Catalyst 6.6 beta's

Catalyst 6.6 beta's available for testing

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"In order to provide you with the ability to test the world’s fastest processor with world’s best dual graphics solution, ATI is making two special drivers available for press only. The first driver enables two ATI graphics cards to be installed and run in CrossFire mode on the Intel® 975X Express chipset with an Intel® Core™ 2 Duo processor or Intel® Core™ 2 Extreme Processor. All performance improvements found in this production candidate driver will be made available to the public the first week of June in Catalyst release version 6.6. We ask that you please test with the publicly available Catalyst 6.6 driver or the press version to ensure the best quality benchmarking experience possible, and deliver results that reflect what the public can expect." ATI quote.


The second driver unlocks the best image quality possible in a game today, delivering simultaneous HDR and AA in Oblivion like the now famous “Chuck” patch. While the driver is not officially supported, we’re making it available to press to demonstrate the astounding gaming possible on Intel® Core™ Duo processors using CrossFire graphics.




Catalyst 6.6 beta's are available for testing, usual beta rules apply, use at your own risk!

http://www.distichannel.com/ATI_Catalyst_Beta-6-6.exe


6.6 Chuck driver for Conroe and Crossfire
http://www.distichannel.com/Chuck_for_CrossFire_Conroe.zip

got them from dfi-street props to raju

so... anyone test these yet ? if so... any differences yet ?

downloading... going away for the remainder of the weekend wont test till monday late after work.... I need a vacation !!

Ok first question that I will have to anyone that tests (if not I might beable to test them tomorrow), does it downclock when video's play?

That is the only reason why im on 6.3's still and will hopfully upgrade to newer drivers if the problem is fixed when using anything other then CCC to OC.

deathman20 said:

Ok first question that I will have to anyone that tests (if not I might beable to test them tomorrow), does it downclock when video's play?

That is the only reason why im on 6.3's still and will hopfully upgrade to newer drivers if the problem is fixed when using anything other then CCC to OC.

Click to expand...

yea im wondering that as well, i didnt try them yet will prolly try them tomorrow as well.

redrumy3 said:

yea im wondering that as well, i didnt try them yet will prolly try them tomorrow as well.

Click to expand...

Ya I'd do it right now but just getting ready to rip apart my system to reroute wires and clean up the case a little since when I put it togeather I was under a rush job since we wanted to play games and I wanted to put my new case togeather hehe.

they still downclock

clocked my card at 625/725 with ati tool, then played a video through WMP, and BOOOOOMMMMMM! Full screen of black and white lines and a reset.

So yeah, still doesnt work, lol.

and i still got an unknown device in device manager, the 6.5's didnt have that problem, so i switched back and all is well again.

EternalX said:

they still downclock

clocked my card at 625/725 with ati tool, then played a video through WMP, and BOOOOOMMMMMM! Full screen of black and white lines and a reset.

So yeah, still doesnt work, lol.

and i still got an unknown device in device manager, the 6.5's didnt have that problem, so i switched back and all is well again.

Click to expand...

Damnit

guess im not gonna install them =/ stick with 6.5 for now.

EternalX said:

they still downclock

clocked my card at 625/725 with ati tool, then played a video through WMP, and BOOOOOMMMMMM! Full screen of black and white lines and a reset.

So yeah, still doesnt work, lol.

and i still got an unknown device in device manager, the 6.5's didnt have that problem, so i switched back and all is well again.

Click to expand...

You must have done something wrong. I think you need to disable all ATI related services (look at the sticky by Sentential, for the details) before you use ATi tool. The latest beta of ATi tool 0.25's, I think, has locked my computer up. Use the earlier stable version. With the latest Omega's, I had highly granulated images, something similar to turning up the LOD on NV cards. With these beta's, the IQ is superb and a lot better than on the 6800GT's/6800GS SLI I had.

Super Nade said:

You must have done something wrong. I think you need to disable all ATI related services (look at the sticky by Sentential, for the details) before you use ATi tool. The latest beta of ATi tool 0.25's, I think, has locked my computer up. Use the earlier stable version. With the latest Omega's, I had highly granulated images, something similar to turning up the LOD on NV cards. With these beta's, the IQ is superb and a lot better than on the 6800GT's/6800GS SLI I had.

Click to expand...

The thing is its not the services that is doing this its drivers. 6.5's I have the issue it downclocks when playing video's, but 6.3's no downclocking when playing video's.

Mine will do exactly what hes talking about if I up my core or memory speed 5Mhz when using the 6.5's it locks the system up with a black screen (sorry no white lines) so I have to use the shortcuts to reboot the computer. Windows still functions in the background but it kills the video to the monitor.

Yeah thats exactly what happens to me. Screen of black and somewhat white lines, and no video. The computer still goes fine, but need a restart since you cant see whats on the screen.

The stock clocks at 600/700 on my card are fine right now, I need to worry about the insane heat coming from the card. People say they are getting under 50 degree idle temps, but I cant get under 60 degrees. I tried re-seating wtih AS5, looks like I need to try again. I also have pretty good airflow in my case but will look into placing a few more fans around the heatsink blowing inwards towards the fins.

Are there any aftermarket coolers that work good for the x1800? Im starting to think this stock heatsink just cant cut it or is defective.

EternalX said:

Yeah thats exactly what happens to me. Screen of black and somewhat white lines, and no video. The computer still goes fine, but need a restart since you cant see whats on the screen.

The stock clocks at 600/700 on my card are fine right now, I need to worry about the insane heat coming from the card. People say they are getting under 50 degree idle temps, but I cant get under 60 degrees. I tried re-seating wtih AS5, looks like I need to try again. I also have pretty good airflow in my case but will look into placing a few more fans around the heatsink blowing inwards towards the fins.

Are there any aftermarket coolers that work good for the x1800? Im starting to think this stock heatsink just cant cut it or is defective.

Click to expand...

Stock clocks in 2D mode is 500/600, in 3D is 625/750. My card draws more power then yours does and I idle in both my 2D and 3D mode under 50C, usually hovering around 42-47C and if its cooler out so far I've seen as low as 38C idle (mind you it is summer right now so it gets a little warm in the room).

I just reseated mine with AS5 and see what that does but all those temps where before AS5. I only have 1 120mm fan blowing on the card otherwise I got a 120mm blowing into the case at full speed and 2x 120mm sucking out @ 7V. My older case I had was hitting the same temps I got currently also.

You should beable to hit those temps without much work. If you can remove the PCI slot covers in teh back underneath the card. That will help more airflow out of the case around that area (it helped mine alot).

Also what is your fan speed at? Is it just the default settings that comes with the card? Mine idles at around 40-45% fan speed.

I beleive my fan speed is set at 40% fixed. It is quite noisy when turned up anymore than that, its really quite annoying. My computer was nice and quiet until i got the x1800

mmm mine is nice n quiet idle in 40c on low fan summer as well here, but i have my ac on lol, my downclocks as well for 6.5 but i dont have to restart my pc or nothing

The issue of downclocking popped up in version 6.4. It happened in 6.5 and still in 6.6 as well. I decided to do a fresh windows install and now it no longer downclocks but rather it locks the machine up.

tommcd64 said:

The issue of downclocking popped up in version 6.4. It happened in 6.5 and still in 6.6 as well. I decided to do a fresh windows install and now it no longer downclocks but rather it locks the machine up.

Click to expand...

Lower your mem or core clocks by 5Mhz and you should be OK for most cases. Black screen with higher clocks or in some 3D cases, but most of the time you'll just see a quick flicker and everything seems normal til you hit a 3D app or check your clock speed and boom its slow.

might wanan look at this benchmark of 6.6 vs 6.5
http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/920/2/page_2_benchmarks_test_system_setup_and_3dmark05/index.html

redrumy3 said:

might wanan look at this benchmark of 6.6 vs 6.5
http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/920/2/page_2_benchmarks_test_system_setup_and_3dmark05/index.html

Click to expand...

So if using AA/AF your good to go with these drivers.

Thats what it seems! I am going to try the official 6.6s since they are out now, theres another post here about it.

I need to reinstall Farcry and the 1.3 patch so I can turn aa/af/HDR on. I think these drivers will work out pretty well for that.