Miz
13th April 2006, 10:14
https://support.ati.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=894&task=knowledge&folderID=27
Video Quality Improvements
Improvements have been made to the Avivo video processing engine during standard definition (SD) video playback. Edge enhancement or sharpening effectively improves image quality by enhancing details lost during encoding and processing. Noise reduction algorithms are improved to ensure original detail is preserved, while removing unwanted noise.
Windows Media Center Edition Video Conversion Utility
Catalyst® 6.4 introduces a Windows MCE Video Conversion utility. This utility allows users to convert video content that is recorded by MCE, or video content that is available to MCE, to variety of different formats. The video content can be converted to MPEG-2, MPEG-4 SP, MPEG-4 AVC and Windows Media. Ipod Video and PSP video are listed as separate formats for easy recognition.
Performance Improvements
As with most Catalyst® releases, performance has increased in various situations.
* 3DMark06 CPU scores improve as much as 4.9% across all product lines
* 3DMark06 HDR 2 Deep Freeze (SM3.0) test improves as much as 2%
* Call of Duty 2 improves approximately 1.4-2% on Radeon® X1900 and Radeon® X1800 Crossfire™ configurations. Gains are slightly less (1.3%) for non-Crossfire™ Radeon® X1900 and Radeon® X1800 products
* FarCry improves 2-3% on ATI Radeon® X1900 non-Crossfire configurations. Greatest improvements result from tests with no AA and AF
* Half Life 2 improves as much as 3.8% on Radeon® X1900 non-Crossfire configurations. Greatest improvements result from tests with no AA and AF
* Unreal Tournament 2004 gains 3-5% on all Radeon® X1x00 non-Crossfire configurations
Issues Resolved in Catalyst® Software Suite 6.4
* Doom 3: Setting the in-game resolution to 2560x1600 no longer results in green circles appearing around energy projectiles of demons.
* DoVAIO: Running the application on a system containing an ATI Xpress 200M series and running the Japanese version of Windows XP, no longer results in an error message being displayed when exiting the event viewer. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number
* EarthSim: Missing textures are no longer noticed on the terrain of both Mars and Earth when running the application on systems containing an ATI Radeon® X1600 or X1600 XT product.
* Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion: Crossfire™ AFR mode support is now enabled.
* Flight Simulator 2004: A Century of Flight: The frames per second are no longer lowered when moving the mouse cursor over a chat window during a multiplayer game.
* Maya 7.0: The Frame Marker located near the bottom of the screen is now displayed when connecting a secondary CRT and enabling extended desktop.
* Quake 4: The game no longer fails to respond after lying dormant for approximately 10 minutes, followed by switching between the game and notepad.exe. This issue was known to occur when extended desktop was enabled on systems containing an ATI dual display graphic card.
* Serious Sam SE: Entering the Technology Test mode no longer results in display corruption being noticed in the Reflections and Portals screens.
* TVFunStudio: Launching the MediaPlayer and playing a movie no longer results in frame drops being noticed.
* WARHAMMER: DAWN OF WAR: Starting a skirmish game on a 4 player map under Windows XP, no longer results in the game performance appearing choppy when using an ATI Radeon® X800 series, and having all of the game options set to high.
* Zera: Holding down the right mouse button to pan the on-line game display in a circular motion, no longer results in missing and flashing textures being noticed when playing the game with both AA and AAA enabled.
Known Issues for Catalyst® Software Suite 6.4
* Alias MotionBuilder 6: Loading a model in MB6, followed by rotating the object, may result in shadows appearing corrupt and flickering being noticed.
* Anarchy-Online: Screen corruption may be noticed when walking or running through the terrain.
* AutoCAD 2005: Using the 3DORBIT command to rotate or zoom may result in the display hanging for a few seconds when having hardware acceleration enabled in AutoCAD and a 3D object in the drawing.
* AutoCad 2006: Corruption may be noticed when moving the mouse pointer around the desktop area.
* Cold War: Playing the game with the display resolution set to 1600x1200 along with AA set to 8x and CrossFire™ enabled may result in a ghosting effect being noticed.
* F1 Racing Championship: Playing the game on a system containing an ATI Xpress 200 series may result game not running smoothly.
* Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle Earth: Playing the game under Windows XP SP2 using an ATI Radeon® X800 series product may result in intermittent display corruption being noticed.
* Neverwinter Nights: Playing the game under Windows XP on a system containing an ATI Radeon® X800 series, may result in the game exiting to the Windows desktop and an error message being displayed.
* Path of Neo: Texture corruption may be noticed when playing the Kung Fu level.
* Vulpine GLMark: Running the application on a system running Windows MCE, and containing an ATI Xpress 200 series may result in the display device failing to display an image when attempting to set the display resolution to 1024x768 32bpp.
* World of Warcraft: Enabling CrossFire may intermittently result in the character appearing off center.
Video Quality Improvements
Improvements have been made to the Avivo video processing engine during standard definition (SD) video playback. Edge enhancement or sharpening effectively improves image quality by enhancing details lost during encoding and processing. Noise reduction algorithms are improved to ensure original detail is preserved, while removing unwanted noise.
Windows Media Center Edition Video Conversion Utility
Catalyst® 6.4 introduces a Windows MCE Video Conversion utility. This utility allows users to convert video content that is recorded by MCE, or video content that is available to MCE, to variety of different formats. The video content can be converted to MPEG-2, MPEG-4 SP, MPEG-4 AVC and Windows Media. Ipod Video and PSP video are listed as separate formats for easy recognition.
Performance Improvements
As with most Catalyst® releases, performance has increased in various situations.
* 3DMark06 CPU scores improve as much as 4.9% across all product lines
* 3DMark06 HDR 2 Deep Freeze (SM3.0) test improves as much as 2%
* Call of Duty 2 improves approximately 1.4-2% on Radeon® X1900 and Radeon® X1800 Crossfire™ configurations. Gains are slightly less (1.3%) for non-Crossfire™ Radeon® X1900 and Radeon® X1800 products
* FarCry improves 2-3% on ATI Radeon® X1900 non-Crossfire configurations. Greatest improvements result from tests with no AA and AF
* Half Life 2 improves as much as 3.8% on Radeon® X1900 non-Crossfire configurations. Greatest improvements result from tests with no AA and AF
* Unreal Tournament 2004 gains 3-5% on all Radeon® X1x00 non-Crossfire configurations
Issues Resolved in Catalyst® Software Suite 6.4
* Doom 3: Setting the in-game resolution to 2560x1600 no longer results in green circles appearing around energy projectiles of demons.
* DoVAIO: Running the application on a system containing an ATI Xpress 200M series and running the Japanese version of Windows XP, no longer results in an error message being displayed when exiting the event viewer. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number
* EarthSim: Missing textures are no longer noticed on the terrain of both Mars and Earth when running the application on systems containing an ATI Radeon® X1600 or X1600 XT product.
* Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion: Crossfire™ AFR mode support is now enabled.
* Flight Simulator 2004: A Century of Flight: The frames per second are no longer lowered when moving the mouse cursor over a chat window during a multiplayer game.
* Maya 7.0: The Frame Marker located near the bottom of the screen is now displayed when connecting a secondary CRT and enabling extended desktop.
* Quake 4: The game no longer fails to respond after lying dormant for approximately 10 minutes, followed by switching between the game and notepad.exe. This issue was known to occur when extended desktop was enabled on systems containing an ATI dual display graphic card.
* Serious Sam SE: Entering the Technology Test mode no longer results in display corruption being noticed in the Reflections and Portals screens.
* TVFunStudio: Launching the MediaPlayer and playing a movie no longer results in frame drops being noticed.
* WARHAMMER: DAWN OF WAR: Starting a skirmish game on a 4 player map under Windows XP, no longer results in the game performance appearing choppy when using an ATI Radeon® X800 series, and having all of the game options set to high.
* Zera: Holding down the right mouse button to pan the on-line game display in a circular motion, no longer results in missing and flashing textures being noticed when playing the game with both AA and AAA enabled.
Known Issues for Catalyst® Software Suite 6.4
* Alias MotionBuilder 6: Loading a model in MB6, followed by rotating the object, may result in shadows appearing corrupt and flickering being noticed.
* Anarchy-Online: Screen corruption may be noticed when walking or running through the terrain.
* AutoCAD 2005: Using the 3DORBIT command to rotate or zoom may result in the display hanging for a few seconds when having hardware acceleration enabled in AutoCAD and a 3D object in the drawing.
* AutoCad 2006: Corruption may be noticed when moving the mouse pointer around the desktop area.
* Cold War: Playing the game with the display resolution set to 1600x1200 along with AA set to 8x and CrossFire™ enabled may result in a ghosting effect being noticed.
* F1 Racing Championship: Playing the game on a system containing an ATI Xpress 200 series may result game not running smoothly.
* Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle Earth: Playing the game under Windows XP SP2 using an ATI Radeon® X800 series product may result in intermittent display corruption being noticed.
* Neverwinter Nights: Playing the game under Windows XP on a system containing an ATI Radeon® X800 series, may result in the game exiting to the Windows desktop and an error message being displayed.
* Path of Neo: Texture corruption may be noticed when playing the Kung Fu level.
* Vulpine GLMark: Running the application on a system running Windows MCE, and containing an ATI Xpress 200 series may result in the display device failing to display an image when attempting to set the display resolution to 1024x768 32bpp.
* World of Warcraft: Enabling CrossFire may intermittently result in the character appearing off center.