ATI Catalyst 8.12 Beta Released, ATI Stream Now Available

[malware]

It's already December, time for a new ATI Catalyst 8.12 driver. It's still a little bit early for the final driver release though, but a Beta version is already available, and now we know some inside information of what this driver will bring very soon. Here's a little sneak preview, with Catalyst 8.12 ATI will land its Stream support for Radeon video cards. The CAL (Compute Abstraction Layer) is now included in the Catalyst driver package. CAL is the enabling component for ATI Stream. Catalyst 8.12 is also said to bring Stream technology to ATI Avivo Video Converter, for enhanced video transcoding. For good or for bad, only ATI Radeon HD 4800 and Radeon HD 4600 series support this tool. At last, Catalyst 8.12 comes with many game performance improvements (read more below). Here's the link to the Catalyst 8.12 Beta version, the final release is coming soon. We'll inform you when it is available.


ATI Stream support:
With the release of ATI Catalyst 8.12 users can unlock the potential of accelerated applications enabling ATI Stream technology for millions of ATI Radeon graphics processors worldwide
ATI Stream harnesses the tremendous processing power of the graphics processing unit (GPU) for high-performance, data-intensive computations over a wide range of scientific, business and consumer applications.
ATI Stream enables the hundreds of parallel cores inside AMD graphics processors to accelerate general purpose applications. These capabilities will allow ATI Stream-enabled programs, for a variety of different tasks and from a growing number of software vendors, to operate with optimized performance or with new functionality.
The CAL (Compute Abstraction Layer) is now include in the Catalyst driver package. CAL is the enabling component for ATI Stream


ATI Stream application: ATI Avivo Video Converter:
Using ATI Stream technology, owners of ATI Radeon HD 4800 Series and ATI Radeon HD 4600 Series of graphics cards can take advantage of this video conversion tool (found in Catalyst Control Center Basic View) to achieve incredible performance levels in video transcoding.
ATI Catalyst Control Center - Noise reduction for progressive video content:

This release of Catalyst introduces a new advanced video quality control: Noise Reduction for progressive video content, which removes ghosting artifacts while preserving details of the original video. The slider control can be found in the All Settings page of the Avivo Video tab found in the Catalyst Control Center.

Performance improvements:
Catalyst 8.12 Preliminary Performance Notes

• Crysis + 2-7%
• Crysis Warhead + 2-3%
• Devil May Cry 4 + 1-6%
• Far Cry 2
  + noAA scores are fixed for Crossfire configs; this is worth +20% on slower cards, and as much as 70% on faster ones
  + 5-10% gains when AA is enabled
• FEAR + 2-6%
• Left 4 Dead + 2-4%
• Lost Planet Colonies + 3-10%, mostly in Area 2
• Prey + 2-5%
• STALKER Clear Sky + 5-10%, primarily on Crossfire configurations

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[HTC]

Here's another topic on this.

You do have more information then i did, when i posted: thanks for that.

As i said in the topic i linked above, with my 4670, after un-installing 8.10, it doesn't detect any drivers to install

Incompatibility with my card? Maybe, dunno.

EDIT

I downloaded 8.56.5RC2_072201E_Vista_Asus. Meanwhile, a RC3 version was posted which i'm downloading now.

It's for XP and Vista 32/64, btw.

 

[bubje]

Ati cat 8.12 beta

Here some more links for ATI 8.12 BETA

ATI Catalyst 8.12 beta (8.561 RC3) XP 32/64-bit
http://www.mediafire.com/?dojmwyjn4nt

ATI Catalyst 8.12 beta (8.561 RC3) VISTA 32/64-bit
http://www.mediafire.com/?h1ytmgy40w3

 

[HTC]

Here some more links for ATI 8.12 BETA

ATI Catalyst 8.12 beta (8.561 RC3) XP 32/64-bit
http://www.mediafire.com/?dojmwyjn4nt

ATI Catalyst 8.12 beta (8.561 RC3) VISTA 32/64-bit
http://www.mediafire.com/?h1ytmgy40w3

Thanks dude!

RC3 works with my 4670. Can't tell you about good or bad when compared to previous version since i didn't have it installed (had 8.10 instead) nor do i have any of the games mentioned in the OP.

 

[PVTCaboose1337]

Downloading now... looking forward to the improvements.

 

[D3mon_Hunt3r]

Some GTA IV improvements preferably.

 

[TheMailMan78]

Some GTA IV improvements preferably.

Screw that where is my Fallout 3 and CoD 5 improvements. I mean we get a 2-5% increase for Prey? That shit is 4 years old already. I sure hope the final release has more than this. Anyway thanks for the update malware.

Also can someone take the time and explain in laymen's terms what exactly this CAL will do? It doesn't sound like its game related.

 

[niko084]

Screw that where is my Fallout 3 and CoD 5 improvements. I mean we get a 2-5% increase for Prey? That shit is 4 years old already. I sure hope the final release has more than this. Anyway thanks for the update malware.

Also can someone take the time and explain in laymen's terms what exactly this CAL will do? It doesn't sound like its game related.

CAL is part of ATI Stream its mainly like CUDA for ATI, it should allow ATI cards to stomp Nvidia cards in F@H if we are lucky

Are these drivers having the same stupid issues that stopped a lot of people didn't install the 8.11s for?

 

[TheMailMan78]

CAL is part of ATI Stream its mainly like CUDA for ATI, it should allow ATI cards to stomp Nvidia cards in F@H if we are lucky

So nothing for gaming?

 

[ASharp]

CAL is part of ATI Stream its mainly like CUDA for ATI, it should allow ATI cards to stomp Nvidia cards in F@H if we are lucky

F@H for ATI cards has already been using CAL for folding. The reason ATI cards suck is because of the inefficient folding core compared to NVIDIA.

 

[PCpraiser100]

Nice, looks like there is some extra juice for my HD 3870 that will be in for the holidays...I don't really care anyhow if this applies with HD 4000 cause I will get a 2fps increase!!!!!!!

 

[AphexDreamer]

Anyone notice any improvments? I installed it but haven't been able to test it yet. I guess I'll test it with Left 4 Dead first and report resulst.

 

[niko084]

F@H for ATI cards has already been using CAL for folding. The reason ATI cards suck is because of the inefficient folding core compared to NVIDIA.

Aw, I was under the idea that it wasn't... Oh well, either way its basically the same as Cuda.

 

[ShogoXT]

You will need to forgive me for the caps, but the important question is DID IT FIX THE 4850 CROSSFIRE BLUE SCREENS!?!?!?!?

Will have to test after work.

 

[Whilhelm]

I wish ATI would fix the problem I have always had with Vista coming out of sleep and not initializing the display. It only happens with Crossfire enabled so It must be a driver issue.

It did it with my 3870x2, 4850 Crossfire and 4870 Crossfire. It is really annoying to have to hard reset the computer every time I try to bring it out of sleep. It defeats the purpose of having the sleep option to begin with.

Hopefully this driver helps but I have my doubts :shadedshu

 

[erocker]

You will need to forgive me for the caps, but the important question is DID IT FIX THE 4850 CROSSFIRE BLUE SCREENS!?!?!?!?

Will have to test after work.

I honestly have never heard of that problem, barring any specific system issues.

 

[TRIPTEX_CAN]

Anyone notice any improvments? I installed it but haven't been able to test it yet. I guess I'll test it with Left 4 Dead first and report resulst.

I hope the 2-4% in L4D is an increase in minimum FPS not maximum. Sure 190 fps is great when nothing is on the screen but it's useless when I hit mid 40s in a battle.

 

[toastem2004]

I wish ATI would fix the problem I have always had with Vista coming out of sleep and not initializing the display. It only happens with Crossfire enabled so It must be a driver issue.

It did it with my 3870x2, 4850 Crossfire and 4870 Crossfire. It is really annoying to have to hard reset the computer every time I try to bring it out of sleep. It defeats the purpose of having the sleep option to begin with.

Hopefully this driver helps but I have my doubts :shadedshu

I too have been having that problem, however, i only have a single 3870. Perhaps its and issue with the 3000 and 4000 series, as i have recently sold my 3870, and in its place have been running a 2600 Pro, and surprisingly, sleep mode has functioned as it should.

back on topic, hopefully the video conversion and "stream" stuff will find its way to the 2000 and 3000 series. would sure make my 2600 pro a lot more useful in my HTPC.

 

[DaMulta]

This website should be a good one to look into if you kind of want to know how this is working.

http://www.gpgpu.org/

 

[newconroer]

I hope the 2-4% in L4D is an increase in minimum FPS not maximum. Sure 190 fps is great when nothing is on the screen but it's useless when I hit mid 40s in a battle.

Who knows how they gauge performance increases.

But if they're touting an increase in a game like Left 4 Dead, it does make you wonder, as how on Earth could that game run slow anyways?

 

[TRIPTEX_CAN]

Who knows how they gauge performance increases.

But if they're touting an increase in a game like Left 4 Dead, it does make you wonder, as how on Earth could that game run slow anyways?

The game runs fine the only place they would need work there... or in a few other games is the minimum fps with crossfire enabled.

 

[RadeonProVega]

Can someone post how many openGL extensions have ati added , last i remember was 115.

 

[Polarman]

I'd rather wait 6 days to get the real deal.

 

[fullinfusion]

one of the moderators said in a different thread that it supports the new fetures of HD 2000 series and up?
here's the link..
http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=76167

 

[Solaris17]

so has anyone checked their GPU-Z to see if this enabled sideband?