Download Driver For ATi Catalyst 7.1

Advanced Micro Devices just released the first Catalyst release of this year for its Radeon video cards and gave it version number 7.1 as per good practice. The driver is available for Windows XP in both 32bit, 64bit and Media Center versions, and is suitable for all Radeon models from the 9500 series. On the download page the 34.6MB Catalyst Software Suite can be downloaded, or a 12.2MB download containing only the updated driver is also available. Besides the usual list of bug fixes for many games and applications, the biggest change in this release is the improved Crossfire and Alternate Frame Rendering support. More information about this can be found in the release notes:

New Features

• This release of the ATi Catalyst Software Suite includes Crossfire enhancements that enable the Alternate Frame Rendering (AFR) Crossfire rendering mode by default so that users will see significant performance benefits across all AFR compatible applications immediately (including newly released applications, so users do not have to wait for a future ATI Catalyst release to add Crossfire support for newly released titles). Future ATi Catalyst releases will add further Crossfire performance gains once new applications have been profiled specifically for Crossfire.

Issues Resolved in the ATi Catalyst Software Suite 7.1

• Desperados 2: The game no longer fails to play and display an error in atioglxx.dll when AA is enabled.
• Rome: Total War: Display corruption is no longer noticed when playing the game on an AMD Dual Core or Intel Dual core system containing an ATi X1800 series product.
• Sniper Elite: Playing the game under Windows XP with a Radeon X1600 series installed no longer results in texture corruption being noticed.
• Splinter Cell Double Agent: Corruption is no longer noticed when playing the game with AA enabled.
• X-29:Launching an X-29 application on a system containing an ATi display adapter no longer results in an error message being displayed.
• During video playback, DirectX Video Acceleration (DXVA) is now available when CrossFire mode is enabled.
• Attempting to maximize an OpenGL application window no longer results in either the OpenGL window maximizing slowly or the system failing to respond.
• Clicking on the Restore Factory Defaults button found in the ATi Catalyst Control Center->TV Properties no longer results in the TV position failing to be restored to the factory defaults.
• Setting the display panel attributes to Scale Image to Full Panel Size, followed by entering an S3 state no longer results in the desktop failing to resume to a full screen mode.
• ATI Catalyst Control Center: Connecting an HDTV or DFP display device no longer results in some of the HDTV formats being listed twice in the ATi Catalyst Control Center->Digital Panel Properties->HDTV Support.
• ATI Catalyst Control Center->Digital Panel Properties->HDTV Support: Adding custom formats to the 1080i and attempting to remove those custom formats no longer results in the formats failing to removed.
• Catalyst Control Center->Help: Clicking on the Monitor and Digital Panel Properties found in the Contents section of the Help no longer results in a message indicating that the page cannot be displayed.
• ATI Catalyst Control Center: Slow response is no longer noticed after running the Full Screen 3D demo found in the Color aspect page of the ATi Catalyst Control Center.
• The Force TV Detection is no longer available for activation on systems that do not have a TV connected to it.
• MCE no longer fails when scanning channels or when switching from digital channels to analog.
• The error messages “This South Bridge Driver is no longer compatible with the hardware installed on this system” and “Please wait while detecting hardware” are now localized for the Japanese version of Windows XP.
• A message indicating that the record operation has failed is no longer displayed when attempting to record an AVI file in VGA mode.
• ATI Catalyst Control Center->Help: Clicking on the Monitor and Digital Panel Properties found in the Contents section of the Help no longer results in a message indicating that the page cannot be displayed.
• Setting the display panel attributes to Scale Image to Full Panel Size, followed by entering an S3 state no longer results in the desktop failing to resume to a full screen mode.
• ATI Catalyst Control Center->Digital Panel Properties->HDTV Support: Adding custom formats to the 1080i and attempting to remove those custom formats no longer results in the formats failing to removed.
• ATI Catalyst Control Center->CrossFire: Attempting to resume from a standby state no longer results in the Windows XP operating system failing to respond when using an ATi Radeon X19x0 CrossFire Edition series of product.
• Attempting to maximize an OpenGL application window no longer results in either the OpenGL window maximizing slowly or the system failing to respond.
• ATI Catalyst Control Center: Connecting an HDTV or DFP display device no longer results in some of the HDTV formats being listed twice in the ATi Catalyst Control Center->Digital Panel Properties->HDTV Support.
• Clicking on the Restore Factory Defaults button found in the ATi Catalyst Control Center->TV Properties no longer results in the TV position failing to be restored to the factory defaults.
• Color corruption is no longer noticed when changing the display resolution when connecting a SDVO display device to an ATi Radeon Xpress 200 series product.
• SuperAA mode is now enabled on Intel 965 boards.
• ATI Catalyst Control Center->CrossFire: Enabling CrossFire no longer results in a white display image being displayed when using a CRT and DFP display device.
• Enabling CrossFire no longer results in display corruption being noticed when playing certain 3D games such as Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2006 and Madden Football.

Known Issues for the ATi Catalyst Software Suite 7.1

• Battlefield 2: Attempting to launch the game under Windows XP with the in-game display setting at 1920×1440 or 2048×1536 and AA set to 6x may result in the game failing to launch.
• Starwars Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords: Setting the in-game display option to low settings may result in corruption being noticed within the game.
• Enabling CrossFire may result in display corruption being noticed when playing a DVD or media clip using either WinDVD 7, Windows Media Player or PowerDVD 6.
• ATI Catalyst Control Center->Basic View: Connecting a secondary display device and attempting to enable it, may result in the inability to enable the device when using Basic view.
• Uninstalling the graphics drivers may result in some of the files and folder failing to be removed in the Program File folder.
• ATI Catalyst Control Center->Basic View: Connecting a secondary display device and attempting to enable it, may result in the inability to enable the device when using Basic view.
• Connecting a CRT as the primary display device and CV as the secondary display device may result in the desktop area and refresh rate being reported incorrectly when applying the 1080i30 Optimized mode within the ATi Catalyst Control Center.

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