Future versions of ATI Catalyst hope to have more features...and possibly more complexity

[zekrahminator]

A recent interview with ATI/AMD at ExtremeTech shows some insight to future versions of Catalyst Control Center (CCC) software. AMD/ATI knows that previous versions have been lagging, complicated, and somewhat bloated. AMD made a good effort to fix this by a complete rewrite of CCC, but it still feels a bit lacking to some people. Instead of working on making the current CCC faster and more streamlined (like the old control panel), AMD/ATI is focusing on making one centralized application to manage all AMD/ATI products.

Says AMD representative Phil Rogers: "Longer term our goal is continue to improve the user experience and to move towards a single or central user interface where AMD customers can configure the majority of AMD product settings... It is our goal and vision to eventually have a single UI for all AMD products (graphics, CPU, chipset), but this is of course a major project, and it will be quite some time before we're able to release such a product"

This means that AMD hopes to make their control center much more featured, but this may prove to backfire upon release. With great power comes great responsibility, as Spiderman's Uncle Ben once said. And if AMD can't quite handle the responsibility, we may be looking at one complex, bloated driver interface.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[C.Ash]

ATI has always been lagging behind nVidia in the driver department.
Hopefully this can be fixed.. that is if anyone will still have an ATI graphics card.

 

[Jimmy 2004]

CCC sucks, it offers no advantages over the old control panel and uses up extra RAM - I don't understand why ATI decided to force it upon us. Simple minded people will like the easy-to-use interface, but I don't know why they stopped supporting the control panel.

 

[HellasVagabond]

The only way to make the CCC better is to ERASE IT AND REBUILD IT.

 

[Mad-Matt]

For an area you only ever go into once when you first install the driver, Its pretty much a non issue especially now it opens almost instant with the current release.

 

[EastCoasthandle]

I wonder if they are going to put some bias setup allowing for their CPUs and chipset. Making it CCC exclusive to AMD products only... Only time will tell.

Options I would like to see refined:
-Section for Folding (whatever happened to this)
-Monitor Calibration settings that can be used with a colorimeter or photometer. Colorvision comes to mind as there are a few 3rd party programs that use this colorimeter.
-Section for using video recording/decoding/compression, etc
-Option to add gpu, board, etc temps onto the toolbar
-Most importantly ADD ATI TOOL TO CCC (pay W1z for his work)!!!!
-KEEP THE REFINEMENT TO ATI VIDEO CARDS ONLY

 

[KennyT772]

i wish they would ditch the look of ccc if anything.

better yet, pay w1zz 500k usd to design it from the ground up !

 

[Wile E]

ATI has always been lagging behind nVidia in the driver department.
Hopefully this can be fixed.. that is if anyone will still have an ATI graphics card.

That's not true. nVidia has definitely been behind the curve compared to ATI, especially if you throw Vista into the mix.

For an area you only ever go into once when you first install the driver, Its pretty much a non issue especially now it opens almost instant with the current release.

I wouldn't say it's a non issue. In XP, the Control Center consumes over 40MB of ram. If I don't install the Control Center, and use ATI Tray Tools instead, I boot to about 150-155MB. If I install the Control Center instead, I boot to 195-200MB. Short Version=the Control Center is a bloated pig for the job it does.

 

[Completely Bonkers]

CCC SUCKS LUCKY BIG TIME.

Get rid of CCC! We dont need it. Just make a lean and efficient Driver. Simple control panel needed only. WTF are they doing with all the unnecessary bloat? Users dont want it. And it doesnt make them "prefer" an ATI.

 

[binormalkilla]

AWESOME! Seriously that would be really cool. Setting you CPU voltage, HT freq., Northbridge voltage, your GPU/GDDR clocks, AA and AF settings. YAY

 

[binormalkilla]

CCC SUCKS LUCKY BIG TIME.

Get rid of CCC! We dont need it. Just make a lean and efficient Driver. Simple control panel needed only. WTF are they doing with all the unnecessary bloat? Users dont want it. And it doesnt make them "prefer" an ATI.

Not true. TV monitor users need the CCC because it detects the TV (for some reason). I can't install the driver only and simply use ATT.

Besides, if you know what you're doing you can get rid of the whopping 13Mb that CLI.exe consumes. It's MOM.exe after 7.2

 

[Ketxxx]

CCC offers more than the old CP, looks much nicer too. However it is bloated and clunky. AMD need to mature much faster than they are if they dont want to be responsible for sinking one of the greatest graphics card names around.

 

[Completely Bonkers]

@binomial

The fact that you NEED CCC for your TV and the driver is insufficient does not mean that CCC is a good thing! Obviously the driver needs fixing!

While I agree we need a wheelchair for the handicapped... we WOULDNT NEED A WHEELCHAIR if the handicapped weren't handicapped!

 

[Wile E]

Besides, if you know what you're doing you can get rid of the whopping 13Mb that CLI.exe consumes. It's MOM.exe after 7.2

13Mb isn't true. Test it back to back in XP, installing the Control Center consumes 40-50MB altogether.

 

[EastCoasthandle]

Not everyone wants Control Panel any more. Regardless of the reasons. So lets move forward and see what they have to offer.

 

[DrunkenMafia]

I use ccc only because of crossfire, and it truely sux!! Bigtime!!

Why can't they just buy ray adams tool or even better tell ray adams the big secret with crossfire!!

They are slowely but surely losing their followers, thats for sure.

 

[OnBoard]

Not true. TV monitor users need the CCC because it detects the TV (for some reason). I can't install the driver only and simply use ATT.

Besides, if you know what you're doing you can get rid of the whopping 13Mb that CLI.exe consumes. It's MOM.exe after 7.2

I have only driver and ATT and TV works fine. Extended desktop is even better than in CP/CCC, as it doesn't show the backround in TV and burn the image there. (well shows at first but goes black after video is played)

There's a "Force TV Detection" in tweaks tab in display/settings, try that and ditch the useless CCC Anyhow haven't had to use that either, just press extended desktop and TV flashes and it's good to go.

 

[tkpenalty]

AWESOME! Seriously that would be really cool. Setting you CPU voltage, HT freq., Northbridge voltage, your GPU/GDDR clocks, AA and AF settings. YAY

Yeah... I might switch to AMD/ATI when that happens.

 

[WarEagleAU]

ID be worried that all those settings wouldnt be saved on a reboot and also, on the effects changing those settings would have on your pc. IF you dont reboot your pc for a couple weeks, whats burn in gonna be like?

Nvidia has always had shady driver support. IT wasnt until recently (around the latest version of 6800 and definately in the 7XXX series) that they caught up with ATI in the video quality department.


The merger caused a slow down process for DaAMit, but thats going to happen with most mergers. The good news is, given a little more time, some great things are gonna be coming from them and I for one cannot wait!

 

[binormalkilla]

13Mb isn't true. Test it back to back in XP, installing the Control Center consumes 40-50MB altogether.

That's how much it uses on my PC. 13Mb

 

[Wile E]

That's how much it uses on my PC. 13Mb

Did you install without the CCC and check your ram usage, than install the CCC and check your ram usage again? You can't go by what CCC is using in the task manager list. It bloats other processes too.