This particular software suite updates both the ATI Display Driver (version 8.252), and the Catalyst® Control Center (version 6.5). This unified driver has been further enhanced to provide the highest level of power, performance, and reliability. The ATI Catalyst® software suite is the ultimate in performance and stability.

Click here for a ATI Catalyst 6.5 Info & Discussion thread here on Guru3D.com.

The Catalyst® software suite 6.5 contains the following:

• Radeon® display driver 8.252
• Multimedia Center 9.14
• HydraVision
• HydraVision Basic Edition
• Remote Wonder 3.03
• WDM Driver Install Bundle
• Southbridge/IXP Driver
• Catalyst® Control Center Version 6.5

1. ATI recommends Windows XP Service Pack 2 or higher to be installed.
2. You must have Microsoft .NET Framework installed prior to downloading and installing the Catalyst Control Center
3. The Catalyst Uninstaller is an optional download. We recommend using this utility to uninstall any previously installed Catalyst drivers prior to installation.
4. Catalyst Control Center is available in a bundle supporting other languages .

The Catalyst® software suite is designed to support the following ATI desktop products:

• Radeon® X1900 series
• Radeon® X1800 series
• Radeon® X1600 series
• Radeon® X1300 series
• Radeon® X850 series
• Radeon® X800 series
• Radeon® X700 series
• Radeon® X600 series
• Radeon® X550 series
• Radeon® X300 series
• Radeon® 9X00 series
• Radeon® 8500 series
• Radeon® 7X00 series

• Up to 20% gain in Splinter Cell

The following section provides a summary of the issues that are resolved in the latest release of Catalyst®. These include:

• 3DMark05: Running the application with CrossFire enabled and then attempting to hot un-plug and then hot-plug the CRT no longer results in 3DMark05 failing to respond. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22347
• Aquamark 3: Exiting the Start Measurement benchmark test once it is complete no longer results in the display device displaying a black desktop image with only the mouse cursor being available. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22344
• Doom 3: Beginning a new game and selecting the shotgun in the give all console no longer results in corruption being noticed when Ultra Quality is disabled in the in game video quality settings. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22350
• Far Cry: Installing the v1.33 patch and selecting D3D along with setting the display to 1024x768 English no longer results in the operating system failing to respond when running the benchmark. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22314

• Catalyst® Control Center: Enabling clone mode no longer results in the refresh rate being locked at 60Hz when using an ATI Radeon® X700 series product. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-21454
• The MCE encoder no longer fails to install after the installation of the ATI display driver, WDM driver, and MMC software. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number. 737-22009
• The display device no longer fades to black when attempting to do an inf install of the display driver. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22313
• Connecting a CRT and disconnecting a TV followed by entering suspend mode and disconnecting the CRT no longer results in the LCD display failing to resume from suspend mode. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22379
• Disconnecting a TV and connecting a CRT while in hibernation mode no longer results in the CRT failing to display an image when resuming from hibernation mode. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22379
• Connecting a Sharp 32 inch LCD TV using the DVI connector no longer results in the a display mode of 659x496 being displayed when setting the display to 640x480. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number737-22316
• Catalyst® Control Center: Advanced Mode: Incorrect text and cropped text is no longer noticed when selecting Japanese as the language for the Catalyst® Control Center. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22319
• Clicking Start->All Programs->Catalyst® Control Center->Advanced->Catalyst® Control Center no longer results in the Catalyst® Control Center Basic View launching. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22318
• The HDTV formats list no longer becomes empty after changing the display mode from extended desktop mode to clone mode. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22319
• The Windows MCE operating system no longer fails to respond when doing a TV channel scan when using an ATI All-In-Wonder X1900 (PAL). Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22320
• A .net 2.0 error message is no longer displayed during the installation under the Windows 2000 SP4 Chinese version. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number737-22321
• Using the Catalyst® Control Center to change the skin to the ATI Catalyst® Crimson no longer results in the ATI Quicksilver skin being applied. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22322
• Running the automated clock configuration utility found in the Overdrive aspect page of the Catalyst® Control Center no longer results in the operating system failing to respond. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22323
• Enabling Picture-in-picture no longer results in the windowed TV image failing to respond when changing the TV channel. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22324
• Catalyst® Control Center: A VPU Recover warning window no longer fails to be displayed when an ASIC reset occurs. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22325
• Catalyst® Control Center: Connecting a secondary CRT display device no longer results in the LCD display device failing to display an image after completing the Catalyst® Control Center->Easy Setup Wizard. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22326
• Applying the Custom settings found in the CV aspect page of the Catalyst® Control Center no longer results in the custom setting being lost when the system is rebooted. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22327
• Running SFR in 720p on a system containing an ATI Radeon® X1800 series no longer results in line corruption being noticed when CrossFire is enabled. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22328
• Connecting a TV and a CRT to a system containing an ATI Xpress 200 series no longer results in the secondary LCD being display when shutting down and disconnecting the TV. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22329
• The operating system no longer fails to respond when connecting a DVO dongle to an ATI Radeon® 7000 series. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22330
• Adding a new custom HDTV mode no longer results in the custom mode not being available in the Catalyst® Control Center Display Manager. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22331
• The predefined HDTV modes are no longer missing from the CV aspect page in the Catalyst® Control Center. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22332
• Catalyst® Control Center: Enabling clone mode may result in the refresh rate being locked at 60Hz when using an ATI Radeon® X700 series product. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22333
• The display mode of 1024x768@60Hz is now included in Catalyst® Control Center for component video output. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22335
• The HDTV Support aspect is now available under the Monitor Properties when using Advanced View in the Catalyst® Control Center. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number737-22336
• Connecting an HDTV using the CV dongle and setting the power option to turn the monitor off after one minute no longer results in the HDTV failing to resume. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22337
• An HDMI detection message is now displayed when hot plugging an HDMI display device. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22338
• Catalyst® Control Center: Truncated and cut-off text is no longer noticed in various supported languages. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22339
• Black cubes and fog function no longer fail when testing GLView. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22340
• Two error messages are no longer displayed in the event viewer after the installation of the driver. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22341
• Using the hot-key function to change an LCD display panel setting no longer results in the LCD Panel Properties found in the Catalyst® Control Center failing to be updated with the current setting. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22342
• Catalyst® Control Center: Basic View: Enabling Use Advanced view 3D settings in the 3D Quality and Performance Setting no longer results in the Catalyst® Control Center reverting back to Use Basic 3D setting below. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22343
• Connecting a CRT to a system containing an ATI Xpress 200 series and toggling between a full screen DOS session and Windows, no longer results in vertical lines appearing on the secondary display device. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22345
• The operating system no longer restarts multiple verdana after unplugging the power cable to the slave card and using only the master card. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22346
• Using the composite connectors to connect a CRT and TVout to an ATI Radeon® X1600 or 1300 no longer results in the TVout failing to display the desktop image when attempting to resume from hibernation mode. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22348
• NaviSet V1.1.10: Connecting an NEC display device to an ATI Radeon® X1600 series may result in the Monitor Adjustment dialog box stating No DDC/CI monitors detected. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22349
• The Catalyst® Control Center TV Properties no longer lists H/PAL as an appropriate, third format for countries that do not support this format. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22351
• An un-necessary hyphen next to the Go to ATI.com option found in the German version of the Catalyst® Control Center is now removed. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22352
• Connecting two display devices using a DVI-CRT and DVI-CV dongles no longer results in extended desktop mode failing to be applied. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22353
• The submenu Formats fields found in the TV Properties are no longer blank when setting the TV standard to PAL within the Catalyst® Control Center. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-22354

Highlights of the CATALYST 6.5 release include:

New Features

Overlay Theater Mode Update

• Catalyst® 6.5 introduces a new option for Overlay Theater Mode. The new option, Standard Dual Mode is available for Radeon® X1000 Avivo equipped graphics cards. This new feature allows users to playback video using hardware acceleration when it is played on both displays (clone mode). Hardware acceleration decreases CPU utilization, allowing the PC to run smoother and faster. When using two displays in clone mode, video playback will be identically displayed on both display devices. For Radeon® X1000 series products (Avivo Video) overlay is per-display and true overlay will be used for both displays. For pre-Radeon® X1000 boards, there is only one hardware overlay, so video on the second clone display device is either software-rendered (i.e. "Same on all" selection) or the Windows desktop is displayed but the video will not show through the color key (i.e., "Standard mode" selection).

Adaptive Anti-Aliasing for ATI Radeon® 9500 and above

• Adaptive Anti-Aliasing uses super sample anti-aliasing on alpha-blended textures (such as a chain-link fence) that were previously impossible to anti-alias with normal multi-sample anti-aliasing.  Using Adaptive Anti-Aliasing in combination with ATIs multi-sample anti-aliasing delivers an incredible level of image quality.  Previously this feature was available on the ATI Radeon® X1000 family products only. Starting with Catalyst® 6.5, Adaptive AA support is now available on ATI Radeon® 9500 and above products.

Performance Improvements

As with most Catalyst® releases, performance has increased in various situations. The PCI Express bandwidth optimization code in Catalyst® 6.5 brings performance improvements for both the ATI Radeon® X1600 and Radeon® X1300 Crossfire configurations, including: Up to 23% gain in UT2004