ATi Catalyst 9.7 Released

AMG · 24 Jul 2009 at 02:17

I have 9-7s now, getting tiny little white pixaltions on arma 2, might be cos of my overclock, chopy game play hmm lol

Tom|Nbk · 24 Jul 2009 at 03:12

Last night, AMD made public it's Catalyst 9.7 drivers. These drivers coincide with Windows 7 RTM availability and are WHQL certified for not only windows Vista, but for Windows 7 as well. But this isn't the only new and interesting tidbit about the Catalyst 9.7 release. AMD has reworked the advanced driver interface as well.

We are working on performance testing the new driver with an eye towards Windows 7. AMD claims that performance on Windows 7 boxes with the same hardware as a Vista counterpart will see performance benefits. The marketing slides we received indicate that some games could see about a 10% improvement when moving to the new OS, and that's just for single GPU configurations. With multiGPU setups, AMD has us expecting some titles to show between 15% and 30% improvement with Windows 7.

We are anxious to put the driver to the test as soon as we can get our hands on the final Windows 7 RTM build. A performance improvement in moving from Vista to Windows 7 could definitely help Microsoft move their latest operating system. Those gamers who are still holding out for something better than Windows XP might finally have a reason to let go of the older platform for one that delivers an all around better experience.

Source: AnandTech

johny dolan · 24 Jul 2009 at 09:13

AMG said:
I have 9-7s now, getting tiny little white pixaltions on arma 2, might be cos of my overclock, chopy game play hmm lol

I had this with crysis when i changed to 9.7s and fixed it by reinstalling the 1.2 patch.If your game has a patch give it a try as its easier than reinstalling the whole game.

Balb0wa · 24 Jul 2009 at 11:03

new interface is poor, harder to navigate, more mouse clicks to do same thing.

dante6491 · 24 Jul 2009 at 12:16

For some reason I am not getting the new interface on XP. I uninstalled the old set of drivers and catalyst before replacing them.

AMG · 24 Jul 2009 at 13:02

johny dolan said:
I had this with crysis when i changed to 9.7s and fixed it by reinstalling the 1.2 patch.If your game has a patch give it a try as its easier than reinstalling the whole game.

haven't treid crysis yet, amra2 now uses both cards but still no gain what gives, meh waits for patch

cplhardnut · 24 Jul 2009 at 15:17

isnt the new interface only for vista/windows 7?

Mr Paul · 24 Jul 2009 at 15:20

cplhardnut said:
isnt the new interface only for vista/windows 7?

Yes

darkblade · 24 Jul 2009 at 15:34

9.7 on Vista 64 here.
Oh dear god, terrible. Just run 3DMark Vantage and it's complete pants.
Flickering blocks on the screen, water effects are all over the scene.

Rolling back!

gareth170 · 24 Jul 2009 at 16:24

Elevon said:
I know some people are lazy and install over the top which is a bad thing to do if they change the CCC layout in the new driver package like in the 9.7.

, it's not being lazy or bad. when you install over the top it automaticly removes the old CCC.

i've always install over the top without any problems..

chuck990 · 24 Jul 2009 at 18:56

damn... the new drivers mean i can only play the sims 3 on really low res' and most get the sides cut off

Chris1712 · 24 Jul 2009 at 19:04

Wow, what have they done to CCC? Where the hell is Pixel Format and Overscan settings gone? Useless without.

dmcg · 24 Jul 2009 at 19:11

the new menu isnt that bad its just moved but I can see why people dislike it

Balb0wa · 24 Jul 2009 at 19:14

dmcg said:
the new menu isnt that bad its just moved but I can see why people dislike it

because you have to click graphics to get to options, before they were there and you selected one.

chaosophy · 24 Jul 2009 at 19:36

Chris1712 said:
Wow, what have they done to CCC? Where the hell is Pixel Format and Overscan settings gone? Useless without.

It's all still there, just a question of finding it and being prepared to do several more mouse clicks.

Click the 'Graphics' drop down list
Desktops & Displays
Then click the little down arrow on the monitor of choice but not on the big monitors in the middle, oh no that'd be to obvious/useful, click it on the smaller ones at the bottom.
Configure...
And then click through all the tabs that come up there.

really don't get this redesign at all. do you think it was work experience week. :confused:

soundb0y · 24 Jul 2009 at 20:17

Not happy about all the probs im hearing about. Look forward to trying arma2 tomorrow.

ukez · 24 Jul 2009 at 21:03

Can the official AMD drivers and software packs work with the likes of XFX hardware ?

Can i Download the 4890 AMD software for my XFX 4890 or do i have to stick with the XFX manufactures ones

Chris1712 · 24 Jul 2009 at 21:05

Interestingly, the Pixel Format change doesn't seem to be actually changing the output

. Appears stuck on full rgb.

mickey_megabyte · 24 Jul 2009 at 23:29

ok, so i've been mucking around with windows 7 for a few weeks, and i loved it so much it's become my primary OS.

yesterday i go and download new drivers, and rerun the WEI test...

9.6 drivers, i get 7.5 score

9.7 drivers, i get 6.6

i haven't noticed much of an effect in games yet, but i've still gone back to 9.6!

anyone else have similar experience? i know wei is only a quick and dirty benchmark, but it's a huge drop!

specs (if relevant): e8400@4Ghz, 4 gig ocz ram, hd4890 no o/c, win 7 build 7600-16385 x64

ViRuS2k · 25 Jul 2009 at 00:15

Nothing Wrong with these drivers at all.
If you scores slipped, its becuse of your system.

7.9 Win7 x64
The only thing holding my system score down is the crappy hdd im useing.
will update that in future to my sammy F1`s