Catalyst 7.3 adds Vista improvements

Author: Wil Harris
Published: 29th March 2007
Comments (7) Stumble
Catalyst 7.3 adds Vista improvements

Ruby wants you to check out 7.3. Oh yes.

ATI/AMD has released the latest Catalyst driver update, revision 7.3 (handily numbered for the 3rd month of 2007). There are plenty of fixes for users running both XP and Vista.

The headline functionality is support for OpenGL CrossFire under Windows Vista. This means that fans of Quake 4 and Doom 3 will be able to enjoy much better performance, akin to the kind of boost seen in Windows XP. However, there are also more CrossFire improvements for Direct3D CrossFire under Vista, including the re-appearance of Alternate Frame Rendering, which was previously MIA from drivers. This results in, ATI claims, an average performance gain of 12.5% in Dark Messiah, with some cards seeing as much as 60% gain.

There are a whole bunch of fixes for both operating systems. Under Vista, Doom 3 now works with X700, City of Heroes works at 2560x1600, and playing a DVD full-screen using Windows Media Player results in smooth playback, unlike 7.2. However, there are still known bugs under the new Microsoft OS: using the TV mode in Media Center with an ATI card can cause random reboots, whilst Doom 3 and Quake 4 still have minor issues on some hardware.

As for XP, there are a whole bundle of Catalyst Control Center fixes, including previous problems even getting the thing to launch. OverDrive, ATI's automatic overclocking functionality, now retains settings properly. However, gamers employing X1900 CrossFire (with Master and Slave cards) may have problems with AA.

If you're an ATI user, you should go and grab the latest update. Install them, then let us know any problems or fixes over in the forums.
Quote DougEdey 29th March 2007, 11:46
I'll try this tonight but hopefully it will let me run Doom3 on my X800.
Quote Crazyglue 29th March 2007, 11:58
ok, yeah, i just installed these, and i got pwned, lol, totally messed up my vid, defaulted to 4bit graphics @ 640x480 and wont change from there, always get this error report thingy in xp about how CCC keep crashing. had to roll back the drivers :-(
Quote ch424 29th March 2007, 13:42
Updated mine (AGP X800 with 64-bit Vista) to 7.3 and Device Manager reports version 8.something while dxdiag still reports 7.14.something. Steam refuses to work, and I haven't tried any other games yet.

Any ideas? Good luck to everyone else... ;)

ch424
Quote airchie 29th March 2007, 15:04
Wow, these sound great so far... :/
Quote teamtd11 29th March 2007, 15:21
installed here without any issues
Quote DarkLord7854 29th March 2007, 23:33
ATI: 2
NVidia: 0

:)
Now I wish I had kept with ATI
Quote Crazyglue 30th March 2007, 04:00
Quote:
Originally Posted by DarkLord7854
ATI: 2
NVidia: 0

:)
Now I wish I had kept with ATI

iono, so far the score seems like

ATI:1
NVidia:0
Random getting owned:1

lol, like 1/2 the people so far that have posted have been having troubles :-(
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