New ATI Driver UI: The Catalyst Control Center
by Derek Wilson on September 2, 2004 6:00 AM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
Simplifying Settings
The first thing that we noticed (aside from the skin) about the CCC is just how clean and simple it is. We do prefer a consistent UI look and feel, but the layout of and obviousness of where everything is helps immensely in getting around.
The tabs at the side clearly talk about what they are, and have only the most straight forward, basic, and necessary options inside. For instance, the Display manager offers resolution and multi-monitor setup options with a wizard button at the top, if you need help.
The wizard asks really basic questions about what type of monitor and setup that it's working with and comes up with settings based on the answers.
The simple 3D view is where things get really innovative. ATI has embedded a small OpenGL app into the CCC, which updates in real time as settings are changed. This allows the user to move the slider (siders in the advanced view) to determine exactly what will happen to their games. The inclusion of this feature will help in educating ATI users about what a setting does, and will also get more people hooked on the almost crack-like properties that high levels of anisotropic filtering and antialiasing have (when you see what they do visually, it's easier to tell when they aren't cranked up).
This is the must-have feature that ATI has included in the CCC. We want NVIDIA, Intel, and S3 to pick this up and run with it. It's just that helpful to new users and could help people adjust their settings in a useful way. And if the windowed mode isn't enough to help get the idea of what's going on, just double-click the scene and it'll go full screen.
The only downside that we've seen so far is that this new feature makes moving a slider a bit of a chore. The performance hit incurred by moving a slider on our x800XTPE in an FX53 system with 2GB of RAM qualifies as annoying if we are being kind. ATI has said that they are addressing performance related issues; hopefully, future releases will see faster response time.
But that's enough of the simple stuff. Let's take a look at the advanced view and find out what else this baby can do.
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ProviaFan - Friday, September 3, 2004 - link
The framework comes integrated in SP2, not SP1, IIRC. :)But in that case, just get MS to send you a free SP2 CD (no shipping, even), and you'll get the framework also without having to download it (that could be a problem for the people in rural areas with unreliable 21.6k dialup - I was there once, and I feel sorry for them, because they have no other options).
nserra - Friday, September 3, 2004 - link
Interesting, have money for the superb 6800 card but don’t have for a cheap 128Kb-512Kb internet access.THE FACTS:
ATI 4.8 VS ATI 4.7
Driver: 8.25MB VS 8.35MB
Control Panel: 10.8MB VS 13.6MB
New driver IS SMALLER.
Control Center you are not obliged to install IT! If you don’t want it! In fact you don’t even need to install the Control Panel in order to play games.
Nvidia good drivers are not that good now, because ati have catched up. Not because they are worst.
And I am a .NET programmer and it rocks, so stop complying.
And about the fact you have to install the frame work, I am not sure but I think its part of SP1, so maybe you guys already have it installed and don’t even KNOW!
Reflex - Friday, September 3, 2004 - link
#28: I only wish more people understood this concept. Its the future of programming and one of the many benefits of the .NET architecture. No longer will apps be bound by memory limitations, and system performance will not be hindered so much by multi-tasking...Its a good thing.
Novaoblivion - Friday, September 3, 2004 - link
As a .NET developer I know that the releasing of memory when it is needed is true. I have played around with it a lot as when I first started using .NET I was concerned about losing a lot of memory to the runtime. However it does realease the memory and I havent seen any performance problems again.johnsonx - Friday, September 3, 2004 - link
/grumpy old man voiceWhen I was a kid, we didn't have any gig of ram, we didn't even have a meg of ram. We had 16k of ram (that's a kilobyte of those of you under 30), and we LIKED it! We wrote interrupt service routines that fit into the unused half of a 256-byte casette tape buffer! Our floppy disks actually were floppy, and stored a mere 90k, and we LIKED it by golly!
\end grumpy old man voice
steeplerot - Friday, September 3, 2004 - link
I would install .net if it would upgrade an ATI card to a GT.l3ored - Friday, September 3, 2004 - link
it doesnt include the ability to overclock (not suprised) which would have been nice since it has radlinker-like abilities built in. anyone know if theres 3rd party sofware out there for it?flexy - Thursday, September 2, 2004 - link
>>>the actuall downlaod of the catalyst 4.8 drivers with display driver, contral panel, catalyst control center, and capture wdm driver is only 41 megs. 26 megs with out ccc.
>>>
not that it bugs me (anymore) since i am on cable.
But...seriously...noone ever think its only a bit "weird" that a device driver/control-panel now is a whopping 41MB just for the download ???? It's a f****g driver.....and after you adjust your settings (OG/D3D etc.) you USUALLY dont see a lot of the control panel anymore anyway.
Oh...and i forgot...you need .NET
Lol, i am coming from a generation where i had a whole OS running on 512K..and i remember tiems when a whole HD fit 40MB.
And now we need 41MB just for ONE DRIVER <---- :)
I know for sure that i will hold off with this control panel 'til i have my new build w/ >1Gig of Ram..IF I WILL EQUIP the new PC w/ an ATI card (oups) THAT IS..which is unlikely at the moment. (preference goes to 6800Gt right now, only R500 can save me i guess :)
ProviaFan - Thursday, September 2, 2004 - link
40MB downloads are nothing on dialup, if you plan it right. Just run it overnight, like I would have if it weren't for the DSL I got a few weeks ago.For those of you bitching about having to install .NET, get over it! It's basically like the next VB runtime, except slightly bigger, and for multiple languages. You'll have to install it someday, because more and more apps (including ones you _really want_) will require it (unless you're using Linux then, you're probably immune ;-).
mlittl3 - Thursday, September 2, 2004 - link
There it is done.From the time of my last posting, I
1)downloaded and installed .NET 1.1
2)downloaded ATI's CCC and Catalyst drivers 4.8
3)uninstalled Catalyst driver 4.7 and rebooted
4)installed the ATI's CCC and Catalyst drivers 4.8 and rebooted
I also downloaded and installed Windows Media player 10 in that time just for sh**s and giggles (I use iTunes but I like to poke fun at microsoft by comparing the two players).
No demonic hand burst out of my computer to rip out my heart. Everything works just fine. The only thing I noticed was that after installed the CCC and Catalyst driver 4.8 and rebooted, my resolution was changed to 1280x1024 from 1024x768. Big deal, I changed it back in 2 seconds.
I'm sure everyone else with have a similar experience. Have fun kids.