This release note provides information on the latest posting of ATI's industry leading software suite, Catalyst®. This particular software suite updates both the ATI Display Driver (version 8.241), and the Catalyst® Control Center (version 6.4). This unified driver has been further enhanced to provide the highest level of power, performance, and reliability. The ATI Catalyst® software suite is the ultimate in performance and stability.

The Catalyst® 6.4 Release Note provides information on the following:

• Web Content
• ATI Desktop product family support
• ATI Chipset Product Support
• ATI FireMV™ 2D Drivers Support
• Operating systems supported
• New Features
• Performance Improvements
• Issues Resolved in Catalyst® Software Suite 6.4
• Known Issues for Catalyst® Software Suite 6.4
• ATI Customer Care
• Installing the latest Catalyst® Software Suite
• Catalyst® Crew Driver Feedback

Web Content

The Catalyst® software suite 6.4 contains the following:

• Radeon® display driver 8.241
• Multimedia Center™ 9.13
• HydraVision™
• HydraVision™ Basic Edition
• Remote Wonder 3.03
• WDM Driver Install Bundle
• Southbridge/IXP Driver
• Catalyst® Control Center Version 6.4

Caution:

The Catalyst® Control Center requires that the Microsoft .NET Framework version 1.1 or 2.0 be installed. Without .NET version 1.1 or 2.0 installed, the Catalyst® Control Center will not launch properly and the user will see an error message.

Note:

These release notes provide information on the Radeon® display driver only. For information on the ATI Multimedia Center™, HydraVision™, HydraVision Basic Edition, WDM, Remote Wonder™, or the Southbridge/IXP driver, please refer to their respective release notes found at: https://support.ati.com/

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® 9X00 series
• Radeon® 8500 series
• Radeon® 7X00 series

Note:

ATI All-in-Wonder® variants based on the above are also supported.

Note:

All ATI Radeon® PC Graphic cards are optimized for Microsoft's Media Center Edition 2005 when coupled with a supported video capture card.

ATI Chipset Product Support

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

• Radeon® Xpress 200 series
• Radeon® 9000 IGP
• Radeon® 9100 IGP
• Radeon® 9100 IGP Pro
• IXP 300

ATI FireMV™ 2D Drivers Support

The Catalyst® software suite 6.2 also provides 2D graphics driver support for the following FireMV™ products:

• FireMV™ 2400
• FireMV™ 2200 PCIe
• FireMV™ 2200

Operating systems supported

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

• Windows XP
• Windows XP Media Center Edition (graphics driver support only)
• Windows 2000

Note:

As of January 1, 2004, Microsoft no longer accepted certification submissions for the Microsoft® Windows® Millennium Edition operating system. The ATI Catalyst® CREW however is committed to all its customers and is now providing non certified WHQL software drivers for users of the Windows Millennium Edition operating system. Windows Millennium Edition users can obtain the software driver at: http://www.support.ati.com/. Windows 98/98SE is supported through the ME driver.

New Features

This release of Catalyst® provides improvements to the Avivo video processing engine during standard definition (SD) video playback. Edge enhancement or sharpening effectively improves image quality by enhancing details lost during encoding and processing. Noise reduction algorithms are improved to ensure original detail is preserved, while removing unwanted noise.

Performance Improvements

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

• 3DMark06 CPU scores improve as much as 4.9% across all product lines
• 3DMark06 HDR 2 Deep Freeze (SM3.0) test improves as much as 2%
• Call of Duty 2 improves approximately 1.4-2% on Radeon® X1900 and Radeon® X1800 Crossfire™ configurations. Gains are slightly less (1.3%) for non-Crossfire™ Radeon® X1900 and Radeon® X1800 products
• FarCry improves 2-3% on ATI Radeon® X1900 non-Crossfire configurations. Greatest improvements result from tests with no AA and AF
• Half Life 2 improves as much as 3.8% on Radeon® X1900 non-Crossfire configurations. Greatest improvements result from tests with no AA and AF
• Unreal Tournament 2004 gains 3-5% on all Radeon® X1x00 non-Crossfire configurations

Issues Resolved in Catalyst® Software Suite 6.4

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

• Doom 3: Setting the in-game resolution to 2560x1600 no longer results in green circles appearing around energy projectiles of demons. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-21778
• DoVAIO: Running the application on a system containing an ATI Xpress 200M series and running the Japanese version of Windows XP, no longer results in an error message being displayed when exiting the event viewer. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-21986
• EarthSim: Missing textures are no longer noticed on the terrain of both Mars and Earth when running the application on systems containing an ATI Radeon® X1600 or X1600 XT product. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22076
• Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion: Crossfire™ AFR mode support is now enabled. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22015
• Flight Simulator 2004: A Century of Flight: The frames per second are no longer lowered when moving the mouse cursor over a chat window during a multiplayer game. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-21453
• GLView V2.22 Build 203: Checking Multisample and changing the level to either 5 or 6 no longer results in text corruption being noticed when running the Rendering tests. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-21994
• GLView V224 Build 206: Running the Rendering Test for Fog and Benchmark no longer results in the fog function failing and black cubes being displayed. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22002
• Maya 7.0: The Frame Marker located near the bottom of the screen is now displayed when connecting a secondary CRT and enabling extended desktop. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-21777
• Quake 4: The game no longer fails to respond after lying dormant for approximately 10 minutes, followed by switching between the game and notepad.exe. This issue was known to occur when extended desktop was enabled on systems containing an ATI dual display graphic card. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-21993
• Serious Sam SE: Entering the Technology Test mode no longer results in display corruption being noticed in the Reflections and Portals screens. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22005
• TVFunStudio: Launching the MediaPlayer and playing a movie no longer results in frame drops being noticed. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-21775
• WARHAMMER: DAWN OF WAR: Starting a skirmish game on a 4 player map under Windows XP, no longer results in the game performance appearing choppy when using an ATI Radeon® X800 series, and having all of the game options set to high. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-20974
• Zera: Holding down the right mouse button to pan the on-line game display in a circular motion, no longer results in missing and flashing textures being noticed when playing the game with both AA and AAA enabled. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22003
• Display corruption is no longer noticed when returning from a full screen DOS session under Windows XP or Windows 2000 when using an ATI Radeon® X800 series. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-21452
• Connecting a display device to the DVI connector on systems containing an ATI Xpress 200 series no longer results in the display device failing to respond when attempting to resume from an S3 state. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-21772
• Entering hibernation mode and disabling a secondary display device no longer results in the extended desktop option still being active when resuming from hibernation. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-21773
• Connecting both a CRT and a TV, followed by enabling extended desktop no longer results in the Underscan/Overscan slider bar overlapping the Screen Position and Size heading found in the TV Properties aspect page of the Catalyst® Control Center. This issue was known to occur when the CRT is set as the primary display device. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-21776
• Connecting an HDTV and selecting all available formats in the CV properties page of the Catalyst® Control Center no longer results in the custom mode of 1080i failing to be available. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-21780
• The default 1080i 30Hz mode is no longer missing from the Advanced aspect page of the Catalyst® Control Center. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-21779
• Setting the language to Korean no longer results in corruption being noticed within the ATI Help. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-21985
• Catalyst® Control Center: Connecting a secondary CRT display device no longer results in the LCD display device failing to display an image after completing the Catalyst® Control Center->Easy Setup Wizard. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-21987
• Catalyst® Control Center: Advanced Mode: Incorrect text and cropped text is no longer noticed when selecting Japanese as the language for the Catalyst® Control Center. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-21988
• Playing a movie file with extended desktop enabled no longer results in the playback image appearing in the center of the secondary display device when Theater mode is enabled. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-21989
• Using the hot-key function Fn+F5 to swap between display devices no longer results in the current display device setting being incorrect. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-21990
• Playing a DVD using WinDVDv5 no longer results in frame drop being noticed when plugging or un-plugging the AC power supply. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-21991
• Catalyst® Control Center: Setting the language to Japanese no longer results in an extra line being added to the drop down menu for Preferences. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-21992
• Connecting a CRT to a system containing an ATI Xpress 200 series no longer results in the Display Data Channel being shown as not supported in the Monitor Attributes page of the Catalyst® Control Center when using Advanced view. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-21995
• Catalyst® Control Center: Using hot-keys to toggle between the secondary and primary display devices no longer results in the display setting not reflecting the current setting. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-21996
• Setting the CRT as the primary and the LCD display device as the secondary, no longer results in the full-screen video playback being displayed in a centering mode on the secondary display device. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-21997
• Setting the font size to 120 dpi no longer results in text corruption appearing in the Avivo Video->Standard Setting. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-21998
• Incorrect rendering is no longer noticed when running the OGL AAsphere demo found in the GGLSLDemo. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-21999
• Using the Catalyst® Control Center to change the skin to the ATI Catalyst® Quicksilver no longer results in the ATI Crimson skin being applied. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22000
• Connecting a display device using either the S-Video or Composite connectors no longer results in the display resolution changing to 640x480 16bpp. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22001
• Connecting a DFP using the DVI connector no longer results in the optimized 720p mode (1152x648@60hz) not appearing in the resolution list after adding the 720p60 formats to the Displays Manager. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22004
• Connecting an HDTV using the component video connection no longer results in the optimized modes of 1080i and 720p not being available within the Component Video Properties page of the Catalyst® Control Center, after creating a customized mode for both 1080i and 720p. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22006
• The HDTV Support aspect is now available under the Monitor Properties when using Advanced View in the Catalyst® Control Center. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22007

Known Issues for Catalyst® Software Suite 6.4

The following section provides a summary of open issues in the latest version of Catalyst®. These include:

• Alias MotionBuilder 6: Loading a model in MB6, followed by rotating the object, may result in shadows appearing corrupt and flickering being noticed. Further details can be found in topic number 737-21450
• Anarchy-Online: Screen corruption may be noticed when walking or running through the terrain. Further details can be found in topic number 737-22016
• AutoCAD 2005: Using the 3DORBIT command to rotate or zoom may result in the display hanging for a few seconds when having hardware acceleration enabled in AutoCAD and a 3D object in the drawing. Further details can be found in topic number 737-21451
• AutoCad 2006: Corruption may be noticed when moving the mouse pointer around the desktop area. Further details can be found in topic number 737-21465
• Cold War: Playing the game with the display resolution set to 1600x1200 along with AA set to 8x and CrossFire™ enabled may result in a ghosting effect being noticed. Further details can be found in topic number 737-21661
• F1 Racing Championship: Playing the game on a system containing an ATI Xpress 200 series may result game not running smoothly. Further details can be found in topic number 737-21774
• Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle Earth: Playing the game under Windows XP SP2 using an ATI Radeon® X800 series product may result in intermittent display corruption being noticed. Further details can be found in topic number 737-21458
• Neverwinter Nights: Playing the game under Windows XP on a system containing an ATI Radeon® X800 series, may result in the game exiting to the Windows desktop and an error message being displayed. Further details can be found in topic number 737-21466
• Path of Neo: Texture corruption may be noticed when playing the Kung Fu level. Further details can be found in topic number 737-21464
• Vulpine GLMark: Running the application on a system running Windows MCE, and containing an ATI Xpress 200 series may result in the display device failing to display an image when attempting to set the display resolution to 1024x768 32bpp. Further details can be found in topic number 737-22010
• World of Warcraft: Enabling CrossFire may intermittently result in the character appearing off center Further details can be found in topic number 737-22017
• The Apply button in the Custom settings of the Advanced mode, found within the Catalyst® Control Center Video standard settings, is grayed out when playing a media file. Further details can be found in topic number 737-497
• Connecting an HDTV to an ATI Radeon® X700 series may result in the HDTV being detected as a CRT or TV under the Windows XP operating system. Further details can be found in topic number 737-20783
• The PAL FM fine tuning algorithm is currently using 200 MHz bandwidth which may overlap FM channels resulting in the same FM channel being found several verdana during the scan function. Further details can be found in topic number 737-20979
• Launching the Adobe Gamma calibration application and moving the gamma slider back and forth, may result in the Task Manager being filled with cli.exe until the system becomes low on memory. Further details can be found in topic number 737-20980
• Connecting two display devices to an ATI Radeon® X1600 series product may result in the device manager failing to detect the secondary display device. Further details can be found in topic number 737-21266
• Catalyst® Control Center: Enabling clone mode may result in the refresh rate being locked at 60Hz when using an ATI Radeon® X700 series product. Further details can be found in topic number 737-21454
• Display corruption may be noticed when configuring the DTV channel to 1080i broadcast when using an ATI HDTV Wonder. Further details can be found in topic number 737-21455
• The LG P42SX DVI-D display device 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
• OpenGL Extension Viewer: 2.0: Running the Rendering tests may result in a black box appearing when the fog option is enabled. Further details can be found in topic number 737-21457
• Connecting an HDTV as the secondary display device and enabling Theater mode may result in HDTV failing to display an image when attempting to playback a movie with extended desktop mode enabled. Further details can be found in topic number 737-21460
• The IBM T84H display device may fail to display an image when connected to the DVI connector on the ATI Radeon® X800 or X850 series. Further details can be found in topic number 737-21462
• Attempting to re-enable any display device other than the primary or secondary display device that has been disabled by CrossFire™, may result in the operating system failing to respond. Further details can be found in topic number 737-21663
• Installing the a newer version of the Catalyst® Control Center over top of a previous installation of the Catalyst® Control Center may result in the installation of the Catalyst® Control Center taking a long time to complete. Further details can be found in topic number 737-22008
• The MCE encoder may fail to install after the installation of the ATI display driver, WDM driver, and MMC software. Further details can be found in topic number. 737-22009
• Catalyst® Control Center: Connecting a display device capable of displaying a resolution of 1680x1050 to an ATI Radeon® X1900 may result in the display mode of 1680x1050 not being available in the Display Manager aspect. Further details can be found in topic number 737-22011
• Running the automated clock configuration utility found in the Overdrive aspect page of the Catalyst® Control Center may result in the operating system failing to respond. Further details can be found in topic number 737-22012
• Using the ATI Multimedia Center to watch TV may result in the operating system restarting when using an ATI Radeon® X1800 series product. Further details can be found in topic number 737-22013
• The Record function currently fails to work when using an ATI All-in-Wonder® X1300 with time-shifting enabled. Further details can be found in topic number 737-22014

For further information and general help on software driver installation, game issues, and more, visit ATI Customer Care.

ATI Customer Care

The ATI Customer Care website provides a high level of technical support and easy of navigation. The ATI Customer Care website provides accurate and up-to-date product support for optimum usability and performance. Technical issues are categorized and personalized to enhance user experience. The ATI Customer Care Website can be found at: support.ati.com

To view a known or resolved issue, do the following:

1. Go to: support.ati.com. The ATI Customer Care web page is displayed.
2. In the top left hand pane, click Advanced Search. The Advanced Search pane is displayed.
3. Under Search Type: Select the By: ID option.
4. Enter the Topic number.
5. Click Go.

Installing the latest Catalyst® Software Suite

Installation information can be found at: www.ati.com/install

Catalyst® Crew Driver Feedback

This driver release incorporates suggestions received through the Catalyst® CREW Driver Feedback program. To provide us with your feedback, visit: Catalyst® Crew Driver Feedback.