operating system failing to respond. Further details can be found in topic number 737-22801
* Playing a DVD using WinDVD on a system containing either an ATI Radeon® X1600 or X1300 product no longer results in corruption being noticed when changing the display resolution to either 1900x1200 or 1280x720. Further details can be found in topic number 737-22805
* Hot Plugging an HDMI TV to the DVI port of an ATI Radeon® X19x0 series no longer results in the HDMI detection message box failing to appear under the Windows Media Center Edition operating system. Further details can be found in topic number 737-22809
* Playing back a media file using Windows Media Player 11 on a system containing an ATI Radeon® X1600 or X1300 series of products no longer results in missing colors and or macroblock corruption being noticed. Further details can be found in topic number 737-22810
* Selecting same as source video option in the Japanese version of the Catalyst® Control Center no longer results in the selection failing to be applied when using an ATI Radeon® X1800 series product. Further details can be found in topic number 737-22813
* Playing an MPEG2 video clip on a system running Windows XP and containing an ATI Radeon® X1x00 product no longer results in corruption being noticed during the playback of the MPEG2 file. Further details can be found in topic number 737-22814
* Selecting Restore Factory Defaults settings within the Catalyst® Control Center now restores the Notebook Panel Properties to scale image full panel size when using an ATI Xpress 200 series product. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22995
* Catalyst® Control Center->Advanced Mode: Changing the UMA Frame Buffer under the Windows XP operating system when using an ATI Xpress 200 series no longer results in a dialog box informing the user to restart the system in order for the changes to take effect, and once the user clicks OK, the system does not restart. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22997
* Catalyst® Control Center: The translation for Use Centered Timings is now correct within the Catalyst® Control Center when setting the language to Simplified Chinese under all supported operating systems when using an ATI Radeon® X1600 series product. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22998
* Catalyst® Control Center: The tool tip translation for Corruption is now correct when setting the language to Simplified Chinese under all supported operating systems when using and ATI Radeon® X1600 series product. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22999
* Catalyst® Control Center: Right clicking on the Catalyst® Control Center within the system tray and navigating the 3D Setting->Anti-Aliasing no longer results in the sub menu translation for Application managed being incorrect when setting the language to Simplified Chinese under all supported operating systems when using an ATI Radeon® X1600 series product. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-23002
* Catalyst® Control Center: De-selecting Custom View no longer results in the Custom View remaining active when closing and re-opening the Custom View window. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-23003
* Catalyst® Control Center: The Arrow keys for rotation are no longer displayed incorrectly in Hotkey Manager when using an ATI Radeon® X700 series. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-23004
* Catalyst® Control Center: Attempting to set the display resolution to either 720p, 1080p or 1080i no longer results in the Catalyst® Control Center failing to respond when using an ATI Radeon® X19x0 series product. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-23005
* Video lag is no longer noticed when playing a DVD using WinDVD 5.0 under the Windows XP operating system and an ATI Radeon® X11x0 series product. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22971
* Catalyst® Control Center: The TV Image Quality-Composite/S-Video Sharpness menu is no longer missing after switching the connection between Composite and S-Video. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22973
* Catalyst® Control Center: Connecting an CRT along with an HDTV display and enabling clone mode no longer results in the desktop image reverting back to landscape mode when attempting to rotate the display by 90 or 270 degrees. This issue was known to occur under the Windows MCE operating system when using an ATI Xpress 200 series product. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22974
* Corruption is no longer noticed within the Catalyst® Control Center after a VPU Recover event under the Windows XP operating system when using an ATI Radeon® X1800 series product. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number737-22976
* Catalyst® Control Center->OverDrive: Changing the value of VPU or Vmem clock to less than 7M no longer results in the value changing back to the default setting. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22977
* Catalyst® Control Center: Installing a secondary display adapter in a system running Windows MCE (Japanese version) no longer results in display properties providing inaccurate translation for the secondary display device. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22978
* The Windows XP operating system no longer fails to respond when attempting to resume from standby mode when using an ATI Radeon® X19x0 series product. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22979
* Installing an ATI Radeon® X1900 CrossFire master edition graphics card and ATI Radeon® X1900 series secondary product on a system using a Dell 2405FPW and enabling CrossFire no longer results in the display device losing a signal or the 3D application or game exiting back to the desktop. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22664
* Various translation issues in the Catalyst® Control Center for Windows XP MCE (Japanese version) are now resolved. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22980
* The secondary display device longer becomes disabled when resuming from standby mode under the Windows XP operating system when using and ATI Radeon® X8x0 series product. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22981
* Catalyst® Control Center: The Add button found in the CV Properties aspect page is no longer greyed out when attempting to add customized modes. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22982
* The GPU no longer hangs and the display device no longer displays a corrupt image when a VPU is triggered on systems containing either an ATI Radeon® X1300 or X800 series or products. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22987
* The Windows XP operating system no longer shuts down at negative temperatures when using an ATI Radeon® X19x0 series product. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22988
* Connecting a CRT and a TV to an ATI Radeon® X19x0 product no longer results in the TV displaying corruption or lose of signal when resuming from hibernation mode. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22992
* Catalyst® Control Center: Making adjustments to the Monitor Properties aspect page and applying the change no longer results in the default position failing to be applied when attempting to restore factory defaults. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22993

Moderator Edit:

Title and post edited and sticky. - 7thSeal

[SideSwipe]

The release notes link you give is bad, and the ati support site where you can get download locations for the drivers appears to be down


Good find though

[midfingr]

Originally Posted by SideSwipe

The release notes link you give is bad, and the ati support site where you can get download locations for the drivers appears to be down


Good find though

Sorry about that. I edited my post to include a short overview of what's changed. I'm also sorry about the driver download locations. I was able to download them from ATI - good luck and hope they are available soon.

[SideSwipe]

Gah, I think my internet connection is misbehaving. I was also unable to join the Dawn of War lobby succesfully or a handful of other sites including Filefront. A quick reset of my router and everything is working peachy again

Hmmm, just out of note. On the release notes it states the following

The LG P42SX DVI-D display device no longer fails to display an image when connected to an ATI Radeon® 9000, ATI Radeon® 9200, or an ATI Radeon® 9250. Further details can be found in topic number 737-21456

I thought all drivers past the Cat 6.5s didn't support anything lower than a radeon 9550. Maybe this slipped through their fingers....

Moderator Edit:

Quote fixed. - 7thSeal

[7thSeal]

Lots of fixes so I will certianly be getting this one.
Thanks for the heads-up midfingr.

[Luck.exe]

Nice find, they did a lot of optimizations for my card and the games I play so this update should be very good for me.

[Phantom]

Phew!!!, finally some real support to X8xx videocards , specially if they are 256 Mb. Think that X800 XL 256 Mb will be here longer; with that kind of support and the ability to give you 10 to 30 % performance increase in games, man that bring hopes for older hardware to play new games ( i.e. CoD 2, Prey, etc.).

Keep going Ati, always leal to you


Phantom

[vdu]

Finally at least they made a new Chuck patch driver ( link : https://support.ati.com/ics/support/...estionID=21960 ) after skipping 6.7.
Anyway, I wonder why it's taking so damn long for ATI to implement the chuck patch into the official driver ...

[Koroush Ghazi]

Please note, you cannot link directly to most content on the ATI site, such as the release notes or the link used for the chuck patch. This is the way the ATI site now works.

Some of the only pages which can be linked to directly properly are the driver download page and this page (check the URL to see how it's different) for the chuck patch.

[crow1001]

Have any of you guys noticed that it says 6.7 in the information centre tab under graphics software, hope that's a typo and we have this months drivers and not lasts.