ATI Catalyst 6.8 Released

[Burning Fish]

Originally Posted by 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.

I did a clean install of my ATI drivers just for that.
I guess it's a typo.

[Know Your Enemy]

This is incredible, I can't wait to try these out on my X850 XT PE in the old rig that I gave to my brother. I hope someone does some benchmarks with these.

[Danny]

It seems that way; http://driverheaven.net/showpost.php...8&postcount=10

Also, i don think the performance improvments were for doom3-engine games, but opengl in general (riddick doesnt use the doom3-engine, does it?). I didnt take any fps notes before updating to 6.8.. but Prey is running perfectly 'fluent' with 6xAA and 16xHQAF (rest is maxed, at 1280x1024).

3dmark06 scores didnt change. Fear performance is the same. I do like the fact that they are working on OpenGl though... expecially since Enemy Territory: QW is coming soon

[connos]

Riddick does not use the doom3 angine but is very similar. It seems to be a must upgrade for ati users these month. And for sure iam installing the chunk version because iam playing oblivion. Any one try this drivers with oblivion???

[Krippledgamer]

Yes crow1001, I have noticed that also. That's very strange that ATI's not checking this.

[Know Your Enemy]

ATI has already commented about the typo, acknowledging it, and a fixed release will be out in a week or so.

[Dynamic]

I have used DC and other utilities to find out why when i uninstall the previous version 6.7 and install the lastest version 6.8 that it still tells me 6.7 in the Information Center in CCC. Anyone else seen this problem.



----=====UPDATE======------

Okay, i just found out that it's a typo from ATI which should be fixed soon this up coming week.

[All_Steamed_Out]

Hi to All,

I did an install of the 6.8 driver yesterday and noticed an immediate increase in my 3DMark05 score from a previous high of 2654 to 2861. That is the first noticeable gain for me in over a year. I also ran the standard FEAR time demo and got slightly better numbers, but nothing dramatic.

I ran Quake4 and it seemed to be running quite well. I was only working in a level with Fraps running. But it seemed to be smoother, although this approach isn't exactly scientific.

Overall the machine was doing fine. Then I loaded Steam and Counter Strike Force. The game loaded and I got playing. Then, at a point with a lot going on visually, the game froze and crashed. The machine also froze and I had to hit the re-set button. I got this several times in a row. I checked my firewall, and even ran in a window to check for a warning. Nothing there. I then tried Day of Defeat. Same problems repeated themselves. I went back to Quake4 and FEAR. No problems running them. I then tried the Dark Messiah demo. It froze on the load page, after four attempts I gave up.

I then uninstalled the 6.8 driver, going by the book and cleaning out the machine completely. I re-installed the 6.7 drivers and ran checks. No problems at all. I was able to run both Counter Strike Source and Day of Defeat for hours without any problems. Same for Dark Messiah.

Anybody else had any problems?

[Daffy96]

I had some problems with the Chuck Patch. It was the first time I used it and I uninstalled it almost directly. The patch seemed to mess with my Windows properties like color themes and audio in the Windows environment.

With the 6.8 driver I also had a performance decrease in 3DMark06.

From 5406 points to 4769
SM 2 from 2168 to 1838
HDR/SM 3 from 2413 to 2058
But an increase for CPU from 1641 to 1706

This might not be entierly due to the driver change, but I usually check the points in 3DMark06 (and usually 05, but not this time) with every driver change. I think the CPU increase is due to the Dual-Core Optimizer I recently installed. But the decrease in the other areas I'm almost certain the 6.8 drivers are responsible for.

[ChaosBahamut]

The 6.8 drivers caused my graphics card to be read as a weak DX 8.1 card. Weak to the point that the water in Morrowind looked wierd. (lack of Pixel Shading) So my advice is to ignore the 6.8 drivers and stick with 6.7. Had this problem before and I was stuttering like heck in SiN Episodes Emergence.