ATi Catalyst 6.8

Posted on Sunday, August 20 2006 @ 15:44 CEST by LSDsmurf

Performance Improvement

Improved shader compiler and transform engine optimizations have led to many significant performance gains in OpenGL applications across the entire Radeon X1000 series of products. These include:
- Doom 3 performance improves as much as 6.5%
- Quake 4 (v1.2 or higher) performance improves as much as 18%
- Chronicles of Riddick performance improves as much as 20%. Average improvements of 5-10% are commonly seen
- Prey performance improves as much as 16%
Optimizations made to ATI's graphics memory manager have led to significant gains in DirectX applications that make heavy use of graphics memory on 256MB ATi graphics cards:
- 3DMark06 performance improves as much as 22% on single ATi Radeon X1000 series cards with 256MB of graphics memory at 1280x1024 and higher when anti-aliasing is enabled. The largest gains are found on the ATi Radeon X1800 series and ATi Radeon X1900 series of products
- Call of Duty 2 performance improves as much as 30% on single ATi Radeon X550 cards or higher with 256MB of video memory at 1280x1024 and higher when anti-aliasing enabled. The largest gains are found on the ATi Radeon X1800 series and ATi Radeon X1900 series of products

Issues Resolved in Catalyst Software Suite 6.8

Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle Earth: Playing the game under Windows XP SP2 using an ATi Radeon X800 series product no longer results in intermittent display corruption being noticed.
Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones: Setting the 3D slider to Optimal Quality in Catalyst Control Center->Advanced View->3D->Standard Settings aspect no longer results in corruption being noticed in the water when playing the game under the Windows MCE operating system with an ATi Radeon X19x0 series product installed.
QQ Fantasy: Playing the online game under Windows XP with an ATi Radeon X1600 or X1300 no longer results in the an error message being displayed and the mouse pointer control becoming erratic.
Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory: Corruption is no longer noticed during the playing the opening cinematic when AA is enabled at 8x. This issue was known to occur under the Windows XP operating system when using an ATi Radeon X8x0 series product.
Playing a DVD for an extended period of time when using the Windows Media Player on a system containing an ATi Xpress 11x0 series of product no longer results in the operating system failing to respond.
Playing a DVD using WinDVD on a system containing either an ATi Radeon X1600 or X1300 product no longer results in corruption being noticed when changing the display resolution to either 1900x1200 or 1280x720.
Hot Plugging an HDMI TV to the DVI port of an ATi Radeon X19x0 series no longer results in the HDMI detection message box failing to appear under the Windows Media Center Edition operating system.
Playing back a media file using Windows Media Player 11 on a system containing an ATi Radeon X1600 or X1300 series of products no longer results in missing colors and or macroblock corruption being noticed.
Selecting same as source video option in the Japanese version of the Catalyst Control Center no longer results in the selection failing to be applied when using an ATi Radeon X1800 series product.
Playing an MPEG2 video clip on a system running Windows XP and containing an ATi Radeon X1x00 product no longer results in corruption being noticed during the playback of the MPEG2 file.
Selecting Restore Factory Defaults settings within the Catalyst Control Center now restores the Notebook Panel Properties to scale image full panel size when using an ATi Xpress 200 series product.
Catalyst Control Center->Advanced Mode: Changing the UMA Frame Buffer under the Windows XP operating system when using an ATi Xpress 200 series no longer results in a dialog box informing the user to restart the system in order for the changes to take effect, and once the user clicks OK, the system does not restart.
Catalyst Control Center: The translation for Use Centered Timings is now correct within the Catalyst Control Center when setting the language to Simplified Chinese under all supported operating systems when using an ATi Radeon X1600 series product.
Catalyst Control Center: The tool tip translation for Corruption is now correct when setting the language to Simplified Chinese under all supported operating systems when using and ATi Radeon X1600 series product.
Catalyst Control Center: Right clicking on the Catalyst Control Center within the system tray and navigating the 3D Setting->Anti-Aliasing no longer results in the sub menu translation for Application managed being incorrect when setting the language to Simplified Chinese under all supported operating systems when using an ATi Radeon X1600 series product.
Catalyst Control Center: De-selecting Custom View no longer results in the Custom View remaining active when closing and re-opening the Custom View window.
Catalyst Control Center: The Arrow keys for rotation are no longer displayed incorrectly in Hotkey Manager when using an ATi Radeon X700 series.
Catalyst Control Center: Attempting to set the display resolution to either 720p, 1080p or 1080i no longer results in the Catalyst Control Center failing to respond when using an ATi Radeon X19x0 series product.
Video lag is no longer noticed when playing a DVD using WinDVD 5.0 under the Windows XP operating system and an ATi Radeon X11x0 series product.
Catalyst Control Center: The TV Image Quality-Composite/S-Video Sharpness menu is no longer missing after switching the connection between Composite and S-Video.
Catalyst Control Center: Connecting an CRT along with an HDTV display and enabling clone mode no longer results in the desktop image reverting back to landscape mode when attempting to rotate the display by 90 or 270 degrees. This issue was known to occur under the Windows MCE operating system when using an ATi Xpress 200 series product.
Corruption is no longer noticed within the Catalyst Control Center after a VPU Recover event under the Windows XP operating system when using an ATi Radeon X1800 series product.
Catalyst Control Center->OverDrive: Changing the value of VPU or Vmem clock to less than 7M no longer results in the value changing back to the default setting.
Catalyst Control Center: Installing a secondary display adapter in a system running Windows MCE (Japanese version) no longer results in display properties providing inaccurate translation for the secondary display device.
The Windows XP operating system no longer fails to respond when attempting to resume from standby mode when using an ATi Radeon X19x0 series product.
Installing an ATi Radeon X1900 CrossFire master edition graphics card and ATi Radeon X1900 series secondary product on a system using a Dell 2405FPW and enabling CrossFire no longer results in the display device losing a signal or the 3D application or game exiting back to the desktop.
Various translation issues in the Catalyst Control Center for Windows XP MCE (Japanese version) are now resolved.
The secondary display device longer becomes disabled when resuming from standby mode under the Windows XP operating system when using and ATi Radeon X8x0 series product.
Catalyst Control Center: The Add button found in the CV Properties aspect page is no longer greyed out when attempting to add customized modes.
The GPU no longer hangs and the display device no longer displays a corrupt image when a VPU is triggered on systems containing either an ATi Radeon X1300 or X800 series or products.
The Windows XP operating system no longer shuts down at negative temperatures when using an ATi Radeon X19x0 series product.
Connecting a CRT and a TV to an ATi Radeon X19x0 product no longer results in the TV displaying corruption or lose of signal when resuming from hibernation mode.
Catalyst Control Center: Making adjustments to the Monitor Properties aspect page and applying the change no longer results in the default position failing to be applied when attempting to restore factory defaults.

Known Issues for Catalyst Software Suite 6.8

Anarchy-Online: Screen corruption may be noticed when walking or running through the terrain.
Battlefield 2: Attempting to launch the game under Windows XP with the in-game display setting at 1920x1440 or 2048x1536 and AA set to 6x may result in the game failing to launch.
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.
Elder Scolls IV: Oblivion: Setting the in game video option to High Resolution and setting the 3D option in the Catalyst Control Center to Optimal Quality may result in corruption being noticed when playing the game.
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.
Path of Neo: Texture corruption may be noticed when playing the Kung Fu level.
Sniper Elite: Playing the game under Windows XP with an ATi Radeon X1600 series installed may result in texture corruption being noticed.
Tomb Raider: Enabling CrossFire and setting AA to 12x and AF to 16x may result in corruption being noticed when playing the game on a system containing an ATi Radeon X1800 series.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Connecting two display devices to an ATi Radeon X1600 series product may result in the device manager failing to detect the secondary display device.
Display corruption may be noticed when configuring the DTV channel to 1080i broadcast when using an ATi HDTV Wonder.
OpenGL Extension Viewer: 2.0: Running the Rendering tests may result in a black box appearing when the fog option is enabled.
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.
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.
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.
Using the ATi Multimedia Center to watch TV may result in the operating system restarting when using an ATi Radeon X1800 series product.
The Record function currently fails to work when using an ATi All-In-Wonder X1300 with time-shifting enabled.
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
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
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
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
Enabling CrossFire may result in display corruption being noticed when playing a DVD or media clip using either WinDVD 7, Windows Media Player or PowerDVD 6.
Enabling CrossFire may result in display corruption being noticed when playing certain 3D games such as Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2006 and Madden Football.
Tiger Woods 2005 or 2006: Playing the game under Windows XP with an ATi Radeon X19x0 series product installed may result in the playback of the opening cinematics failing to playback properly.
When a TV is connected via the component dongle and HDTV is enabled in Clone mode, the display may remain blank when rebooting the system when all settings are reset to default.
Plugging a TV into s-video out connector, followed by entering to display manager and clicking detect displays may result in the TV failing to be detected.
CrossFire: The Windows XP operating system may fail to respond when attempting to resume from hibernation mode when CrossFire is enabled under the Windows XP operating system.
CrossFire support may appear in the Catalyst Control Center when using an ATi Hyper-Memory Radeon X1600 or X1300 product under the Windows XP operating system.
Catalyst Control Center: Deinterlacing modes maybe missing under the de interlacing settings found in the Catalyst Control Center.
Using Movie Maker 2.1 to capture video under Windows XP Professional x64 Edition results in the captured video being corrupt.
Playing back a media file using Windows Media Player 11 on a system containing an ATi Radeon X1600 or X1300 series of products may result in missing colors and or macroblock corruption being noticed.
The Record function currently fails to work when using an ATi All-In-Wonder X1300 and time shifting is enabled