ATI releases fix for stuttering

[Brother Esau]

What OS are you guys running and is there advantage over CAT 8.3 for Vista???

[Xcel]

Nice to see Ati is at least trying to solve the micro stuttering issues Let's hope it actuallly works...

[JaD]

This driver has nothing to do with microstuttering on crossfire solutions, it's a fix for real stuttering you may have been noticing in various situations, even in single card mode. Microstuttering is a completely different issue (games don't actually stutter, the image's just not fluid, like you play at 40fps but feels like 20) and ATI's not even looking into it.



Anyway, the driver works for me in Vista64 but the CCC gives me an error:

"The Catalyst Control Center is not supported by the driver version of your enabled graphics adapter. Please update your ATI graphics driver, or enable your ATI adapter using the Displays Manager."

[roadie]

Works for me!!! Finally, a decent driver. I now get a constant 850Mhz core speed whilst gaming on XP x64 with a single 3870.

Makes playing Trackmania United much easier.

[Xcel]

This driver has nothing to do with microstuttering on crossfire solutions, it's a fix for real stuttering you may have been noticing in various situations, even in single card mode. Microstuttering is a completely different issue (games don't actually stutter, the image's just not fluid, like you play at 40fps but feels like 20) and ATI's not even looking into it.

Oh that sucks! I guess I'm gonna wait for next gen nvidia & ati single core solutions

[junkun13]

thanks for the update!

[Miwo]

I havn't really experienced this issue, but will try it out when I get home. Using a single vmodded 3870

[STaRGaZeR]

Works for me!!! Finally, a decent driver. I now get a constant 850Mhz core speed whilst gaming on XP x64 with a single 3870.

Makes playing Trackmania United much easier.

What's up with TMU? I play TMN daily and I haven't noticed anything strange.

[nikk]

this has royally pissed me off, uninstalled 8.3, installed the 'hotfix' and got this:



i said ok, back to 8.3's. after reinstalling cat8.3 i got the same problem, ccc won't work (it tries to open and stays there with 50% cpu usage)
using a single hd3850 on windows 2008 server trial x64

[Cooper]

The server 2008 trial is a RC3 version. No official support for it.

[Papu]

i cant wait to try this when i'm running Crossfire X \0/

[sobol]

Guys, first thing, try "driver cleaner .net" before installing new drivers and I'm quite sure it will solve problem.

[ryboto]

maybe this will finally make BF2 stable in Vista64? Ever since I installed an HD3870, BF will randomly crash, or cause a driver error with the video card. This is regardless of the cards clock speed, overclocked, or stock. The temperatures never get above 65C, but that isn't an issue anyway, as BF2 is the only game to have the issues...so, maybe it's just the game.

[003]

It sounds like this driver has brought some big performance boosts ... any comparisons or benchmarks yet?

[mascaras]

it looks like this Hotfix = Catalyst 8.4 ???

[justapost]

Compared it with on a system with an Sapphire 3850 under XP 32bit. No difference in Aquamark3 and 3Dmark06 between 8.3 and the new 8.4-hotfix release.

Same with Specview, here are two screenies

8.3 - 8.4

[003]

What about game tests? This has been the case before, Cat 7.11 did best in 3dmark06, but 8.2 did worse, and yet had better ingame performance.

[Gambit_2K]

Installed fine here, Vista x64.

[roadie]

What's up with TMU? I play TMN daily and I haven't noticed anything strange.

I had constant drops in core speed to the 2D setting whilst playing, which resulted in juddering etc. Made it really hard.

[STaRGaZeR]

The only problem I have with TMN is that when you are playing online in rounds mode, first when the camera goes behind the remaining players until they finish and second when the camera go up and shows an aerial view of the entire stadium the card is only at 50% usage, resulting in poor perfomance. The clocks are always in 3D mode though.

[Kunaak]

if you cant get the driver to install right....

theres a long work around.
it sucks, but I couldnt figure any other way to shorten this down.
after almost 2 hours, I finally got it installed.

seriously - Every single person related to making drivers at ATI, should be fired. redesign it, and start from scratch.
or, just let Nvidia start making thier drivers... haha.



anyways... the fix.


1. Uninstall the Driver.

2. Reboot, F8 Safe Mode.
use Driver cleaner pro, to get rid of all things ATI related.
Delete the ATI file out of your programs area too.

3. get into the device manager, select display adaptors, select uninstall, then select "delete driver related to this hardware" as well.
this will prevent vista from overriding the driver, and just installing a older driver.

4. reboot. get into windows.
on the driver itself, dont just double click it, right click on it, and select "run as administrator.
choose express install. for some reason, that works better then the custom install... I got tons of "driver failed to install" errors while trying to do a custom install.


if the driver comes up with a message saying "driver failed to install - the device driver is not signed or signed improperly".

go to ....


5. Reboot, hit F8 before vista loads, and select "disable driver signature", then get back into windows, and try again.



theres many things that go wrong here.
first, dont just overwrite your current driver, all this does is install the new control panel, and leaves the driver intact.
if you dont actually check to see this, you might just assume it worked, when it didnt.

second, vista keeps a basic file of older working drivers, so when you uninstall a driver, it still has the older basic version the fall back on.
you have to delete the older driver from the device manager, so vista cant force a older driver to be installed instead.

anoth thing.... driver signing can be a hassle if you dont read the installation report at the end of the driver install to actually verify if the driver installed right.

[Syn.]

Installed fine here, Vista x64.

Same here.

[fellix_bg]

Hm, I had never problems with the driver signing with ATi for quite a time.

Anyway, but there is definitely a glitch in the install/uninstall procedures with the Catalyst. Here is what I'm using as a guide for "secure" driver deployment:

How to Fix It (Spring Cleaning)

Just in case, here's what you'd need to do if you find the driver times out on install. Please be cautious with this procedure and do not remove any software devices, as they can be difficult to reinstall without reinstalling the OS.

1. Start up with only one card in the system
2. Uninstall ATI drivers through the control panel -> add/remove programs
3. Reboot into safe mode (press F8 at boot)
4. Open a command window with admin privileges
5. Run these commands from a command prompt:
   • set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1
   • start devmgmt.msc
6. Enable show hidden devices
7. Uninstall all display adapters listed (present or non-present/hidden - they appear slightly faded); make sure to check the box to remove driver files if possible
8. Uninstall any non-present/hidden "PCI standard PCI-to-PCI bridge" devices from system devices. It may also help to uninstall other non-present hardware, but be careful about software and non plug-and-play devices (don't remove them).
9. Reboot normally
10. Let windows finish finding new hardware
11. Power down and plug in all new hardware
12. Boot and let windows finish finding new hardware
13. Reboot and let windows finish finding new hardware (if it needs to)
14. Install Catalyst 8.3 or newer

That or either way, ATi driver team really needs to work on the installation issues, here.
Windows installation definitely requires far less user intervention, compared to this!

[Syn.]

Hm, I had never problems with the driver signing with ATi for quite a time.

Anyway, but there is definitely a glitch in the install/uninstall procedures with the Catalyst. Here is what I'm using as a guide for "secure" driver deployment:

How to Fix It (Spring Cleaning)

Just in case, here's what you'd need to do if you find the driver times out on install. Please be cautious with this procedure and do not remove any software devices, as they can be difficult to reinstall without reinstalling the OS.

1. Start up with only one card in the system
2. Uninstall ATI drivers through the control panel -> add/remove programs
3. Reboot into safe mode (press F8 at boot)
4. Open a command window with admin privileges
5. Run these commands from a command prompt:
   • set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1
   • start devmgmt.msc
6. Enable show hidden devices
7. Uninstall all display adapters listed (present or non-present/hidden - they appear slightly faded); make sure to check the box to remove driver files if possible
8. Uninstall any non-present/hidden "PCI standard PCI-to-PCI bridge" devices from system devices. It may also help to uninstall other non-present hardware, but be careful about software and non plug-and-play devices (don't remove them).
9. Reboot normally
10. Let windows finish finding new hardware
11. Power down and plug in all new hardware
12. Boot and let windows finish finding new hardware
13. Reboot and let windows finish finding new hardware (if it needs to)
14. Install Catalyst 8.3 or newer

That or either way, ATi driver team really needs to work on the installation issues, here.
Windows installation definitely requires far less user intervention, compared to this!

Really? All i did was press 3 buttons to install this hotfix. What OS you have?

[cadaveca]

Yeah, me too, no issues with 3870x2 Crossfire..disabled crossfire, uninstalled old drivers, installed new.

Stutter is much less than before, but it still there. ALOT better, but not perfect yet.

Small performance decrease, as well.

Vista SP1 32bit.