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    New Catalyst 8.1

    Discussion in 'Gaming (Software and Graphics Cards)' started by onlycopunk, Jan 16, 2008.

  1. onlycopunk

    onlycopunk Notebook Consultant

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    Available from the ati.com and with the mobility modder if anyone is interested.
     
    onlycopunk, Jan 16, 2008
    #1
  2. notyou

    notyou Notebook Deity

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    Nice, I looked this morning and it wasn't up, oddly enough I was just going to check both ati and toshiba for drivers. Coincidental.... I think not.
     
    notyou, Jan 16, 2008
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  3. usapatriot

    usapatriot Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    Are they any good? ATI drivers as of late have been ****.
     
    usapatriot, Jan 16, 2008
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  4. onlycopunk

    onlycopunk Notebook Consultant

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    The only program I've ran since installing them is 3DMark 06 which I got a score of 3234. But I've never used that program before so I can't really compare it to anything.
     
    onlycopunk, Jan 16, 2008
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  5. Crimsonman

    Crimsonman Ex NBR member :cry:

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    since you have DDR2 and I have GDDR3, we get the same score, so I think it improved quite a bit.
     
    Crimsonman, Jan 16, 2008
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  6. onlycopunk

    onlycopunk Notebook Consultant

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    Oh sweet as! I read through the release notes and they never say anything about performance increases, so I always take new Catalysts with a grain of salt, but I'll give it a test run through some games.
     
    onlycopunk, Jan 16, 2008
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  7. Fade To Black

    Fade To Black The Bad Ass

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    Installed it too. The first time the install was crap, as it didn't recognized my video card with CCC. The second time, after a meticulous registry de-ATIying it worked, but I have a small square in the upper left corner of the screen and when I right click on desktop the CCC name is no there, but the red icon is.
     
    Fade To Black, Jan 17, 2008
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  8. Cheeseman

    Cheeseman Eats alot of Cheese

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    Open Catalyst Control Center, go to Preferences and click on "disable System Tray Menu". This will remove the system tray ATi icon, but will also remove the small square on the top left.
    I've only tried CoD4 so far on 8.1 and I've noticed slight performace improvement over 7.12, but then again I could be wrong.
     
    Cheeseman, Jan 17, 2008
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  9. usapatriot

    usapatriot Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    Heh, well come more tests could be handy!
     
    usapatriot, Jan 17, 2008
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  10. Steven87

    Steven87 Notebook Consultant

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    Well, there are some new drivers on the UK Toshiba website from the 14th January (for the A210). Not sure what drivers they are based on though (probably 7.12, as I doubt they'd have 8.1 drivers before ATi release them). I haven't tried them yet, but I've had no issues with the previous graphics drivers from last November.

    I'm a little hessitant to update as with my old nVidia card, updating the drivers would often make an older game have problems; I had to go through loads of old drivers trying to find one that worked for all my games.

    Also, at the moment (12:00pm), I'm only getting a transfere rate of 4kb/s! And I've got broadband (Toshiba's servers must be busy). Last time I ended up downloading the drivers at midnight which got a transfere rate of 50kb/s, which is still a bit slow; I usually get around 140kb/s depending on the site, but at least it doesn't take all day! It looks like I've got another late night tonight.
     
    Steven87, Jan 17, 2008
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  11. Fade To Black

    Fade To Black The Bad Ass

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    Cheeseman, I've never had the white square before. This has to be the worst driver install I've had. :)
    Anyway, it's working now, but there is no title in the right click menu :D.
     
    Fade To Black, Jan 17, 2008
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  12. usapatriot

    usapatriot Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    What's up performance wise?
     
    usapatriot, Jan 17, 2008
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  13. usapatriot

    usapatriot Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    Installed new 8.1. They are ****, ATI's drivers are getting worse with every release. Reverting to Omegas 7.12 now.
     
    usapatriot, Jan 17, 2008
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  14. g00bd0g

    g00bd0g Newbie

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    So far my testing is limited only to ETQW or 3DMark '06. At least for me the new drivers yielded about a 10% improvement in 3d mark and ETQW!

    Before new drivers.

    2450 3dMarks
    ETQW Barely playable

    After New Drivers.

    2650 3dMarks
    ETQW playable

    OC'd my Video Card to 500 clock, 400 mem.

    2860 3dmarks
    ETQW very playable.

    I just installed Portal as well and it seems to run great!

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834210006

    Model
    Brand ZT
    Model Element S1004a
    General
    Operating System Windows Vista Home Premium
    CPU Type AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-50 1.6G
    Screen 17" WSXGA+
    Memory Size 1GB DDR2
    Hard Disk 120GB
    Optical Drive DVD Super Multi
    Graphics Card ATI Mobility Radeon HD 2600
    Video Memory 512MB Hyper Memory
    Communication Modem, Gigabit LAN and WLAN
    Card slot 1 x Express Card
    Weight 7.60 lbs.
    CPU
    CPU Type AMD Turion 64 X2
    CPU Speed TL-50(1.60GHz)
    CPU L2 Cache 2 x 256KB
    Chipset
    Chipset ATI RS690 + SB600
    Display
    Screen Size 17.0"
    Wide Screen Support Yes
    Display Type Wide SXGA+
    Resolution 1680 x 1050
    Operating Systems
    Operating System Windows Vista Home Premium
    Graphics
    GPU/VPU ATI Mobility Radeon HD 2600
    Video Memory 512MB Hyper Memory
    Graphic Type Dedicated Card
    Hard Drive
    HD Capacity 120GB
    HD Interface SATA
    Memory
    Memory Speed DDR2 667
    Memory Size 1GB (Upgraded to 2GB)
    Max Memory Supported 4GB
     
    g00bd0g, Jan 17, 2008
    #14
  15. Steven87

    Steven87 Notebook Consultant

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    The default clocks for the HD2600 in my Toshiba were 500/400, so it must have been underclocked as you've only overclocked it upto my default speeds. Usually the HD2600 DDR2 gets 3000 or more in 3D Mark 06.

    I have overclocked it to run at 600/500 without any problems, but some people have overclocked it further to 750/600 (256mb DDR2 RAM in a Toshiba A210).
     
    Steven87, Jan 18, 2008
    #15