DailyTech - AMD Releases Catalyst 7.6

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Software AMD Releases Catalyst 7.6
Anh Tuan Huynh (Blog) - June 26, 2007 1:48 PM

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20 comment(s) - last by Fox5.. on Jun 27 at 11:05 PM

Now with official support for the HD 2000-series

AMD has released a new ATI Catalyst software suite for the month of June. This brings the ATI Catalyst suite up to version 7.6. With the 7.6 version, AMD introduces video capture support for ATI All-in-Wonder graphics card.

The newfound video capture support is qualified for use with Snapstream’s Beyond TV 4.6. AMD leaves Windows Vista Media Center users out in the dark, as the application cannot make use of All-in-Wonder video capture hardware.

The latest ATI Catalyst 7.6 suite also introduces driver support for ATI Radeon HD 2000-series graphics cards, including the HD 2900, HD 2600 and HD 2400-series. However, AMD makes no mention of hardware video decoding acceleration for ATI Radeon HD 2900-series or UVD support for HD 2600 and HD 2400 cards in the release notes.

AMD includes the usual performance improvements in ATI Catalyst 7.6. ATI Catalyst 7.6 improves performance in Half-Life 2: Episode 1 and Dark Messiah Might and Magic. However, the performance improvement is only for ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT CrossFire systems. AMD claims there’s a 16% performance improvement with high-dynamic range enabled.

ATI Radeon users can download the new ATI Catalyst 7.6 suite for Windows XP, XP 64-bit, Windows Vista and Vista 64-bit.

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HD 2600

By psypher on 6/26/2007 2:13:34 PM , Rating: 2

Any word on when the HD 2600's hit the street? I am thinking about making a media center for my living room, and I want to see the HD 2600 compared to the 8600 GTS...

RE: HD 2600

By Lightning III on 6/26/2007 2:28:51 PM , Rating: 2

alledgedly in 4 days

end of june is the before mentioned launch date

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RE: HD 2600

By Goty on 6/26/2007 3:07:13 PM , Rating: 2

You might be better off going ahead and buying an 8600. All reports so far point to the 2600 not being able to perform up to par (nothing new for ATI's mainstream, though).

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RE: HD 2600

By Fenixgoon on 6/26/2007 4:05:51 PM , Rating: 2

I'm really hoping the 2600 offers some competition, but the x600 and x1600 series were terrible (minus the x1650). more than likely though, i'll wait for the 2900GT's or whatever it ends up being - ATI's GT line always seem to be an excellent value for the price. plus, gotta wait for some hellgate and crysis benchies! =D

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RE: HD 2600

By Regs on 6/27/2007 7:17:46 AM , Rating: 2

You might be waiting a long time since AMD has no high-end. The 2900XT is their mid-range.

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Great news, for some

By Zeatrix on 6/26/2007 2:18:30 PM , Rating: 2

Did any of you guys see the latest Valve Hardware Survey?

This driver must be good news for all the 100 guys that actually have a crossfire system :)

RE: Great news, for some

By Lightning III on 6/26/2007 2:26:33 PM , Rating: 3

check out the computex firing squad invatational

see what you think

http://www.firingsquad.com/features/firingsquad_in...

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RE: Great news, for some

By Fusible on 6/26/2007 2:50:10 PM , Rating: 3

Wow, HD2900 XT beat out the 8800 Ultra. Thats real good news for me. I have already outperformed some other setup's like mine, but with 8800 GTX's. Thats good to see.

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RE: Great news, for some

By Christopher1 on 6/27/2007 1:17:04 AM , Rating: 2

Huh? I thought that Anandtech had done tests that proved that the HD2900's were inferior to the 8800's.

Did the drivers change that much that it totally turned around, because if I am remembering correctly, the article said something about the drivers seemed a little wonky?

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Multimedia Center Support?

By nowayout99 on 6/26/2007 4:12:41 PM , Rating: 2

Any updates as to when AMD will stop shafting All-in-Wonder owners out of being able to use their capture hardware in Vista?

RE: Multimedia Center Support?

By Sazar on 6/26/2007 4:29:21 PM , Rating: 2

I think the decision was made about a year ago in some news releases that it would not be supported.

I could be wrong but it was a key reason in me moving from an AIW x800xt to my current combination of a 1950xt and a Hauppauge 1600 hybrid-tuner.

If you hear differently, please post.

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RE: Multimedia Center Support?

By nowayout99 on 6/27/2007 7:27:07 AM , Rating: 2

In January, though, they were saying "approximately mid 2007" for AIW MMC Vista support. So I am wondering what the latest on that is.

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RE: Multimedia Center Support?

By TomZ on 6/26/2007 4:31:49 PM , Rating: 1

I had the exact same problem with my older AIW card when I upgraded to XP years ago. ATI didn't have support in their initial driver releases for XP, and never did add it. So even though I had a "perfectly good" card, it was "perfectly worthless." Thanks ATI for that.

I currently have the same problem with my Belkin pre-N router and notebook PC card: no Vista support, so the hardware becomes worthless. Thanks Belkin for that.

I wouldn't complain if we were talking about really old hardware here. In both cases, the hardware was probably about 1-2 years old.

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RE: Multimedia Center Support?

By Christopher1 on 6/27/2007 1:22:57 AM , Rating: 2

Well, 1-2 years old IS kinda old for hardware, in all honesty. Personally, I have been thinking about having my father get a new wireless router, since our old one, while it works, is missing a few of the bells, whistles and improvements of the new routers from the same manufacturer.

Plus, right now the price is to DIE FOR, only $60 for a comparable class one that would have cost us $200 dollars when we bought our old router.

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no suprise for me...

By Souka on 6/26/2007 2:13:23 PM , Rating: 1

no suprise for me... no improvement..I"m old school....

ATI x1950 Pro AGP card.....

:)

RE: no suprise for me...

By TedStriker on 6/26/2007 3:37:52 PM , Rating: 2

Not old enough... ATI 9700pro AIW. don't think they will be improving the performance on my card anytime soon. ohh well, still get over 100fps in source games.

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RE: no suprise for me...

By Treckin on 6/26/2007 4:27:09 PM , Rating: 2

I have a GFORCE 4 TI-4600 in a rig.. The thing still rocks balls. It was the fastest thing in town for a long time ROFL.

I type currently from a mobile C2D t7200 @ 2ghz with a radeon x1700... video is pretty good, I play WH40k perfect and CnC3 on medium-high settings pretty damn good. Starcraft BW gives it a run for its money though...

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RE: no suprise for me...

By Souka on 6/27/2007 2:58:45 PM , Rating: 2

Try Oblivion at hi-res with hi-detail settings.....hello slideshow....

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Free drivers for Linux ?

By greylica on 6/27/2007 6:01:25 AM , Rating: 2

They promised free drivers for Linux Users, but I am still waiting. I will buy ATI cards if theyr release free drivers for any of the HD series.

RE: Free drivers for Linux ?

By Fox5 on 6/27/2007 11:05:33 PM , Rating: 2

Forget free, how about just decent, or any? Nvidia's linux drivers may not be opensource, but at least they're well developed and support the latest standards.

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"Intel is investing heavily (think gazillions of dollars and bazillions of engineering man hours) in resources to create an Intel host controllers spec in order to speed time to market of the USB 3.0 technology." -- Intel blogger Nick Knupffer