ATI today is hosting the latest installment of their feature rich and well received Catalyst driver suite. Among the long list of fixes in this driver release are as main highlights:
CodeCreatures score is improved by 20% at 4X AA for 9700 series products NASCAR 2002 framerate is up as much as 18% across the entire Radeon products line NHL 2002 performance is up as much as 35% across the entire product line (largest gains on Radeon 7500/8500) Performance on legacy (DX6 and DX7) apps is improved by as much as 15% for Radeon 9700 series products Read more...

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The Catalyst software suite is designed to support the following ATI desktop product family: Radeon 9700 series Radeon 9500 series Radeon 9000 series Radeon 8500 series Radeon 7500 series Radeon 7200 series Radeon 7000 series Additional Features: Users can easily override refresh rate limitation imposed by both Windows 2000 and Windows XP, which limits the default refresh rate to 60 HZ when applications are run at a different resolution than the resolution of your desktop. Currently users are only able to override the refresh rate for DirectX applications, a future driver release will allow users to override the refresh rate for OpenGL applications as well.To access the override navigate as follows: Bring up the ATI Control Panel and selected the Displays Tab. Click on Monitor tab and you will see a new DirectX Override Refresh Rate (ATI recommends selecting the ?Same As Desktop? setting) tab. Catalyst 02.4 gives provides users with a new level of stability using SmartGart 2. SmartGart 2 gives users access to both the basic and advanced functionality through two control panel pages: The Advanced control panel can be accessed by using the Start -> Run -> command then typing "SmartGart". The basic SmartGart control panel can be easily accessed through the ATI control panel. The Catalyst 02.4 driver also offers customer-setting options for formats supported by YPrPb monitors/TVs. Televisions are typically over scanned (i.e., the actual image goes marginally outside of the normal viewing area of the display). Selecting an Optimized Format will compensate for this over scanning, for the chosen format, and allow the entire desktop to fit the viewing area. Issues Resolved: The Details page now reports the correct AGP data transfer rate and video memory type When extended desktop is enabled, the default display setting is no longer 640x480 @ 8 Bit bpp. End-users are now able to un-install the display driver without requiring an ATI graphics accelerator installed in their system The TV image is no longer over scanned on TV screens when Component Vide Output is connected to ATI a Radeon 8500 product Descent 3 no longer displays corruption in sky on a ATI Radeon 8500 under Windows 2000 Myth 3 no longer suffers from speckling artifacts and missing triangles on the swords on a ATI Radeon 8500 under Windows 2000 Tribes no longer suffers from corrupt textures and checkerboard effects on a ATI Radeon 9700 under Windows 2000 The game Aquanox no longer displays corruption when run in the 640x480 mode on a ATI Radeon 7000 graphic card under Windows ME The right red energize bar and the left damage status squares are no longer missing in the game Ballistic on an ATI Radeon 7000 graphic card under Windows ME Enabling all options in No One Lives Forever 2 and restarting the game no longer results in characters missing triangles Trilinear option is now available in Serious Sam SE This driver fixes a lock-up problem, which was evident under certain circumstances for the following games: Spring Break Lord of The Rings Medieval Total War Icewind Dale II Sponge Bob 2 Robin Hood Known Issues: Need For Speed 2 may potentially hang in very high detail levels. ATI recommends turning down the World Details and Special Effects options down one notch to avoid hangs. A fix will be delivered in a future Catalyst release. Windows XP / 2000: File size: 5.63 MB Posted: November 14, 2002 Version: 6.13.10.6200C Packaging Version: 7.79-021023x-005856C Download 6.13.10.6200C Windows 9x / ME: File size: 6.36 MB Posted: November 14, 2002 Version: 4.13.01.9069 Packaging Version: 7.79-021023x-005856C Download 4.13.01.9069 Control Panel: File size: 4.81 MB Posted: November 14, 2002 Version: 6.13.10.3041 Use for all operating systems. Download CP 6.13.10.3041