CATALYST™ Version 02.3 Web Posting Release Notes
Features of ATI CATALYST™ Version 02.3
• Performance Improvements –As with most CATALYST releases performance has increased in
various situations. Here are some examples observed in CATALYST 02.3:
o NHL 2002 scores are up 10-20% for RADEON 7000/7500/8500/9000 products
o Serious Sam performance is improved once again (8-12%) across all RADEON’s
o NASCAR 2002 performance is up 8% on the RADEON 9700 PRO
o Vertex Shader performance has been improved by approximately 20% for the RADEON 9000
PRO, resulting in a 3-5% gain in 3DMARK score.
• Control Panel support for TRUFORM – TRUFORM is a CATALYST feature which allows
for a higher polygon count, resulting in smoother images in games that support it. The ATI Direct3D
tab and the ATI OpenGL tab now contain two radio buttons allowing TRUFORM to be set Off or to
be enabled via Application Preference
• DVI alternate operation mode – New option found in the Details Tab of the Control Panel for
the RADEON 9700. It allows for the switching of different architectures for the integrated DVI
transmitter. This option should only be enabled if display corruption is being experienced.
• AA and AF - OpenGL and Direct 3D Control Panels for RADEON 7000 and RADEON 7200 now
include Anisotropic Filtering and Anti-Aliasing sliders. These are tied into the main settings slider.
This gives users of these cards even more control over their choice of image quality and
performance.
Color Controls for Component Output – This feature enhancement allows for the user to control
the brightness, Contrast, and Saturation of the YprPb properties. The user can control these options when
an HDTV is connected to the component out, using the ATI HDTV dongle adapter.
Enhance gamma control for overlay – The values of the gamma option found in the ATI Overlay
tab of the Control Panel now reflect real world unit values
Newest member of the RADEON family:
These drivers now fully support the newest members of the ATI RADEON family:
RADEON 7500 PCI version
RADEON 9700 Pro
RADEON 9000 Series
CATALYST CREW Feedback Program
This driver release continues to incorporate suggestions provided through the CATALYST CREW feedback
program. Please refer to http://apps.ati.com/driverfeedback/ and provide us further feedback on CATALYST.
Issues Resolved in CATALYST™ Version 02.3
This section provides a brief description of the issues that are resolved with CATALYST™ version 02.3
• Subsystem ID showed incorrect information under details tab
• Hanging issues with Spider Solitaire under Windows XP
• Hanging issues with Mozilla browser
• Setting the desktop to 1024 X 768 and 32 bpp results in the Flat panel property page not appearing
in the ATI displays tab
• RADEON 9700 Control Panel issues: Settings are applied properly, and Quality/Performance
options of Anisotropic Filtering behaves properly.
Errata:
The SmartGart Control Panel has been disabled in this release. All functions will be greyed out and all features will
appear to be turned off. Despite the appearance from the Control Panel, AGP functions are working fine with this
driver. The Control Panel will be enabled in the next driver release.
ATI CATALYST Display Drivers:
The latest ATI display driver provides users with a stable, user-friendly, and flexible software experience.
From supporting the latest 3D architecture and features, to full multimedia acceleration and DVD playback:
The latest ATI display driver will provide users with the ultimate in graphics acceleration.
Direct 3D API graphics acceleration support
Direct 3D acceleration includes support of all the latest features found in the Direct 3D specification. This
allows CATALYST to accelerate the latest amazing 3D graphics effects found in the most popular games.
OpenGL API graphics acceleration support
OpenGL acceleration includes support of all the latest features found in the OpenGL specification. This
allows CATALYST to accelerate the latest amazing 3D graphics effects found in the most popular games.
Amazing Performance
The latest ATI control panel for both D3D and OpenGL provide users with the ability to select a high
performance user experience by enabling “High Performance” textures, and “High Performance” mipmap
detail levels.
TRUFORM™
ATI presents TRUFORM™, the revolution of graphic technology. TRUFORM™, a new technology
developed by ATI, overcomes traditional memory and bandwidth problems to deliver the smoothest and
most realistic images ever seen on a PC. Pre-processes 3D artwork being fed into the graphics accelerator
by converting it from flat triangle data into curved surface data, allowing much more highly detailed and
realistically lit images with virtually no performance loss.
SMARTSHADER™
SMARTSHADER™, a new technology developed by ATI, represents a new generation of visual effects for
your personal computer. With SMARTSHADER™, game developers will be able to create impressive, lifelike
worlds by modeling the surface and material qualities of 3D objects with an unparalleled level of
realism.
This technology revolutionizes the graphics pipeline by making both the geometry processing and pixel
processing stages more programmable than ever before, and allowing developers to easily create amazing
new graphics effects while maintaining a high level of performance.
SMOOTHVISION™
SMOOTHVISION supports a High-Performance anti-aliasing mode and a High-Quality anti-aliasing mode.
Both of these modes give users the ability to choose between 2x, 3x, 4x, 5x, and 6x sampling, allowing for a
total of 10 different anti-aliasing settings.
This allows users to quite easily select both the desired level of visual quality and the corresponding
performance level.
Anisotropic Filtering
Improves image quality by blending multiple texture samples together, resulting in 3D scenes that are crisp
and detailed. The number of samples used can be: 2, 4, 8, or 16. 16X Anisotropic Filtering provides the
ultimate in texture fidelity and detail, while maintaining an incredible level of performance.
SMARTGART™
ATI’s proprietary diagnostic tool to determine the most stable AGP setting, making the most stable drivers in
the industry even more stable.
SMARTGART™ automatically tests the AGP compatibility upon the initialization of the display driver, and
dynamically determines the proper AGP bus speed based on the results of the test. If a new AGP setting is
required and the system must reboot, the driver will automatically set the new bus speed on the next reboot.
The diagnostic tests will only be run on the system when the driver is installed for the first time, or when the
system configuration is changed.
