Miz
25th May 2006, 05:35
New Features
This release of Catalyst® introduces the following new features:
* Overlay Theater Mode Update
* Adaptive Anti-Aliasing for ATI Radeon® 9500 and above
Overlay Theater Mode Update
Catalyst® 6.5 introduces a new option for Overlay Theater Mode. The new option, Standard Dual Mode is available for Radeon® X1x00 series of graphics cards. This new feature now allows users to playback video using hardware acceleration when it is played on both displays (clone mode). Hardware acceleration decreases CPU utilization, allowing the PC to run smoother and faster. When using two displays in clone mode, video playback will be identically displayed on both display devices. For Radeon® X1000 series products (Avivo Video) overlay is per-display and true overlay will be used for both displays. For pre-Radeon® X1x00 boards, there is only one hardware overlay, so video on the second clone display device is either software-rendered (i.e. "Same on all" selection) or the Windows desktop is displayed but the video will not show through the color key (i.e., "Standard mode" selection).
Adaptive Anti-Aliasing for ATI Radeon® 9500 and above
Adaptive Anti-Aliasing smoothes out the surfaces in an entire scene unlike Multi-Sample which works only on edge surfaces. Adaptive AA has the ability to work on transparent or opaque texels, like those that comprise a surface texture. Previously this feature was available on the ATI Radeon® X1000 family products. Starting with Catalyst® 6.5, Adaptive AA support is now available to ATI Radeon® 9500 products and above.
Performance Improvements
As with most Catalyst® releases, performance has increased in various situations. The PCI Express bandwidth optimization code in Catalyst® 6.5 brings performance improvements for both the ATI Radeon® X1600 and Radeon® X1300 Crossfire configurations, including:
* Up to 23% gain in UT2004
* Up to 20% gain in Splinter Cell
Issues Resolved in Catalyst® Software Suite 6.5
The following section provides a summary of the issues that are resolved in the latest release of Catalyst®. These include:
* 3DMark05: Running the application with CrossFire enabled and then attempting to hot un-plug and then hot-plug the CRT no longer results in 3DMark05 failing to respond.
* Aquamark 3: Exiting the Start Measurement benchmark test once it is complete no longer results in the display device displaying a black desktop image with only the mouse cursor being available.
* Doom 3: Beginning a new game and selecting the shotgun in the give all console no longer results in corruption being noticed when Ultra Quality is disabled in the in game video quality settings.
* Far Cry: Installing the v1.33 patch and selecting D3D along with setting the display to 1024x768 English no longer results in the operating system failing to respond when running the benchmark.
Known Issues for Catalyst® Software Suite 6.5
The following section provides a summary of open issues in the latest version of Catalyst®. These include:
* 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.
https://support.ati.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=894&task=knowledge&folderID=27
The adaptive Anti-Aliasing is pretty cool. Looks good and not a great fps hit either.
This release of Catalyst® introduces the following new features:
* Overlay Theater Mode Update
* Adaptive Anti-Aliasing for ATI Radeon® 9500 and above
Overlay Theater Mode Update
Catalyst® 6.5 introduces a new option for Overlay Theater Mode. The new option, Standard Dual Mode is available for Radeon® X1x00 series of graphics cards. This new feature now allows users to playback video using hardware acceleration when it is played on both displays (clone mode). Hardware acceleration decreases CPU utilization, allowing the PC to run smoother and faster. When using two displays in clone mode, video playback will be identically displayed on both display devices. For Radeon® X1000 series products (Avivo Video) overlay is per-display and true overlay will be used for both displays. For pre-Radeon® X1x00 boards, there is only one hardware overlay, so video on the second clone display device is either software-rendered (i.e. "Same on all" selection) or the Windows desktop is displayed but the video will not show through the color key (i.e., "Standard mode" selection).
Adaptive Anti-Aliasing for ATI Radeon® 9500 and above
Adaptive Anti-Aliasing smoothes out the surfaces in an entire scene unlike Multi-Sample which works only on edge surfaces. Adaptive AA has the ability to work on transparent or opaque texels, like those that comprise a surface texture. Previously this feature was available on the ATI Radeon® X1000 family products. Starting with Catalyst® 6.5, Adaptive AA support is now available to ATI Radeon® 9500 products and above.
Performance Improvements
As with most Catalyst® releases, performance has increased in various situations. The PCI Express bandwidth optimization code in Catalyst® 6.5 brings performance improvements for both the ATI Radeon® X1600 and Radeon® X1300 Crossfire configurations, including:
* Up to 23% gain in UT2004
* Up to 20% gain in Splinter Cell
Issues Resolved in Catalyst® Software Suite 6.5
The following section provides a summary of the issues that are resolved in the latest release of Catalyst®. These include:
* 3DMark05: Running the application with CrossFire enabled and then attempting to hot un-plug and then hot-plug the CRT no longer results in 3DMark05 failing to respond.
* Aquamark 3: Exiting the Start Measurement benchmark test once it is complete no longer results in the display device displaying a black desktop image with only the mouse cursor being available.
* Doom 3: Beginning a new game and selecting the shotgun in the give all console no longer results in corruption being noticed when Ultra Quality is disabled in the in game video quality settings.
* Far Cry: Installing the v1.33 patch and selecting D3D along with setting the display to 1024x768 English no longer results in the operating system failing to respond when running the benchmark.
Known Issues for Catalyst® Software Suite 6.5
The following section provides a summary of open issues in the latest version of Catalyst®. These include:
* 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.
https://support.ati.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=894&task=knowledge&folderID=27
The adaptive Anti-Aliasing is pretty cool. Looks good and not a great fps hit either.