AMD has just oficially released the new drivers [that has been leaked a couple of weeks ago] for Windows 7, Vista and XP. This is important news for HDTV owners that have ATI video cards.


It includes 'ATI Catalyst™ 9.7 – AMD’s first official unified Windows7 / Windows Vista Microsoft
WHQL certified graphics driver for the Windows 7 RTM'


Anyway the bit that is interesting about the release notes was the comments, 'This release of the Catalyst™ driver was tested under Windows 7 RTM'. I want to know how ATI got hold of this version before the RTM is even oficially announced. Maybe I missed something - but this contradict what the Microsoft management were saying last week about the RTM not yet completed.


Anyway - you can download the driver from here:


Download page


Here is the bug fixes on Vista / Windows 7 from the Release notes - I have embolded the bits that Geekzone readers have been complaining about for months (related to interlaced Freeview channels (C4 / TV 6 / TV7 etc.] on 576i:



􀁺 Added support for OpenGL extensions: EXT_provoking_vertex and EXT_vertex_array_bgra
􀁺 Catalyst Control Center in some multi-display configurations Extend Desktop no longer
causes the secondary display to become the primary display
􀁺 Catalyst Control Center, "Make Primary" option no longer fails to function in some
"Extended Desktop" modes
􀁺 Opening Catalyst Control Center no longer results in an error message when using Dual
Adapters with a non-ATI ASIC and ATI ASIC
􀁺 Catalyst Control Center, HDMI configuration aspects no longer fail to launch on some
systems
􀁺 Catalyst Control Center hotkeys now toggle through all desktop modes
􀁺 Catalyst Control Center: Default HDTV modes can now be enabled properly
􀁺 Catalyst Control Center duplicated display options no longeer become available in some
multi-adapter configurations
􀁺 Interlaced modes can now be applied on HDTV supported DFP panels even when forced via
Catalyst Control Center
􀁺 Confirmation dialog box now appears when applying HDTV 720p and 1080i formats; the
resolution will be applied automatically
􀁺 Catalyst Control Center, add custom modes is now available in the Digital Panel HDTV
support page
􀁺 Catalyst Control Center Advance Color page, when enabling the advanced color settings the
preview window no longer blanks out
􀁺 Catalyst Control Center Overdrive Auto-Tune no longer stops responding on some CrossFire
configurations
􀁺 Catalyst Control Center does not show a "System restart required ... " message for some multi
adapter CrossFire configurations


􀁺 Catalyst Control Center an additional window no longer appears when running in Wizard
mode
􀁺 Catalyst Control Center tab is now available in advance Display Settings with Windows 7
􀁺 Displays on some HDMI devices no longer fails to scale to the full display when running at
resolutions greater than 1152 x 864
􀁺 A delay no longer occurs when resuming from sleep on some system configurations
􀁺 Systems no longer become unresponsive when entering sleep mode when running Google
Eearth in Open GL mode
􀁺 Cyberlink Media Show Espresso no longer stops responding when transcoding some videos to
WMV with hardware decode enabled
􀁺 Resolved frames drops when playing Blu-ray video with PowerDVD8
􀁺 Avivo video converter/transcoder generic image quality fixes
􀁺 Catalyst Control Center CrossFire configuration options now are displayed on subsequent
system restart
􀁺 Disabling and re-enabling CrossFire no longer causes flickering on certain direct 3D
applications running in full screen
􀁺 Cybelink Media Show Espresso no longer show corruption when transcoded to ipod touch or
PSP devices formats
􀁺 On some systems with both component video display and a secondary display, it is
now possible to duplicate the displays using the display settings
􀁺 Playing back Blu-ray content in extended desktop no longer switches to primary
display after unplugging the secondary display
􀁺 Catalyst Control Center, on some clone mode configuration with a TV, setting the
TV Image Quality does not cause the primary display to become disabled on restart
ATI Catalyst™ Release Note Version 9.7 7
􀁺 On some Clone mode configurations restoring from hibernate no longer causes the
displays to switch to extended mode
􀁺 Restricting the maximum refresh rate and resolution via Catalyst Control Center no
longer fails to apply
􀁺 Interlaced modes are now listed in the "List all Modes" window with HDTV
supported DFP panels
􀁺 Catalyst Control Center, "Scaling Options" are available in HDTV modes
􀁺 HDTV modes no longer fail to appear in the "Display Properties", "list all modes"
settings
􀁺 Catalyst Control Center: System no longer fails to set Component Video modes
􀁺 Catalyst Control Center no longer reports Crossfire as disabled for some quad
crossfire configurations
􀁺 DVD playback video no longer fails to render when played on a secondary display
􀁺 Some system configurations now allow resolution switching when configured in
clone mode with a TV display
􀁺 The login screen is centered after a display reconfiguration when the system is in
standby
􀁺 Power Cinema no longer needs to be launched twice to start Blu-ray playback
􀁺 Color corruption no longer occurs when playing back some interlaced video content
􀁺 After hot-unplugging a digital display from a multi-display configuration, the current
display settings now refresh


Tim