# ATi Catalyst 7.8 released



## DaMulta (Aug 13, 2007)

*ATI Catalyst 7.8 drivers released*

AMD/ATI has released Catalyst 7.8 for the month of August 2007. There is 24 issues that have been fixed for Windows Vista, and another eleven issues fixed for Windows XP. The Vista Driver Security Flaw should haven been fixed with this release. However there is no mention of that being fixed in the release notes.

*New Features:*

Overdrive for the HD2400/2600 Series in crossfire, and single card setups.
*Performance Improvements:*

Lost Planet DX10 with anti-aliasing improves 11% or greater on HD2900XT products.
HD2400/2600 (single and CrossFire) show improvements of as much as 6% in 3DMark 2006 and 3DMark 2005.
Serious Sam 2 with HDR enabled improves as much as 14.5% on Radeon HD2900, Radeon HD2600 and Radeon HD2400 products. 
Link to the download and release notes.

*View at TechPowerUp Main Site*


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## Agility (Aug 13, 2007)

Testers testers.......where are ya? xD


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## InnocentCriminal (Aug 13, 2007)

I'm downloading now! ^^

Unfortunately, I don't have a 2K card....

... 2K owners where are yee?!


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## Agility (Aug 13, 2007)

Here?


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## InnocentCriminal (Aug 13, 2007)

I guess that one went over your head.


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## Paradox (Aug 13, 2007)

Going to give these a run after I install vista with SP1 =o


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## InnocentCriminal (Aug 13, 2007)

I take it you have the leaked alpha release then Paradox? 

Could you do a before and after set of tests or is that asking too much?


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## niko084 (Aug 13, 2007)

Woot maybe I'll get 3 more points in 3dmark06 now


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## FreedomEclipse (Aug 13, 2007)

I have an X1800XT, since the drivers are for more upto date cards, it is pointless I update unless I have a problem with a game  *sigh* im not 'hip' anymore, just another OAP demanding a bigger pension....


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## InnocentCriminal (Aug 13, 2007)

FreedomEclipse said:


> I have an X1800XT, since the drivers are for more upto date cards, it is pointless I update unless I have a problem with a game  *sigh* im not 'hip' anymore, just another OAP demanding a bigger pension....



Are you going to try them anyway?

Opeth FTW!


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## niko084 (Aug 13, 2007)

I got them simply for the overkill smoke in CS:S.... I don't know if its really overkill but I'll know soon I guess... Hopefully it is shit I always get shot through it....

And flashbangs are the lame sauce.


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## InnocentCriminal (Aug 13, 2007)

Arrrh man, Flashbangs fucking rule!


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## lemonadesoda (Aug 13, 2007)

No updates to FireGL drivers since May :-(


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## insider (Aug 13, 2007)

This Catalyst v7.8 driver has some pretty good performance tweaks...


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## FreedomEclipse (Aug 13, 2007)

InnocentCriminal said:


> Are you going to try them anyway?
> 
> Opeth FTW!



Probably not. I really dont see the point in doing so Unless theyve been tweaking the X1800XT drivers which I pretty much think they have not. just the same old X1800XT drivers that have been rehashed a few dozen times. no modifications. no updates unless game/bug specific.


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## crow1001 (Aug 13, 2007)

About time they got the fog out of the HL2 based games..


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## InnocentCriminal (Aug 13, 2007)

FreedomEclipse said:


> Probably not. I really dont see the point in doing so Unless theyve been tweaking the X1800XT drivers which I pretty much think they have not. just the same old X1800XT drivers that have been rehashed a few dozen times. no modifications. no updates unless game/bug specific.



They may bring improvements y'never know unless you try. Could be something for a rainy day. I dunno...


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## magibeg (Aug 13, 2007)

I'll give it a shot on my 2600 and see how it goes


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## InnocentCriminal (Aug 13, 2007)

I'm actually quite surprised at all the people with 2600 cards!  No offence but what made you buy these cards?


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## Steevo (Aug 13, 2007)

Quiet, cool, decently fast, Video acceleration. Not that I have one, or that you could pry my X1800XT out of my hot sweaty hands.


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## WarEagleAU (Aug 13, 2007)

Looks like Ill be grabbing these.


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## InnocentCriminal (Aug 13, 2007)

Well my initial thoughts of these 7.8's are that these are _just_ the 7.8 betas I tried. That's just sucks - if anything my performance is worse. I better run some more tests.

Hugely disappointed -  I guess you were right Freedom.


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## insider (Aug 13, 2007)

Some people need to look a bit harder than just those various 3DMark benches and FPS scores, and start looking more closely at the visual quality, Cat7.8 is a keeper on my rig.


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## InnocentCriminal (Aug 13, 2007)

Yes, but visual quality comes in 2nd when your image is moving constantly, or was... I get stuttering and lag now in something as simplistic as CS:S.


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## Snipz (Aug 13, 2007)

The XP 64 bit link is down anyone grab it or know where else to get it?


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## insider (Aug 13, 2007)

No problems here with CS:S (everything set to max), both the image quality and framerate is smooth as silk.


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## imperialreign (Aug 14, 2007)

Well, I saw a massive improvement with the 7.8b drivers over both Catalyst 7.6 and defi over 7.7; but, the official 7.8 release 

3DMark06 scores - tested default settings at 1280x1024res

7.8 beta - 3392
7.8 official - 3721



Not much of a jump when I tested default settings at 1440x900res:

beta - 3710
official - 3724


now I'll have to see how she's lookin in-game


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## InnocentCriminal (Aug 14, 2007)

Well, I'm planning on reformatting now that I have these and I finally finish my slipstream, so I'm hoping they'll be better once I've done that. Don't understand why it's performing so badly.

I just played a quick game of DoD: Source and my frames were at 30 to start with and highest I got was 60. This is at 1680 x 1050 with all recommend settings selected (apart from reflections which has been dropped to a lower option).

Before I was seeing a top FPS of 180+ an average of 80FPS and a minimum of 40. So something terribly wrong is at work here for me.


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## VistaIsRetard (Aug 14, 2007)

I have the atitool 0.27 stable with vista


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## InnocentCriminal (Aug 14, 2007)

VistaIsRetard said:


> I have the atitool 0.27 stable with vista



OK, is that with or without these drivers? 

I like how you're missing an a from your name. Makes me laugh.


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## imperialreign (Aug 14, 2007)

> Before I was seeing a top FPS of 180+ an average of 80FPS and a minimum of 40. So something terribly wrong is at work here for me.



have you by any chance tried completely removing the ATi software, rebooting, and then installing the 7.8?

I'm going to load up a couple games a bit later and see how they're looking, too . . . benchmarking is one thing, but no the same as actually runnings some apps


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## Kursah (Aug 14, 2007)

I just installed the drivers w/o Uninstalling this time, and it seems to uninstall some stuff before installing drivers/ccc, which I thought was cool. I'm so used to just uninstalling and such, but in this day and age all we should really have to do is install the new stuff and have it work how it should. Haven't ran any tests, but 7.8b's did show an improvement, so I'm sticking with the newly released 7.8's, I may do some testing.


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## Nemesis881 (Aug 14, 2007)

I'm pleased upon start-up.  Uses less system resources .


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## InnocentCriminal (Aug 14, 2007)

imperialreign said:


> have you by any chance tried completely removing the ATi software, rebooting, and then installing the 7.8?



Don't do it any other way.

I'll finish of my slipstream DVD and if I get the same shit on a fresh install of XP then, as always, I'm unlucky.


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## DRDNA (Aug 14, 2007)

I'm  running  the beta's and  they  are  about  identical   to  the 7.6's  in my  rig in  cig...maybe   this  official    will  be an improvement.


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## DeathVark (Aug 14, 2007)

*problems w/ 7.8 on 2900xt*

I dunno why is that, but after installing 7.8, my screen didn't adjust automaticly to native 1680x1050 and it was at 620x480 @ 8bit . 
A second later it showed some wierd comment, that my CCC is not supported by my driver, update my ATI driver or enable it through display manager. When I tried to change resolution to native, the whole screen went bananas, like extremely bad overclock on GPU, couldn't see anything. Had to uninstall 7.8 in a Safe mode, reinstalled 7.7 - same thing. Had to restore system. I don't know what the problem is yet, but 7.8 triggered something.

After restore CCC won't start, so here's another OS reinstall


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## Agility (Aug 14, 2007)

Just use drivers cleaners and remove......reboot and re-install it.


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## tkpenalty (Aug 14, 2007)

Man... AMD is doing it right. These improvements for the HD2900XT will really make the HD2900XT 100% Bang for buck


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## laszlo (Aug 14, 2007)

DeathVark said:


> I dunno why is that, but after installing 7.8, my screen didn't adjust automaticly to native 1680x1050 and it was at 620x480 @ 8bit .
> A second later it showed some wierd comment, that my CCC is not supported by my driver, update my ATI driver or enable it through display manager. When I tried to change resolution to native, the whole screen went bananas, like extremely bad overclock on GPU, couldn't see anything. Had to uninstall 7.8 in a Safe mode, reinstalled 7.7 - same thing. Had to restore system. I don't know what the problem is yet, but 7.8 triggered something.
> 
> After restore CCC won't start, so here's another OS reinstall




if you re-instal  Microsoft .NET Framework 2 the ccc will run again


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## lemonadesoda (Aug 14, 2007)

DeathVark said:


> I dunno why is that, but after installing 7.8, my screen didn't adjust automaticly to native 1680x1050 and it was at 620x480 @ 8bit .
> A second later it showed some wierd comment, that my CCC is not supported by my driver, update my ATI driver or enable it through display manager. When I tried to change resolution to native, the whole screen went bananas, like extremely bad overclock on GPU, couldn't see anything. Had to uninstall 7.8 in a Safe mode, reinstalled 7.7 - same thing. Had to restore system. I don't know what the problem is yet, but 7.8 triggered something.
> 
> After restore CCC won't start, so here's another OS reinstall



I can see you are new to ATI drivers (or new to ATI on NT OS).  But dont worry. You need to go to control panel and turn hardware acceleration to max.  By default, it is at minimum on installing new drivers. This is a driver security (stability) measure built into Windows, not a bug.

Also make sure you are logged in as admin when you uninstall old drivers (do the reboot) and install the new drivers.  There should be no need for a full reinstall.

I personally load "drivers only" without CCC which is just bloat.  The drivers don't need .NET, only CCC does IIRC


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## pt (Aug 14, 2007)

stalker runs much better now 
i need to try more games later


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## Paradox (Aug 14, 2007)

InnocentCriminal said:


> I take it you have the leaked alpha release then Paradox?
> 
> Could you do a before and after set of tests or is that asking too much?



I've had it since it was sent out to testers, and Yeah.



InnocentCriminal said:


> I'm actually quite surprised at all the people with 2600 cards!  No offence but what made you buy these cards?



Easy, 45watt under load, while keeping up with it's 8600GT/GTS brethren.

When there are tools out, these are going to be some mean overclockers.


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## selway89 (Aug 14, 2007)

Hmm well installed not tested yet. I used the update feature on the CCC installer so will see how well its done it.


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## FreedomEclipse (Aug 14, 2007)

Had a trash with these drivers on CS:S Smoke does look a little better. but the blood effects & other physics orientated stuff got more of a spring to their step so to speak. so slight improvement for the X1800XT division......


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## InnocentCriminal (Aug 14, 2007)

FreedomEclipse said:


> Had a trash with these drivers on CS:S Smoke does look a little better. but the blood effects & other physics orientated stuff got more of a spring to their step so to speak. so slight improvement for the X1800XT division......





There y'go... always worth trying! Just in my case they suck! Why I ask, why?: shadedshu


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## Paradox (Aug 14, 2007)

I did a run with these and vista sp1 and my avg FPS in fear was 77FPS, I don't remeber what it was before and I cant see it due to school firewall.

Did not notice anything out of the oridanry... 

Here are a few runs with the 7.8 Beta's and vista 6000

All settings were default

















And, the ever popular 3dmark's  











here's fear






Seems about right, what do you guys think?

All settings were untouched unless marked.

Going to give the 7.8's+SP1 a workout when I get around to it


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## cepoi (Aug 14, 2007)

for 7.8 vista....im still cannot running 3dmark...why???
same before this....is it because my mobo???
org 3dmark06 cannot runs under vista??


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## pt (Aug 14, 2007)

cepoi said:


> for 7.8 vista....im still cannot running 3dmark...why???
> same before this....is it because my mobo???
> org 3dmark06 cannot runs under vista??



Have you changed the "directcpll something" to other name?


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## Nitrogliserin (Aug 14, 2007)

did anybody see any improvement with x1800xt?


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## DRDNA (Aug 14, 2007)

FreedomEclipse said:


> Had a trash with these drivers on CS:S Smoke does look a little better. but the blood effects & other physics orientated stuff got more of a spring to their step so to speak. so slight improvement for the X1800XT division......



heres your answer just a couple of few above your post


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## cepoi (Aug 15, 2007)

pt said:


> Have you changed the "directcpll something" to other name?



no


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## pt (Aug 15, 2007)

cepoi said:


> no



change it, i don't remenber the file name atm
bump for someone else to help this guy


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## Nitrogliserin (Aug 15, 2007)

DRDNA said:


> heres your answer just a couple of few above your post



thx m8


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## Oliver (Aug 15, 2007)

*They work*

good cats:
after download complete clean and reload:

card set at 850/1007 with amdgpu clock by lack of 8pin connector

42638 in 3d03 vs 42119 with 7.6
21198 in 3d05 vs 21287 with 7.6 ?????wierd
12528 in 3d06 vs 12469 with 7.6

all this with 1280x1024 auto aa and af  etc.....(test set)

Take care


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## Firestorm2007 (Aug 16, 2007)

*CCC Update Manager Question*



selway89 said:


> Hmm well installed not tested yet. I used the update feature on the CCC installer so will see how well its done it.




Hi Selway,

How do you use the update feature on the Vista CCC. Do you download the new drivers, open them up and select update/or do you update it from the CCC already installed on your system. I have never tried it this way before.

Thanks.


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## selway89 (Aug 16, 2007)

Firestorm2007 said:


> Hi Selway,
> 
> How do you use the update feature on the Vista CCC. Do you download the new drivers, open them up and select update/or do you update it from the CCC already installed on your system. I have never tried it this way before.
> 
> Thanks.



I download the latest and once its extracted and the installer appears, I select upgrade and do a custom install of the bits i need or want.

Seems to work just fine for me.


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## Firestorm2007 (Aug 16, 2007)

*Selway*

Thanks.


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