The Catalyst™ software suite 8.1 contains the following:
- Radeon™ display driver 8.451
- Multimedia Center™ 9.16 (Windows XP only
- HydraVision™ (Windows XP only)
- HydraVision™ Basic Edition (Windows XP only)
- Remote Wonder 3.04 (Windows XP only)
- WDM Driver Install Bundle
- Southbridge/IXP Driver
- Catalyst™ Control Center Version 8.1
Catalyst 8.1 introduces MultiView™ support:
- Provides for hardware accelerated OpenGL rendering across multiple graphics adapters
Catalyst 8.1 also introduces Folding@Home:
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.
This driver includes many fixes to issues regarding applications/games running under Windows XP and Windows Vista.
Windows XP (32-bit/64-bit), Media Center, Vista (32-bit/64-bit) Driver download
This download supports the following audio devices only:
- Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic
- Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer
- Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Platinum
- Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Fatal1ty®
- Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Elite Pro
- Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi
Fixes:
- Resolves the issue for systems with 4 GB of RAM.
- Resolves the Digital I/O detection issue when restarting your computer.
Known Issues:
- Before installing this driver, close the Creative MediaSource Go! application on your desktop and restart your computer. (After you have installed this driver, you may manually launch the MediaSource Go! application from the Start menu)
- When adjusting the master volume in any of the Mode Console, there is no sound output in the rear speakers. (Use the Microsoft Volume Control panel to adjust the master volume)
Source: Creative
NVIDIA has released the latest driver for the graphics chipsets.
The latest Forceware 162.18 is for Windows XP and Forceware 162.22 is for Windows Vista (32bit). (Vista 64 bit)
The latest driver improves the compatibility for Lost Planet and has numerous fixes and compatibility fixes for games and application.
I have tested out the driver with my rather old system and there isn’t a significant improvement in 3DMark05 in the GeForce 7600GS.
My rig spec is as follows:
AMD64 Althon 64 3000+ @ 1.9 Ghz, 2GB DDR RAM, GeForce 7600GS.
Below is the 3DMark05 result (run at 1024×768, no AA/AF)
The improvement is a mere 34 points. But that’s only for my rig, the new drivers released these days improve the latest series of graphics card more than the older series.
Test out the new driver and leave your result here.
