ATI Catalyst

Infobox Software
name = ATI Catalyst Control Center



caption = ATI Catalyst Control Center running on Windows XP
developer = ATI Technologies/Advanced Micro Devices
released = initial release|2004|1|19Ver. 4.1 (Pkg. ver. 7.97) [ [http://ati.amd.com/products/catalyst/versions.html ATI Catalyst releases] ]
latest release version = Template:Latest stable software release/PAGENAME
programming language = .NET
operating system = Windows (98/ME, 2000, XP/MCE 2005,Server 2003/Server 2008,Vista),
Linux, XP@Boot Camp
platform =
size = variable
language = English
genre = Overclocking, Monitoring
license = freeware
website = [http://ati.amd.com/products/catalystcontrolcenter/index.html ATI Catalyst Control Center]

ATI Catalyst is a utility software driver package for several ATI products for several operating systems. The Catalyst software was instituted after the release of the Radeon 8500. This driver development paradigm at ATI promised monthly driver updates which included performance enhancements, bug fixes, and new features. As of 2007, the Catalyst driver package typically included ATI Catalyst Control Center; an interface for manipulating many of the hardware's functions, such as 3D settings, monitor controls, video options, among other things. It also offered a small 3D preview, allowing the user to see how changes to the graphics settings affected the quality of the rendered image.

Catalyst allows for adjustments to the Radeon card as well as for showing information about the card itself and the software data. There are three modes for the control center: simple, advanced and wizard modes.

Graphic settings in Catalyst

*Monitor properties
**Multiple monitor - Additional monitor running in either extended desktop mode or desktop replication
**HDTV support - Setting display resolutions (720p/1080i/1080p) and refresh rates (60 Hz to 85 Hz) to fit HDTV connected via component or HDMI
*3D settings - such as Anti-aliasing and Anisotropic filtering
*ATI Avivo - hardware acceleration of video decoding includes a set of video settings like gamma correction, only applies to the Radeon X1000 series, HD 2000/3000 series, and HD 4000 series
*SmartGart (available to AGP products only)
*VPU Recovery - Resets graphics processor in case it no longer responds to display driver
*ATI Overdrive - Overclocking of video cards to enhance performance
*ATI PowerPlay - Adjust power saving plans to the GPU, only applies to Mobility Radeon, Radeon HD 3800 series and Radeon HD4800 Series
*ATI CrossfireX - Manages the use of multiple graphics cards bridged with ATI's proprietary CrossfireX standard.

Notable versions

The old control panel interface (within Windows' Display Properties) was previously a fall-back option, but that has been discontinued as of Catalyst 5.13. The last official version to support Windows 2000 was Catalyst 6.2, which only supports Radeon cards up to the X850, but there is at least one newer OEM supplied driver [ [http://global.msi.com.tw/index.php?func=downloaddetail&type=driver&maincat_no=1&prod_no=1165# Msi - Micro-Star Int'L Co., Ltd ] ] that can support newer radeon chip such as radeon X1250(integrated 690G) in Windows 2000. The Catalyst package can be downloaded in pieces as well, for non-broadband users. For example, the display driver can be downloaded alone, separated from the Catalyst Control Center and WDM VIVO drivers. The day that Windows Vista launched, ATI provided a Microsoft certified Catalyst driver referenced as Catalyst 7.10, in addition to launching a certified Catalyst Vista version day 1 a new install/update utility was launched for Vista called the Catalyst Install Manager.

upported products

*Desktop Radeon graphics cards family
**DirectX 9 cards
***Radeon 9500, X800 series and X1000 series
**DirectX 10 cards
***Radeon HD 2000/3000 series
***Radeon HD 4000 series
*Mobility Radeon mobile GPU family
**Mobility Radeon 9500 series and higher
*All-in-Wonder multimedia card family
*TV Wonder TV tuner family

References

2 http://global.msi.com.tw/index.php?func=downloaddetail&type=driver&maincat_no=1&prod_no=1165#

See also

*Radeon
*Comparison of ATI chipsets
*Comparison of AMD chipsets
*All-in-Wonder
*Graphics hardware and FOSS

External links

* [http://ati.amd.com/products/catalystcontrolcenter/index.html ATI Catalyst Control Center]
* [http://ati.amd.com/support/driver.html ATI Driver support]