AMD releases Catalyst 9.3

Author: Ben Hardwidge
Published: 19th March 2009
Comments (12) Stumble
AMD releases Catalyst 9.3

Catalyst 9.3 features full support for WDDM 1.1, allowing the WIndows 7 desktop to use DirectX 10.

Although Microsoft hasn’t even set a release date for its forthcoming Windows 7 operating system yet, AMD is still committed to supporting the new OS with its graphics drivers from now on. The company has just released its WHQL Catalyst 9.3 driver, which features full WDDM 1.1 support on its Radeon HD chips, enabling the Windows 7 desktop to use DirectX 10.

AMD says that this is just the beginning of its Windows 7 plan, however, and claims that future versions of Catalyst will feature a unified package that works with both Windows 7 and Windows Vista, so you only need one driver set for multiple operating systems. As well as this, AMD says that Catalyst 9.3 is the first AMD graphics driver to automatically include the Vista HDMI audio driver, which will only be installed if the graphics card features an HDMI connector.

There are a few other features of the new driver too. For example, on his blog, AMD’s senior manager of advanced marketing, Ian McNaughton, says that “you’ll experience outstanding Folding@Home scores when running ATI Catalyst 9.3 and the most recent F@H client. We utilize ATI Stream technology which means you must have an ATI Radeon HD 4000, HD 3000 or HD 2000 series GPU to take full advantage of these enhancements.”

However, the latest GPU Folding@home client still dates from November last year, and we saw no increase in the production rate when we tested the new driver. Using Catalyst 9.3, our Radeon HD 4850 test card produced around 2,100 points a day, peaking at 2,153.68. Comparatively, the same card produced around the same number of points, peaking at 2,132.87 when using Catalyst 9.2. Both tests were conducted using the same work unit (Project 5739 - R4, C111, G19) on the same Core 2 Quad QX6700-based test machine, and were left to process ten percent of the work unit.

AMD also claims that its seen performance gains of up to 50 percent in Lost Planet: Colonies using Radeon HD 4600, 4500 and 4300-series card, and gains of up to 20 percent using Radeon HD 4800-series cards.

You can see the driver’s full release notes here and download Catalyst 9.3 from here.

Have you tried out Catalyst 9.3, and are you interested in Windows 7 support at the moment? Let us know your thoughts in the forums.
Quote Gareth Halfacree 19th March 2009, 16:22
Hmm - the latest Linux version is 9.2. Guess I'll be doing without 3D acceleration on my laptop for a while longer, as that version has a bug in reading the Xorg version on the dev release of Ubuntu 9.04.
Quote arcticstoat 19th March 2009, 16:47
AMD says there will be a Linux version of Catalyst 9.3 'coming soon', which will include a Linux version of the Catalyst Control Center - no idea when it'll be out, though.
Quote proxess 19th March 2009, 17:34
CCC is already on Linux. Very basic tho. ATI drivers for linux right now are terrible anyway and I don't see anything grand coming our way any time soon.
Quote banshee256 19th March 2009, 17:54
Well, it can't be a bad thing, that they support Windows 7 this early. It's certainly better than having an OS that has no drivers for anything... again.
Quote Goty 19th March 2009, 18:01
Quote:
Originally Posted by proxess
CCC is already on Linux. Very basic tho. ATI drivers for linux right now are terrible anyway and I don't see anything grand coming our way any time soon.

In my experience, the Linux Catalyst drivers are quite good. They installed just fine in Fedora 10 and performance and stability are commendable.
Quote Ending Credits 19th March 2009, 18:29
I wonder if this fixes the DX10/4000 series bug.
Quote flibblesan 19th March 2009, 20:25
Running them now on Windows 7. Run quite well.
Quote mrb_no1 19th March 2009, 20:51
will install tomorrow when i reboot and go into windows 7, although i've had no problems with the windows supplied drivers for my 2900xt. i agree, it is nice to see support this early for the new os!

peace

fatman
Quote Hamish 19th March 2009, 21:56
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ending Credits
I wonder if this fixes the DX10/4000 series bug.
what bug is that?
i've been using my 4800 in dx10 for ages and not noticed anything
Quote bjrcboy 20th March 2009, 03:39
So with 9.2 every time I would start my computer the display driver would crash but, windows was able to restore it and everything was peachy until the next boot up. With 9.3 the display driver would crash but then it would BSOD. Every time I tried anything graphically demanding. I had to revert back to 9.2.....

any one else with these issues?

Vista home premium x64
Q6600
8gig ddr2
4870 1gb
Quote Brooxy 20th March 2009, 08:34
50% performance increase? This calls for a bit-tech test!
Quote Horizon 22nd March 2009, 16:29
Quote:
Originally Posted by bjrcboy
So with 9.2 every time I would start my computer the display driver would crash but, windows was able to restore it and everything was peachy until the next boot up. With 9.3 the display driver would crash but then it would BSOD. Every time I tried anything graphically demanding. I had to revert back to 9.2.....

any one else with these issues?

Vista home premium x64
Q6600
8gig ddr2
4870 1gb

Is your video OC'd any? that happens to my 4870 whenever I clock the memory too high.
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