New ATI Cat drivers, version 6.8

Post by **FlyingPenguin** » Sat Aug 19, 2006 7:45 am

Who's going to be the first brave punk to install them?

Keep in mind that if - like me - you're not a fan of the Catalyst Control Center, you don't have to install it. Scroll down to the low speed downloads and download just the Driver only. If you have a previous install of the old control panel, it should work.

I've never installed the Cat Control Center. I've kept the old control panel from the the 5.12 drivers.

https://support.ati.com/ics/support/def ... tionID=640

ATI Customer Care offers new version 6.8 Catalyst reference drivers for ATI RADEON video cards. Several gameplay fixes are included along the way, as well as OpenGL performance improvements in DOOM 3, Quake 4, Chronicles of Riddick, and Prey as well as DirectX performance improvement for Call of Duty 2.

NubyCanuby_OFC · Post by **NubyCanuby_OFC** » Sat Aug 19, 2006 11:08 am

I guess I'll be the Guinea Pig. I'm one version behind already.

NubyCanuby_OFC · Post by **NubyCanuby_OFC** » Sat Aug 19, 2006 11:52 am

I had 6.6 installed. Now that I've installed 6.8 it shows as CATALYST® Version 06.7 in the Information Center. I've always installed the Catalyst control center because I want the AI feature that's supposed to speed up some games.

Lazlo Panaflex · Post by **Lazlo Panaflex** » Tue Aug 22, 2006 1:57 pm

yep, I'm showing 6.7 as well..wtf's up with that?

These drivers are supposed to "dramatically improve OpenGL performance". Gonna fire up Doom 3 to see how they compare to the 5.7's I recently replaced. HL2 performance seems better (minus the occasional stuttering...see my thread in the games section).

How are they running for you, Nuby?

What version are you running, Mr. Penguin?

Post by **FlyingPenguin** » Tue Aug 22, 2006 4:42 pm

Running 6.5 here. I never rush into new drivers. If there's really some HL2 engine improvement then I might try it - after imaging my boot partition - because I play a lot of DOD Source.

Lazlo Panaflex · Post by **Lazlo Panaflex** » Tue Aug 22, 2006 10:45 pm

Yeah, I usually don't either, but I just bought an X800XL, so I figured it was time...

NubyCanuby_OFC · Post by **NubyCanuby_OFC** » Wed Aug 23, 2006 2:02 am

It seems stable. I never benchmarked the old drivers so I can't tell if there has been any improvement.

Lazlo Panaflex · Post by **Lazlo Panaflex** » Wed Aug 23, 2006 11:50 am

Gotcha. I need to upgrade...my current setup just isn't pushing this card hard enough.

Getting ~74 FPS with the Doom 3 timedemo @ 1024x768, ultra quality. Not too shabby.

Executioner · Post by **Executioner** » Wed Aug 23, 2006 1:04 pm

How do you perform a timedemo in Doom3? I'd like to test my old Radeon 9800 XT.

Lazlo Panaflex · Post by **Lazlo Panaflex** » Wed Aug 23, 2006 2:00 pm

Hey Executioner, to run the timedemo, at the main Doom3 screen you have to hold down the ctrl-alt-tilde (~) keys, which will bring up the console. Then type "timedemo demo1" (without the quotes) and hit enter. Run it at least twice, since the first time the demo's run it pages it into memory (or something like that), and is a lower/bogus score.

I've already played thru the game on Nightmare like a year ago, which was friggin tough...so I don't plan on playing it again

Just curious what your results are as well. Thx eh

Executioner · Post by **Executioner** » Wed Aug 23, 2006 11:31 pm

I get 44.9. Not bad on this old card and my old P4 2.4 with 1 gig of pc2700 LOL.

Lazlo Panaflex · Post by **Lazlo Panaflex** » Thu Aug 24, 2006 1:54 pm

I get 44.9. Not bad on this old card and my old P4 2.4 with 1 gig of pc2700 LOL.

Yep that's about what I was getting with (your) 9800 Pro on system PC1

Even though I'm getting 74 FPS, the timedemo doesn't seem to reflect real world gameplay. Even when just siteseeing & walking around in the beginning, it's not smooth, ya know. kinda jerky & stuttering.

I'm looking at putting together an "inexpensive" Core 2 Duo system to push my x800 card....

Executioner · Post by **Executioner** » Thu Aug 24, 2006 4:07 pm

Which is why I really never thought about getting a faster card, as my system would be the bottle neck.

NubyCanuby_OFC · Post by **NubyCanuby_OFC** » Thu Aug 24, 2006 4:08 pm

What's your plan Lazlo? Overclock a 6400 to 6600 speeds on a cheap motherboard?

Lazlo Panaflex · Post by **Lazlo Panaflex** » Thu Aug 24, 2006 5:35 pm

Hey there Nuby,
Yeah, I'm looking at an Assrock 775 Dual-Vsta, a 6400 and 2 Gigs of DDR2 (not sure what brand to buy, though), WD 320Gb SATA HD & keep the x800xl for the time being. Will re-use the Audigy & the NEC burner. (According to the Anandtech review, the Assrock wasn't the greatest overclocker, but if it hits 6600+ speeds, I won't complain.) I may sell the Athlon/DDR/Shuttle mobo to recoup some of the cost. IMO, the 6400's the best-bang-for-your-buck chip out there, no doubt.

What's your system, Charlie?