Catalyst 8.11 Discussion Thread

[lemonhead]

New Features
This section provides information on new features found in this release of the
Radeon™ Display Driver. These include the following:
• ATI CrossFireX™ Enhancements
• HydraVision Support for Windows XP
• New Display Enhancements
• Performance Improvements

Performance Improvements
The following performance gains are noticed with this release of Catalyst™
FarCry 2 – performance gains of 3 to 10% for Single card mode and 8 to 14% in
Crossfire mode, with some specific configurations showing even greater improvements.
Performance gains were noticed on all Radeon HD4xxx and Radeon
HD3xxx products.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky – performance gains of 6 to 18% in single card settings
and 10 to 30% in CrossfireX mode. Performance gains were noticed on all
Radeon HD04xxx and Radeon HD3xxx products.


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:
• During game play for “Age of Conan”, DirectX 10 may cause the screen to
blank
ATI Catalyst™ Release Note 6
• Resizing video during playback may intermittently cause desktop video corruption
• Video playback tearing may occur under Windows Vista 32 or XP
• Hardware acceleration is not enabled when playing HD content using Cyberlink
• Catalyst Control Center, Overdrive options missing under Graphics settings
• Some OpenGL content may not align to the Hydravision preset grid
• Catalyst Control Center 'ShowGrid' does not display the correct grid settings
for the attached displays
• “Gratitude{EF25BC.....}” or HydraGrid.exe executables will be shown under
process tab after launching Hydragrid

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:
• “Lower Resolution” message displayed when attempting to play HD content
using winDVD
• Running certain OpenGL applications may intermittently cause the system to
stop responding
• Some desktop corruption may be noticed when playing standard definition
video while exiting full screen DOS
• Overlay rotation failing under Windows XP
• Hot unplugging the secondary device with Clone Mode enabled may cause
video playback instability
• With Clone Mode and Overlay Theater Mode enabled some video playback
may fail to render properly
• Some corruption may be noticed during video playback on Cyberlink
winDVD7 and rotate desktop
• Midway “Stranglehold” may become unstable when run in 800x600 and
Dynamic Shadows is turned off

Release notes

http://ati.amd.com/support/driver.html

Now I have to figure out whether to update over FarCry, STALKER DX10.1, BIA:HH hotfix or not.

[Ristogod]

Does it have a Fallout 3 Profile? Or is my $550 video card worthless for another month?

[CabbageRed]

Shoot. I'm still getting a hardlock on my 4870x2 in Battlestations: Midway.

[mR Yellow]

Originally Posted by Ristogod

Does it have a Fallout 3 Profile? Or is my $550 video card worthless for another month?

Seriously, i'm sure u can play the game just fine.

[LordJuanlo]

I don't want to play the game "just fine", I want the full 60fps with 4xAA that this card is supposed to deliver at 1920x1200 with vsync, because the single 4870 does about 40-45.

BTW does this driver include all the fixes found on the second 8.10 hotfix?:

- Brothers in Arms Hells Highway Black Friday level fixed
- DX 10.1 support for Clear Sky
- Lord of the Rings Online Dx10 crashes fixed

[demowhc]

thanx, dl'ing now!

btw about fallout3, rename the exe to oblivion.exe and it runs great in CF/X..

[{WOR}lock]

Originally Posted by demowhc

btw about fallout3, rename the exe to oblivion.exe and it runs great in CF/X..

They already know that, they were in the thread. Maybe they forgot...

[blurter]

A question fo someone who knows.

This is from the 8.11 release notes;

This release of ATI Catalyst™ enables users to verify whether an application is
running in ATI CrossFireX™ mode. The new option found in the ATI Catalyst™
Control Center system tray, will allow users to verify whether a Direct3D or
OpenGL application is running in ATI CrossFireX™ mode. (The “ATI Cross-
FireX” logo will be shown on screen when the application is running).


Does this work with 4870x2, because I can't find the option for it anywhere and I was under the impression the the 4870x2 was a crossfire card.

Thanks.

[Skinner]

Well, a lot of games came out lately. But I hope ATI will provide CF profiles for Deadspace and Fallout3, (Two Worlds and Gothic3!!!!!!)

[Zebatshu]

Originally Posted by blurter

A question fo someone who knows.

This is from the 8.11 release notes;

This release of ATI Catalyst™ enables users to verify whether an application is
running in ATI CrossFireX™ mode. The new option found in the ATI Catalyst™
Control Center system tray, will allow users to verify whether a Direct3D or
OpenGL application is running in ATI CrossFireX™ mode. (The “ATI Cross-
FireX” logo will be shown on screen when the application is running).


Does this work with 4870x2, because I can't find the option for it anywhere and I was under the impression the the 4870x2 was a crossfire card.

Thanks.

Make sure you look for the option in the system tray. Right click on the ATI icon in your system tray then go to a screen setup (should be 4 since you have 4 DVI ports) and your see a added Crossfire X option. GL HF that logo is huge and you will probably turn it off after 20 mins of game play. As mentioned on other forms ATI should make the logo disapear after 10 sec or atleast give you an option where you can change its opacity, scale and display time.

[Skinner]

Are there any improvements over the latest hotfix?

[ElAguila]

I have the 4870 X2 and I can't find the option for the logo either.

[xsvcd]

FIX THE HDMI AUDIO ISSUES! It has been 5 months now and ALL ATI cards will not transmit any sort of audio to several receivers. Can we say class action!

RELEASE THE HOUNDS!
http://support.ati.com/

[jam2k]

Originally Posted by blurter

A question fo someone who knows.
This release of ATI Catalyst™ enables users to verify whether an application is
running in ATI CrossFireX™ mode. The new option found in the ATI Catalyst™
Control Center system tray, will allow users to verify whether a Direct3D or
OpenGL application is running in ATI CrossFireX™ mode. (The “ATI Cross-
FireX” logo will be shown on screen when the application is running).

Well no doubt that's a nice feature for Crossfire users.

As said before, it'll be good to have the option to customize display time, etc.

[LuCi-_-]

I'd like to know if this fixes fallou3 on 4870x2 as well. I tried renaming to oblivion, which didn't do anything. I verify by checking two instances of gpu-z each displaying one of the cores load. I tried 8.10, and 8.10 hotfix drivers and neither worked under the above conditions.

However I saw firingsquads review and not only did they show crossfire working with a 4870x2 and the hotfix drivers, but they also somehow removed the 60fps limit. I wish they would effin explain themselves instead of just posting results that may have taken them hours upon hours to achieve. I'm assuming they used atitraytools to disable vsync as i've heard that removes the limit in fallout3, whereas just disabling it in CCC does nothing. Not sure.

[Falcon1]

Originally Posted by blurter

This release of ATI Catalyst™ enables users to verify whether an application is
running in ATI CrossFireX™ mode. The new option found in the ATI Catalyst™
Control Center system tray, will allow users to verify whether a Direct3D or
OpenGL application is running in ATI CrossFireX™ mode. (The “ATI Cross-
FireX” logo will be shown on screen when the application is running).


Does this work with 4870x2, because I can't find the option for it anywhere and I was under the impression the the 4870x2 was a crossfire card.

Originally Posted by Zebatshu

Make sure you look for the option in the system tray. Right click on the ATI icon in your system tray then go to a screen setup (should be 4 since you have 4 DVI ports) and your see a added Crossfire X option. GL HF that logo is huge and you will probably turn it off after 20 mins of game play. As mentioned on other forms ATI should make the logo disapear after 10 sec or atleast give you an option where you can change its opacity, scale and display time.

Originally Posted by ElAguila

I have the 4870 X2 and I can't find the option for the logo either.

I can confirm, there is no such option for 4870X2 cards. I will investigate this further.

[FreeZor]

Originally Posted by blurter

A question fo someone who knows.

This release of ATI Catalyst™ enables users to verify whether an application is running in ATI CrossFireX™ mode. The new option found in the ATI Catalyst™ Control Center system tray, will allow users to verify whether a Direct3D or OpenGL application is running in ATI CrossFireX™ mode. (The “ATI Cross-FireX” logo will be shown on screen when the application is running).

LOL, Marketing first, then gaming....

[jcossin]

Originally Posted by xsvcd

FIX THE G0D DAMN HDMI AUDIO ISSUES! It has been 5 months now and ALL ATI cards will not transmit any sort of audio to several receivers. Can we say class action!

RELEASE THE HOUNDS!
http://support.ati.com/

Not to be rude but HDMI is a broken standard and you will find that the interoperability between HDMI devices to be very spotty no matter which HDMI devices you choose. Case in point, I have a Sharp Aquos LCD TV and when I got my DirecTV receiver the installation tech hooked it up with HDMI because he said it would give the best picture. He was right that the picture is clearer/sharper than the component but the problem is the picture will black out for 1 sec about every 30 secs. It took numerous calls to DirecTV and my searching through Google to find the HDMI is indeed a clusterf@#k and you cannot assume that two components that offer HDMI connectivity will work together. So I switched over to the slightly less sharp component connection and life has been great since.

So my advice (don't yell at me) would be that if you HAVE to have HDMI output for some reason, swap to a new TV (one that you can easily return and try for another until you find a compatible one). If that's not an option then use component/DVI for video and an audio out from your soundcard or HDMI just for the video and audio out from your soundcard and quit stressing over the fact that HDMI is a broken "standard" that ATI can't fix.

[jcossin]

Can Spyre or someone in the know comment as to whether these have the LOTRO fix for DX10 and AA? If not I'm going to have to skip this set and hope for 8.12...

[=Mustang=]

TY for the heads up lemonhead, 8.11 is all installed on my 3850 AGP, no problems to report

[Falcon1]

Originally Posted by jcossin

Can Spyre or someone in the know comment as to whether these have the LOTRO fix for DX10 and AA? If not I'm going to have to skip this set and hope for 8.12...

AA is working for me in Lotro with Cat 8.11 and DX10... or did you mean something else!?

[acroig]

Should we use these drivers for FC2 or the last Hotfix?

[the_gas]

Originally Posted by jam2k

Well no doubt that's a nice feature for Crossfire users.

As said before, it'll be good to have the option to customize display time, etc.

Yes this is a great option, i presume this is available for all crossfire solutions including 2900 users?

[spyre]

Originally Posted by jcossin

Can Spyre or someone in the know comment as to whether these have the LOTRO fix for DX10 and AA? If not I'm going to have to skip this set and hope for 8.12...

I dunno, I don't have that game installed anymore since my trial account ran out.

[Gerard]

I cant seem to see this option for the crossfire logo. 0_o 3870x2 here

[vinistois]

Originally Posted by acroig

Should we use these drivers for FC2 or the last Hotfix?

This is what we all need to know. It mentions FC2 performance enhancements.... does this driver replace the hotfix or what??

[spyre]

A single X2 card wont get the option since its got no Crossfire tab in the first place.

[LordJuanlo]

But it should, because it depends on Crossfire profiles, it's a Crossifire system on a single slot.

[Ristogod]

Originally Posted by mR Yellow

Seriously, i'm sure u can play the game just fine.

Seriously, im sure you can cover the cost difference for me for the 2nd GPU just fine.

[SsP45]

These drivers give me a BSOD everytime Windows boots up. Back to the Far Cry2 Hotfix drivers.