ATI Catalyst 4.12 Performance Analysis - Tweaktown

[Tony DiMarzio]

http://www.tweaktown.com/document.php?dType=article&dId=730

 

[SteveK]

http://www.tweaktown.com/document.php?dType=article&dId=730

A complete waste of time to read this "...look how great the X700PRO is"
It's more a sales ad! If this test guy would have got a brain he'd used a
lower end card, like the Rad 9600, to test the 4.12! However, the driver's
changelog just reads which games run betta now with those drivers. BTW, Far
Cry Demo (on 9600 series) still does not start...
Ati should change the whole driver development team - the current
performance is appalling!

 

[Tony DiMarzio]

A complete waste of time to read this "...look how great the X700PRO is"
It's more a sales ad!

Either you read a completely different article than me, or you are grosely
misinterpreting this article. How do you figure it is advertising for the
X700Pro?

If this test guy would have got a brain he'd used a
lower end card, like the Rad 9600, to test the 4.12!

Sorry, but I don't see the logic there. Explain to me how having a brain
necessitates using a 9600 or other low end card when doing CAT reviews.

However, the driver's
changelog just reads which games run betta now with those drivers. BTW,
Far
Cry Demo (on 9600 series) still does not start...

Ati should change the whole driver development team - the current
performance is appalling!

Uh... what? What the hell are you smoking? The performance of _what_ is
appalling?

 

[NightSky 421]

http://www.tweaktown.com/document.php?dType=article&dId=730

Thanks for the link!

 

[SteveK]

Either you read a completely different article than me, or you are grosely
misinterpreting this article. How do you figure it is advertising for the
X700Pro?

From the page:
"Our test system has changed a little since our last preview and we will be
using a X700PRO this time around instead of the X800 that we had used
previously."

Sorry, but I don't see the logic there. Explain to me how having a brain
necessitates using a 9600 or other low end card when doing CAT reviews.

Does it really makes any sense to you to test the performance (benchmark
scores) of a new driver on the nearly fastest card available? - what sense
except commercial intentions?

Uh... what? What the hell are you smoking? The performance of _what_ is
appalling?

Not smoking anything, sorry!
The performance of the driver development team constantly busy making the
driver running on certain games(?). In the first place a driver/card should
never be released until it is working flawless in all aspects (on all cards)
avoiding the need for patching a driver as soon as a new game comes out.
Something is seriously wrong at ATi - The Driverheaven forum / Radeon Driver
section is a plain pants down embarrassment for the quality of Ati drivers.
I am not even talking here about all the HL2 problems with Ati cards...but I
do wonder why Ati is still able to sell any cards at all. Maybe the Ati
hardware is good but it does mean nothing when the driver is crap. U see me
truly puzzled...

 

[Tony DiMarzio]

Thanks for the link!

No problem Sky

 

[Aki Peltola]

http://www.tweaktown.com/document.php?dType=article&dId=730

Nice to see that HL2 is the main thing and everything
else have been forgotten.

 

[Gareee©]

Nice to see that HL2 is the main thing and everything
else have been forgotten.

Actually my framerates have skyrocketed in UT2004. I upped my resolution,
and saw good improvements as well.

I'm running 2 aiw 9600xts here...

 

[wazza]

section is a plain pants down embarrassment for the quality of Ati
drivers. I am not even talking here about all the HL2 problems with Ati
cards...but I do wonder why Ati is still able to sell any cards at all.
Maybe the Ati hardware is good but it does mean nothing when the driver is
crap. U see me truly puzzled...

There were HL2 problems with ATI cards?
I played the whole game through without any problems.
I think somtimes the only hardware problem is the nut connecting the
keyboard to the chair.

 

[SteveK]

There were HL2 problems with ATI cards?
I played the whole game through without any problems.
I think somtimes the only hardware problem is the nut connecting the
keyboard to the chair.

Games are the main reason why 4.12 has been released - not just HL2
Read this:

Fixed in this driver:
a.. Half-Life 2: Playing the game on a system containing an Athlon XP CPU
no longer results in missing textures occasionally being noticed

b.. Half-Life 2: Intermittent psychedelic patterns are no longer seen when
playing the game under Windows XP

c.. CounterStrike: Playing the game under Windows XP with an ATI RADEON™
X800 series installed no longer results in display corruption being seen in
the floor in de_chateau map

d.. Doom 3: Playing the game under Windows XP with an ATI RADEON™ X800 XT
Platinum Edition no longer results in display corruption being seen when
pressing CTRL+Alt+Delete followed by clicking Cancel

e.. Everquest: Playing the game under Windows XP with an ATI RADEON™ X800
XT Platinum Edition installed results in the game displaying a black screen
when setting the texture quality to high and having all radio buttons
selected

f.. Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault: Setting the model detail to high and
change the game resolution to high no longer results in the game failing to
respond under Windows XP with an ATI RADEON™ X800 series installed

g.. Tron2.0: Setting the display device resolution to 1280x1024 32bpp and
setting the display option for the game to 800x600 32bpp no longer results
in display corruption being seen in the game cinematics

h.. Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic: Playing the game under Windows
XP with an ATI RADEON™ X800 series installed no longer results in triple
buffering failing when enabling the option in the CATALYST™ CONTROL CENTER

i.. Attempting to rotate the display 90 degrees and play an OpenGL game
under Windows XP may result in the game failing to launch

j.. Enabling clone mode along with theatre mode option under overlay no
longer results in WinDVD and the operating system failing to respond when
dragging the WinDVD window around the desktop

k.. Display corruption is no longer noticed when playing a DVD using
WinDVD and having subtitles enabled under Windows XP with an ATI RADEON™
X800 series installed

l.. Attempting to make a change to a saved profile within the CATALYST™
CONTROL CENTER no longer results in the Save button being greyed out
m.. Connecting a secondary CRT and clicking the X button to close the
Enable this display window found in the CATALYST™ CONTROL CENTER Advanced
view, no longer results in the window not closing

n.. Muting the audio during the playback of full screen HDTV video under
Windows Media Center Edition no longer results in the video being paused

o.. Angle information in the rotation modes is now correct for the
CATALYST™ CONTROL CENTER

p.. Enabling Overscan under Windows XP with an ATI ALL-IN-WONDER™ 9600
installed no longer results in the image not being centered properly on the
display device

q.. Connecting a secondary CRT display device and extending the desktop,
followed by unplugging the secondary device and hot-plugging a DFP device no
longer results in the DFP remaining in the Additional display area when
attempting to swap devices

r.. The Windows desktop brightness no longer dims when playing a DVD and
having an HDTV connected as the primary display device

s.. Playing a DVD under Windows XP MCE with an ATI RADEON™ X800 XT
installed no longer results in VPU Recover being activated when attempting
to drag or resize the Media Center window

t.. An error message is no longer displayed when attempting to switch a
secondary display device back to the primary display device when using the
CATALYST™ CONTROL CENTER

 

[SteveK]

Further to note - apparently they only fix the X800 series problems.
At least they are doing something about their AU$ ~1000 cards
The rest of us can go to hell - so will u Ati!