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ATI Catalyst Drivers


Chris F

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Catalyst 4.3 Drivers Released!

 

Catalyst Drivers for Windows 2000/XP

 

Catalyst Drivers for Windows 98/ME

 

Release notes can be found here:

http://www2.ati.com/drivers/Catalyst_43_Release_Notes.html

 

"Whats fixed in this driver?" can be found here:

http://ati.com/support/includes/titles/fixed.html

 

As usual, I recommend using Driver Cleaner before you install the new Cat's.

 

EDIT: Since the Catalyst Suite is updated fairly frequently now, I'm going to make this thread the "Official" release thread, which is why there is now a general title for the thread, as opposed to one that specifically states the Catalyst version numbe. I will update this thread with each new release of the Catalyst suite of drivers.

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Anyone of you tried these yet? They break anything? I'm always a little nervous about updating my drivers when I have everything running good. At the same time the lure of a performance increase, no matter how incremental is usually more than I can withstand! :lol:

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Well, since I'm a glutton for punishment, I always download the latest drivers. :D

 

I play about 5-6 different games on my PC, and nothing seems broken... yet.

 

BF1942 & Exp. Packs

Call of Duty

Tron 2.0

Halo

Warcraft 3 & Exp. Pack

 

The true test will be next week when UT2K4 and BFV come out.

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The true test will be next week when UT2K4 and BFV come out.

 

Thats a big part of the reason I'm hesitant. Everything on my system is running great and athe UT2K4 demo just screamed. I'd hate to break something a couple of days before the retail version hit's the stores.

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Originally posted by Buck@Mar 14 2004, 12:58 PM

Why not try the new drivers and if they're not to your liking, roll them back?

Yeah, I know, but with a game I want to play a few days away from release I just don't want to take a chance. I'll probably play the hell out of UT2K4 for a couple of days to get it out of my system and then install the new drivers.

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Everything on my system is running great

If it aint broke, don't fix it ;)

 

The slight performance improvements driver updates offer are only noticable when running tests and comparing the data to older versions. To the naked eye, you'll never see an improvement.

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Originally posted by Ruffneck@Mar 15 2004, 01:41 PM

To the naked eye, you'll never see an improvement

I don't know about that Mike. I noticed a marked improvement in Halo after putting the past 2 versions of the Cats on my machine.

I was generallizing. I guess it depends on the game and the system speed (cpu, and graphics card). I have honestly never saw much fo a difference on driver upgrades. If you go over to firingsquad.com, they compare driver updates, and on most games they will give a couple fps at most, sometimes lose a couple.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...
  • 4 weeks later...

In an effort to stabilize City of Heroes, I installed these drivers last night. So far, so good, but I only played for about a half-hour with the new drivers. Still, I was able to ride the train three times without crashing to desktop with the new ones, and with the old ones I would crash about 85% of the time. That was encouraging!

 

No noticeable graphics changes between old and new, but I changed so many things around last night trying to fix my issue that it's hard to say for sure.

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Dave, did you use Driver Cleaner to remove your old Cats?

 

Here's the process I usually use when upgrading my Catalyst Suite:

 

1. Install Driver Cleaner (http://www.driverheaven.net/cleaner/).

2. Remove (uninstall) the old Cats via the Control Panel - There should be three entries for ATI Software. One of them (I don't remember the name) uninstalls all of the parts (drivers, software, control panel).

3. Disconnect PC from network connection (Broadband, cable, DSL, etc)

4. Reboot PC into Safe Mode.

5. Cancel any hardware installation that may pop up.

6. Run Driver Cleaner - I usually run it for every ATI set it lists, just to be certain.

7. Reboot PC

8. Cancel any hardware installation that may pop up.

9. Install the latest Cats.

10. Reboot.

 

This is pretty much how I do my driver upgrades. I've never had any issues when upgrading driver versions, and I'm an early adopter, as in I always install the latest versions whenever they come out.

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Holy crap! No, I didn't do all of that...I just uninstalled the drivers and the toolbar, rebooted, ran the install exe, and rebooted again. I had no idea about any of that other stuff! Maybe just to be safe I'll go through that procedure and reinstall the new ones again.

 

Oh, and the drivers definitely fixed my problems. I played for about five hours straight last night and didn't crash once. I did lose connection to the mapserver for a second and had to log in again, but that was a network rather than a hardware issue.

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Dave, you don't actually NEED to do all that, but I find that my procedure gets rid of all the remnants of previous Cats, and then allows a cleaner install. So far I've never experienced any issues when upgrading my drivers via this procedure.

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Catalyst 4.5 Drivers Released!

 

Windows XP:

http://www.ati.com/support/drivers/winxp/r...14&submit=GO%21

 

Windows 2000:

http://www.ati.com/support/drivers/win2k/r...=5&submit=GO%21

 

No release for Windows 98/ME currently.

 

"What's fixed in this driver?" can be found here:

http://www.ati.com/support/includes/titles/fixed.html

 

As usual I recommend using Driver Cleaner to remove your old drivers before installing the new ones.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Catalyst 4.6 Drivers Released!

 

Windows XP:

http://www.ati.com/support/drivers/winxp/r...=3&submit=GO%21

 

Windows 2000:

http://www.ati.com/support/drivers/win2k/r...=9&submit=GO%21

 

"What's fixed in this driver?" can be found here:

http://www.ati.com/support/includes/titles/fixed.html

 

As usual I recommend using Driver Cleaner to remove your old drivers before installing the new ones.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Catalyst 4.7 Drivers Released!

 

Windows XP:

http://www.ati.com/support/drivers/winxp/r...=5&submit=GO%21

 

Windows 2000:

http://www.ati.com/support/drivers/win2k/r...=9&submit=GO%21

 

"What's fixed in this driver?" can be found here:

http://www.ati.com/support/includes/titles/fixed.html

 

Blah, blah blah. Use Driver Cleaner. Blah, blahj, blah. ;)

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As a new feature here, I'm going to post my relevant system specs, and benchmark numbers using 3DMark 2001 SE, 3DMark03 & Aquamark.

 

P4 3.0GHz

ASUS P4C-800 Deluxe

1GB PC3200 DDR SDRAM

ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB

 

3DMark 2001 SE: 16905

3DMark03: 5837

Aquamark: 42828

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  • 4 weeks later...

Interested to hear from people who try these out. Doom III runs great for me now at 1024x768 high detail but I have a feeling the further into the game I get the slower the game will get. I've seen those timedemo #'s. :) I dont think I'll install the new drivers until I start having performance issues with Doom III or until I see #'s proving that the game runs much better. I generally stay away from all things beta. :)

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Interested to hear from people who try these out.

 

2-3 FPS increase with the 4.9's on my system. These drivers are really meant for folks with the X800 series of cards. Those people will see a 10-30% increase in performance according to ATI reps at rage3d.com. X800 owners with the drivers installed have reported 10-12 FPS increases in some cases. For those with 97-9800's etc. you will only see a marginal increase if anything.

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