New ATI 9700 Drivers

[Taz4158]

Windows XP Version

Also available for other cards.



ATI today is hosting the first driver set offering official Radeon 9700 Pro support. As usual the new driver set also comes with an updated version of the Catalyst control panels. The new version numbers are as follows:

Windows XP: 6.13.10.6166
Windows 2000: 5.13.01.6166
Windows ME: 4.13.01.9062
Control Panel: 6.13.10.3027
Hit Read More for extended information.

Features of ATI Catalyst Version 02.3:

Performance Improvements:

NHL 2002 scores are up 10-20% for RADEON 7000/7500/8500/9000 products
Serious Sam performance is improved once again (8-12%) across all RADEON?s
NASCAR 2002 performance is up 8% on the RADEON 9700 PRO
Vertex Shader performance has been improved by approximately 20% for the RADEON 9000 PRO, resulting in a 3-5% gain in 3DMARK score.

Control Panel support for TRUFORM ? TRUFORM is a Catalyst feature which allows for a higher polygon count, resulting in smoother images in games that support it. The ATI Direct3D tab and the ATI OpenGL tab now contain two radio buttons allowing TRUFORM to be set Off or to be enabled via Application Preference
DVI alternate operation mode ? New option found in the Details Tab of the Control Panel for the RADEON 9700. It allows for the switching of different architectures for the integrated DVI transmitter. This option should only be enabled if display corruption is being experienced.



AA and AF - OpenGL and Direct 3D Control Panels for RADEON 7000 and RADEON 7200 now include Anisotropic Filtering and Anti-Aliasing sliders. These are tied into the main settings slider. This gives users of these cards even more control over their choice of image quality and performance. Color Controls for Component Output ? This feature enhancement allows for the user to control the brightness, Contrast, and Saturation of the YprPb properties. The user can control these options when an HDTV is connected to the component out, using the ATI HDTV dongle adapter.
Enhance gamma control for overlay ? The values of the gamma option found in the ATI Overlay tab of the Control Panel now reflect real world unit values

 

[Technonut]

Thanks... Already locked and loaded. Now off to the benches.........

EDIT:

3DMark2001 SE / retail Radeon 9700 Pro.......13936 Radeon not OC'ed.

 

[Electric Amish]

Originally posted by: Technonut
Thanks... Already locked and loaded. Now off to the benches.........

EDIT:

3DMark2001 SE / retail Radeon 9700 Pro.......13936 Radeon not OC'ed.

Processor??

amish

 

[Technonut]

Processor??

Sorry...

XP MP 2000+ @ 1960 MHz / 186 FSB
8K5A2+

 

[kylebisme]

dont supose they fixed the refresh rate issue implemented the anti-alising on alpha chanels in opengl?

 

[Electric Amish]

Originally posted by: TheSnowman
dont supose they fixed the refresh rate issue implemented the anti-alising on alpha chanels in opengl?

What Refresh rate issue??

amish

 

[MIGhunter]

Just installed the new drivers. I don't know what it did but my 3dmark score went from 15287 down to 15168.

 

[kylebisme]

the refresh rate, its stuck at 60 in games, or at least it was. i havent heard what the new drivers and service pack for xp have done to solve that if anyting. also still wondering about the anti-alising on alpha chanels in opengl wich would be so very nice. so if anyone who has one willing to take the time to check those things out i would be much obliged.


ohh and MIGhunter, your 3dmark score didnt go down ill bet ya, run it a few more times and im sure you can match your old one.

 

[BFG10K]

dont supose they fixed the refresh rate issue

The refresh issue is not an ATi bug, it's because of the way NT based OSes handle situations where refresh rates aren't specifically forced. All vendors have this problem, probably on advice of Microsoft to not force refresh rates to keep things safe.

 

[Deeko]

I downloaded them. I didn't notice a difference in performance..although there is an option for Truform in the display settings now. Later I'll load of RTCW and see how that pans out.

 

[Cord]

Can anyone actually get Truform to work with these new drivers? In Serious Sam 2 (v1.07) I'm still getting white objects in the Truform technology room, in both OpenGL and DirectX.

Rob

 

[BFG10K]

Right, I've got the drivers installed and there are no changes over the Catalyst 2.2s in terms of performance except Serious Sam 1 & 2 are both faster by around 5% across the board (1600 x 1200 x 32, 128 tap anisotropic filtering). Also the anisotropic filtering options in the control panel are now correctly being applied when I make changes.

 

[kylebisme]

well i desided to take the plung and try one of these badboys out, damn nice card i must say. anyway to awnser my own questions you can fix your refresh rate with this. and fsaa on alpha chanels doesnt work and will most likely only wind up working if the game suports it. as for others questions, trueform doesnt seem to work for me in rtcw but it does with the ati dolpin demo, cant say anyting about ss2 as i dont own it. also one bug that everyone should be aware of, heres a shot. for those that cant make that out the sprite is showing up on top of the boxes eventhough it exists on the wall behind the box, its the no camping spray for those that cant make it out.