These release notes provide information on the latest posting of ATI's industry leading software suite, Catalyst. This particular posting updates the ATI Display Driver to version 7.90. This unified driver has been further enhanced to provide the highest level of power, performance, and reliability. The ATI Catalyst software suite is the ultimate in performance and stability. This maintenance release focuses on resolving known issues with the Catalyst software suite.

The CATALYSTâ„¢ software suite 3.5 contains the following:


Radeon display driver 7.90
Multimedia Center 8.5
HydraVision 3.21
Remote Wonder1.5


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The Catalyst software suite is designed to support the following ATI desktop product family:


RADEONâ„¢ 9800 series
RADEONâ„¢ 9700 series
RADEONâ„¢ 9600 series
RADEONâ„¢ 9500 series
RADEONâ„¢ 9200 series
RADEONâ„¢ 9100 series
RADEONâ„¢ 9000 series
RADEONâ„¢ 8500 series
RADEONâ„¢ 7500 series
RADEONâ„¢ 7200 series
RADEONâ„¢ 7000 series
Note: All-in-Wonder products are supported as well.



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Performance Improvements

As with most Catalyst releases, the performance has increased in numerous situations. Here are some examples observed in Catalyst version 3.5.

Improvements in the ATI OpenGL drivers have experienced performance gains such as:

GL Excess performance improves 12-14% on the RADEONâ„¢ 9700 PRO and 9800 PRO. Modest benefits are noticed on our other graphic products as well.
Unigraphics performance (ViewPerf Ugs-03) improves 27% on the RADEONâ„¢ 9800 PRO, 52% on the RADEONâ„¢ 9700 PRO, and 79% on the RADEONâ„¢ 9500 PRO.
Data Explorer performance (ViewPerf DV-08) improves 9% on RADEONâ„¢ 9800 PRO, and the RADEONâ„¢9700 PRO. The RADEONâ„¢ 9500 PRO improves by 14.5%.


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Resolved Game Issues


The system is not responding when playing Quake II with the OpenGL option set to default, and the video mode set to 1024x768 is now resolved.
Setting the display resolution to 1027x768 and running the Unreal Tournament 2003 benchmark with Anti-Aliasing enabled, no longer results in the system rebooting.
The system rebooting when attempting to start a new game of Ballistic Forces is now resolved.
Enabling Direct3D as the rendering device and setting the display resolution to 1600x1200 in the game Descent 3 no longer results in the game failing to play.
The shadow flickering beneath the car when choosing Quick Race in Nascar Racing 2003 is now resolved.
Setting the display resolution to 1024x768 32bpp and enabling OpenGL no longer results in the ground being discolored in the game IL2 Forgotten Battles.
Connecting a secondary display and enabling extended desktop, followed by running Soldier of Fortune 2 no longer results in a flickering display.
The game Unreal Tournament 2003 no longer hangs when loading the CTF-December level.
The game Unreal Tournament 2003 no longer displays corruption when Anti-Alasing is enabled.
Setting the display options to 1600x1200 32bpp in the Hot Wheels Velocity X game no longer results in the menu screen not being displayed.
Display corruption is no longer noticed when playing the game Earth 2150 and the game resolution is set to 1024x768.
Playing the game Nascar Racing 2003 in OpenGL mode no longer results in the display going black.
Exiting the game Age of Empires II no longer results in display not being restored properly.
Playing the game Serious Sam 2 with the display resolution set to 1024x768 32bpp no longer results in the wrong OpenGL renderer being listed when setting the graphics to OpenGL.
The game A Tale in the Desert no longer pauses during game play and no longer causes the system to randomly stop responding.
Enabling Pixel Shaders in the game Asheron's Call 2 no longer results in display corruption appearing as the game is played.
Playing the game Project IGI2: Covert Strike with a RADEON 9700 series card installed in the system results in the ground terrain disappearing and re-appearing as the character is moved.


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Resolved Benchmark Issues

This section provides information on Benchmark issues that have been resolved in the latest release of Catalyst.


The system no longer stops responding when running 3ds max 2001.
The 3DMark2003 shader optimizations found in previous Catalyst releases have been removed.


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Resolved Software Application Issues

This section provides information on application issues that have been resolved in the latest release of Catalyst.


Increased CPU performance is now noticed when enabling the use accelerated post processing in the DivX player.
Running Maya or SoftImage no longer results in the overly front and backbuffers not being cleared at allocation time.
Dragging the WinDVD player to the extended desktop when playing a DVD no longer results in a system hang.
Running certain OpenGL application under Windows XP with a RADEON 7200 series card installed no longer results in display corruption.
Running the Windows Movie Maker program no longer results in the display corruption appearing on the preview screen.


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Resolved Catalyst Driver Issues

This section provides information on Catalyst driver issues that have been resolved in this latest release.


Running the ATI Tranquility screen saver found at http://www.driverheaven.net, on an ATI RADEON 9000 series card, no longer results in the system not responding under Windows XP.
When installing the EAZYLOOK TV upgrade the installer now upgrades the Watch TV scheduled event property in the registry correctly.
Playing a DVD with TheaterMode enabled no longer results in the display not being maximized on the secondary LCD.
Enabling or disabling the extended desktop when the Media player is running no longer results in the system not responding.
Previewing the 3D Pipes screen saver with latest video driver installed no longer results in a slow start and exit of the screen saver.
The monitor shutting down when booting to the Windows XP Service Pack 1 desktop when a RADEON 9000 Pro is installed in the system is now resolved.
The display resolution is now correct on the first startup after the display driver install.
Playing an AVI no longer results in a screen delay. This issue was known to occur under Windows 2000 with the RADEON 9600 series card installed.
Enabling or disabling the extended desktop when the Media Player is running no longer results in the system not responding.
The OpenGL hardware overlay is now working correctly in panning mode.
The memory size on the RADEON 9800 SE not being reported accurately is now resolved.
Windows 2000 no longer detects the secondary CRT display adapter as the primary display adapter.
The HDTV icon is no longer displayed when Disable Component Output Support is selected.
The information tab found in the advanced display properties for the secondary monitor now provides information on the driver version installed.
The Bios information is no longer listed incorrectly on the Adapter Information.


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Known Issues

The following section provides a brief description of known issues associated with the latest version of Catalyst.


When updating to future Catalyst releases your current color control panel profiles will be lost. This will be fixed in an upcoming release.
Running the 3D Pipes screen saver for an extended period of time (24 hours or longer), produces an error message indicating that the virtual memory is not enough.
Setting the Landscape details to Perfect in the game IL2 Stumovik Forgotten Battles results in the system not responding during the track playback.


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