Driver Update: ATi Catalyst 4.2

ATi has new Catalyst drivers for its Radeon cards today released† This release is numbered as version 4.2 and has changes in terms of games and driver core. In addition, this version is compatible with Windows XP Media Center Edition 2004. All-In-Wonder cards used in MCE systems must use supplied WDM drivers. Below is the changelog of Catalyst 4.2:

Fixed in this driver:

• Running Celestia under Windows XP with an ATI RADEON™ 8500 series or RADEON™ 9100 series installed no longer results in a slow down of the performance
• Enabling extended desktop mode with the display set to 1600×1200 and running Inventor 8 no longer results in display corruption when loading a sample
• Performance losses noticed in Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory with the previous CATALYST™ display driver have been resolved in this release of CATALYST™
• 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 color 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
• Launching the game Tron 2.0 under Windows XP no longer results in the game failing to respond after the game introduction is loaded
• Launching the game Line of Sight: Vietnam and setting the graphics option to 800×600 16bpp no ​​longer results in the game failing to respond when selecting a new game
• Running the game Armed and Dangerous under Windows XP with an ATI RADEON™ 9200 series installed no longer results in the display image appearing corrupted when selecting Storm the Base mission in the game
• The game Half-Life is now displayed properly under Windows XP when the game resolution is set to either 320×240 or 400×300
• Playing the game Serious Sam 2 under Windows XP with an ATI RADEON&tdrade; 9500/9800 series installed no longer results in the game failing to run when the game option is set to OpenGL
• Playing the game Unreal Tournament 2003 under Windows XP with an ATI RADEON™ 9600 series installed no longer results in texture corruption being displayed on the flag surfaces in the DM-Tokara Forest
• Selecting the Optimum Quality setting in D3D control panel no longer results in a frozen frame when launching the game HALO
• Setting the resolution in the game SpyHunter to 1280×1024 along with having the Use Recommended Settings slider set to balanced in the ATI 3D tab no longer results in some background images being missing while the game is loading
• Setting the display option to 640×480 or 800×600 in the game Splinter Cell no longer results in the game menu flickering
• Returning to the main menu in the game Counter-Strike no longer results in the game’s refresh rate reverting back to 60Hz when resuming game play

[break]Broadbanders can get the new Catalyst drivers from here download in one go. To meet the callers’ needs, ATi has divided the 4.2 drivers into three packages, each with its own driver:

Display Driver 6.14.10.6422
Control Panel 6.14.10.5088
WDM Capture Driver 6.14.10.6227