ATi/AMD Catalyst 9.8

[Mustang]

I know the driver hasn't been released yet, but there is good reason to start a thread ;)

 

ATI Catalyst 9.8:

"The next ATI graphics cards drivers will also get released on August 17th. It includes some enhancements specific to performance platforms which are meant to improve system performance in CPU bound situations. It is said that at 1680x1050 and higher, crossfire setups benefit considerably when used as part of the Dragon Platform. This means the AMD platform is more effective as a whole. Titles such as Far Cry 2, H.A.W.X., Battleforge, Stalker Clear Sky, Crysis, Company of Heroes, and World in Conflict show the largest gains, with Far Cry 2 getting up to approximately 50% more performance. Intel based computers featuring an ATI graphics solution will also see some increases, although they will be much less important."

 

next, there is this:

 

 

"CatalystMaker :

 

Finally at the amd booth at #quakecon. Catalyst 9.8 ready for anyone wanting it"

 

 

needless to say, i'll be keeping an eye open this evening for a possible early release! :D

Edited August 14, 2009 by Mustang

[159th_Viper]

Ta :)

[rapid]

Good post there Mustang.:thumbup:

[Mustang]

They are up here, go get them!

 

http://blogs.amd.com/play/2009/08/14/what’s-a-good-title-for-a-quakecon-blog/

 

(scroll down the page a little to get the links)

[159th_Viper]

Downloading

 

Much Obliged :)

 

~S~

[mrbinkels]

Well I installed on my 790FX platform and felt I did get a small boost in performance. The Dragon platform referenced in the first post apparently is the 790GX chipset.

 

http://game.amd.com/us-en/unlock_dragon.aspx

Edited August 15, 2009 by mrbinkels

[JG14_Smil]

Yes, I noticed smoother and more fps in Panzertard's ball-busting Battlefield mission. No flickering clouds as of yet. 4870x2.

[Ramstein]

I tried the 9.8 and I cannot run it with my computer, the artifacts and tearing are horrible... I am using Cat 9.1 for now..

 

I use WinXP..

[Mustang]

Had 9.8 running for several hours now, great stability and better performance on everything i've run so far in WinXP 32, these are a keeper :)

[JG14_Smil]

You need the D3D Overrider to use vertical sync and stop the tearing.

 

I tried the 9.8 and I cannot run it with my computer, the artifacts and tearing are horrible... I am using Cat 9.1 for now..

 

I use WinXP..

[Ramstein]

You need the D3D Overrider to use vertical sync and stop the tearing.

 

Thax for the info..

 

never heard of it, and why would anyone release drivers if they needed a utility to make things right?

 

I never had these problems before I went from my Radeon 2900 to my Radeon 3870

 

:cry:

 

something else has to be wrong for all these Catalyst drivers version to have all this tearing..

Edited August 15, 2009 by Ramstein

[Kuky]

You need the D3D Overrider to use vertical sync and stop the tearing.

 

no you don't... for Vista and Win7 you do because v-sync setting in graphics driver no longer works... and he said he's using WinXP. I'd say he needs to reinstall the driver as it most likely didn't install properly or maybe didn't clear properly of previous version.

[Mustang]

Here's a portion of info from the changenotes:

 

 

"This month we are seeing a massive performance increase with a whole host of games as compared to the ATI Catalyst 9.7 driver. Detailed release notes are available for most of the game optimizations; here are the highlights:

• Battleforge DirectX 10/DirectX 10.1 performance improves of up to 50% with the largest gains in configurations using ATI CrossFireX™ technology.
  
• Company of Heroes DirectX 10 performance improves of up to 77%.
  
• Crysis DirectX 10 performance of ATI CrossFireX technology in dual mode improves of up to 10% and quad mode performance improves of up to 34%.
  
• Crysis Warhead DirectX 10 performance of ATI CrossFireX technology in dual mode improves of up to 7% and quad mode performance improves of up to 69%.
  
• Far Cry 2 DirectX 10 performance of ATI CrossFireX technology in dual mode improves of up to 50% and quad mode performance improves of up to 88%.
  
• Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X. DirectX 10/DirectX 10.1 performance of ATI CrossFireX technology in dual mode improves of up to 40% and with quad mode performance improving of up to 60%.
  
• UnigineTropics OpenGL performance improvements of up to 20%.
  
• UnigineTropics DirectX 10 performance of ATI CrossFireX technology in quad mode improvements of up to 20%.
  
• World in Conflict DirectX 10 performance improvements of up to by 10%.
  

This release of the ATI Catalyst driver provides OpenGL 3.1 extension support. The following is a list of OpenGL 3.1 features and extensions added in ATI Catalyst 9.8:

• Support for OpenGL Shading Language 1.30 and 1.40.
  
• Instanced rendering with a per-instance counter accessible to vertex shaders (GL ARB draw instanced).
  
• Data copying between buffer objects (GL EXT copy buffer).
  
• Primitive restart (NV primitive restart). Because client enable/disable no longer exists in OpenGL 3.1, the PRIMITIVE RESTART state has become server state, unlike the Nvidia extension where it is client state. As a result, the numeric values assigned to PRIMITIVE RESTART and PRIMITIVE RESTART INDEX differ from the NV versions of those tokens. o At least 16 texture image units must be accessible to vertex shaders, in addition to the 16 already guaranteed to be accessible to fragment shaders.
  
• Texture buffer objects (GL ARB texture buffer object).
  
• Rectangular textures (GL ARB texture rectangle). o Uniform buffer objects (GL ARB uniform buffer object).
  
• SNORM texture component formats."
  

[mrbinkels]

Quick update before I walk out of the house. Advance ai works for me now. I tried two replays with no CTD or any other errors. Still feels smooth and once again the 9.8 gave a modest boost to FPS(1-2FPS).

 

I'll do some more testing later tonight.

 

YMMV

[rapid]

Seems like everyone is giving good feed back...........downloading.:thumbup: cheers Mustang.

[159th_Viper]

Seems like everyone is giving good feed back...........downloading.:thumbup: cheers Mustang.

 

Aye

 

Gained a further 5 FPS......Now the ABRIS only knocks off 10 FPS at start-up......:music_whistling:

 

:D

[Mustang]

Seems like everyone is giving good feed back...........downloading.:thumbup: cheers Mustang.

 

Not a problem mate, they are a great driver set, go for it :)

[mrbinkels]

Anybody else try the advanced ai? Still no cloud flickering. Hope these work for other people as well.

Edited August 17, 2009 by mrbinkels
added more info.

[Mustang]

Cat 9.8 is up on official site now, if you didn't get them earlier ;)

 

http://game.amd.com/us-en/drivers_catalyst.aspx

[JG14_Smil]

Hello, I was on a no cloud flicker roll for a good run in 1.01 (tested in Panzertards Battlefield MP server), but it came to an end yesterday with some flickering while in the cockpit. I saw flickering while in external when I first joined but not in the cockpit until that one time. I have used advanced AI since 9.6 (when not flickering). It is odd how that flickering can come and go...

 

Anybody else try the advanced ai? Still no cloud flickering. Hope these work for other people as well.

[Mustang]

There is some kind of 9.8 hotfix available

 

http://support.amd.com/us/kbarticles/Pages/Hotfixfor3DGames.aspx

 

if anyone needs it.

 

edit: appears to be quite a newer version, i have it installed, and so far all ok :)

 

 

9.8 offical release version

 

 

9.8 hotfix release version

 

Edited August 20, 2009 by Mustang