Driver Update: ATi Catalyst 4.9

ATi has just released the latest Catalyst drivers for its Radeon graphics cards. The new-fangled version is from the download page in a variety of flavors including a package with the Display Drivers, Control Panel and WDM Capture Drivers, and a download with the Display Drivers, WDM Capture Drivers and ATi’s Control Center. It is also possible to read the above drivers separately. As usual, ATi has made a number of bug fixes in the areas of games, applications and the drivers themselves. Below are the release notes of Catalyst 4.9. For a brief overview, please visit this page†

Performance Improvements for Catalyst Display Driver Version 4.9

• Doom3 performance improves 10-15% on ATi Radeon X800 XT products when anti-aliasing is enabled.
• UT2004 performance improves considerably on the ATi Radeon 9500 Pro, Radeon 9700 Pro Radeon 9800 Pro and Radeon 9800 XT products. The benefit can be 25% or more in some circumstances, particularly at extreme graphics settings such as 6xAA + 16xAF.

Issues Resolved in Catalyst Display Driver Version 4.9

• XIII: Light map artifacts are no longer noticed in the game when loading a saved game under Windows XP with an ATi Radeon 9200 installed
• Far Cry v1.2: Texture corruption is no longer seen on the ground
• IL2 Forgotten Battles: Playing the game under Windows XP with an ATi Radeon X800 series installed no longer results in the display corruption and the game failing to respond when FSAA is enabled and display is set to either 1200×960 or 1600×1200
• Indian Jones and the Emperors Tomb: Display corruption and missing polygons are no longer noticed in the game
• PainKiller: missing textures are no longer noticed on the ground and light artifacts are noticed when moving around within the game or when moving in and out of the light.
• Serious Sam SE: Running the game under Windows XP with an ATi Radeon X800 Pro installed no longer results in lens flares showing through solid objects within the game
• Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic: An access violATion error no longer occurs when using the function Alt-Tab to get out of the game and then using the function Alt-Tab to get back into the game
• Tabula Rasa: Video rendering issues are no longer noticed playing the game under Windows XP with an ATi Radeon 9700 Pro installed
• Tony Hawk 4: playing the game under Windows XP with an ATi Radeon 9100 installed no longer results in white pixels being seen around the edges of objects
• Connecting an HDTV 7pin dongle to the video card no longer results in TV detection issues when both the TV and YPbPr (HDTV) are active
• Playing a DVD with PowerDVD on the primary display and playing an MPEG clip with Windows Media Player on the secondary display device no longer results in flickering and corruption being seen

Known Issues for Catalyst Display Driver Version 4.9

• City of Heroes: Specular lighting issues and incorrect textures is noticed when playing the game under Windows XP. Further informATion on this issue can be found at: www.ATi.com/support/infobase/4561.html
• Doom3: disabling the object buffers within the game results in the game failing to respond
• F1 Challenge: A performance decrease is noticed under Windows XP with an ATi Radeon X800 Pro installed. Further information on this issue can be found at:
• Psychotoxic: Attempting to start a new game under Windows XP with an ATi Radeon 9700 Pro installed results in the game failing to load
• Spell Force: The Order of Dawn. Playing the game under Windows XP with an Radeon 9100 installed results in the character’s shadows not being drawn properly when the game options for shadow type is set to high
• Attempting to play a Java based game or visit a Java based website results in display corruption under Windows XP when either an ATi Radeon 9800 SE or Radeon X800 XT Platinum card installed and AA is enabled. Further information on this issue can be found at:
• Dragging the MS Media Player over to the secondary monitor results in overlay not being available if SURROUNDVIEW is enabled
• InstallATion does not complete – Idriver.exe runs @ 100% CPU utilizATion (w/SP2 installed)
• Error: “Record not found on MSI.DB” during installATion (w/ pre-Radeon integrated Video)

Catalyst CONTROL CENTER Version 4.9

This section provide information on ATi’s Catalyst CONTROL CENTER. The Catalyst CONTROL CENTER replaces the ATi Classic Control Panel and allows users to easily configure and increase their productivity when using an ATi graphics accelerator. The Catalyst CONTROL CENTER includes an extensive feature set that significantly enhances the end-user experience.

[break]ATi Catalyst Display Driver 6.14.10.6476
ATi Catalyst Control Panel 6.14.10.5120
ATi Catalyst Control Center 1.0.1698.24142 † .NET Framework required
ATi Catalyst WDM Capture Driver 6.14.10.6246 † release notes
ATi Catalyst 4.9 High Speed ​​without Control Center
ATi Catalyst 4.9 with Control Center