明修棧道暗渡陳倉 催化劑5.4搶先測試

    顯示芯片制造業為了讓人們理解起來容易，借用了很多汽車上的名字，比如驅動汽車的“Engine”（引擎），驅動硬件的“Driver”（驅動/司機）。Driver在汽車上叫做司機，但是在電腦上叫做驅動程序，人們習慣簡稱為“驅動”。驅動程序是軟件，負責應用軟件和硬件的連接，驅動程序的好壞能夠很大程度上影響硬件的發揮。

    上周末，ATI發布了他們最新的催化劑5.4版的驅動，我們今天就來看看這版驅動的表現。

    在ATI的官方主頁，對這款驅動的改進的部分描述的是：

• 3DMark2001: A black screen is no longer displayed when launching 3DMark2001 after launching Aquamark3 when the CATALYST™ CONTROL CENTER is installed （解決了先運行AquaMark3后運行3DMark2001時出現黑屏的問題。）
• Pacific Fighters: Playing the game after playing any track for a short period of time and having the landscape detail set to perfect no longer results in the clouds becoming blocking when flying （解決了在太平洋空戰中云的效果的問題）
• Sail Simulator 4: Attempting to play the game under Windows XP with an ATI RADEON™ 9800 XT installed no longer results in the operating system failing to respond and rebooting （解決了使用98XT在WinXP下玩模擬航海4無響應的問題）
• SolidWorks 2004: Display corruption is no longer noticed when setting the AA to 6X and AF to 16X （解決了SolidWorks 2004中的問題）
• Splinter Cell Chaos Theory: Depth buffer corruption noticed on the ATI RADEON™ X800 PRO is now resolved （解決了X800Pro運行分裂細胞3出現的深度緩沖失效的問題）
• Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic: Loading the Dantooine level of the game under Windows XP no longer results in slow game performance （解決了星球大戰之共和國的騎士的速度問題）

下面還有一些跟游戲無關的改進：

• Using the ATI Problem Report Wizard under Windows XP SP2 with an ATI RADEON™ X850 XT installed no longer results in an error message appearing when clicking the Finish button for the problem report
• CATALYST™ CONTROL CENTER: An option to select Yes or No to changes made in SMARTGART™ is now displayed when clicking the Apply button in SMARTGART™
• CATALYST™ CONTROL CENTER: Playing a video clip in the background and entering the Overlay page found in the Video section no longer results in the default value for the Hue not being reapplied unless the CATALYST™ CONTROL™ CENTER is closed and re-launched
• CATALYST™ CONTROL CENTER: Selecting Germany as the language no longer results in some of the text overlapping each other on the Unlock button
• CATALYST™ CONTROL CENTER: Selecting Netherlands (Dutch) as the language no longer results in some of the text in the Hotkey manager being cut off
• CATALYST™ CONTROL CENTER: The Bus setting information is now displayed in the Graphic Hardware section of the Information Center found
• CATALYST™ CONTROL CENTER: The Display Manager Wizard no longer contains a Component Video single display setting message, when multi-display desktop mode is selected
• CATALYST™ CONTROL CENTER: Custom modes can only be applied if the display device can support the mode selected
• Attempting to apply a higher refresh rate to a non-DDC monitor no longer results in the refresh rate reverting to 60hz.
• SXGA+ LCD panel flicker is no longer noticed when the frame buffer (UMA size) is set to 32MB or 64MB

    由于是正式版的驅動，所以我們看出ATI還是用了很多心思的，這也正是消費者需要的，因為對于顯示芯片廠商，驅動程序幾乎是唯一的售后服務形式。