Driver Update: ATi Catalyst 5.12

Version 5.12 of the Catalyst drivers has just been released via ATi’s website. The drivers are suitable for Windows 2000 and XP and in addition there is also a version for the 64-bit version of Windows XP. What is immediately noticeable is that the download with the classic control panel is missing and that only the version with the Catalyst Control Center is available. Better news is the fact that the optimizations for dual core systems, which we already wrote about last Monday, can be found in this release. Below is a snippet from the release notes for the Windows 2000/XP version:

New Features:

• The Catalyst 5.12 software suite introduces dual core support for CPU bound cases. This feature provides improved graphics performance for DX 9 supported graphics adapters installed in systems running the Windows XP and Windows XP Professional x64 Edition operating systems.

Performance Improvements

• 3DMark05 gains as much as 5.7%
• 3DMark03 gains as much as 3.3%
• 3DMark2001 SE gains up to 10%
• Aquamark 3 gains up to 16%
• Comanche 4 improves as much as 20%
• Far Cry gains as much as 25% on some product configurations
• Half-Life 2 performance improves as much as 8%
• Splinter Cell improves as much as 8% in certain parts of the game
• Tomb Raider Angel of Darkness runs as much as 10% faster
• Unreal Tournament 2004 frame rates improve as much as 10%

Issues Resolved in Catalyst Software Suite 5.12:

• Doom 3 Resurrection of Evil: Playing the game under Windows XP MCE with CrossFire enabled no longer results in ghosting effect being noticed.
• EverQuest II: Playing the game on a system containing an ATI Radeon X1800 series, no longer results in the operating system failing to respond after approximately 5 minutes of game play.
• FarCry: Launching the game on systems using an ATI Xpress 200 series product and running the Windows XP operating system no longer results in the operating system failing to respond.
• Quake4: Selecting the Ultra Quality option within the game no longer results in the game failing to load after the restart required by the game.
• Enabling clone mode, followed by playing a video clip, no longer results in the underscan/overscan option failing to work when using Theater mode.
• Connecting a display device using an interlink cable to the ATI Radeon X800 CrossFire Edition, no longer results in CrossFire becoming disabled if the interlink cable is disconnected from the Radeon X800 CrossFire and then reconnected.
• Catalyst Control Center: Attempting to extend the desktop display when using a CRT, TV and DFP display devices no longer results in display corruption being noticed on the primary display adapter.
• Connecting a CRT and a TV to an ATI Radeon X300/600 series and attempting to enable clone mode, intermittently no longer results in extended desktop mode being applied.
• Corruption is no longer noticed within the Catalyst Control Center once a VPU Recover event is triggered. This issue is known to occur under the Windows XP MCE operating system when using an ATI Radeon X1800 series product.
• Connecting an HDTV as the only display device using the component video connector on an ATI Radeon X1300 no longer results in the display image shrinking when making changes to either AA or AF found in the 3D aspect page of the Catalyst Control Center.
• Connecting a 30 inch Apple Cinema Display to an ATI Radeon X1300 series that is installed in a system running Windows 2000, no longer results in the display image being off center.
• Color corruption is no longer noticed when hot unplugging and hot plugging an LCD display from an ATI Radeon X1800 series using the DVI connector.
• The TV Format now matches the TV Output when enabling TV after boot of the operating system.
• Enabling extended desktop mode followed by playing a DVD at 480i no longer results in corruption being noticed when moving the playback window to the secondary display device.
• Connecting an Apple Cinema display device to an ATI Radeon X1800 series no longer results in the failure to playback a DVD when using the ATI DVD Player.
• Playing an HQV DVD using the WinDVD 5.0 ​​player on systems containing an ATI Radeon X1800 series, and running the Windows XP operating system, no longer results in Poor video playback quality being noticed.
• Catalyst Control Center: Attempting to extend the desktop display when using a CRT, TV and DFP display devices no longer results in display corruption being noticed on the primary display adapter.
• Using WinDVD to playback a DVD title while having the Catalyst Control Center running, no longer results in the playback of the DVD pausing momentarily.
• The 1080i optimum mode is now available in the Digital Panel properties when connecting both a DFP and a CRT to an ATI Radeon X850 series.
• Catalyst Control Center: Proceeding through the step by step process to enable the Component Video display, followed by applying a desktop resolution of either 1280×720 or 1920×1080 no longer results in the Custom Setting box failing to appear when clicking on the Add button.
• The Help page is now available for the Digital Panel Properties page found in the Catalyst Control Center.
• Windows Movie Maker: Captured *.avi files no longer appear corrupt in color during playing back.
• Scheduling multiple TV recordings no longer results in the audio being distorted in some of the captured TV recordings.
• The Capture Video Preview image no longer appears off center when using a PAL version of the ATI Theater 550 Pro.
• The tool tip for the Contrast slider bar found in the Catalyst Control Center is now translated properly for Traditional Chinese.
• The slider bars found in the Overdrive aspect page of the Catalyst Control Center are now the proper length when selecting Italian as the language of choice.
• Dashes are no longer displayed in the front of the ASIC name when selecting the Magyar language option for the Catalyst Control Center.
• The lower portion of the scroll bar found in the All Settings aspect page of the Catalyst Control Center is no longer missing.

Known Issues for Catalyst Software Suite 5.12:

• Beyond Good and Evil: Flickering artifacts are noticed on the game characters after approximately 15 minutes of game play.
• Dark Age of Camelot: The game exits to the desktop immediately after launching, or may play for up to 15 minutes followed by a VPU Recover error message being displayed.
• Dragonshard: Playing the game under Windows XP Media Center Edition with CrossFire enabled, may result screen becoming out of sync, and a scrolling display image occurring shortly there after.
• Fable: The Lost Chapters: Playing the game under Windows XP MCE may result in the shadows found within the game appearing jittery, when the desktop resolution is set to 1024×768 32bpp, and all the game options are set to default.
• Serious Sam 2 Demo: Enabling CrossFire may result in a performance drop being noticed when playing the game under Windows XP Media Center Edition.
• WARHAMMER: DAWN OF WAR: Starting a skirmish game on a 4 player map under Windows XP, may result in the game performance appearing choppy when using an ATI Radeon X800 series, and having all of the game options set to high.
• Catalyst Control Center: The SmartShader effect is not removed from the 3D preview when attempting to restore the default values ​​in the Catalyst Control Center.
• The Apply button in the Custom settings of the Advanced mode, within the Catalyst Control Center Video standard settings, is grayed out when playing a media file.
• Connecting an HDTV to an ATI Radeon X700 series may result in the HDTV being detected as a CRT or TV under the Windows XP operating system.
• Attempting to install the integrated WDM driver under Windows XP may result in an error message being displayed indicating that the hardware is not installed because the install Wizard cannot find the necessary software.
• Using the Custom option when installing the software driver results in the Theater 550 software driver not being present.
• The PAL FM fine tuning algorithm is currently using 200 MHz bandwidth which may overlap FM channels resulting in the same FM channel being found several verdana during the scan function.
• Launching the Adobe Gamma calibration application and moving the gamma slider back and forth, results in the Task Manager being filled with cli.exe until the system becomes low on memory.
• Catalyst Control Center: The preview for the Deinterlacing aspect found in the Catalyst Control Center is currently unavailable when using the ATI Radeon X1300.
• The Video Preview found in the Standard Settings of the Video option of the Catalyst Control Center may fail to provide a preview after hotplugging an LCD panel to an ATI Radeon 9500 or 9800 and selecting to extend the desktop.
• The Video Preview may fail to change to its default settings when swapping the display mappings using the Catalyst Control Center.
• Attempting to stretch the display horizontally using the Catalyst Control Center, may result in the horizontal stretch mode failing to be applied unless the display is stretched vertically first.
• Connecting two display devices to the ATI Radeon X850 CrossFire Edition and one display device to the ATI Radeon X850 XT may result in the display device connected to the Radeon X850 XT still being active once CrossFire is enabled.
• The WDM Drivers may not be enumerated due to the Capture chip not being detected when using the ATI Radeon X850 XT (ViVo) as a slave card on a system containing an ATI Radeon X850 CrossFire Edition.
• The secondary display device may fail to activate when attempting to enable clone mode when using an ATI Radeon X800 GTO.
• The PowerPlay option found in the Catalyst Control Center maybe in the enabled state after initial install of the display driver for systems containing an ATI Radeon Xpress 200 series product.
• Using the Custom option when installing the software driver results in the Theater 550 software driver not being present.
• Auto-detect fails to be applied as the default setting for the Deinterlacing option when first entering the Video aspect page of the Catalyst Control Center. Currently the option is set as Weave.

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