New ATI Driver UI: The Catalyst Control Center
by Derek Wilson on September 2, 2004 6:00 AM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
Would You Like Aniso With That?
We were very excited to see that ATI would be offering a profile manager. We've been happy with the ForceWare profile manager, and had previously asked ATI if they would allow certain settings to be associated with specific applications. This was, of course, the wrong question to ask (the answer was, and still is, "no"). ATI is very adamant about staying away from associating anything with a specific executable (anyone who remembers "quake/quack" will know why). Their solution to the problem is simple and elegant. Don't associate a profile with a specific executable; allow executables to be launched when a profile is enabled.Shortcuts to profiles can be created and placed anywhere (like the desktop or start menu), and can be used just like shortcuts to a game that have the added bonus of changing display settings before the game is launched. This is a very clean and elegant way of solving the linked profile problem. Here's a look at the profile manager screens:
There are also a couple of other windows in the driver such as the hotkey manager, preferences window (which is basically a skin chooser), and an information window, but these are very straight forward and don't really require any explanation.
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LoneWolf15 - Thursday, September 2, 2004 - link
I don't care if it's streamlined or not, I refuse to run a driver control app that requires .NET. Period. If it gets to the point where I don't have a choice, I'll sell my Radeon 9700 and get a GeForce 6600GT or similar. 60-70megs won't just annoy "resource snobs"...60-70 megs is enough RAM for a major app all by itself.wassup4u2 - Thursday, September 2, 2004 - link
I have an emachines notebook with a Mobility Radeon 9600 Pro. Will CCC/the normal Catalyst driver work with it?Jeff7181 - Thursday, September 2, 2004 - link
You'd think being .NET it might run good... nope... it takes longer for it to save changes than ATI's previous drivers. It's very frustrating.My advice... don't download it. It's worthless. The application preferences don't work correctly for me with Doom 3. I can start Doom 3 normally, but when I try to use the shortcut ATI creates it doesn't work... and I can't see the exact error message because the stupid Windows error box covers up the Doom 3 window that shows where it gets stuck and exits.
Phiro - Thursday, September 2, 2004 - link
The message is clear; .Net for teh win.Seriously; we're using .Net more and more where I work, and maybe it's just the refactoring but when they rewrite something here to .Net we see HUGE improvements in stability, performance, etc.
OTOH, new development in .Net here hasn't been so good.
gsellis - Thursday, September 2, 2004 - link
I suspect the package is so big because they have included .Net in it.Jeff7181 - Thursday, September 2, 2004 - link
Am I a moron or is there nothing about where or when we can get this?PorBleemo - Thursday, September 2, 2004 - link
Well, at least they still offer the Control Panel.PorBleemo - Thursday, September 2, 2004 - link
I agree #2 that's crazy. At least I have 1.5GB...nserra - Thursday, September 2, 2004 - link
Excelente. I didnt expect something like this from Ati, is more ala Rage3DTweak.However i still think its too much complicaded for the ordinary Joe.
For me its great, now i dont need Rage3D since i only used their profiles because they run over aplication level, now Ati CP already have this too.
crazycarl - Thursday, September 2, 2004 - link
60-70 extra megs?????