Catalyst 6.8

[B.Ob.]

Catalyst 6.8 Windows XP

 

6.8 Release Notes

 

Performance Improvement

 

As with most Catalyst® releases, performance has increased in various situations.

 

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

 

Known Issues for Catalyst® Software Suite 6.8

 

* Anarchy-Online: Screen corruption may be noticed when walking or running through the terrain. Further details can be found in topic number 737-22016

* 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. Further details can be found in topic number 737-22817

* 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. Further details can be found in topic number 737-21661

* 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. Further details can be found in topic number 737-23057

* 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. Further details can be found in topic number 737-21466

* Path of Neo: Texture corruption may be noticed when playing the Kung Fu level. Further details can be found in topic number 737-21464

* Sniper Elite: Playing the game under Windows XP with an ATI Radeon® X1600 series installed may result in texture corruption being noticed. Further details can be found in topic number 737-22820

* 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. Further details can be found in topic number 737-22811

* 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. Further details can be found in topic number 737-22632

 

After installing these, ignore if it says 6.7 instead of 6.8, "Little bug -- the driver is 8.282."

[ParoxysM]

Hmmm, my system is running fine...do I risk it for 11 more frames in Q4?!?!

[B.Ob.]

ATI CATALYST 6.8 Report

 

"The results speak for the themselves, and as always, whether or not you want to upgrade your CATALYSTs is entirely up to you. If you've been fragging it out in Quake 4 or Doom 3 as of late, then you only have a performance edge to gain, and nothing to lose. Contrary to ATI's release notes, we did not see any performance improvements in 3DMark 2006 or Call of Duty 2. I'll believe the Prey performance claims, as that is based on a modified Doom 3 engine, and our two Doom 3-engine based titles showed marked improvements."

[irons]

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.

 

Looks like I'm waiting to bump up my 6.6.

[B.Ob.]

ATI Catalyst 6.8 Performance Analysis

 

"A clear winner! It is also one of first this year to give us any real gain in performance. Up until now most of the drivers have been nothing more then bug fixes, and as good as that is we always like some speed increase every now and again.

 

With the OpenGL performance being increased quite significantly it is good news for players of the latest OpenGL offering Prey which will make its way into our suite in the next set of Catalyst drivers."