Catalyst 8.6 introduces the following new features:

• OpenGL Adaptive Anti-Aliasing Custom Filters support
• OpenGL CrossFireX (QUAD) support - 3 or 4 GPUs in CrossFire mode
• Catalyst Install enhancement - No reboot required after Catalyst upgrade install

This release of Catalyst introduces Adaptive Anti-Aliasing Custom Filters support for OpenGL applications for the ATI Radeon HD 3000 Series, ATI Radeon HD 2000 Series of products. Using the Edge Detect Custom Filter, users can enable 12X and 24X Anti-Aliasing. Selecting 4X Anti-Aliasing plus selecting the Edge Detect filter delivers the equivalent of 12X Anti-Aliasing. Selecting 8X Anti-Aliasing plus selecting the Edge Detect filter delivers the equivalent of 24X Anti-Aliasing.

This release of Catalyst introduces CrossFireX QUAD support for OpenGL applications. Users with any combination of a ATI Radeon HD 3870, ATI Radeon HD 3850, and ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 graphics accelerators running with 3 or 4 GPUs will be able to run in CrossFireX QUAD mode (when used in a CrossFireX compatible PC).

Users are also able to run in CrossFireX QUAD mode while running in extended desktop mode on the Windows Vista desktop. This feature is supported under Windows Vista only

This release of Catalyst introduces an enhancement to the Catalyst installer. Users are no longer required to reboot their system after Catalyst has finished installing (as long as the installation is an upgrade from a previous Catalyst install).

The following performance gains are noticed with this release of Catalyst.

• 3DMark Vantage:10 to 15% gains across all Radeon HD 3xxx and HD 2xxx products, with larger gains in specific cases.
• Call of Duty 4: Performance increases across all Radeon HD 3xxx and HD 2xxx products, with gains as large as 35% in specific maps.
• Call of Juarez DX10: Performance increases between 2 and 9% across all HD 3xxx and HD 2xxx products
• Company of Heroes (DX10 version): Performance increases between 4 and 10% across HD 36xx and HD 34xx products.
• Lost Planet (DX10 version): Performance increases by 1 or 2 fps across all HD 3xxx and HD 2xxx products, creating in some cases up to 20% increase.
• Lost Planet (DX9 version): Performance increases between 2 and 20% across all HD 3xxx and HD 2xxx products
• Prey OpenGL: 3-5% gains across HD 3xxx and HD 2xxx products.
• Quake 4 OpenGL: Up to 8% increase across all HD 3xxx and HD 2xxx products.
• Shadermark 2.1: Minor improvements across all HD 3xxx and HD 2xxx products, with the largest gains appearing on HD 3650 (up to 9%)
• ViewPerf 10: Substantial performance improvements across several of the sub-tests, with the largest gains in ugnx (up to 55%), catia (up to 17%) and tcvis (up to 10%) across all of the HD 3xxx and HD 2xxx products.

Folding@Home is a distributed computing project designed by the Stanford University. The application performs intensive simulations of protein folding. This simulation will help researchers uncover how certain diseases develop. Folding@Home uses distributed computing to simulate protein folding, the workload is broken up into small work units and distributed across hundreds of thousands of computers over the internet. You can help find the cure to many different diseases! To join Folding@Home, follow these steps:

1. Download ATI's Catalyst software suite
2. Download the Folding@Home GPU client application
3. Enter the ATI team number 51394 and start folding!

For more information on Folding@Home visit: http://ati.amd.com/technology/streamcomputing/folding.html

This section provides information on resolved issues in this release of the ATI Catalyst Software Suite for Windows Vista. These include:

• Bioshock: Corruption is no longer noticed in the water's reflection. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35077
• Call of Duty 4: Enabling AA no longer results in intermittent corruption being noticed when playing the game on a system running Windows Vista with an ATI Radeon HD 38x0 series of product installed. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35072
• Crysis: Momentary corruption is no longer noticed in the body of water when a soldier pierces through the clouds. Further details can be found in topic number 737-32599
• Crysis: Playing a DX10 version of the game no longer results in flickering being noticed within the bushes and on the trees when the in-game advanced setting are set to low. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35074
• Frontlines: Fuel of War: Flickering and corruption is no longer noticed when playing the game on a system containing an ATI Radeon HD 3800 series of product when CrossFire is enabled. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35067
• Guitar Hero III: Shadows are no longer seen in the middle-bottom portion of the display where the music score is located. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35071
• Lost Planet: Running the cave test on a system containing an ATI Radeon HD 38x0 series of product no longer results in low FPS values. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35073M
• Sins of a Solar Empire: Corruption is no longer noticed when playing the game on a system running Windows Vista and containing either an ATI Radeon X1xx0 or 9700 series of product. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35068
• Stalker: Enabling CrossFire no longer results in the clear sky failing to scale properly. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35070
• Unreal Tournament 3: Scaling is now functioning when using 24 or more bots when CrossFire is enabled. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35069
• Rebooting the operating system after changing the skin to any available option other than system skin no longer results in the Catalyst Control Center menu options no longer being visible. Further details can be found in topic number 737-30569
• The Catalyst Control Center menu option no longer fails to function when changing the skin from system skin to any other available skin. Further details can be found in topic number 737-30570
• Using the hot-key function to switch between various display scenarios no longer results in the HDMI display device displaying a blank screen. Further details can be found in topic number 737-31145
• Enabling CrossFire on a system containing an ATI Radeon X1900 CrossFire Edition product no longer results in the Windows Vista (64 bit version) failing. Further details can be found in topic number 737-31163
• Inconsistent behavior is no longer noticed in the Catalyst Control Center when clearing the Shared application from one virtual desktop to another. This issue may also be experienced under the Windows XP and Windows XP Professional x64 Edition operating systems. Further details can be found in topic number 737-32610
• Shared applications are no longer removed after selecting Restore desktop when virtual desktop mode is enabled. This issue may also be experienced under the Windows XP and Windows XP Professional x64 Edition operating systems. Further details can be found in topic number 737-32611
• Certain benchmark applications no longer report lower benchmark scores with CrossFire enabled. Further details can be found in topic number 737-33464
• Hot-plugging an HDTV to an HDMI port no longer results in flickering being noticed around the text of the Catalyst Control Center when setting the display resolution to either 1776x1000 or 1920x1000. Further details can be found in topic number 737-34323
• The OverDrive option is no longer missing in the Catalyst Control Center after the installation of the graphics driver on systems containing an ATI Radeon HD 2900 series of product and running the Windows Vista operating system. Further details can be found in topic number 737-34123
• Performing a custom install of the ATI graphics driver under the Windows Vista operating system no longer results in a message indicating that the current version is not installed. Further details can be found in topic number 737-34150
• Attempting to hot plug an HDMI display device from one port to another no longer results in the display failing to display an image. Further details can be found in topic number 737-34151
• Connecting an HDMI display device no longer results in the Catalyst Control Center reporting the connector type as component. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35026
• Connecting an HDTV using the Component Video connector no longer results in the Catalyst Control Center (Basic View) failing to respond when switching to HDTV only mode. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35029
• Catalyst Control Center: Selecting the User Windows Display Language setting no longer results in the incorrect language being selected in the Catalyst Control Center. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35030
• A Catalyst Control Center Host Application error message is no longer displayed when performing a fast user switch. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35031
• Changing the saturation value found in the Catalyst Control Center->TV-Avivo page no longer results in the new values failing to take effect. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35036
• Catalyst Control Center: Connecting a secondary display device and enabling extended desktop mode no longer results in the Catalyst Control Center failing to respond when disabling the primary display device and attempting to set the secondary display device as the primary. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35039
• The Catalyst Control Center no longer fails to respond when modifying or assigning any hotkey in Hotkeys Manager. Further details can be found in topic number 737-34416
• Enabling and disabling GPU Scaling no longer results in some of the supported display resolutions no longer being available. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35047
• Hot-plugging an HDTV using the HDMI port no longer results in flickering being noticed around the text of the Catalyst Control Center when setting the display resolution to either 1776x1000 or 1920x1000. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35048
• Using the hot-key function to switch between various display scenarios no longer results in the HDMI display device displaying a blank screen. Further details can be found in topic number 737-31145
• Hot-plugging an HDTV to the HDMI port no longer results in the LCD failing to display an image when hot-unplugging the HDTV. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35052
• Playing a Blu-Ray DVD title using WinDVD 8.1 no longer results in corruption being noticed on the menu page. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35064
• Connecting an HDMI display device no longer results in the display device being detected as a DVI display device resolving the audio out issue. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35065
• The OverDrive option is no longer missing in the Catalyst Control Center after the installation of the graphics driver on systems containing an ATI Radeon HD 2900 series of product and running the Windows Vista operating system. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35066
• Enabling CrossFire on a system containing an ATI Radeon X1900 CrossFire Edition product no longer results in the Windows Vista (64 bit version) intermittently failing. Further details can be found in topic number 737-31163
• The Catalyst Control Center version number no longer fails to be updated after the installation of a newer Catalyst Control Center 737-28493
• Performing a custom install of the ATI graphics driver under the Windows Vista operating system no longer results in a message indicating that the current version is not installed. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35075
• Hot-plugging and hot-unplugging an HDMI display device no longer results in the Catalyst Control Center failing to detect the correct setting of the display device. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35076
• The Windows Vista operating system no longer fails to respond when running the Auto-tune utility found in the Catalyst Control Center OverDrive option 737-30584
• Connecting a TV as the secondary display device and enabling either clone mode or extended desktop mode no longer results in the TV failing to display an image when resuming from an S3 state. Further details can be found in topic number 737-33466
• Hot swapping a display device to the second DVI connector no longer results in the display device failing to be detected. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35078
• Attempting to hot plug an HDMI display device from one port to another no longer results in the display failing to display an image. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35079
• Corruption may be noticed when resuming a second time during the playback of a DVD title. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35080
• Seeking several times when playing an MPEG4 files using WinDVD no longer results in the video become 4 small videos windows within the playback screen. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35081
• Enabling Closed Captioning no longer results in a green line at left side and bottom of the text being noticed. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35082

This section provides information on resolved issues in this release of the ATI Catalyst Software Suite for Windows XP. These include:

• Call of Duty 4: Intermittent flickering is no longer noticed when playing the game with CrossFire enabled on a systems running Windows XP and containing an ATI Radeon HD 38x0 series of product. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35092
• Lost Planet: Switching from the game to the Windows XP desktop and then back to the game no longer results in corruption being noticed within the game. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35091
• The Catalyst Control Center menu option no longer fails to function when changing the skin from system skin to any other available skin. Further details can be found in topic number 737-30570
• Intermittent flashing is no longer noticed in the right portion of the display when playing a 720p or 1080i media file when using the Windows Media Player v10. Further details can be found in topic number 737-32666
• The ATI OpenGL driver no longer fails to be applied on systems containing an ATI Radeon 3600/3650 AGP series of product. Further details can be found in topic number 737-33467
• Moving the Realplayer to the secondary display device no longer results in the playback windows appearing black. Further details can be found in topic number 737-34116
• The Rotation option is now available for the primary display device when two or more display devices are connected to the system. Further details can be found in topic number 737-34113
• Moving the WinDVD player to the secondary display device no longer results in the playback window appearing blank. Further details can be found in topic number 737-34120
• Connecting an HDMI display device to a system containing an ATI Radeon HD 3100/3200 series of product no longer results in the display failing to be detected as a DTV(HDMI) in the Catalyst Control Center. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35083
• The scaling option no longer changes from Full Screen to Centered after setting Extended desktop mode using the Quick Launch Buttons or FN+F4. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35084
• Intermittent flashing is no longer noticed in the right portion of the display when playing a 720p or 1080i media file when using the Windows Media Player v10. Further details can be found in topic number 737-32666
• Audio no longer fails when dragging the InterWinDVD or the Windows Media Player window to the extended desktop display. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35085
• The Windows XP operating system no longer fails to respond after completing the installation of the display driver for a second ATI Radeon HD 38x0 series of product inserted into the system. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35086
• CrossFire can no longer be enabled/disabled when running full screen D3D applications. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35087
• A warning message no longer fails to be displayed when reaching the maximum number of modes in the Predefined and Custom HDTV modes section of the Catalyst Control Center. This issue may also be experienced under the Windows Vista and XP Professional x64 Edition operating systems. Further details can be found in topic number 737-33468
• Adjusting the flicker removal in the TV properties of the Catalyst Control Center no longer results in corruption being noticed. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35088
• The Rotation option is now available for the primary display device when two or more display devices are connected to the system. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35089
• Corruption is no longer noticed when playing the Asian game WOW when using certain in game options. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35090
• Installing two ATI Radeon HD 38x0 series of product into a system running Windows XP no longer results in the operating system failing to respond when attempting to enable CrossFire support. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35093
• Installing the Catalyst Control Center on a previously installed version no longer results in a warning message that the setup is installing over an earlier version, and that the previous version needs to be uninstalled before installing a more current version, resulting in the Catalyst Control Center failing to be installed 737-28513
• Anti-Aliasing no longer becomes disabled after minimizing and restoring any OpenGL window. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35094
• The CrossFire tab is no longer missing when using two ATI Radeon X19x0 series of products in a system running Windows XP. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35095
• The display mode of 1776x1000 is now listed in both the Catalyst Control Center and the operating system's display properties. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35096
• Connecting a 1080p display device followed by playing h.264 interlaced content no longer results in a slight jitter and frame drops being noticed. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35097
• Playing an interlaced MPEG2 file no longer results in a grey hue being noticed on the bottom of the playback window. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35098
• Moving the WinDVD player to the secondary display device no longer results in the playback window appearing blank. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35099
• Moving the Realplayer to the secondary display device no longer results in the playback windows appearing black. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35100

This section provides information on resolved issues in this release of the ATI Catalyst Software Suite for Windows XP Professional x64 Edition. These include:

• Unreal Tournament 3: Changing the in-game display resolution no longer results in corruption being noticed. Further details can be found in topic number 737-33470
• The Windows XP Professional x64 Edition operating system no longer fails to resume from VPU Recover. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35101
• The CrossFire option is no longer greyed out after closing OpenGL applications. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35102

This section provides information on known issues that may be experienced under the Windows Vista operating system with the latest version of Catalyst. These include:

• Call of Duty: Corruption may be noticed when having Quad CrossFire enable and an HDMI 1080p display device connected. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35112
• Call of Duty 4 or Crysis: Color corruption may be noticed when running the games in full screen mode with Quad CrossFire enabled. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35115
• Company of Heroes: Setting the in-game options to maximum levels may result in the game exiting to the desktop after the game has completed loading. Further details can be found in topic number 737-32600
• Crysis: Playing the game at a display resolution lower than the native display resolution of a connected 30" display device may result in corruption being noticed when CrossFire is enabled and having the Catalyst Control Center scaling the image to full screen. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35111
• Linage II: Switching between the game and the Windows desktop may result in the desktop appearing brighter than its original setting. Exiting the game and restarting the operating system may also result in the desktop brightness failing to be restored to its original setting. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35108
• Unreal Tournament 3: The game may intermittently fail to launch when a map has texture detail set to maximum. Further details can be found in topic number 737-31189
• ZT: Attempting to play the Asian game in a windowed mode or at a display resolution of 1280x1024 may result in the game failing to respond. Further details can be found in topic number 737-34152
• The secondary HDMI Display may turn off when resuming from an S1 hibernation with an HDMI display connected. Further details can be found in topic number 737-31146
• Setting the desktop resolution to 1600x1200 or greater may result in green pixel corruption being noticed when playing certain games. This issue maybe noticed when using a system running Windows Vista and containing an ATI Radeon HD 2600 or HD 2400 series of product. Further details can be found in topic number 737-31150
• Attempting to play the HD-DVD title Harsh Times, School for Scoundrels using the Cyberlink player may result in block corruption being noticed. Further details can be found in topic number 737-31155
• An error message may appear when installing the display driver package through setup.exe. Further details can be found in topic number 737-31577
• Installing an ATI Radeon X1600 series of product into a system containing an ATI Radeon HD 2600 series of product with the display driver already installed may result in the operating system entering a continuous reboot. This issue may be averted by removing the ATI graphics driver prior to the installation of the ATI Radeon X1600 series of product. This issue may also be experienced with the ATI Radeon X1300 and 1550 series of products. Further information may be found in topic number 737-33471
• Enabling clone mode followed by switching to extended desktop mode may result in the Windows Vista (64 bit version) failing to respond. Further details can be found in topic number 737-34125
• A black window may be displayed when attempting to play a DVD title using WinDVD 7 when Overlay Theater Mode and clone mode is enabled. Further details can be found in topic number 737-34133
• The secondary HDMI Display may turn off when resuming from an S1 hibernation with an HDMI display connected. Further details can be found in topic number 737-31146
• Connecting an HDMI display device to the DVI port using an HDMI to DVI dongle may result in the display mode of 720x480 failing to be in the display mode list after hot-unplugging the HDMI display device and hot-plugging a DVI display device. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35105
• Enabling clone mode followed by switching to extended desktop mode may result in the Windows Vista (64 bit version) failing to respond. Further details can be found in topic number 737-34125
• Performing an express install of the Catalyst Control Center may result in an error message being displayed when rebooting the system. Further details can be found in topic number 737-29532
• A black window may be displayed when attempting to play a DVD title using WinDVD 7 when Overlay Theater Mode and clone mode is enabled. Further details can be found in topic number 737-34133
• Enabling extended desktop mode and setting the color depth below 16bpp may result in the secondary display device failing to redraw properly. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35114
• A green or black screen may be displayed when configuring MCE to ATSC mode. Further information may be found in topic number 737-27622

The following section provides a summary of open issues that may be experienced under the Windows XP operating system in the latest version of Catalyst. These include:

• Age of Conan: The inventory icons may show corruption when playing the game with CrossFire enabled. This issue may also be experienced under the Windows Vista operating system as well. Further details can be found in topic number 737-34825
• Enemy Territory: Quake Wars may have corruption on the water and sky after increasing the game resolution. Restarting the game at that higher resolution or issuing reloadImages command in the game console corrects the corruption. This issue only impacts graphics cards up to the ATI Radeon X850. Further details can be found in topic number 737-29947
• Using the WinDVD player (versions 14.x, 11.10x, or 9.xx) to play VC1 video content may result in corruption being noticed when hardware acceleration is enabled. This issue may also be experienced under the Windows Vista operating system. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35293
• Connecting a CRT display device as the secondary display and playing a Blu-ray DVD using a Cyberlink player may result in no video playback if extended desktop mode is enabled. Further details can be found in topic number 737-30587
• Connecting a Dual Link Panel to the on-board DVI port, followed by hot plugging a DVI display to the add-on DVI card may result in clone mode becoming disabled when rebooting the machine and the secondary display device remaining blank. Further details can be found in topic number 737-31166
• Setting the display resolution to 1440x900 or lower may result in corruption being noticed when playing a DVD title. Further details can be found in topic number 737-31168
• Connecting a CRT display device as the secondary display and playing a Blu-ray DVD using a Cyberlink player may result in no video playback if extended desktop mode is enabled. Further details can be found in topic number 737-30587
• Connecting a CRT display device as the secondary display and playing a Blu-ray DVD using a Cyberlink player may result in no video playback if extended desktop mode is enabled. Further details can be found in topic number 737-34121
• The display may be come corrupted with 4 bit color depth after hot unplugging the rotated primary HDMI/DFP display. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35116
• Connecting a Dual Link Panel to the on-board DVI port, followed by hot plugging a DVI display to the add-on DVI card may result clone mode becoming disabled when rebooting the machine and the secondary display device remaining blank. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35117
• Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts: Enabling CrossFire may result in the displays flashing corruption when setting the in game graphics options to off or their lowest settings. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35118
• Installing the HDMI audio driver and the VIA audio chipset driver may results in a compatibility issue being noticed and a yellow exclamation mark showing up in the Sound, Video and Game Controllers. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35119
• Installing the display driver from an installation CD may result in a warning message indicating that the Catalyst Control Center is not supported by the driver version installed. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35120
• Catalyst Control Center: Configuring a system with multi-adapters may result in an error message being displayed when running the Test Custom Clocks 737-29953
• Enabling pull down detection in the Catalyst Control Center may result in flickering being noticed when playing a video clip using the Cyberlink PowerDVD player. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35121
• Connecting a CRT display device as the secondary display and playing a Blu-ray DVD using a Cyberlink player may result in no video playback if extended desktop mode is enabled. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35122

The following section provides a summary of open issues that may be experienced under the Windows XP Professional x64 Edition operating system in the latest version of Catalyst. These include:

• Gears of War: Enabling CrossFire and AA may result in white flickering corruption being noticed when playing the game under Windows XP Professional x64 Edition. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35123
• Running an OpenGL application and attempting to rotate the desktop may result in corruption being noticed. Further details can be found in topic number 737-29556

For further information and general help on software driver installation, game issues, and more, visit ATI Customer Care.