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 8.263), and the Catalyst® Control Center (version 6.6). 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® 6.6 Release Note provides information on the following:
- Web Content
- ATI Desktop product family support
- ATI Chipset Product Support
- Operating systems supported
- New Features
- Performance Improvements
- Issues Resolved in Catalyst® Software Suite 6.6
- Known Issues for Catalyst® Software Suite 6.6
- ATI Customer Care
- Installing the latest Catalyst® Software Suite
- Catalyst® Crew Driver Feedback
Web Content
The Catalyst® software suite 6.6 contains the following:
- Radeon® display driver 8.263
- Multimedia Center™ 9.14
- HydraVision™
- HydraVision™ Basic Edition
- Remote Wonder 3.04
- WDM Driver Install Bundle
- Southbridge/IXP Driver
- Catalyst® Control Center Version 6.6
Caution: The Catalyst® software driver and the Catalyst® Control Center can be downloaded independently of each other. However, for maximum stability and performance ATI recommends that both components be updated from the same Catalyst® release.
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® 9800 series
- Radeon® 9700 series
- Radeon® 9650 series
- Radeon® 9600 series
- Radeon® 9550 series
- Radeon® 9500 series
Note: ATI All-In-Wonder™ variants based on the above are also supported.
Note: Unsupported desktop products:
Radeon® 9250 series Radeon® 9200 series Radeon® 9000 series Radeon® 8500 series Radeon® 7500 series Radeon® 7200 series Radeon® 7000 series Drivers for these products can be found here
ATI All-in-Wonder variants based on the above are also unsupported.
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 supportthe following ATI chipset products:
- CrossFire™ Xpress 3200
- CrossFire™ Xpress 1600
- Radeon® Xpress 200 series (for both Intel and AMD Processors)
Note: Software driver support and release notes for earlier ATI products can be found at: http://www.support.ati.com/.
Operating systems supported
The latest version of the Catalyst® software suite is designed to support the following Microsoft Windows platforms:
New Features
This release of Catalyst® introduces the following new features:
Avivo™ Video Converter Extension for Windows Media Center Edition
Catalyst® 6.6 introduces a Windows Media Center Edition Video Conversion utility. This utility will allow users to convert video content that is either recorded or available to Media Center Edition to a variety of different formats. The video content can be converted to MPEG-2, MPEG-4 SP, MPEG-4/AVC and Windows Media. iPod video and Sony PSP’s are also supported with an optimized profile for these devices.
Theater 650 Pro TV Tuner Support
Catalyst® 6.6 includes support for NTSC/ATSC and PAL/SECAM/DVB-T products based on the Theater 650 Pro TV Tuner chip. The Theater 650 Pro is a new chip from ATI for multimedia cards and DTV-on-a-chip solutions, integrating hardware video encoding, digital audio with noise reduction, and hardware PVR functions in a single chip.
Performance Improvements
As with most Catalyst® releases, performance has increased in various situations.
- Far Cry performance improves 4-5%. Larger gains of up to 18.3% can be seen when using anisotropic filtering.
- Fear performance improves as much as 8.5% on X1800 and X1900 Single card systems and as much as 14% on X1800 and X1900 Crossfire systems.
- Splinter Cell (original) performance improves as much a 7% on X1300 and X1600 Crossfire systems.
Issues Resolved in Catalyst® Software Suite 6.6
The following section provides a summary of the issues that are resolved in the latest release of Catalyst®. These include:
- Catalyst® Control Center: Connecting a display device capable of displaying a resolution of 1680x1050 to an ATI Radeon® X1900 no longer results in the display mode of 1680x1050 not being available in the Display Manager aspect. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22011
- Using Catalyst® 6.3 or higher along with the MMC version 9.13 and performing a TV channel scan no longer results in some higher TV channels failing to be detected. Further information on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-21890
- Catalyst Control Center: Playing a media file using the Windows Media Player version 10 no longer results in Theater Mode exhibiting the same behavior as the Same on All option when clone mode is enabled 737-22504
- The pulldown detection check box is no longer greyed out under the All Settings for bob and adaptive settings found in the Catalyst Control Center 737-22508
- Clicking the Default button for AA and AF now restores the default setting for AA and AF 737-22512
- Placing the mouse pointer over the Temporal anti-aliasing check box found in the Anti-Aliasing aspect of the Catalyst Control Center no longer results in the tool tip for Let the application decide being displayed 737-22517
- Theater Mode is now functioning properly under the Windows 2000 operating system when clone mode is enabled 737-22614
- Audio is no longer lost when quickly and repeatedly toggling between two TV channels 737-22615
- The Desktop Area list found in the Display Settings is now translated for the Russian language when using the Basic View of the Catalyst Control Center 737-22519
- Setting the Catalyst Control Center skin to Quick Silver along with the display resolution to 800x600 when the language is set to Greek no longer results in cropped text being noticed in the Video->All Settings aspect 737-22529
- The Apply button in the CV Properties aspect of the Catalyst Control Center now become active when adding a custom format 737-22538
- x29: AV no longer occurs when fast window tracking is set to on 737-22643
- Minimizing the TV window using the TV Adjustments found in the Catalyst Control Center followed by attempting to drag the TV window around the desktop using the mouse no longer results in the TV window failing to move properly 737-22539
- DVD playback no longer blinks and the system entering a busy state no longer occurs when using the Windows Media Player v10 and having Theater Mode enabled in the Catalyst Control Center 737-22616
- Connecting a CRT as a secondary display device and enabling clone mode no longer results in unsupported display modes being available in the Catalyst Control Center for the CRT 737-22617
- HDTV custom format is now maintained when clone mode is enabled 737-22618
- Enabling Clone mode followed by opening a full-screen DOS prompt no longer results in the DOS command screen failing to exit properly on the secondary display device 737-22619
- Swapping between the primary (LCD) and secondary (CRT) display devices on a system containing an ATI Xpress 200 series no longer results in the LCD display device failing to display and image when attempting to resume from hibernation mode 737-22622
- The mouse pointer no longer intermittently fails to be displayed on the lower portion of the secondary display device when the option to Stretch main horizontally found in the Catalyst Control Center is enabled 737-22623
- Connecting both a CRT and a TV and keeping the TVout disabled, along with setting the desktop resolution to 1280x1024x32bpp no longer result in the default color setting found in the Catalyst Control Center failing to be restored when changing the gamma setting 737-22644
- GLView v 223: Setting the display resolution to 2048x1536 32bpp at 70Hz no longer results in an error message being displayed when attempting to run the Rendering tests 737-22625
- Setting AA to 8x or higher no longer results in corruption being noticed in the Anti-Aliasing preview of the Catalyst Control Center 737-22626
- City of Heroes: Display corruption is no longer noticed when playing the game under Windows XP with an ATI Radeon X1x00 series product 737-22627
- Enabling extended desktop mode and playing back HD content no longer results in corruption being noticed in the playback window 737-22628
- An error message is no longer displayed when trying to edit a Hotkey function in the Hotkey Manger under various supported European languages 737-22629
- Quake4: Texture corruption is no longer noticed when playing the game 737-22385
- Age of Empires III: All the buildings and silver mines no longer shimmer at the same time when right-clicking on an object 737-22630
Known Issues for Catalyst® Software Suite 6.6
The following section provides a summary of open issues in the latest version of Catalyst®. These include:
- Anarchy-Online: Screen corruption may be noticed when walking or running through the terrain. Further details can be found in topic number 737-22016
- 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
- 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
- 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 times 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
- 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
- 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
- Using the ATI Multimedia Center to watch TV may result in the operating system restarting when using an ATI Radeon® X1800 series product. Further information on this issue can be found in topic number 737-22013
- Changing the regional option found in the control panel to Japan followed by installing the display driver results in the TV format failing to change in accordance with the regional option 737-22631
- World of Warcraft: Playing the game for an extended period of time may result in the game failing to respond when using a Radeon X800 737-22632
- Catalyst Control Center: Entering the Overdrive aspect and changing the GPU setting to 509 and the memory setting to 505 results in color corruption and the Windows XP operating system rebooting 737-22633
- Selecting the Plus Da Vinci screen saver and attempting to preview it may result in the screen saver not displaying properly after an extended preview 737-21229
- Battlefield 2: The game may exit to the Windows desktop after the game logo is displayed 737-22635
- Crossfire does not work properly with Dell DVI displays 737-22664
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:
- Go to: support.ati.com. The ATI Customer Care web page is displayed.
- In the top left hand pane, click Advanced Search. The Advanced Search pane is displayed.
- Under Search Type: Select the By: ID option.
- Enter the Topic number.
- 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.
ATI Technologies Inc.
http://www.ati.com
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Fax: (905) 882-2620