2.9.8 - 3rd Jan 2009
- Fixed crash on installation for some users
- Fixed Fraps not working with Combat Arms
- Fixed counter not switching properly between multiple active 3D applications
- Fixed Fraps not detecting windowed games while monitoring DWM
- Systray icon now turns red while recording
- Minor optimizations and bug fixes
- Reduced memory footprint of 64-bit version of Fraps
Added some new GeForce beta drivers, leaked by XFastest. These have received a lot of positive feedback from various websites showing peformance advantages in many games and 3DMark. They also introduce ambient occlusion which helps produce more realism into the games at performance cost.
These drivers were packaged with NVIDIA PhysX v8.11.18. It has been removed to reduce file size.
Added two downloads: NiBiTor v4.7 which was released on December 31st and HWMonitor, which was on November 17th.
NiBiTor is the original and definitive BIOS tweaker that supports the latest NVIDIA graphics cards, and which is updated on a regular basis. NiBiTor allows graphics card enthusiasts, or the hardcore overclockers to have full control over some advanced features and functionality found on firmware of supporting cards. Doing so users gain some extra performance, enable certain hidden features, tweak memory latencies, provide extensive information, adapt bootup settings, change fan speed options and/or get extra stability on the NVIDIA based graphics accelerators.
Rivatuner has been updated towards version 2.22 This release has a number of updates and fixes. Obviously support has been added for (ForceWare) GeForce drivers 181.xx and AMD ATI Catalyst 8.12 driver support has been added as well. Biggest change for this release is a much requested feature. Rivatuner can now be Skinned.
Fixed bug in LM63.dll plugin, causing empty graphs with no data to be displayed in hardware monitoring module and introduced during porting the plugin to multi-GPU architecture in version 2.20.
Multifunction PCI devices are no longer scanned and no longer detected as multi-GPU devices.
Fixed pipeline count detection code for NVIDIA G98 GPU family.
What's new:
Added ForceWare 181.xx drivers family support.
Updated databases for Detonator and ForceWare drivers. Added databases for ForceWare 180.87, 180.88 and 181.00.
Now the server supports user interface skins to conform requirements of AIB/AIC partners bundling the server with their products. User interface skinning is based upon proprietary engine, which was previously used only in commercical RivaTuner technology based products. User interface skinning usage approach allows RivaTuner fans community to change the server's appearance completely and to express themselves in new skins design. Skin format is completely open, skin compiler and decompiler are integrated in the server, so please visit techsupport forums to get more detailed information and help on the skin creation.
Simplified beginner oriented profile settings. Many previously available power user oriented options, such as per-3D API hooking options, are now merged into more simple multi-buttons, e.g. "Application detection level" multi-button.
Improved help system. Now context sensitive help system is activated by hovering mouse over the control, instead of traditional right-click and "What's this?" based access in the previous versions.
On-Screen Display preview window greatly simplifies realtime On-Screen Display position, color and zoom adjustment.
Fully redesigned profiles architecture:
Now pre-created and user profiles are no longer stored into single file, so user profiles are no longer lost after the server reinstallation. Please take a note, that the user profiles are preserved only when the server is reinstalled in the same folder.
Now it is no longer possible to remove critically important pre-created profiles and pre-created profile settings can be easily restored due to template based profiles architecture.
Improved screen capture safety. The server no longer crashes on attempt to capture screenshot in DirectX9 applications without October 2006 or newer DirectX runtime libraries installed.
Improved product customization features:
In addition to skins and previously available product name customization feature, bundling partners can also customize product icon (including system tray icon) and define a link to own online product help page.
Product customization information is no longer stored in editable text OEM file, now this information is encoded to protect the product from illegal modification and distribution by third parties.
Improved installer and uninstaller:
Improved installation and uninstallation routines for statistics server's hook libraries.
Now the uninstaller also removes the files installed by 64-bit signed driver update.
New version of EVGA Precision released. Also, I've created another skin to be shipped with an upcoming EVGA product.
EVGA Precision v1.4.0 (2008-12-22)
EVGA On-Screen Display Server has been updated to version 3.0.0. New server supports skinned user interface (more skins coming soon!) and provides more quick and easy beginner friendly access to On-Screen Display customization features. The server's On-Screen Display profiles are upgradable now and no longer lost after installing new version of Precision.
New version of skin engine improves compatibility with third party skins and gives more freedom to skin creators, allowing creating animated buttons.
Now the first graph is automatically selected when opening monitoring tab in advanced Precision settings to make On-Screen Display, G15 LCD and tray icon monitoring settings more simple for beginners.
New version of RivaTuner released with some minor fixes.
Version 2.21: Minor bugfixes:
FOURCC INTZ and RAWZ formats are no longer forcibly disabled on GeForce 6 and newer display adapters when closing the 'Textures' tab in Direct3D tweaks dialog. Please take a note that these formats are required for proper GTA IV functionality, so if you experience problems with missing textures in this game on NVIDIA GeForce 6 and newer display adapters then please try to open the 'Textures' tab and press the 'Defaults' button.
Fixed 'Restore after suspended mode' option in low-level fan control tab, corrupted in the previous release due to multi-GPU related core changes.
What's new:
Updated databases for Detonator and ForceWare drivers. Added databases for ForceWare 180.60, 180.70 and 180.84.
Added Catalyst 8.12 driver family detection.
Added 'Enable FOURCC INTZ surfaces' and 'Enable FOURCC RAWZ surfaces' options to the 'Textures' tab of the Direct3D tweaks dialog.
'Restore after suspended mode' option in low-level fan control tab is multi-GPU oriented now. Now the option affects all display adapters in the system instead of currently selected display adapter only.
'Allow separate 2D/3D clock frequency adjustment' option is no longer provided when enabling driver-level hardware overclocking. The option is now hidden to reduce the amount of false bugreports posted by the beginners trying to disable 2D/3D clock frequncy then claiming that the hardware stays at extremely low boot clocks. Power users can still control this option via AllowMaxPerf registry entry.
Extended list of detectable supported FOURCC formats in 'IDirect3D9 HAL adapter formats' diagnostic report category.
The Catalyst™ Software Suite 8.12 contains the following:
Radeon™ display driver 8.561
HydraVision™ for both Windows XP and Vista
HydraVision™ Basic Edition (Windows XP only)
WDM Driver Install Bundle
Southbridge/IXP Driver
Catalyst™ Control Center Version 8.561
Performance Improvements
The following performance gains are noticed with this release of Catalyst™
3DMark Vantage DX10 – performance gains of up to 5% for Single and Crossfire mode. Performance gains were noticed on HD46xx, HD4550 and HD4350.
Call of Duty: World at War DX9 – performance gains of up to 21% for Single and Crossfire mode. Performance gains were noticed on all Radeon HD48xx.
Crysis DX10 – performance gains of up to 25% for Single and Crossfire mode. Performance gains were noticed on all Radeon HD4xxx.
Crysis Warhead DX10 – performance gains of up to 13% for Single card mode and up to 16% for Crossfire mode. Performance gains were noticed on all Radeon HD4xxx.
Devil May Cry 4 DX10– performance gains of up to 6% for Single and
Crossfire mode. Performance gains were noticed on all Radeon HD4xxx and HD38xx.
Fallout 3 – performance gains of up to 15% for Single card mode.
Far Cry 2 DX10 – performance gains of up to 10% for Single card mode and up to 57% in Crossfire mode. Performance gains were noticed on all Radeon HD4xxx and HD38xx.
FEAR DX9 – performance gains of up to 6% for Single and Crossfire mode. Performance gains were noticed on Radeon HD4870X2 and HD4870.
Hellgate: London DX10 – performance gains of up to 6% for Single card mode and up to 10% for Crossfire mode. Performance gains were noticed on all Radeon HD4xxx.
Left 4 Dead DX9– performance gains of up to 10% for Single card mode and up to 5% for Crossfire mode. Performance gains were noticed on all Radeon HD4870 series.
Lost Planet Colonies DX10 – performance gains of up to 10% for Single and
Crossfire mode. Performance gains were noticed on all Radeon HD4xxx and HD38xx.
Prey OGL – performance gains of up to 15% for Crossfire mode. Performance gains were noticed on Radeon HD4870 1GB products, HD46xx, HD45xx.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky – performance gains of up to 10% for Crossfire mode. Performance gains were noticed on all Radeon HD4xxx and HD38xx.
Unreal Tournament 3 DX9 – performance gains of up to 18% for Single card mode and up to 15% in Crossfire mode, especially in cases where AA is enabled. Performance gains were noticed on all Radeon HD4xxx and HD38xx.
Resolved Issues for the Windows Vista Operating System
This section provides information on resolved issues in this release of the ATI Catalyst™ Software Suite for Windows Vista. These include:
Setting shadow quality to high or medium may cause flickering in World of Warcraft
Age of Conan DirectX 10, may intermittently become unresponsive during game play
Catalyst Install Manager, the 'Deselect All' button will improperly mark installed packages
The display driver may fail after being installed on an ATI Radeon HD 4800 Series or ATI Radeon HD 4870 adapter
Returning from system standby may cause some video corruption to occur on some OpenGL games
Catalyst Control Center, AVIVO video settings are disabled under MS Vista
Catalyst Control Center, "Unsupported file formats" error message displayed when selecting H.264 files for transcoding
HD video file playback may cause the operating system to stop responding
On some Crossfire configurations the OS may become unstable while running auto-tune when Crossfire is enabled
"Crossfire" hot key shortcut settings are not retained on reboot
Catalyst Control Center Setup Assistant may intermittently cause Catalyst Control Center to fail
Catalyst Control Center, Digital Support Panel, predefined and custom HDTV formats description has been updated
Catalyst Control Center, resetting the application back to factory defaults does not rest the application skin
Help documentation for "Enable Geometry Instancing" and "Triple Buffering" is unavailable in help page
Resolved Issues for the Windows XP Operating System
This section provides information on resolved issues in this release of the ATI
Catalyst™ Software Suite for Windows XP. These include:
Using an HDMI cable to connect an ATI All-in-Wonder to a Yamaha receiver may result in the display resolution being limited to 1280x1024 and audio failing to function
Catalyst Control Center, some of the 3D settings are not displayed on ATI Radeon HD 4870 adapters
The operating system may fail to start after installing the display driver with some configurations of "Crosfire" with Radeon X1900 Series devices
The operating system may intermittently fail when exiting Test Drive Unlimited after extensive game play
Dual display, playing multiple video files on each monitor may cause the system to stop responding
City of Villains: Attempting to launch the game on a system running Windows XP and containing either two ATI Radeon HD 38x0 or 46x0 products may result in the game failing to load and the operating system failing to respond
Some OpenGL applications may cause the OS to stop responding on some ATI Radeon HD 45xx adapters
On some configurations, the display driver may stop responding when resolution is set to 2048x1536 with 8X Anti-Alias and Edge Detect filter enabled
Exiting some games may intermittently cause the following error message when 8X anti-alias edge detection is enabled: "Display Driver stopped working"
Hot unplugging a HDMI connection during video playback may cause system instability
Catalyst Control Center: Enabling pulldown setting may not work on all video formats
Systems configured with Overlay Theater Mode enabled may intermittently become unresponsive after playing video
Catalyst Control Center, setting the de-noise slider does not affect the quality of progressive video content
