New Features
This release of Catalyst™ introduces an enhanced version of ATI Overdrive for the ATI Radeon™ HD 2600 Series and ATI Radeon™ HD 2400 Series. Users can now Over-clock both GPU engine and graphics memory clock speeds in Crossfire™ mode (and over-clock single ATI Radeon™ graphics accelerators as well). This version of ATI Overdrive also includes a new stress test application to verify any over-clocking speeds users may have configured (either manually or through the auto-tuning tool) on their ATI Radeon™ graphics accelerators.

Performance Improvements
* Lost Planet DX10 with anti-aliasing improves 11% or greater on Radeon™ HD2900XT products
* Radeon™ HD2600 and Radeon™ HD2400 (single and CrossFire™) show improvements of as much as 6% in 3DMark 2006 and 3DMark 2005
* Serious Sam 2 with HDR enabled improves as much as 14.5% on Radeon™ HD2900, Radeon™ HD2600 and Radeon™ HD2400 products

Resolved Issues for the Windows Vista Operating System
* Call of Duty->United Offensive: Having all of the in-game settings at their maximum levels along with the Catalyst™ Control Center->3D aspect set to Optimal Quality no longer results in the Windows Vista (64 bit) operating system failing to respond after a short period of game play. Further details can be found in topic number 737-28793
* The default audio device is no longer set to ATI HD Audio after installation of the display driver for the ATI Radeon™ HD2900, HD2600, and HD2400. Further details can be found in topic number 737-28483
* Hot-plugging a CRT to a system running Windows Vista and containing an ATI Radeon™ X1100/1150 series of product no longer results in extended desktop mode failing to be applied. Further details can be found in topic number 737-25801
* Enabling CrossFire™ followed by disconnecting and then reconnecting the CRT display device no longer results in duplicate video options being seen within the Catalyst™ Control Center. Further details can be found in topic number 737-27457
* Enabling CrossFire™ followed by setting AA to 14x and AF to 16x no longer results in the AA showing a setting of 0x level when disabling CrossFire™ and unchecking the AA option in the 3D aspect. Further details can be found in topic number 737-27458
* Making changes to the Color aspect found in the Catalyst™ Control Center without applying the changes no longer results in the Reactivate ATI color controls button remaining active after the Catalyst™ Control Center is closed and then re-launched. Further details can be found in topic number 737-27459
* Enabling CrossFire™ followed by setting the OverDrive™ clocks to their maximum settings no longer results in the Catalyst™ Control Center failing to accurately report the requested OverDrive™ values. Further details can be found in topic number 737-27621
* Performing an un-install of the display drivers on a CrossFire™ configured system no longer results in extended desktop mode becoming active resulting in all of the desktop icons failing to appear. Further details can be found in topic number 737-28478
* Catalyst™ Control Center->3D->Anti-Aliasing: Unchecking the option to Use Application Setting found in the 3D aspect page when CrossFire™ is enabled no longer results in the maximum AA setting being 6x. This issue may also be experienced under the Windows XP operating system. Further details can be found in topic number 737-28479
* Performing either a custom or express install of the display driver no longer results in the system possibly failing to respond and the installation of the driver failing. This issue was known to occur when using an ATI Radeon™ X1950 CrossFire™ Edition product installed on in a system containing an Intel975. Further details can be found in topic number 737-28481
* HDMI audio stutter is no longer heard when playing MPEG clip at certain resolutions on some HDMI device. Further details can be found in topic number 737-28484
* The Scaling options found in the Catalyst™ Control Center no longer disappears when relaunching the Catalyst™ Control Center after applying optimized and custom formats for Component Video. Further details can be found in topic number 737-28855
* Connecting a secondary display device (CRT) and enabling extended desktop mode no longer results in invalid refresh rates being available in the Display Manager. Further details can be found in topic number 737-28787
* Making adjustments to the Gamma, Brightness, and Contrast and not applying the changes no longer results in the desktop image failing to return to its default color values when performing a hot-reboot of the system. Further details can be found in topic number 737-28787
* All supported display resolutions are now available in the Display Manager when connecting a secondary display device and enabling extended desktop mode. Further details can be found in topic number 737-28789
* Performing an un-install of the display driver no longer results in the display entering an extended desktop mode and the desktop icons failing to be displayed. Further details can be found in topic number 737-28478
* Setting the Avivo Video Brightness to less than 0 within the Catalyst™ Control Center no longer results in a white frame being created in the Windows Media Player when fullscreen mode is enabled. Further details can be found in topic number 737-28790
* The Enable ATI Overdrive clocks for 3d applications is no longer available on non supported products such as the ATI Radeon™ HD 2600 series of product. Further information may be found in topic number 737-28477
* Setting the Avivo Video De-interlacing setting to auto, motion adaptive or vector adaptive no longer results in certain DVDs, menu videos and some special features failing to benefit from the options. Further information on this issue may be found in topic number 737-27196
* The color depth no longer changes to 8bpp when enabling or disabling CrossFire™ for the first time. Further information may be found in topic number 737-28485
* Connecting a TV followed by removing the display resolution of 640x480 from the mode table no longer results in the both the TV and LCD failing to display an image. Further details can be found in topic number 737-28490
* An unhandled exception no longer occurs when running an OGL application and resuming from S3 under Vista on various ATI Radeon™ Xpress 1200/1250/1300 series products. Further details can be found in topic number 737-27960
* Windows Media Player: Playing a DVD in full screen mode no longer results in vertical bar corruption being noticed during playback. Further details can be found in topic number 737-28497
* DVD display no longer blinks in red when Overdrive is enabled. Further details can be found in topic number 737-28794

Resolved Issues for the Windows XP Operating System
* Star Wars knights of the Old Republic 2: Corruption is no longer seen when running the game on some members of the ATI Radeon™ Xpress 1200/1250/1300 series of products. Further details can be found in topic number 737-27098
* CounterStrike Source, Day of Defeat Source, and Half-Life 2 Episode 1, Excessive fog is no longer noticed when playing these games. Further details can be found in topic number 737-28795
* The Overscan/Underscan slider bar is no longer enabled when setting display resolutions of 1280x1024 or higher on systems containing an ATI Radeon™ HD 2900 XT series of product. Further details can be found in topic number 737-28843
* Adobe After Effects 8: The application no longer fails to load on systems containing an ATI Radeon™ X700 series of product. Further details can be found in topic number 737-28796
* PowerDVD6: Momentary desktop corruption is no longer noticed when minimizing the DVD playback window after stretching the playback window approximately 80%. Further details can be found in topic number 737-28797
* The system no longer becomes unresponsive and no longer requires a reboot while randomly moving Video Player window from primary to extended desktop under certain hardware configurations where the second adapter is an ATI Radeon™ X1200/1250/1270 series of product. Further details can be found in topic number 737-27092
* A warning message indicating CrossFire™ cannot be enabled because some 3D applications are running or the interconnect cable is not connected, or the motherboard has no communication channels between PCI-Express slots is no longer displayed when using a motherboard with an Intel I965 chipset. Further details can be found in topic number 737-28798
* The CrossFire™ page is no longer greyed out and cannot be enabled when attempting to use a software CrossFire™ configuration on a system using a motherboard with an Intel I975 chipset. Further details can be found in topic number 737-28799
* The Avivo components are now listed in the ADD/Remove Programs after installation of the display driver. Further details can be found in topic number 737-28800
* Switching HD-DVD titles during playback with hardware acceleration enabled no longer results in the playback to be blocked. Further details can be found in topic number 737-28802
* WinDVD8: Playing a DVD and changing the video setting to Hardware Acceleration mode no longer results in corruption being noticed. Further details can be found in topic number 737-28803

seems like boys at ATi do read these forums

I'm not an AMD GPU user and that still looks exciting! If we compare these to the launch drivers that's one hell of a lot of performance gain!

ati will bring more performance to new cards that is for sure

ATi driver team strikes again...

but this time they seem to have missed the target abit since its less then rock solid or even usable on both x1950pro and on 9800xt which makes me wonder what the heck went on there you could say the 9800xt might not be on the top of their testing list but x1950pro should still be pritty high. the only thing that might make a difference in my case is that both cards are AGP so for now back to 7.7 till next driver comes out so it seems ...

summary: as many times impressive list of buf fixes and tweaking but buttom line screweee set, after clean install and reboot you might get normal desktop but games wont start or and crash, or after reboot missing desktop icons and weird screen refreshes, after another restart 4bit display mode is activated and CCC error shows up. reinstall of the driver doesnt change crap...

As always nice job

I must say I'm a bit concerned...

I decide to try the update feature of the new drivers. All installed well. I started my game as always and went to my usually server. It was like I was playing in water, all swishy and slow, not jittery like lag but, but fluid like. Couldn't aim at all. Oh, and it visually didn't look as good.

Unistalled Everything, and then reinstalled as new install. Went to the game server and had same problem. I decided to adjust visual properties in the CCC. It didnn't help.

Remembered having this problem before with recent previous installs and uninstalled the CCC. Everything went back to being perfect. Crisp clear picture, fast rate, solid!

I have had this problem with CCC for a while. I always have to uninstall it, then reinstall it a couple times and not use it. With the exception of setting a custom refresh rate, if I adjust the 3d properties at all it muddies everything up.

Question: Do these drivers benefit older cards, like my 9600 pro, performance wise? I realise it has some Vista fixes that were needed, but do I need to continue looking for performance gains through updating the driver? I see no performance gain in this new driver for my card.

OS - WIndows Vista
Game - RTCW: Enemy Territory - Mod - True Combat: Elite

This 7.8 driver isn't meant for a 9600,but for new gen gpu,DX10 ones.
I'm using the first drivers of the year 2007..don't remember the name..
But it's the best for my old gen card

I'm not sure what the problem is with your AGP X1950 Pros then.

I'm using a B/B ATI X1950 Pro 256 MB PCIe card and have been using the 7.8 Betas for a couple of weeks now. I installed the official 7.8s and have no complaints so far.

What kind of errors are you getting?

Looks like us old AGP users got hit on this one. I'm not sure it has to do with my X1950 Pro AGP.

Among your problems you might notice under SMARTGART that the AGP Fast Writes etc get switched to OFF and you cannot turn them ON. This might be the main reason for the problems I guess.

They are very poor with my AGP X1950 Pro as well, from missing desktop icons to smart gart just wanting to constantly reboot my PC, a steaming pile of a driver set indeed these are.

Hey Dytre,
i guess they have a problem with their agp module specially with the cards that use PCIE2AGP bridge with this set and like ive said after a clean driver install the driver seems to be workin but when starting a 3d game lets say UT2K4 the game wont load and the driver will crash ur hang. another symptom would be missing desktop icons when their names appear but no icon picture and windows display seems to be halted and then resumes with a couple of refreshes to the screen (by its self) when no driver crash is reported...
didnt try the smartgart yet because i didnt have much time to mess with that since its my bro's rigg and i have a test tomorow so i changed back to 7.7 to make sure it worked and then back to 7.8 and finally back to 7.7 for now...
i guess nothing is perfect.... i have rarely had problems with their drivers and its not as if i was missing the hardware last couple of years (9200pro,9550,9500pro,9700pro,9800xt,x1950pro). Cheers ...

Well, it does appear that the AGP users have been hit pretty bad with this set.

In some ways, it makes sense to me that, at one point or another, drivers have to stop being made for ALL of the various and asundry versions of video cards that are out in the public. And, sometimes I wonder if the problems are due to the drivers mis-identifying the card that's installed.

Anyway, I'd say if the 7.7s work, stick with them for the time being and hope for the best on the next release. (Notice, I didn't say 'hold your breath' though. )

I did not realise that my video card would be out dated in a few months when I bought it at Best Buy early this year. I upgraded from a geforce 2 GTS to play BF2 ... lol.

I don't know about such things as smart guart or whatever, but I do know that without the CCC, I am playing TC:E at max quality with no problems. Maybe the smart guart thing has to do with the CCC? What are the alternatives to CCC, because I'm running bare now?

BTW, My 9600/ x1050 or whatever, is in the list of supported video cards for this driver. Plus, we agp users need vista support as well.

Same here, my X1950 Pro is 6 months old and driver support has been pants for it since day one to be honest, i was with Nividia for the last 7 years, now i remember why.

Well, it seems that you guys are right about the AGP issues, and I will contact AMD and let them know. They have a lot of good lads there, and I’m sure they will come out with something sooner or later. Don’t even compare them with Nvidia, atleast they aren’t spamming hardware sites with legal threats. Minwhile, you can try to submit bug reports via their Catalyst Crew Feedback Program.

I appreciate your efforts with this, thanks.

One other thing i have noticed as well (although this could be down to my PC) is if i do a reboot i lose my AGP and everything reverts back to PCI mode (even with the NGO drivers this happens) but if i power off and back on the AGP comes back as normal with NGO and with the smartgart cycle using Omega or Cat drivers.

Thanks Regen.

BTW, I am extremely happy overall with my ATI and would not consider a switch back.

I can't imagne how fun it is to use the "top-of-the-line" stuff.

I agree with ya there but I sure would appreciate FAIR WARNING from ATI before I (and thousands of other users) spend numerous hours installing the new drivers, then installing the old drivers, then installing the new drivers to see if the problems went away, then searching the internet to see if other users are experiencing the same problem, then running utilities to clean out drivers, then installing the new drivers again, then trying to tweak the new drivers to run properly ETC. ETC ETC LOL

I'm sure numerous other tech heads probably have even reinstalled their OS to get the drivers to work properly

So far the driver works fine with my settings. I never used CCC, instead only installed the driver & ATi tray Tool from Ray Adams.

Get in, us AGP moaners are on The Inquirer LOL Catalyst 7.8 proves a mixed bag

I know exactly what you mean!

I think my point is that it's got to be very difficult for the driver developers to keep track of all the different cards on the market, make sure the drivers recognize each one, etc.

At some point of time, hopefully not too soon!, it would seem that there would have to be a cutoff for certain cards like they did with the pre-DX9 cards.

Ok read the thread about 7.8 AGP problems and find out how "good" these guys are .

pump up
If that driver so good,NGO planing on some optimized driver ?
Or no chance?

I have a Radeon X1950Pro PCIe and have no problems. In fact, my performance in Quake Wars improved a good bit, now my FPS never drops below 30 except in some of those damn laggy interiors.

Any news on the AGP front yet? Any whispers about it being fixed in 7.9?

Nothing I have heard through the grapevine yet Bro but hope so

Cheers mate. TBH Bioshock seems to run ok without any of the problems the older cats seem to cause but i would still like to give it a shot with a newer driver

Understood M8 and sure others feel the same way ... its a serious issue and sure they are working on it as we speak