AMD releases Catalyst 9.4 driver

Author: Ben Hardwidge
Published: 9th April 2009
Comments (15) Stumble
AMD releases Catalyst 9.4 driver

The new Auto-Tune tool displays a full-screen graphic while it experiments with different clock speeds.

AMD’s driver team is on a roll at the moment. The guys on the Catalyst team regularly churn out a new driver every monthy, but Catalyst 9.4 has turned up just three weeks after the release of Catalyst 9.3.

At the top of the new driver’s feature list is a new Auto-Tune feature in the Overdrive section of the Advanced Catalyst Control Center. As you would expect, the object of this tool is to do automatically find decent overclocked settings at which your ATI GPU will run stably, saving you the trouble of trial and error.

Of course, previous ATI Catalyst drivers also featured an Auto-Tune facility, but the new one works slightly differently. While previous versions simply displayed a dialogue box as the driver experimented with different clock speeds, the new Auto-Tune tool displays a full-screen graphic (pictured) in order to fully test the 3D clock speeds when running in full-screen 3D mode. There’s nothing revolutionary here, but it’s still a neat feature to have in the driver. According to AMD, the new Auto-Tune facility was specifically designed for Radeon HD 4000-series GPUs.

As you would expect, the new driver also features a few bug fixes and adds support for the Radeon HD 4890. The bug fixes include fixing the Compute Abstraction Layer (CAL) under Windows XP, meaning that XP users can now fully take advantage of AMD’s Stream technology.

As well as this, AMD also says that the new driver fixes problems with flickering in World of Warcraft when setting Shadow to Medium or High using CrossFire. Plus, resolutions above 1,024 x 768 will now apparently go to full screen more properly when using specific HDMI displays that previously had problems.

You can download Catalyst 9.4 now from here. Are you interested in AMD’s enhanced Auto-Tune feature, or would you rather use another overclocking tool or go through the process yourself manually? Let us know your thoughts in the forums.
Quote alecamused 9th April 2009, 15:09
Nice. I hope the new one fixes the 4870x2 / Vista64 Error43 problem i have.
Quote C-Sniper 9th April 2009, 15:47
Umm, I think you guys forgot about how all Pre-R600 chip support has been dropped and moved to legacy.
Quote hodgy100 9th April 2009, 16:17
Time do see if i can get a decent overclock outta my HD4850 then :P
Quote chrisb2e9 9th April 2009, 16:21
pre R600 chips are no longer supported? The R600 is the 2000 series right? So anything older that that no longer has support. Why is that a concern? I would rather see them spend money on new tech than old tech.

Personally I cant wait to go home and try this out on my 4850.
Quote LockBreaker 9th April 2009, 16:32
Any difference fromt this compared to the Beta of the 9.4?
Quote C-Sniper 9th April 2009, 18:30
Quote:
Originally Posted by chrisb2e9
pre R600 chips are no longer supported? The R600 is the 2000 series right? So anything older that that no longer has support. Why is that a concern? I would rather see them spend money on new tech than old tech.

Personally I cant wait to go home and try this out on my 4850.

yes but for some of us running linux on the older hardware(i.e my Xpress 200M in my laptop) it is a PITA for them to discontinue the support.
Quote MiNiMaL_FuSS 9th April 2009, 20:07
does this new autotune take notice of the gpu temps? or does the user need to watch that one?
Quote docodine 10th April 2009, 07:55
Quote:
Originally Posted by MiNiMaL_FuSS
does this new autotune take notice of the gpu temps? or does the user need to watch that one?

I don't think that they would remove that feature, I'm sure it's there.
Quote Adnoctum 10th April 2009, 10:20
Quote:
Originally Posted by C-Sniper

yes but for some of us running linux on the older hardware(i.e my Xpress 200M in my laptop) it is a PITA for them to discontinue the support.
I don't see how this is a problem or even a PITA.
They are no longer making any changes for older hardware and the hardware/drivers are as optimised as they are ever going to get in 9.3. There would be no difference between 9.3 and 11.2 (for e.g.) if you have a X800. If you need to do a reinstall, then you just download 9.3 or the associated driver.
You don't expect them to support these cards forever, do you?
Quote V3ctor 10th April 2009, 11:23
And ATI released lots of info about their gpu's and chips to the Linux Community, so that they can develop good drivers and try to optimize more the chips for Linux. I think there is a site of Linux (Phoronix) I think, that has that info.

And the X1950XTX for example is from... what? End 2005? Beggining of 2006? That's old...
Quote Skiddywinks 10th April 2009, 16:34
This is all well and good, but is the frickin' 2D/3D bug fixed yet? I havent updated since the ones I am on now (can't remember what they are, and havent been on my usual PC for weeks) because they are the latest ones that don't have the issue.

They might be 9.1 thinking about it.
Quote lankyn 11th April 2009, 00:40
"They are no longer making any changes for older hardware and the hardware/drivers are as optimised as they are ever going to get in 9.3"
Optimised for current games, but what about anything new?? This is a shitty departure - nvidia's newest drivers still support the 2004 NV40, and ATi are cutting the X1900? MS still support XP, so whats up with AMD trying to force me to buy its new cards for a few fps. This is not a good sign for the future......
Quote tictactoe 11th April 2009, 12:52
Tho' I'm fairly happy with my 1950 Pro on MCE, the lack of functionality and driver support in Windows 7 is going to force me to upgrade to some newer hardware soon :-( .
Mind you, running win 7 on a 3450 with a 17" TFT monitor, with the 9.3 driver is a nightmare using DVI input, had to switch to VGA to get useability!! Long way to go yet!!
Quote heir flick 13th April 2009, 01:15
ive tried the new 9.4 auto tune and it seems the same as all the earlier versions, didnt see any new full screen display as stated
Quote Xir 14th April 2009, 15:11
Before downloading you go through a dialogue asking you what card you own....but then it recommends the latest driver (in this case 9.3) for an x1800xt.

Even though (as stated above) developpment for older hardware is diskontinued....it's just frozen to 9.3
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