Author Archive
ATI Catalyst 9.9 Driver – Everything you want to know and why you should care
Posted by Ian McNaughton in 1:34 PM
(40 votes, average: 3.78 out of 5)
Loading ...
Loading ...Game Optimizations: ATI CatalystTM9.9 Driver
With last month’s release of the ATI CatalystTM 9.8 driver, we saw huge game performance increases, given that, this month the driver team focused on other applications and optimizations.
ATI CatalystTM 9.9 Driver has no new features but does have the following resolved issues:
Anti-Aliasing support for Ghostbusters
ATI CrossFireXTM support for Resident Evil 5
Graphics corruption fix for Sims 3
ATI CatalystTM Control Center – Basic mode now responds appropriately after exiting Quick Adjust Video Settings
Edge enhancement and de-noise sliders in ATI Catalyst Control Center no longer lags or appears out of sync with mouse movement
Launching Hotkeys Manager in ATI Catalyst Control Center no longer causes an unhandled exception error
The “Desktop Rotation” page in ATI Catalyst Control Center no longer shows additional information for the second display when the secondary adapter is connected
HDMI is now detected properly as DTV (HDMI) instead of DTV (DVI) when the HDMI display is hotplugged for the first time
ATI Catalyst Control Center no longer displays error message when specific HDMI displays are hot unplugged and hotplugged back
Intermittent failures no longer occur with Cyberlink MediaShow Espresso once a transcoding process has been completed
And last but surely not least, my favorite community: ATI CatalystTM 9.9 driver for Linux!
Support for new Linux operating systems
This release of ATI Catalyst driver for Linux introduces support for the following new operating systems:
• openSUSE 11.1 production support
• SLED and SLES 10 SP3 early look support
To download the full release notes, click here.
See you next month!
Ian “Cabrtosr” McNaughton
Ian McNaughton is senior manager of advanced marketing at AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such linked sites and no endorsement is implied.
Its not just about Gaming: ATI GPU Encoding and Video Playback
Posted by Ian McNaughton in 10:57 PM
You know, the “other” stuff your PC can do…
Back when I started my career with ATI, I was working in marketing for a product called the ATI All-in-WonderTM HD Card (AIW) --basically a high performance graphics card for gaming coupled with a TV tuner to allow you watch, record, and edit HD content. It was a brilliant concept; we were years ahead of the curve. And, consumers-at least the video mavens-loved them. We had our own little cult following. Fast forward a few years and HD video is a mainstream application. Consumers now enjoy video content on their notebooks, desktops and use their PC’s to power their big screen HD experiences every day.
Today, the AIW concept of watch-record-edit has made its way into AMD-based mainstream notebooks via ATI TheaterTM HD, enabling consumers to edit and consume their content on virtually any device. For example: Mom takes a video of little Johnny playing soccer with any video recorder, such as a popular, unbelievably easy-to-use, FlipCam. Now, the game’s over and all Mom has to do is plug the camera in via USB to the family notebook and voilà! In minutes or even seconds, the content she captured at the game is converted to the desired format and ready to post to YouTube. Spectacularly simple. No engineering degree required.
Let’s break this down into two parts: GPU Video Encode & Video Playback
GPU Video Encode
The definition of a video transcoding is simple:
“Video transcoding is the process of converting data from one video format (e.g. MPEG2) to another format (e.g. H.264). Historically, the CPU has been the one sole compute engine to do all the converting needed by an end-user”.
With High-Definition (HD) video gone mainstream thanks to digital TV transition in different countries around the world and HD camcorders (such as AVCHD) becoming more affordable, there is now more demand for additional processing capability to edit and convert HD content. In order to edit and convert with relatively reasonable speed, end-users needed a PC with high-end CPU configuration…that is, until recently.
Consumers are now able to convert their video files leveraging their GPU hardware inside their PC. Simply put, with graphics cards and applications specially constructed to take advantage of the GPU, you are now able to tap into the massive amounts of parallel compute power, you may not even have been aware your PC had. Cool, huh?
If you are in the market for a notebook, make sure you have ATI RadeonTM HD 4000 Series Premium graphics. And, with notebooks powered by VISION Premium and Ultimate technologies from AMD, you will be able to take advantage of GPGPU Video Transcode with ATI Stream Accelerated Plug-in with either CyberLink MediaShow Espresso or Sony® Movie Studio 9 Platinum.
In a nutshell, when you need to convert video from its original format to fit on your media player or posting to YouTube, the fastest and most efficient way is to harness the performance capabilities of your GPU.
And, if you have ever encoded/converted video to play on an your multimedia device, you know it can take upwards of 3-4 hours (depending on resolution and format conversion and-not to mention--the configuration of your PC) with average CPU usage hitting close to 100% most of the time during the conversion.
However, utilizing ATI Stream Technology from AMD, on certain notebook designs powered by Vision technology from AMD, based on the 2009 AMD Mainstream Notebook Platform, we are seeing upwards of 75% faster conversion times and up to 2x times the performance with GPGPU transcoding enabled versus standard CPU enabled transcoding. This is because ATI Stream leverages all the processing resources of an notebook powered by Vision technology from AMD, both CPU and GPU for a fast transcoding, while keeping the PC responsive to ensure a good user experience. That’s the AMD balanced platform advantage at work!
Video Playback
Have you ever looked at your DVD movies on your HDTV videos and thought “Man, I wish these looked better?”
Fear not, AMD has a solution.
We have collaborated with ArcSoft to enable them to develop software that will up-convert your DVD videos into near HD quality videos. Believe it?
Here is an example of what’s possible:
ArcSoft launched SimHD in July 2009, this software will enable a consumer to take their ATI Radeon HD 4000 series GPU and put it to some real work, DVD upscaling. As the video above clearly showcases, the image on the left is near HD quality and is almost crystal clear and very vibrant. The image on the right is standard definition and is kinda blah and boring….
No magic to behold here, DVD upscaling is a function of the the GPU matching the pixel count from a standard video or DVD to match the pixel count of the HDTV. This is done in real-time and accelerated on the GPU using ATI Stream Technology.
The result is taking a 480i/p image and processing it to a new image size of 720p or even 1080i.
The GPU used to be all about FPS (frames per second). But today, the GPU is all about delivering the “visual experience,” either in more productivity time via fast transcoding, more lifelike gaming via DirectX 11 or enabling end-users to view their SD videos in almost-HD quality. The GPU has become one of if not the most important decision factor when purchasing a PC, either a notebook or desktop.
Make sure that when you are at a retail store, you ask about the GPU; make sure it will enable you to be more productive and have a true HD experience. It’s not all about gaming anymore. AMD is the only company to deliver a balanced platform for computing, a balance between CPU and GPU is the right solution for the today and tomorrow.
Our very own Pat Moorhead has done a great review of a new AMD Next-Generation laptop with the above features enabled here.
Ian “Cabrtosr” McNaughton
Ian McNaughton is senior manager of advanced marketing at AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such linked sites and no endorsement is implied.
DirectX 11 – What to expect!
Posted by Ian McNaughton in 5:01 PM
Realism like never before
Loading ...
Have you wondered what all the hype around Microsoft Windows 7 and DirectX 11 is all about? We will shed some light and answer some of those questions in this blog.
Let’s start with Windows7, everyone, including my own mother, is talking about this amazing operating system. Microsoft is rumoured to be launching the successor to Windows Vista in late October. What does it mean to you the PC user?
I cover my experience with Windows 7 in this blog; in a nutshell, the experience has been fantastic. It seems that Microsoft has worked out all the kinks and quirkiness of Windows Vista and are about to launch an incredible OS for the PC. Windows 7 (when compared to Windows Vista) is designed to offer the user a much more refined experience, smaller footprint, faster response times, long battery life and a much more visually intense and enjoyable PC experience.
Wrapped up in all the new Windows 7 OS splendour is a new API (Application programming Interface) called DirectX 11. Basically, the API allows developers to program software that uses a standard set of terms to communicate with the libraries and the OS. Think of it as game developers have some new toys to play with inside Windows to allow them to deliver better software.
DirectX has been around since 1995 with the launch of Windows95, a full history can be found here.
Let me break down the features and benefits of DirectX 11 -- the main features being:
-Tessellation -- Multithreaded Rendering - DirectCompute
Tessellation is a technology that has been around for a few GPU (graphics processing unit) generations. AMD has had Tessellation support since 2001, which was then called Truform; we also implemented Tessellation in the XBOX 360 GPU, then codenamed “Xenos”. Tessellation is a feature which increases the number of polygons in an image. Basically, Tessellation enables a more lifelike image, both of objects and landscape. Back in the day characters who were CG (computer generated) looked very blocky, almost cartoon like; with the use of Tessellation, developers are now able to significantly increase the number of triangles to draw an image, thus creating a more lifelike quality in games.
Multithreaded Rendering is a feature which allows DirectX to be processed via multiple CPU threads. This means that a dual-, triple- or quad-core CPU can have a higher utilization across all cores than DirectX APIs in the past. Historically the OS would load up a single core for commands to the GPU, in essence creating an overload on the first core and under utilizing the additional cores. With only one core issuing commands to a GPU, we have seen CPUs hold back the potential performance of the GPU. With Multithreaded Rendering, DirectX will take better advantage of all the available cores. This should result in a better experience for the multi-core user because of a faster processing pipeline and increased scaling.
DirectCompute is a feature which allows access to the shader cores/pipeline for Stream Computing (graphics acceleration) type applications and physics acceleration. One of the biggest technology breakthroughs of the past 5 years has been the notion that processing can be moved from the traditional CPU to the much more parallel GPU. Simply put, the CPU manages tasks sequentially; it accomplishes a task then moves on to the next task in a very orderly fashion and with tremendous speed. Today’s CPUs can work at speeds of up to 108.8 GigaFLOPS (Floatingpoint Operations Per Second).
A GPU is designed to work with many slower cores in parallel, giving a much wider vector -meaning a wider road for more cars to travel on -- than a CPU. This allows tasks to be completed faster if the program or software is developed to take advantage of many-many cores, albeit slower ones. Today’s GPUs can work at speeds up to 1.36 TeraFLOPS, giving the GPU a significant (almost 11 times faster) advantage when the proper software is run. This advantage truly delivers on the processing capabilities of Stream Computing. DirectCompute allows easier access to the GPU’s many cores for parallel processing; if the user is running applications that take advantage of Stream Computing then the performance experience increases considerably. We are seeing transcoding as the first type of task that is seeing tremendous benefit using Stream Computing. This means if you are an avid HD video or music user you will benefit when converting files to play on your laptop or iPod type devise; Stream Computing can significantly cut down the wait-time for enjoying your converted media.
Now, if you are a gamer you undoubtedly will be asking me “What games are going to support DirectX 11″? This is always a tightrope to walk for us as we are unable to pre-announce our technology partners titles and the specs around those titles; still, we want to give the consumer confidence that we’ve been assured there will be substantial titles in the market that take full advantage of your ATI Radeon DirectX 11-compliant graphics card. So, as this blog is published, here are the future DirectX 11 games we can talk about:
Dirt2 by Codemasters
BattleForge by EA
S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Call of Pripyat by GSC Game World
- Check out this early spoiler for Dirt 2 -
Some industry folks have stated that we will see more titles that support DirectX 11 then we did for DirectX 10. Some even say that DirectX 11 is the full implementation of what DX10 should and could have been, but that is subjective opinion and conjecture.
Game developers discuss the benefits of DirectX11
Windows7 and DirectX11 are right around the corner, as is the newest ATI Radeon family of graphics cards. As always, it’s our goal to blur the lines between reality and what is rendered. I believe we have made a major leap towards crossing that chasm with our ATI RadeonTM HD 5000 series products and their support for DirectX 11.
Tessellation - Minimized
With Tessellation - Maximized!
Between now and the launch of Windows 7 and DirectX 11, we will continue to uncover the technical details, as well as the visual implications, for the user experience.
At the time of this blog, AMD will be the first GPU vendor to market with a fully compliant and enabled DirectX 11 graphics product. So don’t be fooled by claims in the market about DX10 GPU’s supporting DirectX 11….
My good friend Tim Smalley from bit-tech.net has a great in-depth article on DirectX 11: A look at what’s coming – Check it out.
Cheers!
Ian “Cabrtosr” McNaughton
Ian McNaughton is senior manager of advanced marketing at AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such linked sites and no endorsement is implied.
ATI Catalyst™ 9.8 Driver – Everything you want to know and why you should care
Posted by Ian McNaughton in 1:24 PM
Loading ...Game Optimizations: ATI CatalystTM 9.8 Driver
Our test system configuration is:
| AMD Phenom II 940 (3.0GHz) processor |
| Asus M3A79-T(790) motherboard |
| 4GB DDR2-800 5-5-5-18 memory |
| Windows VISTA Ultimate SP1 64bit |
This month we are seeing a massive performance increase with a whole host of games as compared to the ATI Catalyst 9.7 driver. Detailed release notes are available for most of the game optimizations; here are the highlights:
- Battleforge DirectX 10/DirectX 10.1 performance improves of up to 50% with the largest gains in configurations using ATI CrossFireXTM technology.
- Company of Heroes DirectX 10 performance improves of up to 77%.
- Crysis DirectX 10 performance of ATI CrossFireX technology in dual mode improves of up to 10% and quad mode performance improves of up to 34%.
- Crysis Warhead DirectX 10 performance of ATI CrossFireX technology in dual mode improves of up to 7% and quad mode performance improves of up to 69%.
- Far Cry 2 DirectX 10 performance of ATI CrossFireX technology in dual mode improves of up to 50% and quad mode performance improves of up to 88%.
- Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X. DirectX 10/DirectX 10.1 performance of ATI CrossFireX technology in dual mode improves of up to 40% and with quad mode performance improving of up to 60%.
- UnigineTropics OpenGL performance improvements of up to 20%.
- UnigineTropics DirectX 10 performance of ATI CrossFireX technology in quad mode improvements of up to 20%.
- World in Conflict DirectX 10 performance improvements of up to by 10%.
Marketing sound bite: ATI Catalyst 9.8 – Open GLTM 3.1 Support
It’s fitting that last weekend AMD was in attendance at Quakecon 2009 in Dallas,Texas where the world’s most prolific OpenGLsupporters gathered for 4 days of ‘peace, love and rockets,’ that we are announcing support for OpenGL 3.1 and the following details:
This release of the ATI Catalyst driver provides OpenGL 3.1 extension support. The following is a list of OpenGL 3.1 features and extensions added in ATI Catalyst 9.8:
- Support for OpenGL Shading Language 1.30 and 1.40.
- Instanced rendering with a per-instance counter accessible to vertex shaders (GL ARB draw instanced).
- Data copying between buffer objects (GL EXT copy buffer).
- Primitive restart (NV primitive restart). Because client enable/disable no longer exists in OpenGL 3.1, the PRIMITIVE RESTART state has become server state, unlike the Nvidia extension where it is client state. As a result, the numeric values assigned to PRIMITIVE RESTART and PRIMITIVE RESTART INDEX differ from the NV versions of those tokens.
- At least 16 texture image units must be accessible to vertex shaders, in addition to the 16 already guaranteed to be accessible to fragment shaders.
- Texture buffer objects (GL ARB texture buffer object).
- Rectangular textures (GL ARB texture rectangle).
- Uniform buffer objects (GL ARB uniform buffer object).
- SNORM texture component formats.
And last but surely not least, my favorite community: ATI CatalystTM 9.8 driver for Linux!
Support for new Linux operating systems
This release of ATI Catalyst driver for Linux introduces support for the following new operating systems:
- RHEL 4.8 production support
- Ubuntu 9.04 production support
ATI CatalystTM Control Center – Linux Edition support for RandR 1.2
This release of the ATI Catalyst driver for Linux introduces ATI Catalyst Control Center – Linux Edition support for the RandR 1.2 extension API. The following new features are now available in the ATI Catalyst Control Center – Linux Edition Display Manager:
- Display rotation
- Multiple display arrangement and desktop sizing
To download the full release notes here.
Please report all technical support issues here.
See you next month!
Cheers!
Ian “Cabrtosr” McNaughton
Ian McNaughton is senior manager of advanced marketing at AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such linked sites and no endorsement is implied.
What’s a good title for a Quakecon blog?
Posted by Ian McNaughton in 1:39 PM
It has to be about the “Future”…
“Last night, Darth Vader came down from planet Vulcan and told me that if I didn’t take Lorraine out that he’d melt my brain”. – George McFly
PMS Clan and a future gaming superstar on our Quakecon booth
Well, its day 2 at Quakecon 2009 and my brain hasn’t melted, but I have seen a Darth Vader or two… In thinking about the ‘right’ title for my blog, “The Future” was an obvious choice seeing as how we have packed up #Area64 and transported it all the way to Dallas.
What is #Area64 you ask, well, it’s the secret place in Austin where AMD has all of its unreleased products, engineering secrets and where we keep the flux capacitor. As one can imagine, we need to keep such a place heavily guarded and hard to find, so, what do a bunch of AMD gamers do, we packed it up and rebuilt it in the Gaylord Hotel for Quakecon. I am currently writing this blog from the heart of our mobile #area64, the sounds of next generation technology humming away behind me!
Pete and Chris from AMD showcasing our Quakecon shirts...
Wait a minute, Doc. Ah… Are you telling me that you built a time machine… out of a DeLorean? – Marty McFly
No, we didn’t bring our time machine but I am not going to comment on if AMD has built a time machine, that’s a completely different blog. But, we did bring what we expect will revolutionize the way you play games on PC’s in the future.
How does one gain access into #area64 and who gets access, great questions, here is what you have to do:
AMD will be limiting access to #Area64 to 100 almost random gamers, meaning anyone and everyone has a fair shot at “Seeing the Future”, just follow these AMD’ers on Twitter;
@IanMcNaughton – @Tweetoe – @Catalystmaker - @AMD_Unprocessed & @Caseygotcher
We will be tweeting hints and actions during Quakecon, it could be as simple as “The first 5 gamers who meet us at XX, gain access” or “Make a short video about Why you need or should have access to #Area64 and post to Youtube, gain access”.
Or, you could simply track us down and ask for an “on the spot action for access”.
Here are the shirts we are giving away, they are unique and numbered from 1-100, if you see anyone wearing them in the halls or BYOC, you know they have “SEEN THE FUTURE”!
The Future is Awesome!
As a special treat to all the readers of my blog, via this blog, you will be the first to download the latest ATI Catalyst 9.8 driver here:
XP
Vista and Win7
[Update: Official ATI Catalyst 9.8 Drivers are available here]
Enjoy!
Cheers!
Ian “Cabrtosr” McNaughton
Ian McNaughton is senior manager of advanced marketing at AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such linked sites and no endorsement is implied.
Wolfenstein and Quakecon 2009
Posted by Ian McNaughton in 2:00 PM
The game that started the FPS phenomenon!
Back in the early nineties, there was a game that truly defined all video games that followed, do you remember? Well, for those readers who were not born yet, the game was called Wolfenstein 3D and its introduction was a defining moment. Some believe that Wolfenstein 3D defined the FPS as we know it. I would have to completely agree!
If you were a Doom player then you can thank Wolf 3D for blazing the trail for what was, is, and continues to be an amazing gaming franchise. Fast forward to August 2009 and transport yourself to Dallas, Texas and you can relive those original Wolf 3D experiences with AMD at Quakecon 2009.
id Software has teamed up with Raven Studios to develop a new game called “Wolfenstein”. In the new game you play the original character William B.J Blazkowicz who just happens to be a super metalled out member of the Office of Secret Actions (OSA). Come on, how cool would that business card be?
Ian McNaughton
AMD
Office of Secret Actions
Will need to print some of those up for Quakecon!
The new Wolfenstein looks fantastic, I was able to score an early copy to hone my skillz in preparation for this weekend’s festivities and the game is awesome so far…
AMD will be showcasing Wolfenstein on our booth as well as in #area64.
We will also be providing live updates via Twitter and vlogs via blogs.amd.com.
#Area64 will be exclusive access only, meaning, you can try to find it, but its hidden and being kept secret. AMD will be showcasing what we lovingly refer to as “The Future”, if you want to see the future, follow me as well as @AMD_Unprocessed , @Catalystmaker, @caseygotcher and @Tweetoe for ways to get invited.
Strap in and hold on, Quakecon 2009 is about to begin!
Cheers!
Ian “Cabrtosr” McNaughton
Ian McNaughton is senior manager of advanced marketing at AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such linked sites and no endorsement is implied.
A Groundbreaking Future
Posted by Ian McNaughton in 4:47 PM
It’s rare that one gets to experience a watershed moment that you know will make history in the future. Last week, I was able to witness the start of something very big for AMD and our partner, Globalfoundries -- the groundbreaking ceremony for “Fab 2″ -- where the next generation of hi-tech computing will be born.
Here’s a few thoughts I committed to video before the ceremony kicked off:
Check out the rest of the groundbreaking ceremony and the video interviews with AMD CEO Dirk Meyer and Globalfoundries Chairman Hector Ruiz.
Great things are on the horizon!
Cheers!
Ian “Cabrtosr” McNaughton
Ian McNaughton is senior manager of advanced marketing at AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such linked sites and no endorsement is implied.
ATI Catalyst 9.7 Driver – Everything you want to know
Posted by Ian McNaughton in 5:23 PM
Do you regularly update your graphics drivers?
With four months of ATI CatalystTM driver blogs under our belt, we are seeing a steady engagement from the community via this blog site. Please keep up the comments and suggestions and we will endeavor to answer as many as we can. So, without further ado – let me introduce the ATI Catalyst 9.7 Driver Release!
Please report all driver related issues here.
*If you are having technical issues with your graphics card or are in need of driver support, please use the proper channels to submit those issues here.*
Marketing sound bite: ATI Catalyst 9.7 – AMD’s first official unified Windows 7 / Windows Vista Microsoft WHQL certified graphics driver for the Windows 7 RTM
ATI Catalyst 9.7 driver is AMD’s first official unified WHQL (Windows Hardware Quality Labs) certified graphics driver designed for Windows 7 RTM (Release to Manufacturing) as well as Windows Vista. Being able to have a single unified driver can enable power users to continue to support their existing OS while also experiencing the great new features of Windows 7 while running dual OS’s.
In a previous blog I highlight my own personal experience but for the purposes of this blog here are the Windows 7 highlights:
- Superior gaming performance when compared to previous Microsoft OS’s using either a single GPU configuration or ATI CrossfireXTM technology configurations
- Superior stability via AMD’s WHQL certified and unified Windows 7/Windows Vista graphics driver
- Leadership in Innovation with support for all the Windows 7 WDDM 1.1 features and ATI CatalystTM features with current ATI RadeonTM HD 4000, HD 3000 and HD 2000 series of products.
Marketing sound bite: ATI CatalystTM 9.7 – ATI CatalystTM Control Center – Enhanced user interface
When our customers provide feedback, we listen! Case in point, we have received feedback that the Catalyst GUI needed a refresh, some parts of the GUI were not efficient and required a makeover, AMD listened and delivered.
In this new beta version of CatalystTM Control Center we have a newly redesigned user interface to enhance usability and end user efficiency, which includes a newly designed Desktops and Displays Manager which will enable users to quickly configure and arrange their displays. Most of us power users have multiple monitors and as such, this will help with the frustrations of multi monitor management, especially with scenarios where a laptop is removed from a docking station prior to sleeping and returned prior to sleeping. ATI CatalystTM 9.7 has full support for Hydravision under Windows 7.
We have designed in a new streamlined look where the settings and controls are now found in the new “Graphics” and “Options” drop down menus allowing users to very quickly select different tabs and adjust the desired settings.
All of the above enhancements to ATI CatalystTM Control Center are supported under Windows 7 and Windows Vista. This beta version is the first in an exciting transition for CCC and we await feedback!
Marketing sound bite: ATI CatalystTM 9.7 – ATI Video Converter update – support for Windows 7
With the introduction of CatalystTM 9.7, we are introducing support for the ATI Video converter under Windows 7 32-bit and Windows 7 64-bit versions.
With the massive explosion of mainstream consumption of HD video, owners of ATI RadeonTM HD 4800 and ATI RadeonTM HD 4600 series of graphics cards can now take advantage of the video conversion tool found in the ATI CatalystTM Control Center under Basic View. Using this video conversion tool, users can benefit from substantial performance improvements when transcoding video files.
Game Optimizations: ATI CatalystTM 9.7
Our test system configuration is:
| AMD Phenom II 940 (3.0GHz) |
| Asus M3A79-T(790) |
| 4GB DDR2-800 5-5-5-18 |
| Windows VISTA Ultimate SP1 64bit |
This month we are seeing a further performance increase with Crysis and Lost Planet Colonies as compared to ATI Catalyst 9.6. Following are some of this month’s highlights. Detailed release notes are available for most of the game optimizations; I have simply picked a few to highlight in this blog.
- Crysis – performance gains at ‘very high’ quality presets increase by up to 8% on ATI Radeon HD 4800 series products.
- Lost Planet Colonies – performance increase of up to 7-11% when 8x Anti-Aliasing is used on the ATI Radeon HD 4800 series products
And last but surely not least, my favorite community: Linux® ATI CatalystTM 9.7
This month’s release has support for the following new operating systems:
- RedFlag DT 7.0 production support
To download the full release notes, click here.
See you next month!
Cheers!
Ian “Cabrtosr” McNaughton
Ian McNaughton is senior manager of advanced marketing at AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such linked sites and no endorsement is implied.
Windows 7 – The birth of a great OS
Posted by Ian McNaughton in 11:14 AM
Loading ...
Did you skip Windows Vista waiting for Windows 7 with bated breath?
Let’s call out the “white elephant” in the room: Gamers have resisted Windows Vista in favour of Windows XP. I have to admit, I was one of those gamers, just didn’t see the benefit vs. cost to upgrade my OS, especially given my usage model which was mainly gaming at the time.
Fast forward a year or two and it’s a totally different story, I still game, but I also am doing a lot more video consumption and creation (albeit creating n00b videos of my kids). It also helps that I have had early access to Windows 7 prior to the RC being publically available. This has completely changed my view and opinion on when (not if) a user should embrace and get excited about the upcoming release of Microsoft’s newest OS, Windows 7.
So, I expect the flames in the comments, and I am happy to have the debate. Maybe I am a lone voice in the world, perhaps I am drinking the kool-aid. I had a discussion the other day with a friend of mine, a hardcore gamer and content consuming machine, a true AMD enthusiast. This guy lives, eats and breathes AMD, and during this discussion he basically called me out as being a n00b for running Windows 7 on my main home PC and work laptop, he actually laughed. This made me start to question the experience I thought I was having, which by the way has been awesome, flawless and very favourable in terms of recommending to others to adopt. I questioned myself until I came across a Facebook post from another friend who is a true enthusiast – former AMD’er, now with the world’s largest PC OEM – a working dad, video editing guy and casual gamer, he summed up his experience with Windows 7 nicely, I thought I would share it with you:
So the debate will rage on, sides will be taken, lines will be drawn, artillery will be engaged and the battle will ensue. It’s funny how something as simple as an OS evokes such emotion in the PC enthusiast. MAC users will gush over the superiority of the “chosen ones” MAC OS X Snow Leopard, PC users will throw daggers at Redmond in hopes they will listen, the penguin community will continue to garner more and more OEM wins and mainstream adoption, but at the end of the day we have one major OS option and this time around, it’s a really good option!
Would like to hear from the community, how has your Windows 7 experience been so far? Please post in comments.
Cheers!
Ian “Cabrtosr” McNaughton
Ian McNaughton is senior manager of advanced marketing at AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such linked sites and no endorsement is implied.
AREA 64 Presents: The TWKR…
Posted by Ian McNaughton in 11:29 AM
When fast just isn’t fast enough!
What do you get when you cross extreme engineering with extreme overclockability?
You get an AMD TWKR CPU.
**WARNING: Extreme overclocking is an activity that should be carried out only by experts, using expert tools in a safe and secure environment. Use of extreme cooling methods and materials, including but not limited to liquid nitrogen, can be extremely hazardous. Extreme overclocking is not for everyone – AMD urges caution and disclaims all liability for any damages, of any type or character (including without limitation, system damage, loss of data or personal injury) caused as a result of or while engaged in engaging in extreme overclocking activities.
AMD’s product warranty does not cover damages caused by overclocking, even when enabled via AMD software.
As they say, DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME!
Matt Davis aka @dattymavis
@dattymavis and I ventured over to AMD’s “AREA 64″ with a newly minted AMD TWKR CPU to give it a testdrive under some extreme Ln2, and what ensued was pure overclocking awesomeness!
First, let me introduce to you the AMD TWKR:
AMD created a small number of limited edition AMD PhenomTM II TWKR Black Edition processors expressly for the purpose of commemorating the record performance feats with the AMD platform technology codenamed “Dragon” and AMD PhenomTM II processors. These processors are designed to reach the utmost performance barriers of the AMD Phenom II processor and operate beyond the specifications of typical production level processors.
Called the AMD PhenomTM II X4 42 Black Edition TWKR processor, it is not currently for sale, and not covered by AMD’s product warranty. This processor is provided “as is” and AMD disclaims any and all liable for any damages, of any type or character (including without limitation, system damage, loss of data or personal injury), caused as a result of or in connection with the use of this processor.
These processors demonstrate the sound engineering and superior process technology that is in each AMD Phenom II processor.
With our TWKR in hand and a solid warning from our buildings management staff, we headed across Austin to AMD’s Secret Lab – AREA 64.
The lab is fully stocked with all the hardware an overclocker could ever imagine or dream of, shopping made easy! Did I mention the 9,000 gallon Liquid Nitrogen tank outside with direct piping into the AREA 64 lab, yup, doesn’t get much better than that!
The motherboard of choice was a Gigabyte 790X.
4G of Corsair memory,
An ATI RadeonTM HD 4870 X2 GPU.
And a TWKR CPU.
Hmmm, why is it not posting???
After 20 minutes of no posting at all, we finally realized that the DIMMS had been previously whacked and were no good… Step 1: Always make sure you have working hardware!
Once we had working hardware, we fired it up and started the “slow pour” of Ln2.
The steps we followed are detailed in this blog.
Ln2 engaged! First thermos of Ln2 got us to -120C, time for thermos #2. The second pour brought us down to -139C! Time for more!
The third thermos of Ln2 brought our TWKR part down to -186.6C – Ah, overclocking bliss!
At this point in time, I let @dattymavis take over as he is the obvious safer one between the two of us…
@dattymavis jokingly dons full protective gear and looks like something out of an alien movie…
Now time to see what this badboy can do! We pushed the proc to a single core overclock of 6.42Ghz at a voltage of 1.725volts. This was accomplished just having Windows at idle. We will leave it up to the professional overclockers to push the proc’s with a heavy workload.
As for a 4-core OC, we achieved 6.2Ghz at 1.8 volts. Again, this was at a temp of -182F with a light workload.
All in all, we achieved significant frequency for a couple of hacks with unlimited Ln2.
The TWKR is not currently for sale, but is designed to make a statement to the OC community: Thank you to each and every enthusiast who continues to support AMD and fights the good fight!
Ah, the sweat smell of Ln2...
If I’m lucky, I may be able to give away some of the TWKR processors via Twitter in the coming weeks. I’m not making any promises, but follow me if you are on Twitter and you just might be lucky enough to become a proud owner of a TWKR yourself someday.
Also follow @AMDDesktop…they have some goodies for the community too!
Cheers!
Ian “Cabrtosr” McNaughton
Ian McNaughton is senior manager of advanced marketing at AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such linked sites and no endorsement is implied.