ATI/AMD beta driver and 11.4c hotfix

[dark2099]

found these links on another site, one seems to be a beta driver i would guess, the other is called a hotfix, links and info that I found as follows, not sure if theyre x86 or x64

AMD Catalyst 8.85 (April 19)
Win Vista/7 http://www.mediafire.com/?nt3gytxyq69xqay
Win XP http://www.mediafire.com/?4v03dkaqspbs4ug
Build Info:
8.85-110419a-116502C
DriverVer=04/19/2011, 8.850.0.0000
Sign Date: May 3 ‎2011

AMD Catalyst 11.4c Hotfix (8.84.9 RC3 - May 04)
http://support.amd.com/us/kbarticles/Pages/AMDCatalyst114cHotfix.aspx

 

[sy5tem]

ty

its a targeted "hotfix" to 6600 card ...

AMD Catalyst™ Driver 11.4c Hotfix Feature:
Resolves intermittent flickering issues seen in the following applications in a system using an AMD Radeon™ HD 6600 series graphics card with DDR3 memory and running in DirectX® 9 mode:

Civilization 5
Dead Rising 2
Fallout 3
Mafia 2
NBA 2K10
ShenGuiChuanQi
Starcraft 2
Warcraft III
World of Warcraft

 

[FierceRed]

ty

its a targeted "hotfix" to 6600 card ...

AMD Catalyst™ Driver 11.4c Hotfix Feature:
Resolves intermittent flickering issues seen in the following applications in a system using an AMD Radeon™ HD 6600 series graphics card with DDR3 memory and running in DirectX® 9 mode:

Civilization 5
Dead Rising 2
Fallout 3
Mafia 2
NBA 2K10
ShenGuiChuanQi
Starcraft 2
Warcraft III
World of Warcraft

Guiltily, I always smirk a little when DirectX 9 encounters some sort of problem or setback, even if by accident as this Hotfix seems to imply. While I know it won't happen until a large portion of mouth-breathers migrate to the next console generation, DirectX 9 needs to die.

Maybe not very soon as I understand it's still useful, but at least much sooner than the deferred retirement the industry seems to want it to have.

 

[devguy]

Guiltily, I always smirk a little when DirectX 9 encounters some sort of problem or setback, even if by accident as this Hotfix seems to imply. While I know it won't happen until a large portion of mouth-breathers migrate to the next console generation, DirectX 9 needs to die.

Maybe not very soon as I understand it's still useful, but at least much sooner than the deferred retirement the industry seems to want it to have.

While XP is still hanging around, DX9 will be alive and kicking. As it is, Battlefield 3 will be the first game to not support XP for a legitimate reason. No, there was absolutely no technical reason Halo 2 and ShadowRun couldn't work in XP (in fact, they were hacked and working on XP in a matter of weeks after launch).

DX9 will die a year or so after either XP goes EOL (2014), or the new Xbox is released (whichever happens second).

 

[dark2099]

did some quick benches for comparison, will get the crysis 2 benchmark and run that in a few for some more up to date game comparison

11.4 whql

8.850 beta (gpu-z reads it as 11.4 still, so maybe a major hotfix in the works?)

 

[FierceRed]

While XP is still hanging around, DX9 will be alive and kicking. As it is, Battlefield 3 will be the first game to not support XP for a legitimate reason. No, there was absolutely no technical reason Halo 2 and ShadowRun couldn't work in XP (in fact, they were hacked and working on XP in a matter of weeks after launch).

DX9 will die a year or so after either XP goes EOL (2014), or the new Xbox is released (whichever happens second).

Though your mention of XP is valid, I was thinking more along the lines of Game Development since Catalyst hotfixes mean squat to the corporate IT departments of the world, the last bastions for XP longevity outside of schools and grandma's house. In the gaming industry context, XP is dying a relatively quick death if Windows7 sale and Steam Hardware Survey (not the only measurable source, I know) numbers are any indication and I predict many of the more financially viable game studios will be following in BF3's footsteps as the "I'm sick of this console generation!/Everything looks the same!/Why are they selling what I played 5 years ago?!" noise generated by CEOs and gamers alike only gets louder. Where necessity is the mother of invention, competitive advantage is the mother of all progress.

Considering Microsoft's resources and recent hiring foreshadowing, I wouldn't be surprised if the next Xbox came out in late 2012, predictably in time for the holiday season. Companies like Microsoft typically start theorizing on the physical design and cost estimates shortly (at max, a year or two) after launching and supporting their current gen hardware, while leaving the actual specifications and logistics until closer to zero hour, so they don't have nearly as much work to do as people think they do in order to launch something. The real time eater will probably come from creating the next iteration of XBox Live, as they can't release new gen hardware using old gen software, and things like feature additions or revenue model restructuring to XBox Live will have to be researched and focus-grouped out the ass before they're approved and seriously worked on.

 

[FierceRed]

did some quick benches for comparison, will get the crysis 2 benchmark and run that in a few for some more up to date game comparison

11.4 whql
http://img.techpowerup.org/110505/Capture002.jpg
http://img.techpowerup.org/110505/Capture003772.jpg
http://img.techpowerup.org/110505/Capture004784.jpg

8.850 beta (gpu-z reads it as 11.4 still, so maybe a major hotfix in the works?)
http://img.techpowerup.org/110505/Capture006107.jpg
http://img.techpowerup.org/110505/Capture007165.jpg

Forgot to change one of those CPU-Zs in your 2nd desktop shot to the Memory tab.

But even more serious, you haven't shown your CCC 3d Applcation Settings at all. This isn't terribly important when benching 3dmark11, but is a huge omission when your game benchmark says "Use ATI Control Panel" for its MSAA setting.

 

[dark2099]

pretty sure everything is set to application control in CCC