Windows 7 ATI Catalyst 10.8 Windows 7 Driver Analysis

[cybercore]

ATI Catalyst 10.8 Windows 7 Driver Analysis




Link Removed





Performance Improvements

- Far Cry 2

-Performance increases 2-6% on ATI Radeon™ HD 5800 Series single and CrossFire™ configurations
-Performance increases 2-4% on ATI Radeon™ HD 5700 Series single and CrossFire™ configurations
-Performance increases 3-8% on ATI Radeon™ HD 4800 Series single and CrossFire™ configurations

- Left 4 Dead 2

-Performance increases 3-5% on CrossFire™ ATI Radeon™ HD 5800 series and CrossFire™ ATI Radeon™ HD 5700 series configurations

- Stormrise

-Performance increases 5-10% on ATI Radeon™ HD 5600 series and ATI Radeon™ HD 5500 series configurations

- Performance enhancement for Eyefinity Quad ATI CrossFireX configurations

-Performance has been greatly improved for users running with ATI Eyefinity on a Quad ATI CrossFireX configuration

- Anti-Aliasing support for StarCraft II

-ATI Catalyst Control Center enabled Anti-Aliasing is now available for StarCraft II

- Catalyst Application Profiles - The following application profiles are available with this release of Catalyst 10.8

Singularity – CrossFire profile update
Mafia 2 – CrossFire profile update
Final Fantasy XIV Benchmark – new CrossFire profile
Lord of the Rings Online – new CrossFire profile
Aliens Vs. Predator – CrossFire profile update




For the most part this doesn't seem like a bad a driver; there's some really good updates in it and there's no negative performance for the most part. Performance is a little wobbly in some areas where we see the minimum drop a little and the average slightly increase, but it's nothing that we'd be all that worried about.

ATI has also promised some more performance gains for CFX users and this is good news for the next generation of cards coming from ATI later in the year. If they can gain some ground on NVIDIA and its SLI technology in the next few months, they'll really be able to offer some competitive products, because at the moment SLI remains the better technology as it just scales better.


Until next month, may all your frame rates be high and your games good fun!


ATI Catalyst 10.8 Windows 7 Driver Analysis

 

[cybercore]

Should say that over 2 days I haven't had a single issue with Catalyst 10.8, no lags or hitches in games, no crashes. Works like a charm for me.

 

[kemical]

Same here! 10.8 are proving to be great drivers and keepers for me.. Plus a new crossfire application has been released giving up to 70% boost in some cases. Checkout the update section for further news and download..

 

[Highwayman]

Sad to report I've had numerous "driver stopped responding" issues since 10.8, although I'm thinking the new update to MSN live is the real cause... as never does it when gaming, only in desktop.

 

[kemical]

Have you checked the Guru3D forum? I find the catalyst driver section a great place for downloads as well as info'.

 

[TorrentG]

It's been working very well here for me as all the versions have since Windows 7 beta 7000.

 

[cybercore]

Guys, can someone kindly enlighten about the Mobility Catalyst 10.8? It wouldn't install on my dad's mobile ATI 5470 - all it offered to install was ATI manager and a C++ runtime, but no driver and no CCC. Besides, I reckon previous mobility versions were some 200Mb, while this one is only 70. Weird.

 

[kemical]

Have you tried running the driver sweeper Greg? Also just make sure windows isn't popping a driver back on as soon as you un-install it by turning off auto updates..

 

[TorrentG]

Guys, can someone kindly enlighten about the Mobility Catalyst 10.8? It wouldn't install on my dad's mobile ATI 5470 - all it offered to install was ATI manager and a C++ runtime, but no driver and no CCC. Besides, I reckon previous mobility versions were some 200Mb, while this one is only 70. Weird.

That's because the hardware id of the graphic adapter isn't in the .inf of the installer.

In plain English, that means the driver package was not intended for the hardware.

 

[cybercore]

Oh yes I did! Tried Driver Sweeper without success. The first attempt, the ATI manager uninstalled everything like a charm, rebooted, got no aero, got standard vga driver. The 70 Mb mobility setup installed nothing but the ATI manager and a C++ runtime. Rebooted and still got no aero, and device manager showed me the same standard vga driver. Then driver-swept as recommended, rebooted, and tried again - got exactly the same.

This concentrates me really:

I reckon previous mobility versions were some 200Mb, while this one is only 70. Weird.

ASUS site only offers an older mobility catalyst 200mb. If no more luck tonight, I'll clean it up and rolll back to the old april version ... it's the AVIVO and hydravision I wanted with this new release, but I guess it's really broken.

Thanks.

 

[cybercore]

That's because the hardware id of the graphic adapter isn't in the .inf of the installer.

In plain English, that means the driver package was not intended for the hardware.

Oh man, that's an idea, damn it !!!!

I sure know what this means, and I'm gonna try to modify the .inf as I have done so before with one bluetooth device.

 

[TorrentG]

it's the AVIVO and hydravision I wanted with this new release, but I guess it's really broken.

lol no it's not broken. See my above post.

The driver you're trying to install doesn't include the ASUS version of the graphic adapter. (It's subsys) - so it isn't going to install no matter what you do, unless you edit the .inf and install using the device manager.

If on 64 bit, you'd also have to disable driver enforcement on a permanent basis, or do so each time booting the pc at the boot selection screen.

 

[cybercore]

The driver you're trying to install doesn't include the ASUS version of the graphic adapter. (It's subsys) - so it isn't going to install no matter what you do, unless you edit the .inf and install using the device manager.

Yeah, I have tried that already --> the driver installs but the catalyst control center doesn't.

 

[kemical]

Greg see below:

ATI Catalyst™ Display Driver

Version

10.8
Operating System(s)

Windows Vista - 64-Bit Edition; Windows 7 - 64-Bit Edition
Products Supported

Catalyst Mobility is a notebook reference graphics driver for with limited support for
system vendor specific features. Support is available for Windows Vista and Windows 7
to be used at your own risk.

The Installation Verification Software will prevent driver download on certain notebook
products. This is to protect against the installing of drivers that may disable features or
functionality provided by the system manufacturer. If unacceptable behavior is
experienced using Catalyst Mobility it is recommended to revert back to the driver
provided by your system vendor for your specific platform. Please check with your system
vendor for the most recent drivers for your notebook.

The following notebook graphics products are supported in this release:

ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5800 Series
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5700 Series
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5600 Series
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5400 Series
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5100 Series
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4800 Series
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4600 Series
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4500 Series
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4200 Series
ATI Mobility Radeon 4100 Series
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3800 Series
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3600 Series
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3400 Series
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3200 Series
ATI Mobility Radeon 3100 Series
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 2700 Series
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 2600 Series
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 2400 Series

You'll notice from the above that this driver does include your graphic solution.. In case you haven't tried this one:

Link Removed


Just to add that if this driver won't install then like it say's above you'll probably need to go the manufacturers website for the latest release..

 

[Highwayman]

Sad to report I've had numerous "driver stopped responding" issues since 10.8, although I'm thinking the new update to MSN live is the real cause... as never does it when gaming, only in desktop.

Just to follow up on the issue, uninstalled the new MSN live beta and now using Trillian 5, the driver crash always followed MSNs freeze with a dll called UX(summit).dll which is part of the new msn beta, will keep you posted if that resolved issue over next week.

 

[cybercore]

Just to follow up on the issue, uninstalled the new MSN live beta and now using Trillian 5, the driver crash always followed MSNs freeze with a dll called UX(summit).dll which is part of the new msn beta, will keep you posted if that resolved issue over next week.

Good information.

The Installation Verification Software will prevent driver download on certain notebook
products.


Just to add that if this driver won't install then like it say's above you'll probably need to go the manufacturers website for the latest release.

That's what I did.

Inside the driver subfolder inside Catalyst 10.8 extracted, I found a file with a list of supported cards, and my hardware ID was already there. I managed to install the driver manually through the device manager, it worked well, but the old CCC turned out incompatible with the new driver. Finally, I uninstalled everything, rebooted, and installed the old version from ASUS support.


~~~~~~~

As for my desktop Catalyst 10.8, it's good and smooth, no issues at all.

 

[TorrentG]

After installing by device manager, run the setup.exe normally and then that will install the latest CCC to match the driver.

 

[cybercore]

Oh yes, I tried that as well, didn't work.


Thanks for the idea anyway. : )