Wednesday, December 10th 2008

ATI Catalyst 8.12 Released

ATI has just released this year's final version of its Catalyst driver package. As you might already know from our previous BETA release post, with the release of ATI Catalyst 8.12 users can now unlock the potential of accelerated applications enabling ATI Stream technology for various ATI Radeon graphics processors. This release also adds Stream technology to ATI's AVIVO Video Converter and many performance improvements.

DOWNLOAD: ATI Catalyst 8.12

Performance Improvements
  • 3DMark Vantage DX10 - performance gains of up to 5% for Single and
    Crossfire mode. Performance gains were noticed on HD46xx, HD4550 and
    HD4350.
  • Call of Duty: World at War DX9 - performance gains of up to 21% for Single
    and Crossfire mode. Performance gains were noticed on all Radeon HD48xx.
  • Crysis DX10 - performance gains of up to 25% for Single and Crossfire
    mode. Performance gains were noticed on all Radeon HD4xxx.
  • Crysis Warhead DX10 - performance gains of up to 13% for Single card
    mode and up to 16% for Crossfire mode. Performance gains were noticed on
    all Radeon HD4xxx.
  • Devil May Cry 4 DX10- performance gains of up to 6% for Single and
    Crossfire mode. Performance gains were noticed on all Radeon HD4xxx and
    HD38xx.
  • Fallout 3 - performance gains of up to 15% for Single card mode.
  • Far Cry 2 DX10 - performance gains of up to 10% for Single card mode and
    up to 57% in Crossfire mode. Performance gains were noticed on all Radeon
    HD4xxx and HD38xx.
  • FEAR DX9 - performance gains of up to 6% for Single and Crossfire mode.
    Performance gains were noticed on Radeon HD4870X2 and HD4870.
  • Hellgate: London DX10 - performance gains of up to 6% for Single card
    mode and up to 10% for Crossfire mode. Performance gains were noticed on
    all Radeon HD4xxx.
  • Left 4 Dead DX9- performance gains of up to 10% for Single card mode and
    up to 5% for Crossfire mode. Performance gains were noticed on all Radeon
    HD4870 series.
  • Lost Planet Colonies DX10 - performance gains of up to 10% for Single and
    Crossfire mode. Performance gains were noticed on all Radeon HD4xxx and
    HD38xx.
  • Prey OGL - performance gains of up to 15% for Crossfire mode. Performance
    gains were noticed on Radeon HD4870 1GB products, HD46xx,
    HD45xx.
  • S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky - performance gains of up to 10% for Crossfire
    mode. Performance gains were noticed on all Radeon HD4xxx and HD38xx.
  • Unreal Tournament 3 DX9 - performance gains of up to 18% for Single
    card mode and up to 15% in Crossfire mode, especially in cases where AA is
    enabled. Performance gains were noticed on all Radeon HD4xxx and
    HD38xx.
Source: ATI
Add your own comment

87 Comments on ATI Catalyst 8.12 Released

#51
wiak
JrRacinFanWhich cards are currently supported under AMD Stream? Think i may be able to give em a shot under Win 7?
atm HD 4800 series supports AMD Steam
Posted on Reply
#52
Polarman
Everything is working ok with 8.12 except...

I still have the same nagging problem. DVI looses signal when Windows load. Have to use VGA.
Posted on Reply
#53
oli_ramsay
Everything worked out fine for me,

Just uninstalled 8.11 first, rebooted, installed 8.12, rebooted.
Posted on Reply
#55
eidairaman1
The Exiled Airman
ShadowFoldStill cant play crysis, yay!
who cares about that dead horse
Posted on Reply
#56
eidairaman1
The Exiled Airman
PolarmanEverything is working ok with 8.12 except...

I still have the same nagging problem. DVI looses signal when Windows load. Have to use VGA.
sounds like monitor itself.
Posted on Reply
#57
Robert-The-Rambler
Just keep restarting
springs113im using vista 64 and i truly believe this problem is either microsoft or ati....dam cards wont work in xfire...but if i disconnect the bridges windows boots fine...put it back on...window boots to welcome screen then bsod...
if i download the 8.11 package from msi it works fine i can enable crossfire and all no worries...ANY SUGGESTIONS
Ok, I got the BSOD with crossfire in Vista 32 bit with 4 Radeon 4850s. Keep on restarting and the bug will work itself out. First I got a BSOD when I enabled crossfire after it said something wierd about one of my cards being disconnected after installing the drivers plus CCC. It had disabled crossfire and a BSOD was instant after reenabling it. After that I just let Windows start normally and crossfire "magically" was enabled and performance benchmarks confirmed that. Something is not right but I find that simply restarting works out the kinks with multi GPU setups. Sure it is ridiculous but true.
Posted on Reply
#58
eidairaman1
The Exiled Airman
Go to AMD Forums for More Support.
Posted on Reply
#59
jgrahl
8.12 seems to have installed a World of Warcraft FREE Trial icon onto my desktop. They used to give an option for that, now the only option I seen was to install Folding@Home. This was the 8-12_xp32_dd_ccc_wdm_enu_72271 file.
Posted on Reply
#60
eidairaman1
The Exiled Airman
there are options of having that stuff unless if you select no, but that WOW link i think is to download a Free Trial of the Game.
Posted on Reply
#61
erocker
*
eidairaman1sounds like monitor itself.
Yes. I had a monitor that did it with my 4870. Once I got it to work (after several hard resets), the monitor could never be unplugged or the "reset" cycle would have to be done again. New monitor, never had the problem again.
Posted on Reply
#62
silkstone
I Tested this last night. I get a nice performance boost
3dmark vantage = extra 1380 3dmarks
Crysis Warhead = Extra 5fps
Posted on Reply
#63
HTC
silkstoneI Tested this last night. I get a nice performance boost
3dmark vantage = extra 1380 3dmarks
Crysis Warhead = Extra 5fps
Questions:

Has Vantage benefited, in any way, from that "Stream" thing?

Can you check the scores you got with the individual tests to see if any one test is the "culprit" for this increase?
Posted on Reply
#64
shk021051
oh!shit
GTA IV is bad on ATI Catalyst 8.12
Posted on Reply
#65
eidairaman1
The Exiled Airman
its bad on any card, nvidia released 180.84 beta driver to get best experience out of their hardware, sorry but this Game and Crysis Doesnt make PC Gaming, PC gaming, more like "Ports" which are Developed for Non X86 based systems.
Posted on Reply
#66
silkstone
HTCQuestions:

Has Vantage benefited, in any way, from that "Stream" thing?

Can you check the scores you got with the individual tests to see if any one test is the "culprit" for this increase?
Here's a screen shot of the results.



The speeds of the HD4850 might be slightly different, i don't remember exactly what it was set too the other day. but it's only different by a few % as i keep my 4850 clocked to around 720/1100 most of the time. So it isn't an in-depth accurate test, just my first impression. I'm sure a few other folk around here will be doing a better comparison.
-Sorry bad screenshot the Perlin Noise FPS is 57.05

Again i'm not sure how accurate these are as i just fished out on old .3dr file from a couple of days ago. And my rig isn't set up for testing. I'd be interested to see what other people get. I just found another .3dr file and the differences weren't so great. just an extra 400 Graphics marks, and for that test file i am sure the clock speeds were the same.
Posted on Reply
#67
HTC
silkstoneHere's a screen shot of the results.

img.techpowerup.org/081211/Catalyst-compare.jpg

The speeds of the HD4850 might be slightly different, i don't remember exactly what it was set too the other day. but it's only different by a few % as i keep my 4850 clocked to around 720/1100 most of the time. So it isn't an in-depth accurate test, just my first impression. I'm sure a few other folk around here will be doing a better comparison.
-Sorry bad screenshot the Perlin Noise FPS is 57.05
Yeah: i can't tell from that either since, in some tests, it shows a drop of ~50% while, in others, gains of ~66%.
Posted on Reply
#68
miloshs
Problems?!?!

I don't know whats the problem with you guys hardware, but on my Vista x64 it installed flawlessly and didn't even ask for a restart!!! Just upgraded from 8.11 to 8.12 with no uninstalls or similar crap... Works fine...
Gonna fire up GTA 4 to see how it runs compared to 8.11...
Posted on Reply
#69
silkstone
Just edited. The windows weren't aligned properly so it's confusing to compare - sorry.
Fished out an older banchmark result and they weren't too different. but whatever they did it worked for me. I might have just had a bad driver install (i was using the 8.12 beta drivers for the test)
Still an improvement over the other drivers tho which is always a good thing.
Posted on Reply
#70
miloshs
GTA IV results with the 8.12 drivers...

Taken from Fraps excel sheet:

Frames, Time (ms), Min, Max, Avg
9838 , 360000 , 16, 39, 27.328

Settings were:
Res - 1680x1050
Tex - medium
the next one (forgot what it was :D) - high
draw dist - 25 (wont let me set higher)
cars - 100
details -100
shadows - 16

That was actual 5 min gameplay... driving, shooting, killing, smashing... no animations or similar stuff that runs at an 50-60fps average...
Signature rig...

P.S. can't really tell theres a difference compared to 8.11... if there is, then its very small gain and in select areas...
Posted on Reply
#71
Prash
Has anyone tested this with a 4870? I have heard that the gains are lesser than those found in 4850? Anyone...
Posted on Reply
#72
human_error
jgrahl8.12 seems to have installed a World of Warcraft FREE Trial icon onto my desktop. They used to give an option for that, now the only option I seen was to install Folding@Home. This was the 8-12_xp32_dd_ccc_wdm_enu_72271 file.
It is an option if you choose "custom" when installing the drivers instead of express, the wow free trial link has been there for quite a few months now.

In regards to issues installing on vista 64 with 3870s and 3870X2s im currently in communication with ATI driver senior technicians to see if we can find what's wrong (their support is very good if you create a ticket and give plenty of details about the problem).
Posted on Reply
#73
Valdez
human_errorIn regards to issues installing on vista 64 with 3870s and 3870X2s im currently in communication with ATI driver senior technicians to see if we can find what's wrong (their support is very good if you create a ticket and give plenty of details about the problem).
Please tell them, that the xp x64 driver is crap too. (hd3870 + xp x64 = resets my computer on windows logon)
Posted on Reply
#74
truehighroller1
PrashHas anyone tested this with a 4870? I have heard that the gains are lesser than those found in 4850? Anyone...
I have a 4870 1GB with these drivers. I kept getting an out of memory erro after about half hour to hour play time. I never got this error before even though, I could tell before that there was a memory leak with the game. iT is just that now the game bitches about it LOL. I will run fraps and post results tonight but, I ran it last night and at first it hits 60FPS then dropped to like 45 then droppped to like 30 avg then dropped to like 25 then out of memory error just to give you a rough guesstimete of what is to come with my results.
Posted on Reply
#75
Prash
:( i hope the final outcome will be good. Will be waiting for your review.
Posted on Reply
Add your own comment
Jun 5th, 2024 01:19 EDT change timezone

New Forum Posts

Popular Reviews

Controversial News Posts