Catalyst 4.4 out

Max_T · Post by **Max_T** » Wed Apr 07, 2004 6:47 pm

yep

they get good feedback, some dual display issues fixed.

Tetrad · Post by **Tetrad** » Wed Apr 07, 2004 6:58 pm

Well they've fixed two issues I've had. For one my secondary display had been set at 720x480 instead of 640x480 in the 4.x series when I wasn't using overlay mode to play videos (theatre mode, forced 4:3 there).

And now it automatically adds some padding to the overlay to compensate for the overscan problems the dvi->component adapter I have. Kind of nice. Be nicer if they did it for everything instead of just overlay, but oh well. I don't use the secondary display for anything but video anyway.

Haven't tried any games yet, but I didn't see anything in the known issues that stood out for my needs.

Frosty5F11 · Post by **Frosty5F11** » Thu Apr 08, 2004 8:40 am

do these new drivers support anti aliasing & aniscropic filtering in descent 3?
I can get it to work in direct3d, but that's buggy & in open gl it don't work at all.
any ideas on what drivers do work for that?
I have a AIW 9700 pro

Arch · Post by **Arch** » Thu Apr 08, 2004 9:06 am

No comments here on D3, but I installed them last night over the Cat4.3s and I haven't had any issues.

Admiral LSD · Post by **Admiral LSD** » Thu Apr 08, 2004 11:41 am

No dramas with the 4.4s here but this is what I'm really waiting for:

Q7: What versions of XFree86 are supported in this driver?

A7: Driver packages are available for XFree86 versions 4.1, 4.2, and 4.3, which are most common in current Linux distributions. Support for the newer XFree86 version 4.4 is under development and should be available in a future release.

[DWL]Punk · Post by **[DWL]Punk** » Thu Apr 08, 2004 1:06 pm

wow.. the 4.4's fix a lot of issues with several games i've been having.

battlefield 1942/DC 1600x1200x32: 100 fps, now ~180-20 1600x1200x32

Far Cry 1280x1042x32: 50fps, now ~75-80

UT2004 1600x1200x32: 1600x1200x32 65fps, now 85-100 16 bots

and need for speed underground.. awesome.

they did a nice job with these drivers this time around. ever since 4.0 and up i used omegas, till now.

Vander · Post by **Vander** » Thu Apr 08, 2004 1:22 pm

Does it fix OpenGL gamma issues? I was using the 3.9 CATs until I finally upgraded to 4.3, which busted any sort of gamma control in OpenGL games. I had to go back to the 3.9's.

*edit*
Searching through the rage3d forum, I found a reg hack that seems to have fixed the problem.

On a different note, didn't ATI combine the OpenGL and Direct3D properties tabs into one "3D" tab? After installing the CAT 4.4's, it's two seperate tabs. I'm wondering if I messed up somewhere.

Mr. Perfect · Post by **Mr. Perfect** » Thu Apr 08, 2004 5:20 pm

They did combine them, and I hate them. Maybe they switched them back!

Max_T · Post by **Max_T** » Thu Apr 08, 2004 5:37 pm

opengl is d3 runs in 16 bit, ati doesn't suport 16 bit antialiasing as far as i remember, that's why it works in d3d, but not in OGL in descent 3.

As for teh gamma fix, i saw something at rage3d where you need to change a key in the registry to fix it, i am not sure if that's what you were asking baout.

kurupt · Post by **kurupt** » Thu Apr 08, 2004 5:51 pm

dunno about ati official drivers, i use oegas though and they have 2 seperate tabs

Teddy · Post by **Teddy** » Thu Apr 08, 2004 6:16 pm

i've been asking over at the rage 3d forms for quit a while about the antialising issues...Unfortunatly this will never work in d3 with any of ATI's newer cards.... Add this to the other things ati cant seem to get right like the user profiles, gamma and opengl skipping with background programs running....I'm so glad i'm offloading this card onto someone else who likes ati cards...

Max_T · Post by **Max_T** » Thu Apr 08, 2004 7:37 pm

I just got my 9800 pro 256mb, about to flash it to XT. Can't wait...only for 232$

Unbeatable value.

Teddy · Post by **Teddy** » Thu Apr 08, 2004 7:54 pm

hmm, what good does all that horse power do ya when it dont work right????

Max_T · Post by **Max_T** » Thu Apr 08, 2004 8:03 pm

it doesn't work 4 u maybe,i have no problems with the games i play. It's a descent bug that opengl doesn't work in 32bit, not ati's fault.

UT2004 runs awsome, so does everything half life based, so does woflenstein, so does halo, so does descent in d3d...what else do u want from them Teddy?

Teddy · Post by **Teddy** » Thu Apr 08, 2004 8:32 pm

playing descent 3 in d3d????? i think not.

hmmm,what else could i ask for?

lets see...... working open-gl drivers would be a good start! maybe user profiles that actually do something, or even gamma that works properly ingame for once...
and last but not least, why cant ati get thier opengl drivers to not be sensitive to background apps...it really pisses me off when i want to chat with teammates while playing d3 but it becomes almost unplayable due to the game studdering every 1 1/2 seconds.

Max_T · Post by **Max_T** » Thu Apr 08, 2004 9:14 pm

teddy i am tired of arguing with your about this.

I don't have any stutter in any of my games, they took care of the background apps problem a long time ago. If you have that, your pc is not tweaked, or you haev irq conflicts, or voltage spikes, or page file swappin, or some other problem. I don't have any pausing or stutter.

What's the gamma issue u r talking about?
OpenGl works fine, i play all HL games in opengl, there is no problems.

I don't have any experiene with profiles, but i don't see why they wouldn't work.

Frosty5F11 · Post by **Frosty5F11** » Thu Apr 08, 2004 10:15 pm

hmmmm, I see stuttering in d3d too, did it on my geforce cards as well. if your saying an athlon 2600+ system with 768mb 333mhz ram, aiw radeon 9700pro, audigy can't play a 5 year old game, then ok.
but I have this problem, and I havent tried having no background stuff on, but I don't think that'ld matter. could be a sound issue if on direct sound AND d3d perhaps?
sucks I can't do AA in opengl, worked great on my geforces, specially since I can play on my hdtv at 480p, AA would come in handy

Max_T · Post by **Max_T** » Thu Apr 08, 2004 10:29 pm

he meant stuttering in opengl, ati's d3d drivers r supposed to be better than nvidia's, but nvidia's opengl drivers are better than ATI's.

as for the opengl, well, many people asked for AA support in 16 bit opengl, but ati did not do it, they still might, but no word on that.

kurupt · Post by **kurupt** » Fri Apr 09, 2004 12:44 am

omega's are out too now if anyone cares. quicker than usual.

Max_T · Post by **Max_T** » Fri Apr 09, 2004 12:45 am

by the way...about opengl gamma fix...

http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread. ... d=33751953

Iceman · Post by **Iceman** » Fri Apr 09, 2004 10:31 am

Aye Max ...

I have 9800 Pro 128 and 256 cards ...

No issues found with these games for any 4.x including the latest 4.4

D3
BF1942
BF/Vietnam
MOHAA
Tribes2

Vander · Post by **Vander** » Fri Apr 09, 2004 12:49 pm

Well, the reg fix didn't really work on the CAT 4.4's. I'm not sure why it worked once, but it stopped working. MOHAA would run extremely dark, and I was unable to adjust the gamma from within the game.

I tried the Omega drivers, and they, too, worked once but stopped working. Very odd. I did fix it somewhat by adjusting the gamma for full screen 3d in the Control Panel. I'm not sure if it will work with all my games, because I'm not sure if I'm going to need different gamma settings for different games. I only tried MOHAA.

Teddy · Post by **Teddy** » Fri Apr 09, 2004 1:10 pm

Frosty, d3d has a bug in descent 3 and will always skip, this is why i wont even think of playing with d3d(besides the 20% fps drop) I believe Kevin said it had something to do with the way dx6 read textures poorly and more then likey wont ever be fixed in d3(as this problem still exists in the beta 1.5 patch...)

Max, i dont care much about aruguing eather, so i'll leave this thread alone after this...

1)my system is tweeked... i've hackd out every background app except those that i need for gameing(virtual cd, msn messenger, and gamevoice,ect.) and funny thing is they work fine with nvidia cards.

2)Ati claims to have fixed the background skiping problem.... it dont mean they really did!! this problem originated on the old 7200 card, and i was one of the first to report it... ati denyed it had anything to do with thier cards until the 8500's came out. Once it was found on those cards also they finally clamed to "fix" it. However what they really did was turn the level of detail that the textures displayed at so far down that blurs the textures very badly.... this was marked down as the fix and a speed boost for 7200 cards!!! of course turning this detail back up only causes the skipping to come back. I currently am running 4.3 with my old 7200aiw as my 9700 is now boxed up waiting to ship to it's new owner.... as for the 9700's the "skipping" aint so bad as it was on the older cards but is more like blurring 99% of the time and the other 1% you can catch a frame stick out as it pauses on it...

Basicly you wont notice this unless you have a highly tweekes system and place it next to a nvidia based system(my bro's "puter is setting where we can see each others screens) and compair the quality of the anamation. the Nvidia card is flawless, the ati card looks more like the game is running at 300 fps with vsync off... its more than adaquate for most gammers as most people like to play with vsync off, but i like it on.... and i like seeing what i'm shooting at!

Iceman, sure all those games run just fine for you, ya got a 9800... wait till the new cards come out and your 9800 is no longer the top of the line..

Descent 3 - no antialising, crappy rendering

bf1942 - antialising causes unreadable text( known 9700 only bug)

bf/vVietnam - texture couruption(known 9700 only bug)

mohaa_- crashes randomly(known 9700 only bug, supposedly fixed in the last 2 releases)

COD - same as mohha but crashes at beginning field as soon as enemy soldiers start to fire at ya.

FarCry- texture cruption(fixed demo but not full version in 4.4 for 9700 cards!!! how lame is that)

My 9700 over all hasnt been real bad untill lately, peformance in opengl has even droped by 25% in d3... and the bugs have been outright, smack you in the face ovious and arnt getting fixed.... but like i said before, not my problem anymore.. the card is gone from by system and will have a 5900 hopefully by monday

[DWL]Punk · Post by **[DWL]Punk** » Fri Apr 09, 2004 1:31 pm

i think teddy just has bad luck.

my 9800 is fine, probably above normal now.

Teddy · Post by **Teddy** » Fri Apr 09, 2004 3:07 pm

ok, how is it my bad luck??? Check rage3d.com's catalist bug report section and you will see threads where most 9700 users have these same exact bugs, NOT 9800 users.... It's not like it's anything i'm doing, These bugs are officially listed as 9700 bugs....

it's the same thing i saw a few years back with my 7200, it ran just fine aside from a few bugs till the 8500 came out, then it bacame the bastard child...

I've had this card for about a year, and when i first got it, it ran ok aside not having vsync in opengl, but the last 5 driver releases have been bug ridden for the 9700's( altho the 9800 users alwasy have to remark that there are no bugs as thier cards are fine)

Well, Ati's new card comes out this month.... you will find out soon enough what im b!tc#in about.

Max_T · Post by **Max_T** » Fri Apr 09, 2004 5:34 pm

Tedyy, i have ati cards in two of my systems, i do nto get stuttering in either one. One is AMD, the other one is Intel. I don't see why you get the stuttering, you are missing some tweak or some bios setting or something.

kurupt · Post by **kurupt** » Sat Apr 10, 2004 12:07 am

sounds like you just have a bad card teddy. bfdd and i had the same cards in nearly identical systems, and mine worked and his didnt. he replaced it and bam, perfect. rma it would be my advice.