| Tuesday, October 28 2008 |
Windows 7 is Microsoft's next major PC operating system. Early non-retail versions of this OS may have already made it to certain sections of the industry, and this calls for hardware support. AMD is ready with its ATI Catalyst driver suite for Windows 7. The driver itself is titled ATI Catalyst Windows 7 Preview Driver Package. As the name suggests, it is at an experimental/early stage, much like the OS itself. Use of it is not covered by any warranty. It provides support for ATI Radeon HD 2000 series, HD 3000 series, HD 4000 series, derived mobile GPUs, and AMD 7 series chipsets with integrated graphics.
The 32-bit version of the driver can be downloaded from here, and the 64-bit version here.
The 32-bit version of the driver can be downloaded from here, and the 64-bit version here.
User comments
I haven't bothered getting in on the whole x86 vs x64 debate, but I figure I might as well throw my 5 cents in the pot. Personally I wish the whole world would move to 64-bit computing since that would mean that all efforts would be limited to 64-bit apps, drivers, hardware, services. But the rest of the world doesn't necessarily share my personal wish. In the end MS base their decisions on the needs of the enterprise sector, not the early adopters/enthusiasts which is an incredibly small market in comparison. And the reality is that tens of thousands of companies, corporations and enterprises around the world just aren't ready to throw away every in-house application, every legacy based service etc. just to push a certain technology for no other reason than to "get with the program".
by: zithe@Zithe : Why don't you post which games he is having problems with on x64 in the Games section. I am sure there are people running x64 that would try to help figure out the problems.
Several of my brother's games won't run on Vista, but he tends to pick somewhat older games. (2000-2006)
As far as a 64 bit Only release of 7 goes, it is completely unrealistic. Many corporations have 10's of thousands to millions of dollars sunk into 32 bit applications and still have hardware in use that does not support 64 bit. To update to a 64 bit version of a huge application (if even possible) and update all incompatible hardware in one jump would be cost prohibitive. Especially in the currrent state of the financial markets.
by: Kreij
@Zithe : Why don't you post which games he is having problems with on x64 in the Games section. I am sure there are people running x64 that would try to help figure out the problems.
As far as a 64 bit Only release of 7 goes, it is completely unrealistic. Many corporations have 10's of thousands to millions of dollars sunk into 32 bit applications and still have hardware in use that does not support 64 bit. To update to a 64 bit version of a huge application (if even possible) and update all incompatible hardware in one jump would be cost prohibitive. Especially in the currrent state of the financial markets.
Indeed. We'll most likely see a continued progression of the 64-bit adoption until the day where most corporations have replaced their investments at the end of natural lifetime span of the applications and services. Microsoft would be mad to try to force their most important clients to move to the 64-bit platform by holding back the still-needed legacy support that so many corporations still need.
On the bright side there's been a tremendous push towards 64-bit computing just this past year. It's a trend that won't halt, it will just take time in a progressive manner, not smack everybody in the face in an instant.
by: KreijI actually never tested them on 64 bit. They don't even work in 32, so I'm doubting they'll work in 64.
@Zithe : Why don't you post which games he is having problems with on x64 in the Games section. I am sure there are people running x64 that would try to help figure out the problems.
As far as a 64 bit Only release of 7 goes, it is completely unrealistic. Many corporations have 10's of thousands to millions of dollars sunk into 32 bit applications and still have hardware in use that does not support 64 bit. To update to a 64 bit version of a huge application (if even possible) and update all incompatible hardware in one jump would be cost prohibitive. Especially in the currrent state of the financial markets.
One game is Cossacks + expansions.
@Zithe : Yes, some of the older games do things that are verboten in the new operating systems (ie. direct calls to hardware bypassing the OS). In those cases emulators are the only solution. Usually games that ran on '95/'98 will work on Vista, but not always.
@Scyphe : Yes, it is encouraging that the trend to move to 64 bit is not stalling. But just when everyone is fat and happy with it, Window 10 will come along and be 128 bit. :laugh:
@Scyphe : Yes, it is encouraging that the trend to move to 64 bit is not stalling. But just when everyone is fat and happy with it, Window 10 will come along and be 128 bit. :laugh:
heres the 8.10 vista32 drivers in 7...
give me a few for the new 7 drivers.
give me a few for the new 7 drivers.
wow... this is a nightmare to install compared to the vista drivers. it keeps saying there is a problem with the driver
Pre-beta on Pre-beta have a tendency to mess up quite good. Can't be as bad as the early Longhorn beta when there were no drivers for several months, and once the beta drivers came they had a tendency to bluescreen or refuse to install. I'll try it out tomorrow, too tired to reinstall Win7 tonight (been playing Fallout 3 for hours).
what a waste of time.
code 43... windows has stopped this device because it has reported problems.
i tried about 60 times now. even a fresh install wont let them work.
code 43... windows has stopped this device because it has reported problems.
i tried about 60 times now. even a fresh install wont let them work.
by: TRIPTEX_MTLI was just reading this thread and realized that what you been saying about the 4850's is sorta what my brother has just been having problems with. In some games (UT3, COH OF) he gets a black screen, and the error pops up saying something about the GPU is restarting its self, and most of the time it comes back alive after a min or two, but not all the time, its getting annoying.
There are still widespread issues with the 4850s (cant comment on 4870 or x2) losing sync with monitors and crashing when games are launched. These problems are happening even with the cards at stock settings. I found this happens even more when I try to use HDMI output with crossfire to play a game.
My biggest grief is the multi-display flickering I get if I launch a 3D application with my extended desktop enabled.
@ niko with crossfire enabled you will notice issues with your HDMI.
No I know where blame is to be placed for Crytek's programming.
Anyway im goin to start a new post soon about it and see what people say to fix this, its a very new card to =/
too fast , that's quick from amd , good that's mean ati card's test first on windows 7
by: zithe
Because regardless of whether you believe it or not, there are things that just seem to refuse to work in 64 bit OS'.
That's only because lazy developers choose not to program for it. If Win7 was 64bit only, they would have no choice. It would kick the software developer's asses into gear. I'm not saying eliminate 32bit support altogether. Just eliminate the 32bit version. Use the same type of 32bit emulation that current x64 OSes use. That way you still get large memory support, but still have compatibility with your older 32bit apps.
by: niko084
Exactly, people need to stop overlooking this, yes it would be nice but its not going to happen...
Lets be honest hardware techs out there, how many AMD XP's, P3's and early P4's do you see yet that people STILL want to fix and keep running... I mean lets keep it real here, some people are still happy with Windows 98....
Those people wouldn't be buying Windows 7 anyway.
by: fitseries3
what a waste of time.
code 43... windows has stopped this device because it has reported problems.
i tried about 60 times now. even a fresh install wont let them work.
I suspect the Catalyst Preview for Windows 7 is a very early preview of the new multi-threaded DX11-API aware drivers, hence the fact that the drivers won't work in Vista for DX10/10.1. The standard Catalyst drivers works fine in Windows 7 right now, but the standard drivers are made with DX10 in mind.
ps. Yes, DX11 is in Windows 7, and one of the new things about DirectX11 is that it's fine-grain multi-threaded. To really take advantage of this you'll need new drivers that take that aspect into consideration. This is great news for people with Crossfire/CrossfireX setups, they'll get much better scaling with DX11 (even on DX10/10.1-class hardware) and Win7-drivers than they have now. And who want to complain about free performance boosts? :)