The Firing Squad have thrown up their Catalyst 3.8 Driver Report!
They tested Catalyst 3.7 against the newly released Catalyst 3.8 using the following Radeon cards 9800 XT , 9800 Pro 128 MB, 9700 Pro, 9600 Pro, 9500 Pro, 9500, 8500 and using the following benchmarks NASCAR Racing 2003 Season, Quake III: Arena version 1.32, Unreal Tournament 2003, IL-2 Sturmovik: Forgotten Battles, Splinter Cell and Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness. It?s time for another CATALYST driver report folks! In our last driver saga, which was published precisely one month ago today, we mentioned that the CATALYST team had said that its upcoming CATALYST 3.8 release would be the ?most innovative and significant CATALYST release ever?. That?s a pretty bold statement to make, as you obviously set the bar pretty high, and we all know what can happen when the high expectations of enthusiasts aren?t met. Internet newsgroups and message boards are filled with examples.
Of course, if you read our RADEON 9800 XT preview, you know of one new feature that?s present in today?s CATALYST driver: OVERDRIVE. This is ATI?s new dynamic overclocking utility. In its current form, it adjusts the core clock speed of the RADEON 9800 XT VPU only depending on temperature. The cooler the core operates, the higher OVERDRIVE will overclock the graphics core, but only up to a point: 432MHz, 20MHz over default. We?ll get into more detail on OVERDRIVE a little bit later, as it?s not the only new feature that CATALYST 3.8 brings to the table.
The most obvious difference is in the control panel. There?s a new ?3D? tab as well as ?VPU Recover? in addition to the aforementioned OVERDRIVE. We?ll start with VPU Recover first.
CATALYST 3.8 Driver Report
They tested Catalyst 3.7 against the newly released Catalyst 3.8 using the following Radeon cards 9800 XT , 9800 Pro 128 MB, 9700 Pro, 9600 Pro, 9500 Pro, 9500, 8500 and using the following benchmarks NASCAR Racing 2003 Season, Quake III: Arena version 1.32, Unreal Tournament 2003, IL-2 Sturmovik: Forgotten Battles, Splinter Cell and Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness. It?s time for another CATALYST driver report folks! In our last driver saga, which was published precisely one month ago today, we mentioned that the CATALYST team had said that its upcoming CATALYST 3.8 release would be the ?most innovative and significant CATALYST release ever?. That?s a pretty bold statement to make, as you obviously set the bar pretty high, and we all know what can happen when the high expectations of enthusiasts aren?t met. Internet newsgroups and message boards are filled with examples.
Of course, if you read our RADEON 9800 XT preview, you know of one new feature that?s present in today?s CATALYST driver: OVERDRIVE. This is ATI?s new dynamic overclocking utility. In its current form, it adjusts the core clock speed of the RADEON 9800 XT VPU only depending on temperature. The cooler the core operates, the higher OVERDRIVE will overclock the graphics core, but only up to a point: 432MHz, 20MHz over default. We?ll get into more detail on OVERDRIVE a little bit later, as it?s not the only new feature that CATALYST 3.8 brings to the table.
The most obvious difference is in the control panel. There?s a new ?3D? tab as well as ?VPU Recover? in addition to the aforementioned OVERDRIVE. We?ll start with VPU Recover first.
CATALYST 3.8 Driver Report
