Wednesday, August 25th 2010
AMD Releases ATI Catalyst 10.8 WHQL Software Suite
AMD kept up with its monthly driver update cycle, and released the ATI Catalyst 10.8 software suite. The software installs the latest WHQL-signed drivers for ATI Radeon GPUs, AMD Chipsets, and other ATI Multimedia products. The new version packs a set of game-specific performance improvements, and a few feature updates. To begin with, Far Cry 2, Left 4 Dead 2, and Stormrise, each got GPU configuration specific, mostly single-digit performance increments.
New features include full-support for the OpenGL ES 2.0 API, greater control over video quality by means of a checkbox control from Catalyst Control Center. This is particularly of importance, as AMD seems to have taken notes from the press coverage, such as our Video Enhancement Quality Tests. There are image-quality improvements for StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty, that includes anti-aliasing support. An update also claims to greatly improve overall performance of Eyefinity setups that use 4-way/Quad CrossFireX (or CrossFire involving four GPUs).
DOWNLOAD: ATI Catalyst 10.8 WHQL for Windows 7/Vista 64-bit, Windows 7/Vista 32-bit, Windows XP 32-bit, Windows XP 64-bit
A detailed list of important updates follows.
New Features:
OpenGL ES 2.0 support
Performance Improvements:
Far Cry 2
New features include full-support for the OpenGL ES 2.0 API, greater control over video quality by means of a checkbox control from Catalyst Control Center. This is particularly of importance, as AMD seems to have taken notes from the press coverage, such as our Video Enhancement Quality Tests. There are image-quality improvements for StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty, that includes anti-aliasing support. An update also claims to greatly improve overall performance of Eyefinity setups that use 4-way/Quad CrossFireX (or CrossFire involving four GPUs).
DOWNLOAD: ATI Catalyst 10.8 WHQL for Windows 7/Vista 64-bit, Windows 7/Vista 32-bit, Windows XP 32-bit, Windows XP 64-bit
A detailed list of important updates follows.
New Features:
OpenGL ES 2.0 support
- ATI Catalyst 10.8 delivers full support for OpenGL ES 2.0 specification
- Enables 3D accelerated graphics within a web browser that supports OpenGL ES 2.0
- Supported on Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7
- The Default video options for ATI Catalyst have been greatly enhanced to deliver the best quality video viewing experience. Users can also choose to apply these settings to Internet Video via a new checkbox control within the ATI Catalyst Control Center.
- Performance has been greatly improved for users running with ATI Eyefinity on a Quad ATI CrossFireX configuration
Performance Improvements:
Far Cry 2
- Performance increases 2-6% on ATI Radeon HD 5800 Series single and CrossFire configurations
- Performance increases 2-4% on ATI Radeon HD 5700 Series single and CrossFire configurations
- Performance increases 3-8% on ATI Radeon HD 4800 Series single and
CrossFire configurations
- Performance increases 3-5% on CrossFire ATI Radeon HD 5800 series and CrossFire ATI Radeon HD 5700 series configurations
- Performance increases 5-10% on ATI Radeon HD 5600 series and ATI Radeon HD 5500 series configurations
122 Comments on AMD Releases ATI Catalyst 10.8 WHQL Software Suite
I can get the game to run just fine when I use auto configure. Very smooth. What I'm talking about though is being able to max the game out on what I thought was a high end card.
ATi is using [H]'s large WoW audience to highlight how they've fixed CFX scaling in BFBC2 specifically. They show numbers with AA. Obviously, since no in-game AA setting changes actually enables AA in about 30 apps I've tested so far these perforamcne numbers they are hyping are only as large as they are due to a really horrible driver profile, quality-wise.
In case you missed it...that screenie was 4xAA. 0xAA, 2xAA, 8xAA, all give the exact same image. I used the SP side of the game, and 6 different game levels. I then used a digital camera to capture screen images, and then made the captured images transparent, and overlayed them. The use of the camera makes seeing individual pixels really easy. There's not one single pixel different. AA is broken.
V-Sync, another member here has mentioned as well. Easy to test...again, broken. OF course, I used the same digital camera to capture video...so there's no capture software on my pc causing issues.
I also used a completely different box, with a fresh install, that only has this driver, and BC2 installed. Same thing.
NOw, I'll admit, because of this bloody chicken pox, I've only slept 4 hours in the past 72, so my brain is REALLY fuzzy at this point, but it's been good running these tests, keeping my fingers busy, rather than having them scratching.
And let me just pause here and say OMFG I WANNA DIE!!! :cry: I wish this illness on noone! now it doesn't itch...it bloody burns like hell, and there's no relief to be had. Already missed out on my Anniversary tuesday, because I shouldn't be in public. Today's my youngest's birthday...i can't even give him a hug. I'm pretty fucking mental at this point. I've had buckshot in my back before, this feels far to similar. And I look bloody disgusting.:mad:
Anyway, performance IS up now...I haven't seen any cursor corruption yet, but haven't tried triggering it yet. I'm pretty happy with this driver in comparison to every other one that's been out this year. Still some issues left, but that cursor thing is a big one for me. If that is realyl fixed, then I am confident that they can fix these other issues as time passes...but if things are PERFECT by years-end, I am quite serious in my ATI/AMD boycott. I'm pretty happy with nV surround and GTX480 SLi at this point. Currently playing my way back though batmanAA, liking the Phys-X effects, too.
I cannot beleive it's me saying that, you know. ATi sucks, nV is good. That's a complete 180 degree change for me. Oh well.
As BlackPanther called the Measels...
It only happens if it does during the first min or so after boot up.
The idle clocks are to low and Erocker taught some of us owners how to custom set the clocks as a profile... It helped out a lot of ppl for sure.
Sapphire knows there 5970's have the bug problem... not all do but a great magority do.
They released a bios for such a problem. Ppl that run water to ther gpu really have it tough for the cold but the new bios fixes that..
One more note, ppl claim lower temps and better clocks with the update.
I flashed the 5970 but a file was corrupt so I flashed the pld bios back to the card...
once I get my Nvidia gpu back at least I have a back up plan if the flash fails.
However, now it's back to fixing itself when you move the cursor to another panel...about 30 times!
:cry:
:shadedshu
10.5 hotfix is the best driver with 5970 oc, windows 7 64bit, i7 hardware combination.
AA broken forever
had some BCBF2 CTD and system freezes in single player, but AA issue seemingly has been fixed, too.
Now I'm left with going back to previous drivers, then updating agian, seeing if i can replicate it, and then maybe I can develop some sort of runtime to fix the problem, or I can forward the info to AMD and let them deal with it.
But at this point, I want to say all issues are due to AMD's driver install/uninstall failing.
Still working on it...will update when I have better info.
And I'll leave off at this point saying that this is problably the best driver that's come out this year, so far. It's unfortunate that most won't see this though, but at the same time, those without issues are the ones that do registry cleans when swapping drivers.
10.4 is ..... *for testing*
CCC 10.8 seems to lock me to the current version.
I even did a good clean but like you said it hides very well in the registry.
Any work around for future reference?
Well like I said before... 10.8 works very well! It works awsome for Dirt2 and GOW, Hawx, RE5.... Vantage mark... and everything Bench Mark related :D
Im hooked! :eek:
I'm fussy but I'm glad its working and giving me the edge :pimp: