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
- AMD Product Support
- Operating systems supported
- New Features
- Performance Improvements
- ATI's Folding@Home
- Resolved Issues for the Windows Vista Operating System
- Resolved Issues for the Windows XP Operating System
- Known Issues Under the Windows Vista Operating System
- Known Issues Under the Windows XP Operating System
- Known Issues Under the Windows XP Professional x64 Edition
- Installing the Catalyst™ Vista Software Driver
- AMD Customer Care
- Catalyst™ Crew Driver Feedback
Web Content
The Catalyst™ software suite 8.7 contains the following:
- Radeon™ display driver 8.512
- Multimedia Center™ 9.16 (Windows XP only)
- HydraVision™ for both Windows XP and Vista
- HydraVision™ Basic Edition (Windows XP only)
- Remote Wonder 3.04 (Windows XP only)
- WDM Driver Install Bundle
- Southbridge/IXP Driver
- Catalyst™ Control Center Version 8.7
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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.
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.
Operating systems supported
The latest version of the Catalyst™ software suite is designed to support the following Microsoft Windows platforms:
- Windows Vista (32 and 64 bit versions)
- Windows XP Professional
- Windows XP Home Edition
- Windows XP Media Center Edition
- Windows XP Professional x64 Edition
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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™.
- 3DMark Vantage: Performance increases of up to 20% is noticed in the Performance Preset on single card configured systems when using ATI Radeon™ HD 36xx or ATI Radeon™ HD 34xx products
- Company of Heroes DX10: Performance increases of 3% to 12% is noticed in specific maps on single card configured systems when using either an ATI Radeon™ HD 48xx, ATI Radeon ™ HD 38xx, or an ATI Radeon™ HD 36xx product
- Lost Planet DX10: Performance increases of 4% to 15% is noticed in specific maps on single card configured systems when using either an ATI Radeon™ HD 48xx, ATI Radeon™ HD 38xx, or an ATI Radeon™ HD 36xx product
- Call Of Duty 4 DX9: Performance increases of up to 4% in specific maps is noticed on single card configured systems when using an ATI Radeon™ HD 48xx product
- Lost Planet DX9: CrossFire™ scaling improves up to 1.7x and performance increases up to 80% across all Radeon™ products when AA and AF is enabled
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:
- Download ATI's Catalyst™ software suite
- Download the Folding@Home GPU client application
Note: The latest GPU client supports the ATI Radeon™ HD 3xx0 series of products only.
- 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:
- Assassin's Creed: Attempting to launch the game on a system containing an ATI Radeon™ HD 2600 series of product and running the Windows Vista operating system (32 bit version) no longer results in the game exiting to the desktop. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35804
- Crysis: Edge detect is now working when playing the DX9 version of the game with UBM enabled. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35765
- Frontlines Fuel of War: Setting the in-game option to 1152x864 and AA to N/A no longer results in corruption being noticed when playing the game on a system containing an ATI Radeon™ HD 38x0 series of product. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35861
- Hellgate London: Setting the display resolution to 2560x1600 no longer results in the game failing to respond. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35886
- Mahjongg Artifacts: Launching the game on a system running Windows Vista no longer results in the operating system failing to respond. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35873
- Rainbow Six Vegas 2: Flickering is no longer noticed when switching between the game and the Windows desktop. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35818
- Rainbow Six Vegas 2: Setting AA to 8x no longer results in AA failing to be applied. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35823
- World In Conflict: Setting the video quality to high no longer results in corruption being noticed. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35884
- World of Warcraft: The game's log-in background is no longer blank when using OpenGL mode. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35767
- ZT: Attempting to play the Asian game in a windowed mode or at a display resolution of 1280x1024 no longer results in the game failing to respond. Further details can be found in topic number 737-34152
- Running various games on a system containing an ATI Radeon™ X18x0 series of product no longer results in Time-out Detection and Recovery (TDR) when having Catalyst AI set to Advanced. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35828
- A black window is no longer displayed when attempting to play a DVD title using WinDVD 7 when Overlay Theater Mode and clone mode is enabled. Further details can be found in topic number 737-34133
- Connecting an HDMI display device to the DVI port using an HDMI to DVI dongle no longer results in the display mode of 720x480 failing to be in the display mode list after hot-unplugging the HDMI display device and hot-plugging a DVI display device. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35105
- Clicking on the Scaling Options for the HDMI display device no longer results in the Panel Information and Image Scaling failing to be restored the graphics adapter. This issue is also resolved for the Windows XP operating system as well. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35874
- Attempting to change to clone or single mode no longer fails when display number 2 is set a the primary display device. This issue is also resolved for the Windows XP operating system as well. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35768
- Connecting a secondary display device no longer results in the secondary display failing to be seen in the Catalyst Control Center when using a system containing an ATI Radeon™ HD 2400 series of product. This issue is also resolved for the Windows XP operating system as well. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35802
- Adjusting either the gamma, brightness or contrast setting in the Catalyst Control Center no longer results in certain graphics hardware information failing to be displayed in the Information Center. This issue is also resolved for the Windows XP operating system as well. Further details can be found in topic number 737-358633
- Enabling and disabling GPU Scaling no longer results in some of the supported display resolutions no longer being available. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35047
- The OverDrive™ clocks are no longer set back to default setting when exiting the fullscreen samples if the Enable ATI OverDrive™ clocks for 3D applications only option is set to Off. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35755
- Using a smart dongle no longer results in the mode of 1080i failing to appear in the display manager of the Catalyst Control Center. Further details can be found in topic number 737-358477
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:
- City of Heroes: Character stretching and double character reflection is no longer noticed when the in-game resolution is set to 2560x1600. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35757
- Enemy Territories Quake Wars: Flickering is no longer noticed when playing the game with CrossFire™ enabled on systems containing an ATI Radeon™ HD 38x0 series of product. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35788
- Lost Planet: Corruption is no longer noticed when switching between the game and the Windows XP desktop. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35782
- Google SketchUp: The Push/Pull tool no longer fails to select some faces. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35800
- World of Warcraft: Enabling AA in the Catalyst Control Center no longer results in the user failing to log on to the game. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35816
- Installing the display driver from an installation CD no longer results in a warning message indicating that the Catalyst Control Center is not supported by the driver version installed. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35120
- Playing a standard definition DVD using the Windows Media Player (hardware acceleration enabled) no longer results in the operating system failing to respond when attempting to rotate the display. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35875
- Intermittent flashing is no longer noticed in the right portion of the display when playing a 720p or 1080i media file when using the Windows Media Player v10. Further details can be found in topic number 737-32666
- Playing a DVD title and selecting the option to use basic color setting to default in the Catalyst Control Center now results in the option being applied. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35803
- Playing an MPEG2 video clip on a display that is rotated no longer results in corruption being noticed when rotating the display back to landscape mode. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35805
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:
- Gears of War: Enabling CrossFire™ and AA may result in white flickering corruption being noticed when playing the game under Windows XP Professional x64 Edition. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35123
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:
- Call of Duty: Corruption may be noticed when having Quad CrossFire™ enable and an HDMI 1080p display device connected. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35112
- Call of Duty 4 or Crysis: Color corruption may be noticed when running the games in full screen mode with Quad CrossFire™ enabled. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35115
- Company of Heroes: Setting the in-game options to maximum levels may result in the game exiting to the desktop after the game has completed loading. Further details can be found in topic number 737-32600
- Crysis: Playing the game at a display resolution lower than the native display resolution of a connected 30" display device may result in corruption being noticed when CrossFire™ is enabled and having the Catalyst Control Center scaling the image to full screen. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35111
- Linage II: Switching between the game and the Windows desktop may result in the desktop appearing brighter than its original setting. Exiting the game and restarting the operating system may also result in the desktop brightness failing to be restored to its original setting. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35108
- Lost Planet (DX10 version): Some of the in-game display resolutions may fail to be available when using a CRT display device. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35872
- Unreal Tournament 3: The game may intermittently fail to launch when a map has texture detail set to maximum. Further details can be found in topic number 737-31189
- The secondary HDMI Display may turn off when resuming from an S1 hibernation with an HDMI display connected. Further details can be found in topic number 737-31146
- Setting the desktop resolution to 1600x1200 or greater may result in green pixel corruption being noticed when playing certain games. This issue maybe noticed when using a system running Windows Vista and containing an ATI Radeon™ HD 2600 or HD 2400 series of product. Further details can be found in topic number 737-31150
- Attempting to play the HD-DVD title Harsh Verdana, School for Scoundrels using the Cyberlink player may result in block corruption being noticed. Further details can be found in topic number 737-31155
- An error message may appear when installing the display driver package through setup.exe. Further details can be found in topic number 737-31577
- Installing an ATI Radeon™ X1600 series of product into a system containing an ATI Radeon™ HD 2600 series of product with the display driver already installed may result in the operating system entering a continuous reboot. This issue may be averted by removing the ATI graphics driver prior to the installation of the ATI Radeon™ X1600 series of product. This issue may also be experienced with the ATI Radeon™ X1300 and 1550 series of products. Further information may be found in topic number 737-33471
- Enabling clone mode followed by switching to extended desktop mode may result in the Windows Vista (64 bit version) failing to respond. Further details can be found in topic number 737-34125
- Performing an express install of the Catalyst Control Center may result in an error message being displayed when rebooting the system. Further details can be found in topic number 737-29532
- Enabling extended desktop mode and setting the color depth below 16bpp may result in the secondary display device failing to redraw properly. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35114
- A green or black screen may be displayed when configuring MCE to ATSC mode. Further information may be found in topic number 737-27622
- Enabling BOB de-interlacing may result in a green line being noticed on the bottom of the playback window when playing a 1080i clip. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35895
- Playing a Blu-ray DVD title may result in corruption being noticed when using certain display resolutions such as 1360x768, 1360x1024, or 1600x1200. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35896
- Enabling clone mode followed by switching to extended desktop mode may result in the Windows Vista (64 bit version) failing to respond. Further details can be found in topic number 737-357666
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:
- Age of Conan: The inventory icons may show corruption when playing the game with CrossFire™ enabled. This issue may also be experienced under the Windows Vista operating system as well. Further details can be found in topic number 737-34825
- Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts: Enabling CrossFire™ may result in the displays flashing corruption when setting the in game graphics options to off or their lowest settings. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35118
- Witcher: Enabling AA and setting the in-game options to their maximum levels may result in background colors being missing and the game play back being choppy. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35898
- Using the WinDVD player (versions 14.x, 11.10x, or 9.xx) to play VC1 video content may result in corruption being noticed when hardware acceleration is enabled. This issue may also be experienced under the Windows Vista operating system. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35293
- Connecting a CRT display device as the secondary display and playing a Blu-ray DVD using a Cyberlink player may result in no video playback if extended desktop mode is enabled. Further details can be found in topic number 737-30587
- Setting the display resolution to 1440x900 or lower may result in corruption being noticed when playing a DVD title. Further details can be found in topic number 737-31168
- Connecting a CRT display device as the secondary display and playing a Blu-ray DVD using a Cyberlink player may result in no video playback if extended desktop mode is enabled. Further details can be found in topic number 737-34121
- The display may be come corrupted with 4 bit color depth after hot unplugging the rotated primary HDMI/DFP display. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35116
- Connecting a Dual Link Panel to the on-board DVI port, followed by hot plugging a DVI display to the add-on DVI card may result clone mode becoming disabled when rebooting the machine and the secondary display device remaining blank. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35117
- Installing the HDMI audio driver and the VIA audio chipset driver may results in a compatibility issue being noticed and a yellow exclamation mark showing up in the Sound, Video and Game Controllers. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35119
- Catalyst Control Center: Configuring a system with multi-adapters may result in an error message being displayed when running the Test Custom Clocks 737-29953
- Enabling pull down detection in the Catalyst Control Center may result in flickering being noticed when playing a video clip using the Cyberlink PowerDVD player. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35121
- Connecting a CRT display device as the secondary display and playing a Blu-ray DVD using a Cyberlink player may result in no video playback if extended desktop mode is enabled. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35122
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:
- Running an OpenGL application and attempting to rotate the desktop may result in corruption being noticed. Further details can be found in topic number 737-29556
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:
- Go to ati.amd.com. The AMD home page is displayed.
- Click on Support & Drivers. The AMD Support and Drivers web page is displayed.
- In the left hand pane, select Graphics Support.
- 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.
- In the Select Site field, select ATI.
- 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.