Catalyst 5.9 Released

steefo · Sep 22, 2005, 09:48 PM

for the people having problems with bf2 crashing at startup, it has something to do with bf 2 not handling refreshes above 60hz i think.

"
Launching/Loading Issues: The most common problem with BF2 is that the game crashes to desktop or goes to a black screen when you first launch it. The reason for this is either incompatible hardware (make sure you meet all the minimum specs), or more usually the fact that you're not running at the default Windows XP refresh rate (60Hz). By default the game tries to launch at 800x600@60Hz initially, so your system must be able to run that same resolution and refresh rate, otherwise the game will abort. If you are using any refresh rate override program/method, disable it (e.g. if you're using [color=#0000ff]Refresh Force[/color], click the 'Restore Original Settings' button and apply). Alternatively, see the Advanced Tweaking section of the guide for details on how to set a different startup resolution, in case your graphics card/monitor simply cannot do 800x600@60Hz resolution. Once you've got the game running, you can then change the resolution to suit your taste in the in-game settings, and importantly you can select a higher refresh rate. Then you can reapply any refresh rate override and the game will launch without any problems. To set a non-standard resolution such as 1280x1024 see the Advanced Tweaking section."

i used refresh force to force higher refreshes in 640 and 800 for counterstrike, but this was causing problems in bf2, so i have to run refresh force at defaults now, and add specific refresh in the cs command line. this may help people with probs

Dyre Straits · Sep 22, 2005, 09:57 PM

I realize that benchmarks aren't all that important...as opposed to how games play. But, in everything from 3DMark2k3, 2k5, and PCMark05, I have experienced a very astounding DROP in my scores with this set of drivers.

I'm mostly curious as to why.

UnIcOrN · Sep 22, 2005, 10:38 PM

Well after installing the 5.9 set yesterday and doing a quick test everything seemed to work right. Only problem i have is with BF2.. The game runs fine for just one tiny little thing:
See screen below

Anyone know how to get my ground back?
I allready tried using A.I setting on normal, high and off but to no avail. For the rest AA is application controlled otherwise it doesn't work ingame and AF is at 8x and at 16x tested but nothing also.

Also when i enable Geometry Instancing in the CCC whenever i load a map it goes to desktop instead of loading, disabling this option and it runs fine

The_Neon_Cowboy · Sep 22, 2005, 10:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dyre Straits

I realize that benchmarks aren't all that important
...as opposed to how games play. But, in everything from 3DMark2k3, 2k5,
and PCMark05, I have experienced a very astounding DROP in my scores
with this set of drivers.

I'm mostly curious as to why.

How about some futher details?? Share some scores
and system specs might bench some games too.

Check out the the compair thats out
http://www.tweaktown.com/document.ph...rticle&dId=811

Quote:

Originally Posted by UnIcOrN

Well after installing the 5.9 set yesterday and doing a
quick test everything seemed to work right. Only problem i have is with BF2..
The game runs fine for just one tiny little thing: See screen below

Anyone know how to get my ground back?
I allready tried using A.I setting on normal, high and off but to no avail.
For the rest AA is application controlled otherwise it doesn't work ingame
and AF is at 8x and at 16x tested but nothing also.

Also when i enable Geometry Instancing in the CCC whenever i load a map
it goes to desktop instead of loading, disabling this option and it runs fine

Not sure clear your games cache and let it recreate the optuimzed image files.
I really hope the BF2 people come out with that patch soon it hard to tell whats
the game being flakey or whats a driver issue. I don't use Geometry Instancing
does the game even support it? (I think it requires game to support it to work anyways)

UnIcOrN · Sep 22, 2005, 11:04 PM

Will try that Neon, thanks. Only could be a dumb question where is the cache folder located or should i clean all files away in my Profiles folder?

I think i saw something with the 5.8 release notes about Geometry Instancing.
Will report back when i cleaned the cache

theonlybabyface · Sep 23, 2005, 02:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by The_Neon_Cowboy

Though after going from 5.6 and installing 5.8 directly
over it I now only have 2 and uping back to to .Net 2.0
beta 2 beta didn't change that. So I guess you were right.

I installed 5.9 again down graded to 5.8 again and have 3 CLI's
again. .but I've wasted enough time on this matter and really don't care.

It really doesnt matter if there was 15 cli processes running. There
virtually no differences in system performance or anything it's mostly
all virtual memory being used anyways. No biggie!

There you go Neon_Cowboy. As promised...here's your screenshots.

Ferret_Style · Sep 23, 2005, 03:13 AM

Disable the hotkeys and the tray and you will drop to 1 Atleast that is how i have it set

The_Neon_Cowboy · Sep 23, 2005, 03:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by UnIcOrN

Will try that Neon, thanks. Only could be a dumb question where is the cache folder located or should i clean all files away in my Profiles folder?

I think i saw something with the 5.8 release notes about Geometry Instancing.
Will report back when i cleaned the cache

Documents and Settings\[username]\My Documents\Battlefield 2\mods\bf2\cache\

Is not neccairly a fix for any given problem but some people that had issues
found it benifical to clear it. If not just for clutter purposes as the game makes
a new set every time you change the video settings.

Other things you might try include reinstalling the game, and repatching.

You might try switching back to the 5.8's and see if its still is borked.
As always report your issues via the driver feed back at the ATI site
also doesnt hurt to report to to EA games either.

Dyre Straits · Sep 23, 2005, 03:37 AM

Neon,

I was disappointed enough in the scores that I didn't even publish them on the Online Project Manager.

PCMark 05 took an 800 point hit from the CAT 5.8, Omega 5.8 to the CAT 5.9s.

The others were average around a 1000 point drop from previous driver scores. Nothing else has changed except the drivers.

The_Neon_Cowboy · Sep 23, 2005, 06:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dyre Straits

Neon,

I was disappointed enough in the scores that I didn't even publish them on the Online Project Manager.

PCMark 05 took an 800 point hit from the CAT 5.8, Omega 5.8 to the CAT 5.9s.

The others were average around a 1000 point drop from previous driver scores. Nothing else has changed except the drivers.

You sure that you handn't chaged the performance slider?
Becuse when you upgrade it does back to "default". Check
some games!!!

Reading your message again, Are you compairing your omega
5.8 scores Or the offical 5.8's? Vs. the officals

Dyre Straits · Sep 23, 2005, 06:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by The_Neon_Cowboy

You sure that you handn't chaged the performance slider?
Becuse when you upgrade it does back to "default". Check
some games!!!

Reading your message again, Are you compairing your omega
5.8 scores Or the offical 5.8's? Vs. the officals

Neon,

My scores between the offiical and Omega 5.8 were so close it was unbelievable. So, yes, I'm comparing both versions of the 5.8s with this latest release.

As for a performance slider, I never have changed that.

The only thing I did do different a couple of weeks ago was to experiment briefly with some overclocking. But, I'm not even considering those overclocked scores in this.

I'm just really surprised that there was such a noticeable drop in the scores. And it's all of the benchmarks I listed.

EDIT: Here's my latest example: I've been getting over 10,000 3D Marks in 3D2K3. My latest score, with these drivers, is 4856. That's a whopping drop in performance.

EDIT 2: Well, knowing that something had to be drastically wrong, I uninstalled the drivers, the ATT tool tray app, and everything related to Omega. Then i rebooted and let Windows detect my video card. THEN, once again, I installed the CAT 5.9s and, this time, included the CCC.

A quick run of 3DM2k3 resulted in seeing a score of 10,600+. Only slightly off my highest score so far. So, I think there was something that got fubared in the initial driver installation of the 5.9s.

BWX · Sep 23, 2005, 07:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dailyus

Disable the hotkeys and the tray and you will drop to 1 Atleast that is how i have it set

Strange I have mine set like that and I have 2.. Oh well.. No big deal.. more of a curiosity to me.

ronnn · Sep 23, 2005, 07:45 AM

I didn't even realize that java plug in blank screen was a vid driver problem. Had huge problems with goban and now I know why. Glad it is fixed.

BWX · Sep 23, 2005, 07:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ronnn

I didn't even realize that java plug in blank screen was a vid driver problem. Had huge problems with goban and now I know why. Glad it is fixed.

Yeah I was going NUTS with that problem a few weeks ago!! I almost re-installed windows because of it. I thought it was a Crap Cleaner mishap.

ronnn · Sep 23, 2005, 08:08 AM

Yes the Java plugins work!!!! I am such an idiot, I reinstalled java several times and generally went crazy. Ended up with an old version that works on an older version of Java. I also was getting ready to reinstall windows, I am really an idiot at times. Oh well live and learn.

Mayro · Sep 23, 2005, 02:49 PM

You might want to check the settings of yer CCC. When I reformated last night and installed DOTNET 1 so that I could use the 5.9 CCC, for some reason it came with the default AA set to 2x (not app controled) and mipmap was on performance and not quality.

Zardon · Sep 23, 2005, 07:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stephen M. Smit

What's with all this new "leech" crap at ATI site? You can't link into it anymore so links in 1st post above do not work. In fact, when I navigate directly to the driver page and click on the release notes, I can't see it -- claims I'm still leeching?

In fact, every single link to somewhere on the ATI found on every page here and in every other forum stopped working when they changed their web site a few months. This is really annoying because these links found in posts here are almost always the *only* way to get to various technical notes. The search function on ATI's site has never worked. Please fix it, ATI!

Are you using Norton Internet Security (the links work btw in the first post).

Dyre Straits · Sep 23, 2005, 09:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zardon

Are you using Norton Internet Security (the links work btw in the first post).

I was getting that 'leech' stuff, too, for awhile. It finally seemed to fix itself. Maybe ATI was updating the page or something. I read on other forums that people couldn't get to the Release Notes, either for awhile.

One person said that restarting his computer fixed it for him. I think it was just a coincidence and the pages affected were updated and made available again.

Stephen M. Smit · Sep 23, 2005, 09:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zardon

Are you using Norton Internet Security (the links work btw in the first post).

Nope. But it's working now, so I guess they fixed it at the ATI site.

ChoGGi · Sep 23, 2005, 11:46 PM

maybe you have a web filtering program that changing the url.

edit: whoops ignore this

Zardon · Sep 24, 2005, 12:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dyre Straits

I was getting that 'leech' stuff, too, for awhile. It finally seemed to fix itself. Maybe ATI was updating the page or something. I read on other forums that people couldn't get to the Release Notes, either for awhile.

One person said that restarting his computer fixed it for him. I think it was just a coincidence and the pages affected were updated and made available again.

fascinating, not like ATI to be running anti leech scripting !

The_Neon_Cowboy · Sep 24, 2005, 12:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dyre Straits

I was getting that 'leech' stuff, too, for awhile. It finally seemed to fix itself. Maybe ATI was updating the page or something. I read on other forums that people couldn't get to the Release Notes, either for awhile.

One person said that restarting his computer fixed it for him. I think it was just a coincidence and the pages affected were updated and made available again.

The release notes where down for a short time. But there wasn't any
stange error the file simply wasn't there. Notheing serious

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zardon

fascinating, not like ATI to be running scripting !

Doesnt seem to be anti leech Z becouse you can direct / deep link to the
files and it works just fine
http://dlmdownloads.ati.com.edgesuit..._enu_26409.exe

When you click the link on thier site there is a popup should look like this

In IE6

There are two ways you can click the security prompt and allow the file
to be downloaded. Or click the click here. I have got an AV and firewall
that blocks the referrer and I have no issues what so ever.

In opera 8.5

It just opens the poup as if it where a link and can still download i just fine.

Can't vouche for fire fox or any of the others becouse I don't
have them installed but so far not seen any issues...

So I’d be interested what browser AV and firewall their using to be having
such issues. Pop up blockers or something...

FnF · Sep 24, 2005, 08:52 AM

Direct linking works fine here with FF, dont see why using another browser

Dyre Straits · Sep 24, 2005, 09:02 AM

What I got when it was problematic, was a page with 'leech' in the address bar. Also, a page on ATi's WEBsite stating that I wasn't authorized to view the page.

I got the same page whether I clicked the link to the Release Notes in Z's first post in this thread, OR if I clicked the Release Notes hotlink from the Drivers page on ATi's WEBsite. Made no difference...got the same thing.

It's all sorted now, though.

UnIcOrN · Sep 24, 2005, 10:52 AM

Well i reinstalled the 5.8 yesterday and voila I got the ground back again. Gonna report this issue to ATI and hopefully the next driver update will contain a fix against it.

Dyre Straits · Sep 24, 2005, 11:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by UnIcOrN

Well i reinstalled the 5.8 yesterday and voila I got the ground back again. Gonna report this issue to ATI and hopefully the next driver update will contain a fix against it.

I had some issues with the 5.9s after my first install. After uninstalling them and then doing a reinstall, things are working much better.

Just for the sake of it, why don't you try that and see if it does fix the problem? (Unless you've already done that and I missed it.)

UnIcOrN · Sep 24, 2005, 11:53 AM

No haven't done that.. Will try it out later today. Hopefully they'll work then, seeing there shouldn't be stuff like this happening i think. Will post if it helped or not.

Spazite · Sep 27, 2005, 03:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ViRuS2k

downloading now

lots of fixes is very good and all but what about the F.E.A.R optimizations ? or Tweaks.

the game gets released on OCT 18th next month and the drivers where released on the 22nd september that means the game will be released and no drivers will be optimized for it

then again its only 4 days then the next set will be released.

PLEASE PLEASE TWEAK/OPTIMIZE this game for the next set

I've been wondering this as well.
I havent heard anything in the fear forums about this and.
Its quite upsetting as there where confirmed issues with the 5.7+ catalysts while running fear (rebbots,bsods,freezing).
So I havent installed the 5.9 yet as it would probably give me the same problems i had with the 5.7's.
I dont think we'll see any optimizations for fear till the 5.11 release.

The_Neon_Cowboy · Sep 27, 2005, 04:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Spazite

I've been wondering this as well.
I havent heard anything in the fear forums about this and.
Its quite upsetting as there where confirmed issues with the 5.7+ catalysts while running fear (rebbots,bsods,freezing).
So I havent installed the 5.9 yet as it would probably give me the same problems i had with the 5.7's.
I dont think we'll see any optimizations for fear till the 5.11 release.

the demo was issue free for me though I've not replayed it under 5.9.
Is it certan cards? anyways you guys need to load the 5.9's and play
the game and report any issues back to ATI and the game maker so
they can be adressed.

Mayro · Sep 27, 2005, 04:54 AM

You know, now that I think about it, I had those problems while playing FEAR and just attributed it to my crappyish pc. When I played the FEAR demo, that was before I found out about the 5.6 driver not having these horrible problems.

I have a 9800 pro 128meg video card. I think that the problem might be that ATI changed the way (in 5.7) that 64 and 128meg video cards do the ram in some way shape or form. 5.6 did not have these problems or these optimizations.

Sep 22, 2005, 09:48 PM	#91
steefo DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Mar 2005 Posts: 6 Rep Power: 0	http://www.tweakguides.com/BF2_3.html for the people having problems with bf2 crashing at startup, it has something to do with bf 2 not handling refreshes above 60hz i think. " Launching/Loading Issues: The most common problem with BF2 is that the game crashes to desktop or goes to a black screen when you first launch it. The reason for this is either incompatible hardware (make sure you meet all the minimum specs), or more usually the fact that you're not running at the default Windows XP refresh rate (60Hz). By default the game tries to launch at 800x600@60Hz initially, so your system must be able to run that same resolution and refresh rate, otherwise the game will abort. If you are using any refresh rate override program/method, disable it (e.g. if you're using [color=#0000ff]Refresh Force[/color], click the 'Restore Original Settings' button and apply). Alternatively, see the Advanced Tweaking section of the guide for details on how to set a different startup resolution, in case your graphics card/monitor simply cannot do 800x600@60Hz resolution. Once you've got the game running, you can then change the resolution to suit your taste in the in-game settings, and importantly you can select a higher refresh rate. Then you can reapply any refresh rate override and the game will launch without any problems. To set a non-standard resolution such as 1280x1024 see the Advanced Tweaking section." i used refresh force to force higher refreshes in 640 and 800 for counterstrike, but this was causing problems in bf2, so i have to run refresh force at defaults now, and add specific refresh in the cs command line. this may help people with probs

Sep 22, 2005, 10:38 PM	#93
UnIcOrN HardwareHeaven Lover Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Netherlands Posts: 239 Rep Power: 0	Well after installing the 5.9 set yesterday and doing a quick test everything seemed to work right. Only problem i have is with BF2.. The game runs fine for just one tiny little thing: See screen below Anyone know how to get my ground back? I allready tried using A.I setting on normal, high and off but to no avail. For the rest AA is application controlled otherwise it doesn't work ingame and AF is at 8x and at 16x tested but nothing also. Also when i enable Geometry Instancing in the CCC whenever i load a map it goes to desktop instead of loading, disabling this option and it runs fine __________________ [COLOR=white][COLOR=#000000][/COLOR][/COLOR]

Sep 22, 2005, 11:04 PM	#95
UnIcOrN HardwareHeaven Lover Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Netherlands Posts: 239 Rep Power: 0	Will try that Neon, thanks. Only could be a dumb question where is the cache folder located or should i clean all files away in my Profiles folder? I think i saw something with the 5.8 release notes about Geometry Instancing. Will report back when i cleaned the cache __________________ [COLOR=white][COLOR=#000000][/COLOR][/COLOR] Last edited by UnIcOrN; Sep 22, 2005 at 11:12 PM.

Sep 23, 2005, 11:46 PM	#110
ChoGGi DriverHeaven Senior Member Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: Toronto Posts: 1,209 Rep Power: 0	maybe you have a web filtering program that changing the url. edit: whoops ignore this __________________ specs Common Problems and Fixes for your Radeon

Sep 24, 2005, 08:52 AM	#113
FnF DriverHeaven Senior Member Join Date: Nov 2004 Posts: 615 Rep Power: 0	Direct linking works fine here with FF, dont see why using another browser __________________ DH and ATI rock!!!!!!!!!!

Sep 23, 2005, 07:45 AM	#103
ronnn DriverHeaven Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2003 Posts: 617 Rep Power: 0	I didn't even realize that java plug in blank screen was a vid driver problem. Had huge problems with goban and now I know why. Glad it is fixed.

Sep 23, 2005, 08:08 AM	#105
ronnn DriverHeaven Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2003 Posts: 617 Rep Power: 0	Yes the Java plugins work!!!! I am such an idiot, I reinstalled java several times and generally went crazy. Ended up with an old version that works on an older version of Java. I also was getting ready to reinstall windows, I am really an idiot at times. Oh well live and learn.

Sep 23, 2005, 02:49 PM	#106
Mayro -=[DHzer0point Team]=- Join Date: Jan 2005 Posts: 173 Rep Power: 0	You might want to check the settings of yer CCC. When I reformated last night and installed DOTNET 1 so that I could use the 5.9 CCC, for some reason it came with the default AA set to 2x (not app controled) and mipmap was on performance and not quality.

Sep 24, 2005, 10:52 AM	#115
UnIcOrN HardwareHeaven Lover Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Netherlands Posts: 239 Rep Power: 0	Well i reinstalled the 5.8 yesterday and voila I got the ground back again. Gonna report this issue to ATI and hopefully the next driver update will contain a fix against it. __________________ [COLOR=white][COLOR=#000000][/COLOR][/COLOR]

Sep 24, 2005, 11:53 AM	#117
UnIcOrN HardwareHeaven Lover Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Netherlands Posts: 239 Rep Power: 0	No haven't done that.. Will try it out later today. Hopefully they'll work then, seeing there shouldn't be stuff like this happening i think. Will post if it helped or not. __________________ [COLOR=white][COLOR=#000000][/COLOR][/COLOR]

Sep 27, 2005, 04:54 AM	#120
Mayro -=[DHzer0point Team]=- Join Date: Jan 2005 Posts: 173 Rep Power: 0	You know, now that I think about it, I had those problems while playing FEAR and just attributed it to my crappyish pc. When I played the FEAR demo, that was before I found out about the 5.6 driver not having these horrible problems. I have a 9800 pro 128meg video card. I think that the problem might be that ATI changed the way (in 5.7) that 64 and 128meg video cards do the ram in some way shape or form. 5.6 did not have these problems or these optimizations.