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
  • 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
Video Quality default options
  • 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 enhancement for Eyefinity Quad ATI CrossFireX configurations
  • Performance has been greatly improved for users running with ATI Eyefinity on a Quad ATI CrossFireX configuration
Anti-Aliasing support for StarCraft II

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
Left 4 Dead 2
  • Performance increases 3-5% on CrossFire ATI Radeon HD 5800 series and CrossFire ATI Radeon HD 5700 series configurations
Stormrise
  • Performance increases 5-10% on ATI Radeon HD 5600 series and ATI Radeon HD 5500 series configurations
For more details, please refer to the Release Notes document.
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122 Comments on AMD Releases ATI Catalyst 10.8 WHQL Software Suite

#101
rodneyhchef
Installed this last night on top of 10.7 and it seems to have fixed an intermittant stuttering problem I was having during video playback. :)
Posted on Reply
#102
Bobington
inferKNOXCold Bug?
I'm not getting how this "higher clocks at idle" thing is a good one, or a feature as Mussels says. What is it meant to resolve exactly?
I've been hoping it's a bug that they're gonna fix too, coz the lower the idle clocks are, the better IMO, but please correct me if I'm wrong.
The higher clocks at idle are meant to solve flickering on multi display setups at 2D clocks.
Posted on Reply
#103
lemode
Marinebornyeah im still sticking with 10.4's if it aint broke and running smooth dont fix it. lol
yeah no doubt...i refuse to get rid of 10.4!
Posted on Reply
#104
erocker
*
I'm having no issues with this driver so far. One thing I don't like are the video presets. Deblocking, noise reduction, etc. need to be turned down from their defaults.
Posted on Reply
#105
chron
crow1001Runs great on a 480, the way it's meant to be played.:rockout:
Really? You can max out all the distance stuff and turn shadows and reflection all the way up? Car density all the way up?

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.
Posted on Reply
#106
Mussels
Freshwater Moderator
chronReally? You can max out all the distance stuff and turn shadows and reflection all the way up? Car density all the way up?

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.
because its not your card thats the problem, its your CPU. the game was never optimised properly.
Posted on Reply
#107
cadaveca
My name is Dave
inferKNOXI too would like W1zz to include Eyefinity setups in the benchmarks (or plain Eyefinity benchmarks) now that the tech has been established! That would be a very nice read! ;-)
Who's with me?
Not me. I have Eyefinity, I do not wish for W1zzard to have to deal with the issues I did...it's a waste of his time. I only wish he had in the past, so I could have aviod spending this cash on monitors and such...I woulda spent more and got 120hz monitors had I known earlier.
pantherx12@cadaveca, have you checked the AA type in catalyst control centre by the by?

The default setting looks like shit in my opinion anyways. Doesn't AA transparent objects for a start.
Yeah, I did a bit last night. Still not impressed. And I'll be very specific as to why:

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.
Posted on Reply
#108
fullinfusion
Vanguard Beta Tester
streetfighter 2I wasn't aware that the HD 5970 had a cold bug. Fascinating.

These drivers are damn skippy. I just upgraded from 10.5 because the Stream SDK2.2 support was confirmed and I gotta say the difference is night and day in some of my games.



To be honest I was just recalling the number from memory and I wouldn't be surprised to find out I was wrong. I sincerely doubt the fan could account for a greater than 10W difference (thats assuming that regular idle is 27W per the ATI spec in my faded memory).

I'm as nuts about power saving as I am about performance. I wrote a program that automatically engages my CCC profiles on a per game basis (similar to a feature in RivaTuner/ATI Tray Tools) because I found some games run stable at higher clocks and some games run just swell at lower than stock clocks. When a game is exited the program defaults to a specified profile, in my case 157/300 idle clocks. The result is a satisfying (and automatic) power savings. Do you think I should make it available on the forums?



I googled it and apparently the HD 5970 can suffer from a cold bug while under water cooling (or anything more extreme I'd imagine). A cold bug is the term used to refer to a hardware boot failure due to hardware temperatures being too low. At least I'm pretty sure...
Well the Sapphire 5970 OC edition has the cold bug.... I mainly see it during the cold winter months when I forget to close the room window overnight.

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.
Posted on Reply
#109
cadaveca
My name is Dave
Cursor Corruption is NOT fixed, I'm sad to report. My normal triggers work just fine.


However, now it's back to fixing itself when you move the cursor to another panel...about 30 times!


:cry:


:shadedshu
Posted on Reply
#110
Bobington
cadavecaCursor Corruption is NOT fixed, I'm sad to report. My normal triggers work just fine.


However, now it's back to fixing itself when you move the cursor to another panel...about 30 times!


:cry:


:shadedshu
It's fixed for me, how are you trying to trigger it; I'll see if I can replicate it.
Posted on Reply
#111
cadaveca
My name is Dave
I'm going to re-try driver installs, see if that makes a difference first. THEN I will see if I can replicate it, and will psot the steps, for sure. I need to confirm it's not just me. :laugh:
Posted on Reply
#112
SK-1
Hmmm. 2nd CTD for me...
Posted on Reply
#113
bobseptic
bobsepticthis release of 10.8 is the best driver so far for me on 5970 oc with bad company2

FPS up 5+ to 12 and the previous lows of some explosions have improved by 20fps.

i had previously been using the 10.5 hotfix as everything after that has been rubbish for bc2.

all settings on max and DX11

pleased with this driver. might even try eyefinity again.
Im sorry but i take that back :( cursor issue and an issue with parts of bc2 going black in some maps.

10.5 hotfix is the best driver with 5970 oc, windows 7 64bit, i7 hardware combination.

AA broken forever
Posted on Reply
#114
cadaveca
My name is Dave
bobsepticIm sorry but i take that back :( cursor issue and an issue with parts of bc2 going black in some maps.

10.5 hotfix is the best driver with 5970 oc, windows 7 64bit, i7 hardware combination.

AA broken forever
I found that my cursor issue was related to old settings kept in registry after uninstall of previous driver. I can trigger the DP monitor going to sleep, by changing resolution in certain apps, but haven't seen any cursor problems as of yet.


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.
Posted on Reply
#116
cadaveca
My name is Dave
TheGuruStudI use driver sweeper.
Any issues? now that you've uninstalled and re-installed?
Posted on Reply
#117
erocker
*
cadavecaBut at this point, I want to say all issues are due to AMD's driver install/uninstall failing.
I completely agree and it goes back further than 10.1's. It's amazing the amount of crap they hide in the registry. Unfortunately, some of the crap I found can't be deleted or I get a blank screen on Windows startup. :ohwell:
Posted on Reply
#118
TheGuruStud
cadavecaAny issues? now that you've uninstalled and re-installed?
Nope :) Everything's fine.
Posted on Reply
#119
fullinfusion
Vanguard Beta Tester
erockerI completely agree and it goes back further than 10.1's. It's amazing the amount of crap they hide in the registry. Unfortunately, some of the crap I found can't be deleted or I get a blank screen on Windows startup. :ohwell:
10.8 works great for me but I can't get 10.4 to install again.
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?
Posted on Reply
#120
erocker
*
fullinfusion10.8 works great for me but I can't get 10.4 to install again.
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?
I'm sure there is besides reinstalling your O/S. Actually though, I don't mind reinstalling my O/S. All of my games are through Steam and they sit on another drive.
Posted on Reply
#121
fullinfusion
Vanguard Beta Tester
erockerI'm sure there is besides reinstalling your O/S. Actually though, I don't mind reinstalling my O/S. All of my games are through Steam and they sit on another drive.
Nice!

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:
Posted on Reply
#122
Bobington
Quick update: seems 10.8 and 10.9 still have the cursor bug so the release notes are not accurate.
Posted on Reply
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