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Does using Catalyst improve performance?

A

aadosx

Limp Gawd
Joined
Nov 30, 2005
Messages
389
I just bought an ATI X800XL card and the only game that I use is CS:S. On my old 9700Pro I didn't use Catalyst because it required the .NET framework which I found to slow my PC down some and put extra processes in the background. Should I use Catalyst though?... does it help the performance of the card? What exactly IS Catalyst, what exactly IS .NET, and how do they help me beyond just my graphics card driver?

Thanks,
John
 
Install the latest driver (6.6 right now) using the custom option, and don't install the Catalyst Control Center (CCC). This is the part which requires .NET to be installed. You need to install some kind of driver if you're playing games.

Use ATi Tray Tools as your control panel, just google it and you'll find download links.
 
Right. I have the driver installed... by itself. But I wanted to know if installing Catalyst would improve my cards performance in games.
 
aadosx said:
Right. I have the driver installed... by itself. But I wanted to know if installing Catalyst would improve my cards performance in games.
Click to expand...
Catalyst is the driver.

Install ATi Tray Tools so you can change graphics options.
 
aadosx said:
Right. I have the driver installed... by itself. But I wanted to know if installing Catalyst would improve my cards performance in games.
Click to expand...
Straight answer:

No
 
I recieved my x1800xt today (first time ATI owner) from newegg. I started out with the basic display drivers + ATI tray tool. I could not get my system to boot without the "new hardware found" prompt.

I then uninstalled it all and install the full driver option with .NET and CCC.

Wow what a pile of shit this program configuration is... my system is literally brought to its knees (not in gaming though). CCC/.net keeps 200mb or so of memory occupied. CCC itself is so slow and buggy. I am very surprised at ATI's lacking here.

Correct me if I'm wrong, or tell me how to use Display Drivers only plus ATI tool.
 
Hrmm, well with just the driver (no catalyst or .net) mine works fine. It just didn't seem to perform as well as I thought it would in CS:S. Then again, the game doesn't really require much or have too much room for improvement in graphics I suppose.

But yeah, when I had a 9700Pro I installed Catalyst and couldn't get it to work. I then figured out that I had to have .net installed. Wow, .net took so much of my systems resources, it slowed everything down. So I got rid of that shit and decided to never use it again. I don't even know what it's good for, and it's weird to me that a Microsoft program is required to run a graphics card driver/program.
 
200mb of ram usage? sure that isnt all windows?

CCC use like 30mb for me on my x1900 XT

if anything, go use Omega's drivers if you want some not likely noticable improvements.
 
MrGuvernment said:
200mb of ram usage? sure that isnt all windows?

CCC use like 30mb for me on my x1900 XT

if anything, go use Omega's drivers if you want some not likely noticable improvements.
Click to expand...

I used the ATI Catalyst tweak guide from here and it reduced the ram usage from 430-440mb to 220-230mb last night (after I posted).

Performance in Oblivion is still horrible with full 6.6 Cats & CCC. I'm going to uninstall, use driver cleaner, then go back to basic driver + ATI tool again and see if it works better.
 
xtasyindecay said:
I used the ATI Catalyst tweak guide from here and it reduced the ram usage from 430-440mb to 220-230mb last night (after I posted).

Performance in Oblivion is still horrible with full 6.6 Cats & CCC. I'm going to uninstall, use driver cleaner, then go back to basic driver + ATI tool again and see if it works better.
Click to expand...
I don't see how that's even possible to use 440mb of ram to use CCC. I just have CLI disabled because I do not use catalyst AI, and I've never had any performance problems. With 22 processes running, at idle, including the X-Fi processes, I'm at 430mb of physical memory usage.
 
I think i'm being misunderstood... Windows is using 200mb or so. The Catalyst drivers use 200 more. 400+/- mb of ram was being used.
 
That sounds odd, I have the latest CCC but disabled the tray and made only what was necessary to start up and be fully functional. ATI maybe takes up 25MB if that. I'm using an x800 XL PCI-E
 
ERL857 said:
That sounds odd, I have the latest CCC but disabled the tray and made only what was necessary to start up and be fully functional. ATI maybe takes up 25MB if that. I'm using an x800 XL PCI-E
Click to expand...

Yeah i have it down to 30mb or so after tweaking.

My attempts at installing ONLY the display drivers are not working (card still un-recognized after re-boot)

I'm going to install 6.6 through the custom option in the full installation and see if that works.
 
xtasyindecay said:
I think i'm being misunderstood... Windows is using 200mb or so. The Catalyst drivers use 200 more. 400+/- mb of ram was being used.
Click to expand...
I've never seen CCC use that much. I do not have any ATI related processes running now, and I'm using as much as I said before, and I don't have any performance problems. Disable CLI.exe and ati2paxx and 2vex or whatever they are in MSCONFIG. You don't need them, unless you're using overdrive or Catalyst AI, of which I use neither. I use ATItool for temp monitoring an overclocking, and catalyst AI is useless, so there's really no need to run them. If you need to start up CCC, it starts up the runtime by itself now, so that's not an issue anymore.
 
If you dont want the CCC (and many dont) get a copy of the 5.11,to 5.13 cats. they have the contol panel version that does not include all the fancy pants CCC options, but hey with a X800xl i dont think there are any huge performance improvements this year.
 
Tytanium said:
I've never seen CCC use that much. I do not have any ATI related processes running now, and I'm using as much as I said before, and I don't have any performance problems. Disable CLI.exe and ati2paxx and 2vex or whatever they are in MSCONFIG. You don't need them, unless you're using overdrive or Catalyst AI, of which I use neither. I use ATItool for temp monitoring an overclocking, and catalyst AI is useless, so there's really no need to run them. If you need to start up CCC, it starts up the runtime by itself now, so that's not an issue anymore.
Click to expand...

Thanks. I'm down to just Windows usage now. CCC does pop-up in the tray on coldboot.

Does Catalyst A.I. decrease or improve performance?
 
i have right now CLI.exe running - 2 precoesses and 2 proess of ati2evxx.exe

CLI.exe 9MB
CLI.exe 5.7MB
ati2vxx.exe 2.4MB
ati2vxx.exe 3.6MB

idle on desktop

When i start the cat control panel i get one more CLI.exe, they vary pending on what option i choose in the control panel

CLI.exe 3MB - 11MB
CLI.exe 5.7MB
CLI.exe 16MB - 30MB
ati2vxx.exe 2.4MB
ati2vxx.exe 3.6MB


So i think there is something seriously wrong with your comp if it is using that much ram.,
 
MrGuvernment said:
i have right now CLI.exe running - 2 precoesses and 2 proess of ati2evxx.exe

CLI.exe 9MB
CLI.exe 5.7MB
ati2vxx.exe 2.4MB
ati2vxx.exe 3.6MB

idle on desktop

When i start the cat control panel i get one more CLI.exe, they vary pending on what option i choose in the control panel

CLI.exe 3MB - 11MB
CLI.exe 5.7MB
CLI.exe 16MB - 30MB
ati2vxx.exe 2.4MB
ati2vxx.exe 3.6MB


So i think there is something seriously wrong with your comp if it is using that much ram.,
Click to expand...

I didn't add that AVG, X-fi, and Linksys drivers are running on top of that. I think I over estimated ati's usage.
 
With my old x850xt pe I used the Cat drivers + ATT.

Now with my x1800xt I'm using the cat drivers + ATI Tool. Both I find better than using CCC.
 
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