CATALYST 4.2 available now

*CATALYST maker* · Feb 12, 2004, 01:52 PM

Just wanted to inform you (or your readers) that CATALYST 4.2 is now available. This update provides a new driver (now up to version 7.98) and a new multimedia center (now up to version 8.9). The quick link to the XP drivers is http://www.ati.com/home/online/CatalystXPdriver.html

Furthermore I wanted to let you know that ATI in conjuction with Beyond3d.com and DriverHeaven.net have released a "SMARSHADER Effects" tool. This innovative new concept will let users create their own shaders and load them up on CATALYST. Both Beyond3d.com and Driverheaven.net will be hosting this tool as well as having great end user contests to get peoples creative shader juices flowing. These can be found here and I highly recommend checking them out http://www.beyond3d.com/misc/atiss/ and http://www.driverheaven.net/smartshader/

Also please vote on the usual DH poll about the the quality of this driver
Poll: Rate Catalyst 4.2

***Zardon*** · Feb 12, 2004, 01:58 PM

To get the full info on the changes, fixes, improvements please read the full details at ATIs site but here is a little taster.

Performance Improvements
As with most CATALYST™ releases performance has increased in various situations. This release of CATALYST™ provides performance gains to the ATI DX8 product family. These products include the RADEON™ 9200, 9000, and 8500 series. Performance gains are noticed throughout the following software:

Framerates in Unreal Tournament 2003 is up by 15%
A performance gain of between 5 and 10% is noticed in Aquamark3
A performance gain of between 2-3% is noticed in ShaderMark scores
Framerates in Halo is up between 3-4%
A performance improvement of 2% is noticed in Tomb Raider

Resolved CATALYST™ Driver Issues
This section provides information on CATALYST™ driver issues that have been resolved in the latest release of CATALYST™. These include the following:

Logging on as an Administrator under Windows XP and doing a fast user switch to limited user no longer results in display corruption when playing a DVD using WinDVD version 4 or 5
User defined colour setting are now retained when exiting a 3D game or application
The ATI Control Panel no longer fails to launch when attempting to enter the Advanced options of the primary display adapter after disabling extended desktop support
The Cancel button found in the ATI 3D tab is now working properly when switching between a user defined profile and the default setting
Enabling the CRT as the primary display and turning the TV off in the Display page no longer results in a general protection fault under Windows ME
The Anisotropic Filtering custom setting is now retained under Windows XP with an ATI RADEON™ 7200 installed
The D3D panel now retains the user defined AA/AF setting under Windows XP when a RADEON™ 8500 series is installed and the main setting is set to High Quality

Component Video Output Enhancement
The latest ATI software driver now allows the user the choice of using panning mode or a center-timing mode in which the image would appear in the center of the TV screen when using the Component Video output on an HDTV display. This option is found in the ATI Control Panel and is supported under the Windows XP, Windows 2000, and Windows ME operating systems. This feature is available on the ATI RADEON™ 8500 and higher class of products.

Direct3D Setting Enhancement
Previous versions of the ATI display driver required the monitor going blank for up to 8 seconds when applying Direct3D settings. The latest ATI software driver for the RADEON™ 9500 and higher class of products now allows for the Direct3D setting to be applied without the monitor's display going blank.

JLP · Feb 12, 2004, 01:58 PM

Still no 64-bit drivers

But the Celestia problem on Radeon 8500 is finaly fixed. Or so I hope. I'll have to check it out when I install them.

toddsmack2k · Feb 12, 2004, 02:04 PM

Okay guys please give us your feedback and rate the 4.2 Catalyst drivers.

Vote HERE .

BWX · Feb 12, 2004, 02:12 PM

Wow, that was fast.

Hkhalid · Feb 12, 2004, 02:19 PM

These drivers can be used on Windows 2000 as well ??

**Roadee** · Feb 12, 2004, 02:24 PM

Skinner · Feb 12, 2004, 02:33 PM

It looks like ATI really sticks to their policy about 64 bits drivers

Well, thanx for the improvements anyway, the first impressions of these are good, great work

Banditgr · Feb 12, 2004, 02:42 PM

A couple of mirrors if its any help :

http://files.rage3d.gr/catalyst/wxp-...7m-013420c.exe (XP & 2k)
http://files.rage3d.gr/catalyst/wme-...7m-013420c.exe (ME/9x)

Cyan007 · Feb 12, 2004, 02:54 PM

Figures as soon as I kickup the money for a 9800pro they go ahead and improve my 8500!

scobywhru · Feb 12, 2004, 03:01 PM

Sweet, new drivers, thanks guys gonna go try them out right now

Max Powerz · Feb 12, 2004, 03:36 PM

Cool, DX8 performance increases baby! Anyone see a performance increase in UT2003?

SkyBum · Feb 12, 2004, 03:52 PM

HUGE improvement in NFSU for my tired 'ol AIW 8500DV. No more stuttering. That was driving me nuts and online I was running max low settings because it seemed to reduce the stuttering quite a bit. Just ran a few laps online with everthing maxed except for headlights turned off. Smooth as glass. Unbelievable.

I would have never guessed a driver update for such an old card would be packing such a punch. Never seen such an obvious improvement in a driver before. GREAT job ATI!

----------------------------------------
Asus A7V-266E
Athlon XP 1800+
512 DDR
AIW 8500DV
Seagate Barracuda Raid
XP
Klipsch 5.1 Ultra

*CATALYST maker* · Feb 12, 2004, 03:55 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by SkyBum
HUGE improvement in NFSU for my tired 'ol AIW 8500DV. No more stuttering. That was driving me nuts and online I was running max low settings because it seemed to reduce the stuttering quite a bit. Just ran a few laps online with everthing maxed except for headlights turned off. Smooth as glass. Unbelievable.

I would have never guessed a driver update for such an old card would be packing such a punch. Never seen such an obvious improvement in a driver before. GREAT job ATI!

----------------------------------------
Asus A7V-266E
Athlon XP 1800+
512 DDR
AIW 8500DV
Seagate Barracuda Raid
XP
Klipsch 5.1 Ultra

glad you like it! make sure you vote on the poll. All your feedback is invaluable to us. It's the only way we have of knowing how we are really doing.

Poll: Rate Catalyst 4.2

germanjulian · Feb 12, 2004, 04:04 PM

dam YEAH! you did fix my NFSU performance issues too!. weird. thanks

BWX · Feb 12, 2004, 04:08 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by SkyBum
HUGE improvement in NFSU for my tired 'ol AIW 8500DV. No more stuttering. That was driving me nuts and online I was running max low settings because it seemed to reduce the stuttering quite a bit. Just ran a few laps online with everthing maxed except for headlights turned off. Smooth as glass. Unbelievable.

I would have never guessed a driver update for such an old card would be packing such a punch. Never seen such an obvious improvement in a driver before. GREAT job ATI!

----------------------------------------
Asus A7V-266E
Athlon XP 1800+
512 DDR
AIW 8500DV
Seagate Barracuda Raid
XP
Klipsch 5.1 Ultra

I think it's awesome that ATI is still concentrating some effort on improving older graphic cards' performance like the 8500 series.. Even though I have a 9700pro- it still makes me think ATI is on the right track, because not all people have the fastest hardware- Soon the R420 will be out and maybe by then I'll have a 9800p or XT- but I'll still want ATI to improve performance for those cards in the future.

Also the improvement where the changes made in the D3D control panel doesn't blink the monitor is a welcome change..

Now, if we can only get an option to force AA on on all games, (even as an option, maybe in the "compatibility tab" and default will still be how it has been since the 3.8's for compatibility issues)
It would just give the user more control in some games where AA doesn't work. Maybe a warning could go along with the setting saying that if this causes problems, then turn it off, then it wouldn't compromise the overall stability of the driver. The Customer always benefits from more control over the way the driver works. Just a thought.

TotenMaske · Feb 12, 2004, 04:34 PM

Well after installing the new 4.2 drivers I looked in OpenGL Extension Viewer and discovered that these drivers add full support for all extenstions (1.5 shadow_funcs are supported finally). Very nice release, good job ATI.

___________
Pentium 4 3.40Ghz 800Mhz
2 Gb DDR Ram
160Gb
120Gb
ATI 98000 XT 256
Catalyst 4.2
Windows XP Pro

BWX · Feb 12, 2004, 04:37 PM

[quote]Originally posted by TotenMaske
[b]Well after installing the new 4.2 drivers I looked in OpenGL Extension Viewer and discovered that these drivers add full support for all extenstions (1.5 shadow_funcs are supported finally). Very nice release, good job ATI.

Hmm, I wonder what games use that ext.? Do you know of any? I wonder what the differences will be?

Warpy · Feb 12, 2004, 04:38 PM

Huge improvements with the following for me:

Far Cry beta
NFS Underground
Chrome
Far Cry demo
Rainbox Six - Ravenshield
Broken Sword 3

I had to do a double take at my monitor this morning to see if I was seeing things "ATI catalyst 4.2"

I have voted in the poll.

Funky Monkey

***Zardon*** · Feb 12, 2004, 04:51 PM

Thanks for voting guys, it really is a good indication to Terry and the guys in ATI just what you all think, they do take records of the results.

)-(aVoC · Feb 12, 2004, 05:02 PM

Everytime I try to install this driver I get an error "Setup was unable to complete the installation. Try to setup your display adapter with a standard VGA driver before running the setup." I have no clue what that means or what I should do. I have a 9000 pro and my os is ME.

*CATALYST maker* · Feb 12, 2004, 05:10 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by )-(aVoC
Everytime I try to install this driver I get an error "Setup was unable to complete the installation. Try to setup your display adapter with a standard VGA driver before running the setup." I have no clue what that means or what I should do. I have a 9000 pro and my os is ME.

can you show me the link to where you are downloading the driver from so I can try it

snake · Feb 12, 2004, 05:12 PM

It's amazing how fast ATI was to release this new set

But to be honest, i'm asking to myself if it's not beacause of, well the kind of tests like Neon Cowboy has done and shown the 4.1 wasn't the leader after all

Anyway, it's a really good job and always a pleasure to test ATI's sets

*CATALYST maker* · Feb 12, 2004, 05:14 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by snake
It's amazing how fast ATI was to release this new set
But to be honest, i'm asking to myself if it's not beacause of, well the kind of tests like Neon Cowboy has done and shown the 4.1 wasn't the leader after all
Anyway, it's a really good job and always a pleasure to test ATI's sets

lol

No trust me, it had nothing to do with Neon Cowboys tests.
We release a new driver every month. Thats our public commitment. So expect a new driver every second week of a given month or so.

Exxtreme · Feb 12, 2004, 05:26 PM

Hi CM,

your readme says:

"Direct3D Setting Enhancement

Previous versions of the ATI display driver required the monitor going blank for up to 8 seconds when applying Direct3D settings. The latest ATI software driver for the RADEON™ 9500 and higher class of products now allows for the Direct3D setting to be applied without the monitor's display going blank. "

But the black screen is still there.

I have installed the "wxp-w2k-catalyst-7-981-040127m-013420c" package (driver + control panel). I'm using Windows 2000 + SP4.

Best regards.