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July 21, 2008


ATI Catalyst™ Software Suite Version 8.7


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

This release note provides information on the following:

Web Content

The Catalyst™ software suite 8.7 contains the following:


Caution: The Catalyst™ software driver and the Catalyst™ Control Center can be downloaded independently of each other. However, for maximum stability and performance AMD recommends that both components be updated from the same Catalyst™ release


Caution: The Catalyst™ Control Center requires that the Microsoft .NET Framework version 2.0 be installed. Without .NET version 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/

AMD Product Support

The Catalyst™ Vista driver for both the 32bit and 64bit versions of the Microsoft Windows Vista operating system is supported on the following ATI Radeon™ products.
AMD Desktop Product Family Support for both Windows Vista and XP
AMD Desktop Product Family Support
ATI Radeon™ HD 4800 series
ATI Radeon™ X1300 series
ATI Radeon™ HD 3800 series
ATI Radeon™ X1050 series
ATI Radeon™ HD 3600 series
ATI Radeon™ X850 series
ATI Radeon™ HD 3400 series
ATI Radeon™ X800 series
ATI Radeon™ HD 2900 series
ATI Radeon™ X700 series
ATI Radeon™ HD 2600 series
ATI Radeon™ X600 series
ATI Radeon™ HD 2400 series
ATI Radeon™ X550 series
ATI Radeon™ X1950 series
ATI Radeon™ X300 series
ATI Radeon™ X1900 series
ATI Radeon™ 9800 series
ATI Radeon™ X1800 series
ATI Radeon™ 9700 series
ATI Radeon™ X1650 series
ATI Radeon™ 9600 series
ATI Radeon™ X1600 series
ATI Radeon™ 9550 series
ATI Radeon™ X1550 series
ATI Radeon™ 9500 series
AMD Multimedia Family Product Support for both Windows Vista and XP
AMD Multimedia Family Product Support
ATI All-in-Wonder™ X1900 Series
ATI Theater 600™
ATI All-in-Wonder™ X1800 Series
ATI All-in-Wonder™ X600 Series
ATI All-in-Wonder™ 2006 Edition
ATI Theater™ 550 PRO
ATI All-in-Wonder™ X800 Series
ATI All-in-Wonder™ 9800 Series
ATI Theater 650™
ATI All-in-Wonder™ 9600 Series


Note: ATI All-in-Wonder™ boards operate with AMD's Windows Vista ready display and capture drivers under the Windows Vista operating system. However, the Windows Vista Media Center application does not support TV/Capture functionality provided by the ATI All-in-Wonder™. TV/Capture functionality is qualified to function with Snaptream's BeyondTV 4.6 for Windows Vista. Other third party solutions (such as Arcsoft's Total Media 3) may support TV/Capture with the ATI All-in-Wonder™, but these applications have not been fully tested by AMD.

AMD Chipset Product Support
AMD Chipset Product Support
ATI Radeon™ HD 3200 Series
AMD 580X Series Chipset
ATI Radeon™ HD 3100 Series
ATI Radeon™ Xpress 1150 Series
ATI Radeon™ HD 2100 Series
ATI Radeon™ Xpress 1100 Series
ATI Radeon™ Xpress 1250 Series
ATI Radeon™ Xpress 200 Series
ATI Radeon™ X1250 Series
AMD 690 Series Chipset
ATI Radeon™ X1200 Series


Operating systems supported

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


Note: When installing the Catalyst™ Vista driver for Windows Vista, the user must logged on as an Administrator or have Administrator rights in order to successfully complete the installation of the Catalyst™ Vista driver.

New Features

Catalyst™ 8.7 introduces the following new features:

Catalyst Control Center: Information Center enhancements

This release of Catalyst™ introduces an enhancement to the Catalyst Control Center Information Center. Full Hardware information will be shown for each physical graphics accelerator installed in the system.

Support for new Linux operating systems

This release of ATI Catalyst™ Linux introduces preview support for the following new operating systems:

Performance Improvements

The following performance gains are noticed with this release of Catalyst™.

ATI's Folding@Home

Folding@Home is a distributed computing project designed by the Stanford University. The application performs intensive simulations of protein folding. This simulation will help researchers uncover how certain diseases develop. Folding@Home uses distributed computing to simulate protein folding, the workload is broken up into small work units and distributed across hundreds of thousands of computers over the internet. You can help find the cure to many different diseases! To join Folding@Home, follow these steps:

  1. Download ATI's Catalyst™ software suite
  2. Download the Folding@Home GPU client application
    Note: The latest GPU client supports the ATI Radeon™ HD 3xx0 series of products only.

  3. Enter the ATI team number 51394 and start folding!

For more information on Folding@Home visit: http://ati.amd.com/technology/streamcomputing/folding.html

Resolved Issues for the Windows Vista Operating System

This section provides information on resolved issues in this release of the ATI Catalyst™ Software Suite for Windows Vista. These include:

Resolved Issues for the Windows XP Operating System

This section provides information on resolved issues in this release of the ATI Catalyst™ Software Suite for Windows XP. These include:

Resolved Issues for the Windows XP Professional x64 Edition Operating System

This section provides information on resolved issues in this release of the ATI Catalyst™ Software Suite for Windows XP Professional x64 Edition. These include:

Known Issues Under the Windows Vista Operating System

This section provides information on known issues that may be experienced under the Windows Vista operating system with the latest version of Catalyst™. These include:

Known Issues Under the Windows XP Operating System

The following section provides a summary of open issues that may be experienced under the Windows XP operating system in the latest version of Catalyst™. These include:

Known Issues Under the Windows XP Professional x64 Edition

The following section provides a summary of open issues that may be experienced under the Windows XP Professional x64 Edition operating system in the latest version of Catalyst™. These include:

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

Installing the Catalyst™ Vista Software Driver

Installation information can be found at: ati.amd.com

AMD Customer Care

The AMD Customer Care website provides a high level of technical support and ease of navigation. The AMD 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 AMD Customer Care Website can be found at: support.ati.com

To view a known issue or find troubleshooting information, do the following:

  1. Go to ati.amd.com. The AMD home page is displayed.
  2. Click on Support & Drivers. The AMD Support and Drivers web page is displayed.
  3. In the left hand pane, select Graphics Support.
  4. In the top right corner of the Graphics Support page, enter the topic number or a general description of the issue you are experiencing within the search field.
  5. In the Select Site field, select ATI.
  6. Click the SEARCH symbol.
    The information requested (if available) is displayed.

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.


Advanced Micro Devices Inc.
http://www.ati.amd.com
Voice: (905) 882-2600
Fax: (905) 882-2620