**ATi Catalyst 10.3a Driver Official Release**

The first ATI Catalyst 10.3a is out. Lets install it in our ATi enabled laptops and see the improvements here.

Download here

Official Notes:
This ATI Catalyst™ driver update will unlock new performance improvements on top of the already previewed features in the initial Catalyst™ 10.3 Preview driver we sampled you in February. This driver will be available to download on March 17th from undgerground.amd.com and it will be called "Catalyst 10.3a Preview". On March 24th we will post the official Catalyst™ 10.3 WHQL certified on amd.com. The difference between the two is that Catalyst™ 10.3a Preview will contain future Eyefinty 6 updates and an Alien vs. Predator optimization which the Catalyst™ 10.3 WHQL posting does not have.

Gosh! I am so excited

 

Don't be so excited. No improvements here
Also, if someone wants the direct link to the installer (the downloader has an OEM protection that prevents the driver from being installed in Sony, Toshiba and some other brand) here it is

https://a248.e.akamai.net/f/674/920...mobile/10-3_mobility_vista_win7_64_dd_ccc.exe

 

BTW an Update: Thanx to gaah

Notebook release doesn't include the WDM/HDMI audio driver, Hydravision, or AMD Drag & Drop Transcoder. BUT the desktop version does and it's compatible with the Mobility series, so what you need to do to is install the full CATLAYST 10.3a update for Mobility/Notebook driver package which will install the display driver and Catalyst Control Center, and then install the one intended for desktops that will install the rest including a significantly newer HDMI audio driver.

 

Ok, forgive me but I'm a little confused with the driver release. I know the 10.3 beta (preview) has been out for a while, so what are these? Are these the 10.3 officials or are these still betas/previews (Yes, I can read and I do see the thread title )? What does the letter "a" signify? If these are not the "official" 10.3s, are they still releasing those drivers(or anything else) at the end of the month? Thanks.

 

yeah, I needed to look them up too.

these are newer than the Betas (which are awesome BTW)

these are also newer than the 10.3 WHQL

in short, the 10.3a is the driver set that you want.

 

As per official notes: This ATI Catalyst™ driver update will unlock new performance improvements on top of the already previewed features in the initial Catalyst™ 10.3 Preview driver we sampled you in February. This driver will be available to download on March 17th from undgerground.amd.com and it will be called "Catalyst 10.3a Preview". On March 24th we will post the official Catalyst™ 10.3 WHQL certified on amd.com. The difference between the two is that Catalyst™ 10.3a Preview will contain future Eyefinty 6 updates and an Alien vs. Predator optimization which the Catalyst™ 10.3 WHQL posting does not have.

In simple words. Its final but it contains future Eyefinty 6 updates and an Alien vs. Predator optimization which the Catalyst™ 10.3 WHQL posting will not have.

 

No improvement at all for the 4500 starters .... at least the 4570 :S

 

This is the change log I found so far:

Support for 3D Stereoscopic Glasses.
• Support for ATI Mobility Radeon GPUs (HD2000-HD5000).
• Eyefinity Display Bezel Compensation.
• Eyefinity Per-Display Color Adjust.
• Eyefinity Multiple Display Groups.
• Eyefinity Display Configuration Switching.
• Performance improvement in Aliens vs. Predator.
• Performance improvement in Battleforge.
• Performance improvement in Call of Duty: World at War.
• Performance improvement in Company of Heroes.
• Performance improvement in Crysis.
• Performance improvement in Crysis: Warhead.
• Performance improvement in DiRT 2.
• Performance improvement in Far Cry 2.
• Performance improvement in Left 4 Dead.
• Performance improvement in Left 4 Dead 2.
• Performance improvement in S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Clear Sky.
• Performance improvement in Resident Evil 5.
• Performance improvement in Tom Clancy's HAWX.
• Performance improvement in World in Conflict.
• Numerous Bug Fixes.

The official release notes will release when it will be directly webposted at amd.com.

Benchmark test of 10.3a for 5000 series card: link

 

L4D2 does seem quite a bit smoother on my 5830. Big fan of this release.

 

Mobile driver doesn't seem to be the same as desktop. Same thing with CCC. Just see the date:

Desktop

Driver 03/13/2010
CCC 03/14/2010


Mobile

Driver 03/02/2010
CCC 03/02/2010

 

I might have to re-run the desktop installer, see what it's gonna do.

 

So anyone seeing improvements with these drivers?

 

60 points decrease in 3dmark06, testing some games now ....

 

Check this out link

 

Running a little hot on this machine.

 

what are your idle and gaming temps?

 

With the way ATI eats up HAWX, I have no idea why they don't enable the 10.1 and go Very High on ambient occlusion.

Q

EDIT: maybe the same reason Physx is turned off when benching games with nVidia cards? Keeping a level ability field for apples to apples comparison on FPS?

 

so are these newer than the "ATI_Win7_Vista_Catalyst10.3_Preview"?
i've been running those for a good while on both my desktop and lappie, reported driver version is 8.71.3

 

Yes, these are more recent than preview aka beta and more recent than WHQL 10.3 that is yet to be released.
10.3a is 8.712.0.0

 

cheers.. that's the version reported on ur lappie right? 'cos someone got me confused with saying the mobile and desktop are different.

if the mobile is 8.712, i'm going for them NAO!
any benches? or general feedback..

 

Mobile and desktop versions have the same number but different issue dates so these are technically speaking different.
In my case performance with 10.3a is slightly better or the same as in beta (Stalker CoP and 3D Mark06, Heaven Benchmark) but I got some weird moments when card kinda stops for a split second. I don't know yet whether it's been caused by new drivers or just something the game engine does so I rolled back to 10.3 beta for testing. But that's just one game and it's not confirmed yet.

 

I tried Borderlands. Ran awesome.

Then it became junk. And noticed I was running 4C higher than normal and the memory temps were scaring me.

Hmm no idea what's going on.

 

I noticed it ran considerably worse on my ATI 3450.

 

updated to these and they've run flawlessly this far. gotta check the temps tho since some of u are getting higher temps. that'd be awful.

 

Official ATi Catalyst 10.3 Suite Available Now

Update: The above link is for desktop only. Check this link.

 

It's for Desktop and not mobility .. stay clear people.

 

Yes. I checked it that time but it will only showing for 4000 HD and 9.9 beta. I guess they updated it an hour back.

Link to the Mobility Drivers.

 

So, what would happen to Sony laptop owners like me? I can't use the official laptop driver. I can't use the tool from Mobility Modder either because the latest Mobility Modder doesn't work with 10.x drivers. Looks like I am stuck with 9.x drivers.

 

Just wait for somebody to upload them , some Sony user have reported 10.3a work.

 

This Official driver is exactly the same as 10.3a.

There is still no HDMI/Avivo/HydraVision Driver included and needs to be installed via Desktop version.