ATI Catalyst 3.7 Released

[igalan]

Yesterday ATI released it's much anticipated new Catalyst driver 3.7. This new version not only improves compatibility with new games and applications, it also contains some optimizations in Pixel Shader 2 that can boost DX9 applications ut to 12%.

It also contains the much needed "Force triple buffering". With this option activated and Vsync on, you will no longer get the huge FPS drops that you currently get with Vsync on in high action scenes. So no more image tearing! BTW this option uses more video memory to keep the bigger frame buffer (don't use it in very high resolutions or with high AA modes.)

Download Windows XP version here

Catalyst 3.7 Release Notes

For other OS go here

[igalan]

The bug of 16 bit textures in OGL has not been fixed in this driver yet. So if your main issue was this one, don't bother upgrading...

Thumbs down to ATI, this problem has been reported over and over, and they failed to fix something so obvious.

[rastagard]

That's ATI for ya. The only thing that has ever held them back is their crappy drivers. This has been going on for years. I would think they might just hire some talent to improve the situation, but it never seems to happen.


Oh well, as is my usual practice when it comes to ATI's new drivers, I'll wait till I have to upgrade before I do...................

[DreamCaster]

I'll give this version a go and see what happens with UT

Thanks for the update igalan

[igalan]

I installed them to see if they fix a weird problem that I have with Unreal 2: If I start the computer and play Unreal2, the game runs slow; but if I close the session and start again a session (or reboot) the game runs fast and smooth. No other game that I have installed has this problem I don't know how Unreal2 knows when to run slow, I mean if I reboot a second time it runs fast, but how does U2 know that this is not the first boot ... Too weird

Anyway the problem is not fixed . I'm going to try my other games and see if I keep 3.7 or go back to 3.4.

BTW, if you install the drivers from the split files (one for the driver, one for the control panel, one for WDM capture), the control panel seems broken. I posted a possible fix in Rage3D but I haven't tested it myself.

Edit: It seems that ATI linked a bad file for the control panel. The link has been fixed now.

[DreamCaster]

The first time I upgraded the Catalyst to version 3.6 all I installed was the video driver. It looked like it came in a few parts. I did not see a combination file there. Guess I'll try upgrading all of them tonight and see what happens. I came across a forum board discussion about UT2003 and ATI with a lot of suggestions I'm going to try as well.

[igalan]

After some more tests, I'm keeping 3.7. The problem of hard crashes with Need For Speed Hot Pursuit 2 is fixed in this release. Every other game that I have seems to run fine, and since it has more fixes than Cat 3.4, there's no reason to go back .

[DreamCaster]

Glad to hear it's working for 'ya
Unfortunately it does not solve my UT2k3 woes
Back to the drawing board here

[igalan]

Originally posted by DreamCaster
Glad to hear it's working for 'ya
Unfortunately it does not solve my UT2k3 woes
Back to the drawing board here

What problems do you have with UT2003?

[DreamCaster]

Basically, random system lockups when playing various maps. I play it in full screen mode and when the system locks up it takes a physical reboot to get things going again
The Next time I get an error message I'll screen cap and post it.