Catalyst 3.7 Drives And UT2003 = Very Impressive

Site Admin Joined: 17 May 2003 Posts: 0

Well as most of you know I recently went from a Ti 4200 to a AIW Radeon Pro (video review next week). I didn't have good first impression since the drivers weren't that great and the AIW performed only 3 fps faster than my Ti using the UO CTF-Magma test. In the upcoming review I touch on driver issues for ATI. Well it looks like they have listened to their fans. The new Catalyst drivers are very, very impressive. Here is a screenie to show you.I want you to take a close look at four things in this picture. This a screenshot using UO CTF specs on CTF-Bedrooms Remix. First and foremost you will see kick ass shadows. Next you will notice the flame on the tiki torch looks even more realistic. The same goes for the grass as well. The big difference, as far as I am concerned, is the gloss on the wooden chair and table. You can notice it by looking at the lower right part of the table. Very nice.The nice thing besides image and texture quality is performance. I picked up another 5% (3fps) increase on Magma giving the card the highest frames I have seen on that map to date. Even better than any NVidia cards I have worked with. I am very suprised to see ATI starting to pull not only even but a little ahead on driver quality. I will have the AIW review up next week and the ATI 'Tweaking' article up a week after the video review. Looks like this NVidiot is becoming an ATI Fanboy. Scary isn't it. Wink

Guest

It's not scary, you have entered the light! (a bit late but still worth it)

I'm glad you have seen the difference in the image quality by yourself,
try some heavy AA,AF and so on and you will see the difference in the framerates too Wink

Full AA and AF on such a card without significant fps drop will change your perception about visuals and gaming FOREVAR!! heh

have fun

UO Noob Joined: 04 Jun 2003 Posts: 41 Location: Portugal

As i said before in another thread, don't write that AIW reviw before you read this

Cats 3.7 just included some minor bug fixes (and UT2003 still suffers from at least 3 problems with these drivers).
Catalyst 3.8 are supposed to be "da bomb", although noone knows for sure what ATi is doing to make this new driver set so special.

Posted: Fri Sep 05, 2003 2:59 pm

The "next release" is always supposed to be the "release to end all releases", but alas, no, that mecha is never really hit, otherwise why would more drivers continue to be released? Exactly.

Posted: Fri Sep 05, 2003 3:07 pm

Morbid,

I wasn't impressed with the 9700 at first. I felt it just seemed like something was holding it back. I am fastly changing my mind now. Wink

I will try some serious AA when I upgraded my cpu next month.

Hammer,

Did you ever get my email about your donation back in June? Also I am adding a text update to the video review I am releasing next week.

Guest

Tycho, in your review, is that also where you are going to talk about how to improve performance with ut2003? because i have a 9700pro and i'm not particularly impressed right now....If this is the article with the tips, is it just gonna be common sense stuff like "make sure AA and AF are off", "lower details until you get good fps!" or is it actually tweaking stuff.

Smile

Posted: Sat Sep 06, 2003 11:19 pm

Ra,

No I intend to put a 'Tweaking Your ATI Card' article out the Friday after the video. So look for two ATI articles next week.

UO Noob Joined: 04 Jun 2003 Posts: 41 Location: Portugal

I don't think so.

Did you already get the wallpaper PSD? I've sent it to you 3 times at least

Guys, a powerfull gfx card alone doesn't give you a big boost unless you previously owned a GF 2 MX or GF 4 MX or something worse.
One way to know if the processor is holding you back is to increase the resolution at wich you play the game and see if the framerate stays the same. If that happens consider purchasing a new processor instead of a new videocard.

Posted: Sun Sep 07, 2003 7:51 pm

I never received it. Hmm can you upload it somewhere I can get it?