Wednesday, August 25th 2010
AMD Releases ATI Catalyst 10.8 WHQL Software Suite
AMD kept up with its monthly driver update cycle, and released the ATI Catalyst 10.8 software suite. The software installs the latest WHQL-signed drivers for ATI Radeon GPUs, AMD Chipsets, and other ATI Multimedia products. The new version packs a set of game-specific performance improvements, and a few feature updates. To begin with, Far Cry 2, Left 4 Dead 2, and Stormrise, each got GPU configuration specific, mostly single-digit performance increments.
New features include full-support for the OpenGL ES 2.0 API, greater control over video quality by means of a checkbox control from Catalyst Control Center. This is particularly of importance, as AMD seems to have taken notes from the press coverage, such as our Video Enhancement Quality Tests. There are image-quality improvements for StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty, that includes anti-aliasing support. An update also claims to greatly improve overall performance of Eyefinity setups that use 4-way/Quad CrossFireX (or CrossFire involving four GPUs).
DOWNLOAD: ATI Catalyst 10.8 WHQL for Windows 7/Vista 64-bit, Windows 7/Vista 32-bit, Windows XP 32-bit, Windows XP 64-bit
A detailed list of important updates follows.
New Features:
OpenGL ES 2.0 support
Performance Improvements:
Far Cry 2
New features include full-support for the OpenGL ES 2.0 API, greater control over video quality by means of a checkbox control from Catalyst Control Center. This is particularly of importance, as AMD seems to have taken notes from the press coverage, such as our Video Enhancement Quality Tests. There are image-quality improvements for StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty, that includes anti-aliasing support. An update also claims to greatly improve overall performance of Eyefinity setups that use 4-way/Quad CrossFireX (or CrossFire involving four GPUs).
DOWNLOAD: ATI Catalyst 10.8 WHQL for Windows 7/Vista 64-bit, Windows 7/Vista 32-bit, Windows XP 32-bit, Windows XP 64-bit
A detailed list of important updates follows.
New Features:
OpenGL ES 2.0 support
- ATI Catalyst 10.8 delivers full support for OpenGL ES 2.0 specification
- Enables 3D accelerated graphics within a web browser that supports OpenGL ES 2.0
- Supported on Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7
- The Default video options for ATI Catalyst have been greatly enhanced to deliver the best quality video viewing experience. Users can also choose to apply these settings to Internet Video via a new checkbox control within the ATI Catalyst Control Center.
- Performance has been greatly improved for users running with ATI Eyefinity on a Quad ATI CrossFireX configuration
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
- Performance increases 3-5% on CrossFire ATI Radeon HD 5800 series and CrossFire ATI Radeon HD 5700 series configurations
- Performance increases 5-10% on ATI Radeon HD 5600 series and ATI Radeon HD 5500 series configurations
122 Comments on AMD Releases ATI Catalyst 10.8 WHQL Software Suite
Bios flashing isnt good enough for the masses, most of whom never heard of TPU.Thats a bit unfair. Just because you have problems doesnt mean Wizzard or everybody else has problems.
The issue you speak of and other issues like the grey stripe issue only affected a small amount of users. Most people like me have never had issues with the 5870.
I can do Safe mode, but even with all startup programs stopped(via msconfig) windows still hangs!!
What do I do?
I've got two indentical rigs now to test my issues with my 5870's, as well as GTX480 rig...no matter what rig I use, I get CTD always from the same servers...might be a server issue, I guess, but you know me, paranoid/delusional.:rolleyes:
Anyway, there's a driver fix for the nV side of things, apparantly, but I've yet to try it as of yet...got me some chicken pox instead.:laugh:
Nor did I say this was the only problem, also mentioned the multi-monitor flicker bug, and you could also mention the GSOD caused by a faulty memory controller in 5xxx.
These problems have already been acknowledged by ATI so I'm not sure why people insist on continuing to deny them, and some basic googling will find plenty of people pissed off about them.
The point remains that this is essentially a big ticket purchase and even after reading about a dozen reviews, none of these bugs were mentioned by reviewers. So what exactly is the point of "reviews" if you don't come out knowing what to expect from your purchase.
i'm still at catalyst 10.2 !!
on the other side, I am sad for you.
I looked and didn't see them. :wtf:
Sending in MSGs right NAOW!!
Also submitted driver feedback(OMG!!! AMAZING THAT WORKS!!!!)
Don't count on my efforts actually making a difference...hit them up too.
Anyway, normally you'd find that under the motherboard/integrated driver section...they have the AHCI driver there, but no SB driver(It's a seperate package).
I've got the driver...if need be tomorrow I'll upload it to a free hosting site.
EDIT: you can get them here:
support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/windows/Pages/integrated_vista64.aspx
if that version is not for your OS, please click the bolded "download graphics drivers" on left side, then chose the proper OS.
this is fast as hell and nothing to enter for your info :D
HERE
BF BC2, AA and V-Sync broken. Crossfire gives microstutter, first time I've seen it with 5-series. Using the "improved" CAT 10.8a profiles, which where to host performance fixes for CFX scaling...seems they broke other things to get the performacne at this point...
Moving to next app.
EDIT: brought these problems into ATi's attention via other avenues. Will update this post if these issues change.
The screen looks way better then the 10.4's did, games have so much depth, also look so much better... I also like the ability to change the core and memory idle clocks from the standard 157mhZ - 300mhz to 400MHz - 1010MHz with out making a custom profile.
Just a 5mhz bump, and click applie.... and up go the clocks ! temps also seem to be running about 3-5c lower then the 10.4 driver.
Dirt 2 has never looked more real till now! :rockout:
This is my driver of choice for sure! :respect:
Due to this fact I'm considering upgrading my drivers from 10.5.Out of curiosity, why would you want to do that? Using a Kill-A-Watt and running those 400/1000 idle clocks my computer consumes around 20W more at idle.
I haven't received my Ncrapia gpu as a back up yet so I'm not flashing to the new bios till then..
But all in all it's been a long time sense I've been happy with shitty ATI drivers till now...
I will put my self up for an Infraction from Blackpanther the cool moderator to prove He'll love these drivers. :D
Who's with me?Driver Cleaner scrambled my system too when I used it. Had to end up reinstalling the OS, because games, etc were crashing on launch.
Never using it again for anything but last resort cases.Cold Bug?
I'm not getting how this "higher clocks at idle" thing is a good one, or a feature as Mussels says. What is it meant to resolve exactly?
I've been hoping it's a bug that they're gonna fix too, coz the lower the idle clocks are, the better IMO, but please correct me if I'm wrong.
These drivers are damn skippy. I just upgraded from 10.5 because the Stream SDK2.2 support was confirmed and I gotta say the difference is night and day in some of my games.To be honest I was just recalling the number from memory and I wouldn't be surprised to find out I was wrong. I sincerely doubt the fan could account for a greater than 10W difference (thats assuming that regular idle is 27W per the ATI spec in my faded memory).
I'm as nuts about power saving as I am about performance. I wrote a program that automatically engages my CCC profiles on a per game basis (similar to a feature in RivaTuner/ATI Tray Tools) because I found some games run stable at higher clocks and some games run just swell at lower than stock clocks. When a game is exited the program defaults to a specified profile, in my case 157/300 idle clocks. The result is a satisfying (and automatic) power savings. Do you think I should make it available on the forums?I googled it and apparently the HD 5970 can suffer from a cold bug while under water cooling (or anything more extreme I'd imagine). A cold bug is the term used to refer to a hardware boot failure due to hardware temperatures being too low. At least I'm pretty sure...
As I doubt performance will be that different between cards etc.
I say eyefinity geared cards (5770 flex etc) and eyefinity performance on a regular say 5870 and a 5970 with major driver updates.
@cadaveca, have you checked the AA type in catalyst control centre by the by?
The default setting looks like shit in my opinion anyways. Doesn't AA transparent objects for a start.