ATI Catalyst™ Software Suite Version 7.5

Vista 32
http://ati.amd.com/support/drivers/vista32/common-vista32.html

XP
http://ati.amd.com/support/drivers/xp/radeonx-xp.html

New Features

This release of Catalyst™ introduces the following new features:

* DirectX 10 driver support for the Radeon™ HD 2900 XT (single card and CrossFire™ configurations) for Windows Vista
* Second Generation ATI Theater™ 650

DirectX 10 driver support for the Radeon™ HD 2900 XT (single card and CrossFire™ configurations) for Windows Vista

This release of Catalyst™ introduces the ATI DirectX 10 driver for the Radeon™ HD 2900 XT, for both single cards and CrossFire™ configurations. The ATI DirectX 10 driver used in combination with the Radeon™ HD 2900 XT (and an application designed to take advantage of the power of the DirectX 10 API) delivers incredible graphics effects never seen before on the PC.
Second Generation ATI Theater™ 650

This release of Catalyst™ introduces the second generation ATI Theater™ 650. This product will provide support for the new MCE 2006 requirements such as DRM support. Further, it will include features to support ATI All-In-Wonder products. It will also provide improved TV quality and Broadcast Flag support which enables full US terrestrial DTV support.
Performance Improvements

OpenGL performance is improved on the ATI Radeon™ X1950 XTX at high resolutions (1920x1200 or greater) with anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering enabled. Doom 3 and Quake 4 improves as much as 13-18%, and Prey improves at least 15.6%. The ATI Radeon™ X1950 Pro and X1650 XT also sees improvements in Doom 3 and Quake 4 of up to 14.1% at higher resolutions with anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering 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!

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:

* Doom3/Quake 4: Setting the in game options for Video Quality to Medium and Screen Size to 1024x768 no longer results in display corruption being noticed when setting AA to 4x. Further details can be found in topic number 737-25802
* IL2 Sturmovik->Forgotten Battles: Setting the in-game hardware options to custom and landscape detail to perfect no longer results in the water textures appearing corrupt when playing the game under the Windows Vista operating system. Further details can be found in topic number 737-26687
* Lego Star Wars II: Starting a new game and walking outside through any of the doors available no longer results in flickering/flashing being noticed during the fade transition. Further details can be found in topic number 737-27454
* Quake 4/Serious Sam: Attempting to launch the games with AA set to 2x or higher and the Catalyst™ Control Center->Advanced View->3D preview running in the background no longer results in the operating system failing to respond. Further details can be found in topic number 737-26690
* A Fatal Uninstall Error of ATI Catalyst™ Install Manager is no longer experienced on some hardware configurations running Vista. Further details can be found in topic number 737-27083
* Catalyst™ Control Center: The Content Viewing selection for Component Video is no longer blank in the Basic view when using only an HDMI display device. Further details can be found in topic number 737-27084
* CrossFire™: The text and buttons found in the CrossFire™ disable warning message are no longer cropped in all supported languages excluding English. Further details can be found in topic number 737-27085
* Switching between users with Catalyst™ Control Center->Color aspect open, no longer incorrectly enables the Reactivate ATI Color controls button on some hardware configurations. Further details can be found in topic number 737-27086
* In the Catalyst™ Control Center, a blank page is no longer seen in the basic view when changing extended desktop to clone mode with CRT and SDTV connected on some ASIC families. Further details can be found in topic number 737-27088
* In the Catalyst™ Control Center the localization "Select a Skin" window page is now localized with the appropriate languages on some hardware configurations. Further details can be found in topic number 737-27087
* Enabling CrossFire™ no longer automatically enables 'Triple Buffering' and disables 'Support DXT texture format' in 3D->More Settings. Further details can be found in topic number 737-27090
* The position of the TV as reported by the Catalyst™ Control Centre when switching from underscan to overscan no longer differs between the operating systems Windows XP and Windows Vista. Further details can be found in topic number 737-27079
* Mode changes including extending the desktop is no longer observed to be extremely slow with two monitors attached and enabled on the ATI Radeon™ X1800 series of products. Further details can be found in topic number 737-27080
* Overlay Theater Mode no longer fails under the conditions that the desktop is extended to a secondary display on ATI Radeon™ X1300/X1550 series of products. Further details can be found in topic number 737-27082
* On some hardware configurations the Catalyst™ Control Center "Content Viewing selection for Component Video" page is no longer blank in the Basic view when using only an HDMI display device. Further details can be found in topic number 737-27452
* Switching between users with Catalyst™ Control Center->Color aspect open, no longer incorrectly enables the "Reactivate ATI Color controls" button on some hardware configurations. Further details can be found in topic number 737-27086
* An error message is no longer displayed when disabling CrossFire™ under the Windows Vista operating system. Further details can be found in topic number 737-27453
* Catalyst™ Control Center: Attempting to change the Core clock settings within the Overdrive™ aspect no longer results in the new setting failing to be applied. Further details can be found in topic number 737-27455
* WinDVD8: Enabling hardware acceleration no longer results in corruption being noticed during video playback. Further details can be found in topic number 737-27616
* Using Windows Media Player 11 to play an MPEG file using HDMI audio on a system running Windows Vista no longer results in file not playing properly if swapping the primary and secondary display devices. Further details can be found in topic number 737-27617
* Mode changes including extending the desktop is no longer observed to be extremely slow with two monitors attached and enabled on the ATI Radeon™ X1800 series of products. Further details can be found in topic number 737-27456
* Playing HD DVD content followed by attempting to hot unplug a display device and then hot-plugging the same display device to a different port no longer results in the HD DVD playback failing to resume. Further details can be found in topic number 737-27618

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:

* Call of Duty: An error message no longer appears when task switching between the game and the Windows desktop. This issue may also be experienced under the Windows Vista operating system. Further details can be found in topic number 737-26750
* Just Cause: The game no longer fails to run cinematic at 1600x1200 game resolution on ATI Radeon™ X1200/1250/1270 series of products. Further details can be found in topic number 737-27093
* Installing an ATI Radeon™ X1900 CrossFire™ Master and X1900 slave under Windows XP no longer results in AA settings failing to be retained when rebooting the system. This issue may also be experienced under the Windows Vista operating system. Further details can be found in topic number 737-25808
* Uninstalling the graphics drivers no longer results in some of the files and folder failing to be removed in the Program File folder. Further details can be found in topic number 737-23715
* When operated from the Start Menu->All Programs->Catalyst™ Control Center, the Catalyst™ Control Center no longer fails to display the expected choices Catalyst™ Control Center->Wizard and Catalyst™ Control Center->Advanced on some hardware configurations. Further details can be found in topic number 737-27096

Known Issues Under the Windows Vista Operating System

This section provides information on known issues associated with the ATI Catalyst™ Vista RTM driver for both the 32bit and 64bit versions of the Microsoft Windows Vista operating system. These include:

* Homeworld2: Setting the game options to default and starting a single player game may result in display corruption being noticed. Further details can be found in topic number 737-26692
* Never Winter Nights->Undrentide: Enter the Advanced Video Options within the game may result in the inability to enable the Shiny Water option. Further details can be found in topic number 737-27462
* NHL 07: The in-game display settings may fail to be applied when playing the game under the Windows Vista operating system when using a supported ATI Radeon™ product. Further details can be found in topic number 737-23549
* X-Plane: Playing the game under the Windows Vista operating system may result in display corruption being noticed when using an ATI Radeon™ X1900/1950 series of product. Further details can be found in topic number 737-25522
* In the Catalyst™ Control Center, the Help buttons drop down box appear towards left side of the window instead of right side for some languages on certain hardware configurations. Further details can be found in topic number 737-27089
* Playing a DVD under the Windows Vista operating system using the Windows Media Player may result in the DVD failing to play when switching between display devices using the hot-key function. Further details can be found in topic number 737-24472. Fixed in 8.39
* Resuming from an S3 state may result in a longer than expected time for the Windows Vista operating system to resume. Further details can be found in topic number 737-25798
* Hot-plugging a CRT to a system running Windows Vista and containing an ATI Radeon™ X1100/1150 series of product may result in extended desktop mode failing to be applied. Further details can be found in topic number 737-25801
* The desktop shortcut to the Catalyst™ Control Center may disappear after performing a Windows Anytime Upgrade on some hardware configurations running Vista. Further details can be found in topic number 737-27078
* On some hardware configurations the CIM video driver installer lists The Catalyst™ Install Manager and Microsoft Visual C++ among components of the Component Selection Menu whereas these should not appear since they are mandatory and not optional. Further details can be found in topic number 737-27081
* Enabling CrossFire™ followed by disconnecting and then reconnecting the CRT display device may result in duplicate video options being seen within the Catalyst™ Control Center. Further details can be found in topic number 737-27457
* Catalyst™ Control Center->OverDrive™: The OverDrive™ setting are not retained for individual accounts. This issue may also be experienced under the Windows Vista operating system. Further details can be found in topic number 737-25805
* The OverDrive™ clocks may fail to revert back to the default settings and the Apply and Discard buttons may not become enabled when changing the clock settings for both the primary and secondary display devices. Further details can be found in topic number 737-27619
* Enabling CrossFire™ followed by setting AA to 14x and AF to 16x may result in the AA showing a setting of 0x level when disabling CrossFire™ and unchecking the AA option in the 3D aspect. Further details can be found in topic number 737-27458
* Making changes to the Color aspect found in the Catalyst™ Control Center without applying the changes may result in the Reactivate ATI color controls button remaining active after the Catalyst™ Control Center is closed and then re-launched. Further details can be found in topic number 737-27459
* The Record function currently fails to work when using an ATI All-In-Wonder X1300 and time shifting is enabled. Further information can be found in topic number 737-22014
* A blank screen may be displayed after unchecking all the Component Video formats except when the 480i30 custom mode is applied. Further details can be found in topic number 737-27620
* Enabling CrossFire™ followed by setting the Overdrive™ clocks to their maximum settings may result in the Catalyst™ Control Center failing to accurately report the requested Overdrive™ values. Further details can be found in topic number 737-27621
* Connecting a secondary display device and enabling extended desktop mode may result in changes being made to the secondary display device being reflected on the primary display device. Further details can be found in topic number 737-27460
* After installing the ATI display driver and Catalyst™ Control Center the display driver may not be listed in the installed components. Further details can be found in topic number 737-27461
* The desktop shortcut to the Catalyst™ Control Center may disappear after performing a Windows Anytime Upgrade on some hardware configurations running Vista. Further details can be found in topic number 737-27078
* A green or black screen may be displayed when configuring MCE to ATSC mode. Further details can be found in topic number 737-27622
* Playing a DVD using either WinDVD or PowerDVD may result in corruption being noticed if the players is rotated to any position other than landscape. Further details can be found in topic number 737-27463
* Setting the Avivo Video De-interlacing setting to auto, motion adaptive or vector adaptive may result in certain DVDs, menu videos and some special features failing to benefit from the options. Further details can be found in topic number 737-27196
* Installing the display driver under the Windows Vista operating system may result in the display resolutions of 1680x1050, 1800x1440, 1920x1080 and 1920x1200 not being available when using an analog CRT display device. Further details can be found in topic number 737-27464
* Running through the un-install of the ATI display driver may result in the display driver failing to be completely removed. Further details can be found in topic number 737-27466

Known Issues Under the Windows XP Operating System

The following section provides a summary of open issues in the latest version of Catalyst™. These include:

* Armed Assault: Handle count leak maybe noticed during game play in Task Manager. Further details can be found in topic number 737-27467
* Homeworld 2: The application may fail to run when CrossFire™ is enabled and an Anti-Aliasing setting of greater than 2 is selected on certain ATI Radeon™ X1800 series of products. Further details can be found in topic number 737-27094
* Neverwinter Nights: Shadows of Undrentide may show dithering corruption on the loading screen(s) with Anisotropic Filtering enabled on certain graphics families. Further details can be found in topic number 737-27095
* Starwars Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords: Setting the in-game display option to low settings may result in corruption being noticed within the game. Further details can be found in topic number 737-25173
* 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. Further details can be found in topic number 737-22806
* Catalyst™ Control Center->Overdrive™: The OverDrive™ setting are not retained for individual accounts. This issue may also be experienced under the Windows Vista operating system. Further details can be found in topic number 737-25805
* Launching the release notes under the Japanese or Chinese version of Windows may result in the release notes displaying a blank page. This issue may also be experienced under the Windows Vista operating system. Further details can be found in topic number 737-26749. Planned Release 8.39
* Some pixilated corruption may be observed while running the game Prey while hovering over the health packs from a distance on some hardware configurations running Win XP. Further details can be found in topic number 737-27091
* The system may become unresponsive and require a reboot while randomly moving Video Player window from primary to extended desktop under certain hardware configurations where the second adapter is an ATI Radeon™ X1200/1250/1270 series of product. Further details can be found in topic number 737-27092. Planned Release 8.38
* Connecting two display devices to an ATI Radeon™ X1600 series product may result in the device manager failing to detect the secondary display device. Further information may be found in topic number 737-21266
* Corruption may be noticed when playing certain DVD titles when hardware acceleration is enabled on ATI Radeon™ HD 2900 XT product. Further details can be found in topic number 737-27624

Well, damn it, where are the comparisons??!!

What's interesting is that all of the dates on the drivers are May 17th, 2007, going to show how long it took Microsoft to WHQL.

Seems like it was MS, and not AMD, that almost turned the release into a "7.6".

I notice it has "Free game offer" and "Earthsim" as installable components - the first will be Steam, what's EarthSim?

They STILL haven't fixed the random "Copy file failed" error that's been there since Cat 7.3 on XP x64.

Crossfire is still broken on the LP demo - 34/34 with Crossfire ON, 37/37 with it OFF.

However STALKER Crossfire support is now included - I get 17FPS when I first go outside with Crossfire OFF, 28FPS with it ON.

All of these are on an X1900XT Crossfire / Opteron 170 2.6Ghz XP x64 machine.

Edited for being an Idiot, turned off Adaptive AA. Oblivion seems to do pretty well with these drivers. The Chocking in the 3.37 and 3.38 RC7 are not present in the 7.5

well i just installed it and one thing i def have noticed thus far is my desktop, text, icons and also web sites are much sharper. when i first instaleld the 2900 xt i immediatly noticed everything was slightly blurred, glad that is fixed now.

LawGiver said:

well i just installed it and one thing i def have noticed thus far is my desktop, text, icons and also web sites are much sharper. when i first instaleld the 2900 xt i immediatly noticed everything was slightly blurred, glad that is fixed now.

Click to expand...

yikes, i'm suprised nobody mentioned that before. that would've been gripe number one, for me.

LawGiver said:

well i just installed it and one thing i def have noticed thus far is my desktop, text, icons and also web sites are much sharper. when i first instaleld the 2900 xt i immediatly noticed everything was slightly blurred, glad that is fixed now.

Click to expand...

That's nice to know. Seems odd these things get forgotten in all the benchmark talk and everything.

Ran 3dmark06 got a 100 point increase. I will do further testing later this evening.

LawGiver said:

well i just installed it and one thing i def have noticed thus far is my desktop, text, icons and also web sites are much sharper. when i first instaleld the 2900 xt i immediatly noticed everything was slightly blurred, glad that is fixed now.

Click to expand...

yep that was the first thing i also noticed , desktop its much better than with previus driver , its really perfect (colors, contrast, icons , text ) like in "old"1950 series or even better




BTW

FREE GAMES with this driver for EVERYONE WHO HAVE A ATI CARD (NOT ONLY HD2900)


regards

I haven't had an ATI card for a while and I have a tracking number for my video card so it'll arrive maybe next week (I'm in Canada). Anyway, which should I choose to install? Should I install the suite or just the driver? What kind of goodies am I getting with the suite?

gave my monitor an "out of range" message. Had to launch into safe mode and uninstall just to bring up desktop. now running off 6.12 the only one I found on my hard drive.

ATI X850pro --> XT
viewsonic VA1912wb 1440x900

Bear in mind when you update your video card drivers you also need to reinstall your monitor drivers - if you haven't done this your card won't know what frequencies the display supports and you may get that problem.

FalconSS said:

gave my monitor an "out of range" message. Had to launch into safe mode and uninstall just to bring up desktop. now running off 6.12 the only one I found on my hard drive.

ATI X850pro --> XT
viewsonic VA1912wb 1440x900

Click to expand...

Exactly the same except I have ASUS ATI X1950XT

JDAdams said:

Bear in mind when you update your video card drivers you also need to reinstall your monitor drivers - if you haven't done this your card won't know what frequencies the display supports and you may get that problem.

Click to expand...

Just chipping in, my X1950XT seems to have 'remembered' the monitor drivers fine in the couple upgrades that went since I set the computer up.

I'm not sure when the last time I actually had to reinstall the monitor drivers was. They seem to carry over just fine.

Is it just me that gets this with the monitor drivers then? They always go back to "Plug & Play monitor" from the proper driver. Maybe it's something to do with Crossfire.

Mine has always said "Plug and Play" monitor.

Then it's using a generic Windows driver - those will be kept following a GPU driver update, but aren't specific to the monitor so you may well get the "out of range" errors people are reporting (since the driver may think a particular res / refresh rate combo is supported when it isn't)

With the correct driver installed it should show the monitor name, e.g. mine says "ViewSonic VP2030 Series" - drivers are usually on the manufacturer's site.

Mine usually says VX2025wm. Might be a Vista thing but even with XP I don't remember having to select the monitor drivers recently. I do recall doing it before but it's been a while and I usually install each update.

Interesting. I've never bothered to install monitor drivers actually.

Could this result in a performance hit?

Maybe if you had VSync on all the time but that's the only case that comes to mind. Monitor drivers are basically what refresh rates you can run at what resolutions. Windows usually runs everything at 60Hz which is also supported by just about everything.

The Sony monitor I have also ships the driver with ICM color profile files appropriate to it. Very trivial difference, but it does improve things.

I've got monitor out of range as well. I even have monitor drivers installed.

nice AMD... I submitted a ticket and guess what they did? gave me a link to 7.4's! lol evidently there is a problem.