Driver Update: ATi Catalyst 4.7 Windows 98/Me

At the beginning of this month, ATi had already released the Catalyst driver version 4.7 for the Windows 2000 and XP platform, but now the same driver is ready for Windows 98 and Me. The drivers for the Millennium Edition are not WHQL certified as Microsoft has been there since January 1, 2004 no longer on for Windows Me. The release notes show what has changed:

The following performance gains are noticed:

• Further improvements in our Vertex Shader handling bring performance improvements to applications that use stencil shadow volumes. For example, the Battle of Proxycon and Troll’s Lair tests gain 10-30% on RADEON X800 PRO.
• Call of Duty framerates improve 5-10% when anti-aliasing is enabled on RADEON X800-series products.
• Aquamark performance is up slightly (2-3%) on RADEON X800-series products.

Resolved CATALYST Driver Issues:

• Enabling both the CRT and DVI connectors and setting the CRT to primary no longer results in display corruption being seen on the display connected to the DVI when running 3D Labs applications and disabling the display on the DVI connector
• The mouse pointer no longer flashes or becomes corrupted when setting the display mode to 1080i and launching Windows MCE
• DVD playback hesitation at the beginning of a movie is no longer noticed when using the ATI DVD Player under Windows XP with an ATI 8500 ALL-IN-WONDER installed
• The Windows XP operating system no longer fails to respond when a D3D application generates a floating-point exception error
• The BIOS Version information is now stated correctly in the Details found in the ATI Options tab. Further, the correct DAC and ASIC information is now displayed in the Adapter tab found in the advanced setting of the display properties
• The Overlay Theater Mode table has now been extended to support 1080i and 720p
• Launching EVE Online under Windows XP with an ATI RADEON 8500, 9100, or 9200 series no longer results in a VPU recover error before the terms and conditions is displayed

Resolved Game Issues:

• Setting the D3D option to Optimal Quality and configuring the game Freedom Fighters to 1280×1024 no longer results in display corruption being seen on the test resolution window. This issue occurred under Windows XP with an ALL-IN-WONDER 9200 installed
• The water that surrounds Death Island in the game Halo: Combat evolved is now seen as blue in colour. This issues was known to occur under Windows XP with an ATI RADEON 8500 installed
• Image rendering issues in the Truform room found in Serious Sam are no longer noticed when increasing the Truform level to maximum under the Advanced Rendering Option
• Flashing textures in the water are no longer noticed when running Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow under Windows XP with an ATI RADEON X800 XT installed
• Playing the game TOCA Race Driver under Windows XP no longer results in the shadows being missing under the car when the shadow quality is set to high

Known Issues:

• Playing the game Need for Speed ​​Underground under Windows XP with an ATI RADEON 8500 installed results in the road ahead not being lit up by the car’s headlights.
• Display corruption and missing polygons are noticed in the game Indian Jones and the Emperors Tomb.
• Playing the game Beyond Divinity with FSAA set to 2x results in display corruption when scrolling the display by moving the mouse to the left of the display.
• Specular lighting issues and incorrect textures is noticed when playing the game City of Heroes under Windows XP.
• Display corruption is noticed when running the Trolls Lair test 3 found in the 3D Mark03 benchmark.
• Inconsistent lighting and shadow flicker is noticed when playing the game Thief 3 under Windows XP with an ATI RADEON X800 XT Platinum Edition or the RADEON X800 PRO.
• A Performance decrease in the game Tiger Woods 2004 is noticed under Windows XP with an ATI RADEON 9700 series installed. ATI Customer Care is aware of the situation and ATI is investigating the cause.