Nice! Good to see the old UI being refreshed after a long time. The drop down menu didn't really annoy me as much as it was just dated for an easy to use interface, IMO.
Infusion isn't a "UI Design" firm...they're a Canadian (local to AMD Canada/oldschool ATI) MS-partner (read: "we only ever do MS work") consulting company that hires naive new grads, works them to death while billing customers a ton, then hires new grads to replace the old ones when they get fed up and leave. It's the EA business model.
I wouldn't expect miracles here. The kids probably got a couple weeks to hammer this out. Thus the feeling that it's just a coat of paint.
Those lists are a joke. None of their criteria look at things like employee satisfaction. They simply look at what are the on-paper policies. What's on paper may not be what's actually permitted. For example, many companies get points for being "telecommute" friendly, but when you start telecommuting you get warnings and general trouble.
A more accurate look would be at sites like Glassdoor.com.
Just because there is some unconsistent cutting of the screenshots' borders, I assume you don't know that by pressing Alt+printscreen you only capture the active window, not the whole screen.
It looks like the normal Vista/Win7 bordering to me. When a window isn't maximized you get the border around it that its translucent with Aero is switch on, which it was when those screenshots were taken. You can clearly see the desktop blurry behind it.
And why does it being an archive photo instantly mean it couldn't have been taken from within Vista? It was released (to the general public) on January 30th of 2007. Which means that those screencaps could be up to four years old (they aren't, I'm just saying).
But how an image was or wasn't cropped seems like a weird thing to get hung up on, especially when it's clearly an old image (I'm sure Ryan didn't install and screencap Catalyst 9.6 just for this article)
game profiles would be "huge"! it sucks having to overclock the GPU for 1 game, then underclock it when you leave the game. or changing the AA, AF or any other setting.
Radeon Profile Tool, or RadeonPro for short, is a free, user friendly utility designed to unleash the power of AMD™ Radeon™ video graphics cards. RadeonPro applies user defined profiles upon game start, just define once the desired 3D settings for each game and have all those settings applied every time you play, automatically!
I bet it still will be a > 40 Megabyte download and requires .Net (which is a big download too - plus they aren't very good at saying which version of .Net they need). That makes it huge to me. ;)
Does it allow you to set hotkeys to move windows to different displays?
AFAIK, Nvidia had that feature years ago.
I'm now on ATI cards and I don't see something like that. Is that reserved for higher end ATI stuff?
I've never seen anything wrong with .net. I use .net all the time for my itty bitty programming projects. For people who don't already have it installed from windows update or another program its only a one time download as long as the program uses the same version. And now for example, .NET 3.5 includes .net 2.0 and 3.0 support in one package. But either way its daunting with a slower connection for sure. Microsoft has also released a Client version of the framework which takes a few items out to save like 6-10MB of space. Mainly ASPx stuff. Not a big difference though.
I've always seen AMD show which .net version they use during the install. As far as I remember its been C++ 2005 for a long time now.
I never understand why i have to download 100MB, an ever increasing size for Gfx drivers. I dont understand Profiles, nor do i want an Control Panel either.
For older systems, I download the driver and use ATI Tray Tools. It's much lower overhead, and easier to control everything (including overclocking). I'cve never understood why these program are so huge.
Mac and consoles may be more popular to their target audiences: video/graphic manipulation professionals and strict gamers respectively. They both are easier to work with as they expose less functionality to the end user. That is why your power users typically espouse the benefits of the PC over the Mac or console, as they both use and desire those additional capabilities that are either hidden (Mac) or not available (console).
As to not understanding profiles, they allow you to dictate specific advanced settings on a per-application basis, allowing you to fine-tune your performance. Again, this is something that power users will most definitely take advantage of, but your typical Mac or console user would have no knowledge of.
I was thinking the same, wasn't WPF part of .net 3? Which is definitely available for XP given that .net 4 is available for XP SP3. Maybe 3 is similar and they don't want to have XP SP2 people moaning or wondering why it just doesn't work but does for their mate down the road?
At least for non-gamers (HTPC users) AMD is significantly better. Nvidia has very few controls, doesn't even let you choose deinterlacing options. And most of all, no hotkeys. That means if you want to quickly switch from 24 Hz to 60 Hz, and vice versa, you gotta do some right-clicking, or use third party solutions.
That hasn't been my experience at all. I have an nV-based HTPC (9400) and an ATI 4870 gaming rig both hooked up to the same displays (22" LCD+ 53" HDTV). Nevermind switching between 24 and 60Hz, every time I start the gaming pc before turning on the TV/AVR (and setting to the right inputs) I have to start CCC and "detect displays" to get the TV to show an image. I've tried disabling the auto-detect "feature", tried forcing detection, searched forums for fixes, but I just can't get the fucking thing to remember that there is in fact a TV permanently hooked up but not always on, and let me keep my extended desktop setting regardless of whether it detects the TV or not. With the HTPC, it's not an issue, I just turn on the tv, play vid, shift+win+left/right to set it to the secondary screen, alt+enter and enjoy. I might be an isolated case, but it pisses me off that I have to click through CCC every time I turn on the TV with the gaming rig.
Bought ATI... sorry AMD card after years being on NVidia... and... drivers won`t install, CCC won`t install ... windows update is the only one capable of installing the drivers .... AMD tech support ran out of solutions and recommended Windows reinstalation :)
But hugeeee new drivers are coming .... lets see if they`ll be able to install themselves :)
ill have to agree with that. since i have not had a major video card driver hickup in a long time. and im running two ati and one Nvidia. the only issue ive had was that notebooks sometimes have there drivers locked :) ow my what is one to do :) it will take me another 30 seconds to install my drivers :((
The only thing I really want to be changed/added is the ability for me to make a profile for 3D settings which automatically loads when it detects I launch a program/game.
Because it's the same pain for every single Radeon user out there. And .NET's just the tip of the iceberg. Catalyst 10.10 had five hotfixes, and I mean five 130 MB+ hotfixes. I downloaded more than half a gigabyte just to make a video board work correctly, until 10.11 came out. I still have nightmares...
Is it still a .net program I think is more important than any graphical change?
Personally I don't like .net (and I don't see how any end user wants to) and don't use any programs besides ccc that use it. That means I have to download a package a couple hundred MB big (and that's without the security updates) to use one small program called Ati Control Center.
Why can't the people at AMD write a proper program? They don't have to write it in assembly for crying out loud, but is C too much to ask?
I always make fun of the people I work with because they all drive cars to work. Lazy ****ers. I walk barefoot. Sure it's a lot of work (especially across the tollway) and takes a lot longer, but I'm free to go to work however I want and I'm not confined by these damn roads everyone else is so fond of using.
In other words what irked me about his comment is his perspective.
From his perspective as a software developer he is all excited about .net and that is understandable. "Tons of coding" is a lot of work, but what does the user get on the other end? CPU cycles go to waste, ram gets hogged and altogether one experiences misery and irritation (just look at the rest of the comments).
So, the developer has to be the smart one in this whole situation and think a bit less of himself.
If you want to make an analogy at least make it work. Driving or walking to work does NOT affect the end user.
Its definitely better than the previous interface but I still think the fonts and the way text is aligned on the buttons could do with a bit more polish.
They really need to get a proper designer in on this. It's over glassed, like xp with the zune theme, well even more glassy than that. It's got those really out of place and over the top round bar buttons like safari with the text styling not fitting in at all. It's one of those at first glance it looks better things. In detail, not so much.
Agreed, it's too greyish with loads of empty space in the main page with tiny text floating in it. The icons are dull, too fiddly and uninspired. Sadly a lot of applications and websites go this way with their UI redesigns.
Unusual for ATI, the last several drivers have had major bugs, and they never get fixed.
The only driver that works on my 1GB 4870 is the 10.5 one, and it's the same thing for two of my friends.
Errors include laggy game play, GPU crashes and game crashes. The laggy game play I figured out to be the GPU getting "stuck" at idle frequencies. The crashes I don't know, nothing changed in my PC.
And seeing that everything works with 10.5, it's not my system that's broken.
There is no reason for a billion dollar company to outsource UI development. And there is definately no reason to use WPF and break backwards compatibility in any way aside from DX10 and DX11. These guys are idiots.
When the first .NET version of the Catalyst Control Center was released, I vowed that my next video card would be an NVidia based one, because CCC was so annoying.
It consumes an enormous amount (~150-200 MB) of RAM, even when you're not using it, even after you close it. It is completely ludicrous that this should be necessary for a simple control panel.
It takes forever to start up. It has a serious impact on system boot time. It's possible to disable the load-at-boot arrangement, but it will take (even on a modern machine) 20-30 seconds to start on demand in that case. On the old machine I first encountered CCC on, it took over a minute to open.
The slider-type controls used everywhere in CCC are a UI design mistake. Very few other applications or control panels use sliders for any purpose, and for good reason: sliders are not "discoverable." That is, in order to find out how many options a slider presents, and what they are, you have to actually change the slider setting. In fact, in order to see what options are available, you have to try _every_ setting. And you have to remember what the original setting was, so you can put it back.
Drop-down combo boxes, list boxes, menus, and lists of radio buttons all make it possible for the user to 1) skim a list of choices that are all displayed at once and 2) see the choices available without changing the currently selected option.
Sliders are only the right choice when they're used to select a quantity on a continuous scale, like a percentage. They're never the right choice for a list of discrete, modal options, like AA mode or AF mode.
It was obvious from the start that the CCC designers were more concerned with making the application look cool than work well. This is a syndrome that effects far too many hardware control panel applications. It's inexplicable. If you built your own PC, your motherboard probably came with some awful control panel type application that is clumsy to use and needlessly graphically elaborate. And you probably don't use that horrible thing for exactly that reason. Why do hardware vendors do this? Look at this:
The NVidia control panel starts up in a flash, looks like a standard Windows app, and releases the memory it uses when you close it. It does the job I need it to do and _that is all it does_ and that's the way it should be.
And this all sucks because the last few generations of ATI/AMD cards are really good, and I'd want one if it weren't for CCC.
Appreciate that AMD is trying, but not worthy of an article. Looks like a reskin. Maybe being able to tweak some more granular 3D settings would have been cool, but even then...
Now I have to deal with another program that refuses to use native widgets and just wants to do its own thing, ignoring my system theme. I don't want individual programs to look different from anything else, that's ridiculous. I want, when I make a system theme, for everything to look like my theme. Unfortunately, it looks like the majority of developers don't really care.
Linux drivers and CCC are supposed to be on the same monthly release schedule as Windows, but reality trails.
Every third release supports KDE, the other two break it.
Release 10.6/10.7 was the most interesting. AMD never made up their mind which release it was. The d/l page was a mix of 10.6 and 10.7, the file name had 10.7 in it but it installed with 10.6 notes and docs.
Piles of people asking why the picture is not taking up the whole screen with 1080p over HDMI on ati cards. Have to go and find a deep adjustment to fix it everytime I updated my ATI/AMD drivers.
It doesn't seem that ATI/AMD has added the abiility to create and GPU-scale any custom resolution, as NVidia does. I just want it because it provides a universal workaround to any problem with correctly detecting supported resolutions. It also allows use of non-standard resolutions for users with vision difficulties.
i fkn HATE -net. ( lazy devs) so i just use my radeon display driver ... also disabled all that .NET garbage @services from my w7 64 installation. Fu NET.
...they'd do something about the lack of refresh rate override options.
Seriously, this is the one reason why any AMD/ATi card is practically useless to me, as I still have a CRT which I love and want to keep around as long as possible.
Previously I had the option of employing Entech's PowerStrip for the task, but it doesn't support AMD/ATi cards since the HD5000 series.
On top of that Microsoft, for some reason probably only they can fathom, have more or less forbidden overriding the refresh rate in Windows 7. Only the readout of the monitors EDID information is allowed if you want your graphics driver to pass WHQL certification. However incorrect and/or insufficient that EDID information may be.
Unsurprisingly I'm not too keen on using a CRT which pretty much is locked at 60Hz.
I'll stick with 10.10 for a while thanks the 10.11 were dogs that caused massive image problems and BSOD's so i went back to 10.10... will wait for a WHQL version I think.....
When ATI went to the .net design, which sucks up more memory and *IS* a stupid layout, require more work than it should be to get around... This new version UI is easily better.
Its looks and works better, but there is some changes needed to the features themselves.
A cool feature is the ability to PIN your most use options to the top - rather than dig every time.
I am having trouble finding an option for switching between bezel compensated resolution and regular eyefinity at 5706x1080. With the old interface there was a slider bar where you could change between 5706x1800(standard) and 6044x1080(bezel comp). I have not seen the silder bar in the new interface. I run through the calabration tool for bezel compensation and no new options show up in CCC like they used to.
I have driver version 11.3 with the latest CCC Interface. Where is that slider option in the new Interface?.. or at least somehere that I can see that I am actually getting 6044x1080.
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thernus - Monday, December 13, 2010 - link
I hope so! been itching to see how the 6970 stacks up against my 580!jeremyshaw - Monday, December 13, 2010 - link
Nice! Good to see the old UI being refreshed after a long time. The drop down menu didn't really annoy me as much as it was just dated for an easy to use interface, IMO.Glonk - Monday, December 13, 2010 - link
Infusion isn't a "UI Design" firm...they're a Canadian (local to AMD Canada/oldschool ATI) MS-partner (read: "we only ever do MS work") consulting company that hires naive new grads, works them to death while billing customers a ton, then hires new grads to replace the old ones when they get fed up and leave. It's the EA business model.I wouldn't expect miracles here. The kids probably got a couple weeks to hammer this out. Thus the feeling that it's just a coat of paint.
Glonk2 - Tuesday, December 14, 2010 - link
Don't be so bitter Dave.abe222 - Tuesday, December 14, 2010 - link
Hmm Infusion made this listhttp://www.canadastop100.com/toronto/
JSef - Tuesday, December 14, 2010 - link
Those lists are a joke. None of their criteria look at things like employee satisfaction. They simply look at what are the on-paper policies. What's on paper may not be what's actually permitted. For example, many companies get points for being "telecommute" friendly, but when you start telecommuting you get warnings and general trouble.A more accurate look would be at sites like Glassdoor.com.
ajp_anton - Monday, December 13, 2010 - link
Just because there is some unconsistent cutting of the screenshots' borders, I assume you don't know that by pressing Alt+printscreen you only capture the active window, not the whole screen.Also I like the AMD logo better than ATI.
Ryan Smith - Monday, December 13, 2010 - link
I take it you're referring to the shots of the old CCC? Those are archive photos; obviously the new ones don't have that issue.iLLz - Monday, December 13, 2010 - link
It looks like the normal Vista/Win7 bordering to me. When a window isn't maximized you get the border around it that its translucent with Aero is switch on, which it was when those screenshots were taken. You can clearly see the desktop blurry behind it.Minion4Hire - Monday, December 13, 2010 - link
And why does it being an archive photo instantly mean it couldn't have been taken from within Vista? It was released (to the general public) on January 30th of 2007. Which means that those screencaps could be up to four years old (they aren't, I'm just saying).But how an image was or wasn't cropped seems like a weird thing to get hung up on, especially when it's clearly an old image (I'm sure Ryan didn't install and screencap Catalyst 9.6 just for this article)
Barfo - Monday, December 13, 2010 - link
Nothing worthwhile for power users, I was hoping for nvidia style game profiles but I guess it's too much to ask.I hope the 10.12 drivers at least get us some nice performance increases for 6000 series.
marc1000 - Monday, December 13, 2010 - link
game profiles would be "huge"! it sucks having to overclock the GPU for 1 game, then underclock it when you leave the game. or changing the AA, AF or any other setting.DaFox - Tuesday, December 14, 2010 - link
Amen. Those are really needed.I would really like to adjust Catalyst A.I. per app in that as well.
Live - Tuesday, December 14, 2010 - link
http://www.radeonpro.info/en-US/Radeon Profile Tool, or RadeonPro for short, is a free, user friendly utility designed to unleash the power of AMD™ Radeon™ video graphics cards. RadeonPro applies user defined profiles upon game start, just define once the desired 3D settings for each game and have all those settings applied every time you play, automatically!
AmdInside - Monday, December 13, 2010 - link
Meh. Looks prettier but its not what i would call "huge". I was expecting much better performance, not a fresh coat of paint.Kaleid - Monday, December 13, 2010 - link
Much better performance would better unlocked streamprocessors or something.lyeoh - Monday, December 13, 2010 - link
I bet it still will be a > 40 Megabyte download and requires .Net (which is a big download too - plus they aren't very good at saying which version of .Net they need). That makes it huge to me. ;)Does it allow you to set hotkeys to move windows to different displays?
AFAIK, Nvidia had that feature years ago.
I'm now on ATI cards and I don't see something like that. Is that reserved for higher end ATI stuff?
formulav8 - Monday, December 13, 2010 - link
I've never seen anything wrong with .net. I use .net all the time for my itty bitty programming projects. For people who don't already have it installed from windows update or another program its only a one time download as long as the program uses the same version. And now for example, .NET 3.5 includes .net 2.0 and 3.0 support in one package. But either way its daunting with a slower connection for sure. Microsoft has also released a Client version of the framework which takes a few items out to save like 6-10MB of space. Mainly ASPx stuff. Not a big difference though.I've always seen AMD show which .net version they use during the install. As far as I remember its been C++ 2005 for a long time now.
kpo6969 - Monday, December 13, 2010 - link
Does that mean 10.12 is getting released today?iwod - Monday, December 13, 2010 - link
I never understand why i have to download 100MB, an ever increasing size for Gfx drivers. I dont understand Profiles, nor do i want an Control Panel either.May be that is Why Mac and Console are popular.
mino - Monday, December 13, 2010 - link
"nor do i want an Control Panel either."Actually, what you do want, based on your rant, IS the ATI Control Panel.
The old one from 2003.
DaFox - Monday, December 13, 2010 - link
You can download the drivers without the control panel.tipoo - Monday, December 13, 2010 - link
You can get the driver alone, its only a few MB.kmmatney - Monday, December 13, 2010 - link
For older systems, I download the driver and use ATI Tray Tools. It's much lower overhead, and easier to control everything (including overclocking). I'cve never understood why these program are so huge.computerdude79 - Wednesday, December 15, 2010 - link
Mac and consoles may be more popular to their target audiences: video/graphic manipulation professionals and strict gamers respectively. They both are easier to work with as they expose less functionality to the end user. That is why your power users typically espouse the benefits of the PC over the Mac or console, as they both use and desire those additional capabilities that are either hidden (Mac) or not available (console).As to not understanding profiles, they allow you to dictate specific advanced settings on a per-application basis, allowing you to fine-tune your performance. Again, this is something that power users will most definitely take advantage of, but your typical Mac or console user would have no knowledge of.
Cheers!
ciukacz - Monday, December 13, 2010 - link
poor excuse, WPF is also available for XP.under Vista it is available after OS installation.
Laitainion - Monday, December 13, 2010 - link
I was thinking the same, wasn't WPF part of .net 3? Which is definitely available for XP given that .net 4 is available for XP SP3. Maybe 3 is similar and they don't want to have XP SP2 people moaning or wondering why it just doesn't work but does for their mate down the road?poohbear - Monday, December 13, 2010 - link
what's WinXP?Belard - Tuesday, December 14, 2010 - link
The Last OS before Windows7...andy o - Monday, December 13, 2010 - link
At least for non-gamers (HTPC users) AMD is significantly better. Nvidia has very few controls, doesn't even let you choose deinterlacing options. And most of all, no hotkeys. That means if you want to quickly switch from 24 Hz to 60 Hz, and vice versa, you gotta do some right-clicking, or use third party solutions.hybrid2d4x4 - Monday, December 13, 2010 - link
That hasn't been my experience at all. I have an nV-based HTPC (9400) and an ATI 4870 gaming rig both hooked up to the same displays (22" LCD+ 53" HDTV). Nevermind switching between 24 and 60Hz, every time I start the gaming pc before turning on the TV/AVR (and setting to the right inputs) I have to start CCC and "detect displays" to get the TV to show an image. I've tried disabling the auto-detect "feature", tried forcing detection, searched forums for fixes, but I just can't get the fucking thing to remember that there is in fact a TV permanently hooked up but not always on, and let me keep my extended desktop setting regardless of whether it detects the TV or not. With the HTPC, it's not an issue, I just turn on the tv, play vid, shift+win+left/right to set it to the secondary screen, alt+enter and enjoy. I might be an isolated case, but it pisses me off that I have to click through CCC every time I turn on the TV with the gaming rig.andy o - Monday, December 13, 2010 - link
You're clearly an anomaly. It's most likely a driver thing. I'm talking about what the control panels offer, not driver bugs.khimera2000 - Tuesday, December 14, 2010 - link
Not an issue on me 4890, or 5870... I have had a simmeler issue with Nvidia cards on my old notebook using 9800 gtx video card.mino - Monday, December 13, 2010 - link
I am just hoping they do not screw up as they did the last time.Anyone remember the Control Panel where EVERYTHING worked and was snappy to boot?
Sabbathian - Monday, December 13, 2010 - link
Bought ATI... sorry AMD card after years being on NVidia... and... drivers won`t install, CCC won`t install ... windows update is the only one capable of installing the drivers .... AMD tech support ran out of solutions and recommended Windows reinstalation :)But hugeeee new drivers are coming .... lets see if they`ll be able to install themselves :)
Finally - Monday, December 13, 2010 - link
Sometimes the problem sits in front of the screen.sstteevveenn - Monday, December 13, 2010 - link
multimedia keyboards with crap drivers? :pSabbathian - Monday, December 13, 2010 - link
In many cases it is true, but sorry, this time its not....khimera2000 - Tuesday, December 14, 2010 - link
ill have to agree with that. since i have not had a major video card driver hickup in a long time. and im running two ati and one Nvidia. the only issue ive had was that notebooks sometimes have there drivers locked :) ow my what is one to do :) it will take me another 30 seconds to install my drivers :((fausto412 - Monday, December 13, 2010 - link
not likely.you probably need a clean install of windows.
Belard - Tuesday, December 14, 2010 - link
Er... never had a problem installing CCC on any computer... and I even installed this 10.12 Preview edition, without rebooting required or anything.The new UI is an improvement.
computerdude79 - Wednesday, December 15, 2010 - link
PEBKAC.zoic - Monday, December 13, 2010 - link
The only thing I really want to be changed/added is the ability for me to make a profile for 3D settings which automatically loads when it detects I launch a program/game.PLEASE!
fausto412 - Monday, December 13, 2010 - link
yeah, we need this. and it needs to be freaking simple to use.Ethaniel - Monday, December 13, 2010 - link
I can already smell the 150MB+ link right now. Hope I'm wrong, though.kwantor - Monday, December 13, 2010 - link
I didn't see your comment, heh. Shared minds or something.Ethaniel - Monday, December 13, 2010 - link
Because it's the same pain for every single Radeon user out there. And .NET's just the tip of the iceberg. Catalyst 10.10 had five hotfixes, and I mean five 130 MB+ hotfixes. I downloaded more than half a gigabyte just to make a video board work correctly, until 10.11 came out. I still have nightmares...fausto412 - Monday, December 13, 2010 - link
you don't have to get every driver that comes out....you can wait a couple of days to see what problems are reported.kwantor - Monday, December 13, 2010 - link
Is it still a .net program I think is more important than any graphical change?Personally I don't like .net (and I don't see how any end user wants to) and don't use any programs besides ccc that use it. That means I have to download a package a couple hundred MB big (and that's without the security updates) to use one small program called Ati Control Center.
Why can't the people at AMD write a proper program? They don't have to write it in assembly for crying out loud, but is C too much to ask?
Spivonious - Monday, December 13, 2010 - link
.NET is preinstalled on Vista and 7, so nothing extra to download there.You can do things in with WPF that are impossible with straight C/C++ without a ton of coding. Why reinvent the wheel?
As a software developer, I love .NET and wish more commercial apps used it.
kwantor - Monday, December 13, 2010 - link
As a -lazy- software developer, I love .NETFixed that for you mate.
seapeople - Monday, December 13, 2010 - link
I always make fun of the people I work with because they all drive cars to work. Lazy ****ers. I walk barefoot. Sure it's a lot of work (especially across the tollway) and takes a lot longer, but I'm free to go to work however I want and I'm not confined by these damn roads everyone else is so fond of using.rbarone69 - Tuesday, December 14, 2010 - link
That is one of the most ignorant comments I've ever seen....mate
kwantor - Tuesday, December 14, 2010 - link
It went completely over your head...mateEver heard about Wirth's law?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wirth's_law
In other words what irked me about his comment is his perspective.
From his perspective as a software developer he is all excited about .net and that is understandable. "Tons of coding" is a lot of work, but what does the user get on the other end? CPU cycles go to waste, ram gets hogged and altogether one experiences misery and irritation (just look at the rest of the comments).
So, the developer has to be the smart one in this whole situation and think a bit less of himself.
If you want to make an analogy at least make it work. Driving or walking to work does NOT affect the end user.
Iketh - Monday, December 13, 2010 - link
.net 4 is not preinstalledstephenbrooks - Monday, December 13, 2010 - link
Could be worse, they could have written it as a Java application, or using Adobe Air. Or Microsoft Silverlight!! <puke>kreacher - Monday, December 13, 2010 - link
Its definitely better than the previous interface but I still think the fonts and the way text is aligned on the buttons could do with a bit more polish.landerf - Monday, December 13, 2010 - link
They really need to get a proper designer in on this. It's over glassed, like xp with the zune theme, well even more glassy than that. It's got those really out of place and over the top round bar buttons like safari with the text styling not fitting in at all. It's one of those at first glance it looks better things. In detail, not so much.stephenbrooks - Monday, December 13, 2010 - link
Agreed, it's too greyish with loads of empty space in the main page with tiny text floating in it. The icons are dull, too fiddly and uninspired. Sadly a lot of applications and websites go this way with their UI redesigns.Shinobi_III - Monday, December 13, 2010 - link
Unusual for ATI, the last several drivers have had major bugs, and they never get fixed.The only driver that works on my 1GB 4870 is the 10.5 one, and it's the same thing for two of my friends.
Errors include laggy game play, GPU crashes and game crashes.
The laggy game play I figured out to be the GPU getting "stuck" at idle frequencies.
The crashes I don't know, nothing changed in my PC.
And seeing that everything works with 10.5, it's not my system that's broken.
Shadowmaster625 - Monday, December 13, 2010 - link
There is no reason for a billion dollar company to outsource UI development. And there is definately no reason to use WPF and break backwards compatibility in any way aside from DX10 and DX11. These guys are idiots.Taft12 - Monday, December 13, 2010 - link
Why not? UI development is not their core business....fausto412 - Monday, December 13, 2010 - link
do we even need to install Catalyst if we just use the default settings anyways?i mean what does the driver by itself not do with Catalyst not installed?
Lagged2Death - Monday, December 13, 2010 - link
When the first .NET version of the Catalyst Control Center was released, I vowed that my next video card would be an NVidia based one, because CCC was so annoying.It consumes an enormous amount (~150-200 MB) of RAM, even when you're not using it, even after you close it. It is completely ludicrous that this should be necessary for a simple control panel.
It takes forever to start up. It has a serious impact on system boot time. It's possible to disable the load-at-boot arrangement, but it will take (even on a modern machine) 20-30 seconds to start on demand in that case. On the old machine I first encountered CCC on, it took over a minute to open.
The slider-type controls used everywhere in CCC are a UI design mistake. Very few other applications or control panels use sliders for any purpose, and for good reason: sliders are not "discoverable." That is, in order to find out how many options a slider presents, and what they are, you have to actually change the slider setting. In fact, in order to see what options are available, you have to try _every_ setting. And you have to remember what the original setting was, so you can put it back.
Drop-down combo boxes, list boxes, menus, and lists of radio buttons all make it possible for the user to 1) skim a list of choices that are all displayed at once and 2) see the choices available without changing the currently selected option.
Sliders are only the right choice when they're used to select a quantity on a continuous scale, like a percentage. They're never the right choice for a list of discrete, modal options, like AA mode or AF mode.
It was obvious from the start that the CCC designers were more concerned with making the application look cool than work well. This is a syndrome that effects far too many hardware control panel applications. It's inexplicable. If you built your own PC, your motherboard probably came with some awful control panel type application that is clumsy to use and needlessly graphically elaborate. And you probably don't use that horrible thing for exactly that reason. Why do hardware vendors do this? Look at this:
http://images.hardwarecanucks.com/image/mac/review...
Who thought that was a good idea? Who wants that?
The NVidia control panel starts up in a flash, looks like a standard Windows app, and releases the memory it uses when you close it. It does the job I need it to do and _that is all it does_ and that's the way it should be.
And this all sucks because the last few generations of ATI/AMD cards are really good, and I'd want one if it weren't for CCC.
iamezza - Monday, December 13, 2010 - link
I think they have improved the performance of CCC a lot lately (I agree it was bad for a while there)My CCC uses 3.5MB when not active, 35MB when active.
It takes around 2-3s to load after a reboot
each subsequent load takes less than 1 second.
mind you I do have an SSD though.
Belard - Tuesday, December 14, 2010 - link
Both Nvidia and ATI..er AMD interfaces are annoying in their own ways.I hated the CCC-.net, it was so crumble-some and offered little... wow, real-time effects.
But as stated, it doesn't really use that much memory and in todays world in which $40~50 buys you 4GB of RAM... its pretty much a non-issue.
The CCC panel opens up on my 2+ year old PC with Win7 in 1~4 seconds. My whole boot time is about 40seconds with an old-fashion spinning hard drive.
Apparently, the CCC isn't effecting game performance... and its rarely used.
And besides, the new panel is actually more customizable... its actually pretty nice.
Spivonious - Monday, December 13, 2010 - link
WPF is not a Vista/7 only platform. It's available in .NET 3.0 and newer, which is available for XP.sleepeeg3 - Monday, December 13, 2010 - link
Appreciate that AMD is trying, but not worthy of an article. Looks like a reskin. Maybe being able to tweak some more granular 3D settings would have been cool, but even then...Spartacus288 - Monday, December 13, 2010 - link
Now I have to deal with another program that refuses to use native widgets and just wants to do its own thing, ignoring my system theme. I don't want individual programs to look different from anything else, that's ridiculous. I want, when I make a system theme, for everything to look like my theme. Unfortunately, it looks like the majority of developers don't really care.HangFire - Monday, December 13, 2010 - link
Not that I'm surprised.Linux drivers and CCC are supposed to be on the same monthly release schedule as Windows, but reality trails.
Every third release supports KDE, the other two break it.
Release 10.6/10.7 was the most interesting. AMD never made up their mind which release it was. The d/l page was a mix of 10.6 and 10.7, the file name had 10.7 in it but it installed with 10.6 notes and docs.
Great job, AMD! Ha.
Marlin1975 - Monday, December 13, 2010 - link
Did this fix the overscan issue when using HDMI?Piles of people asking why the picture is not taking up the whole screen with 1080p over HDMI on ati cards. Have to go and find a deep adjustment to fix it everytime I updated my ATI/AMD drivers.
BernardP - Monday, December 13, 2010 - link
It doesn't seem that ATI/AMD has added the abiility to create and GPU-scale any custom resolution, as NVidia does. I just want it because it provides a universal workaround to any problem with correctly detecting supported resolutions. It also allows use of non-standard resolutions for users with vision difficulties.papapapapapapapababy - Monday, December 13, 2010 - link
i fkn HATE -net. ( lazy devs) so i just use my radeon display driver ... also disabled all that .NET garbage @services from my w7 64 installation. Fu NET.The Solutor - Monday, December 13, 2010 - link
12.10 are out, but they are still bundles with the old CCCThe Solutor - Monday, December 13, 2010 - link
12.10 are out, but they are still bundles with the old CCCEthaniel - Tuesday, December 14, 2010 - link
http://i54.tinypic.com/ehzzo7.jpgClose enough.
mbf - Tuesday, December 14, 2010 - link
...they'd do something about the lack of refresh rate override options.Seriously, this is the one reason why any AMD/ATi card is practically useless to me, as I still have a CRT which I love and want to keep around as long as possible.
Previously I had the option of employing Entech's PowerStrip for the task, but it doesn't support AMD/ATi cards since the HD5000 series.
On top of that Microsoft, for some reason probably only they can fathom, have more or less forbidden overriding the refresh rate in Windows 7. Only the readout of the monitors EDID information is allowed if you want your graphics driver to pass WHQL certification. However incorrect and/or insufficient that EDID information may be.
Unsurprisingly I'm not too keen on using a CRT which pretty much is locked at 60Hz.
psiboyz - Tuesday, December 14, 2010 - link
I'll stick with 10.10 for a while thanks the 10.11 were dogs that caused massive image problems and BSOD's so i went back to 10.10... will wait for a WHQL version I think.....Belard - Tuesday, December 14, 2010 - link
When ATI went to the .net design, which sucks up more memory and *IS* a stupid layout, require more work than it should be to get around... This new version UI is easily better.Its looks and works better, but there is some changes needed to the features themselves.
A cool feature is the ability to PIN your most use options to the top - rather than dig every time.
Poogobbler - Saturday, April 30, 2011 - link
I am having trouble finding an option for switching between bezel compensated resolution and regular eyefinity at 5706x1080. With the old interface there was a sliderbar where you could change between 5706x1800(standard) and 6044x1080(bezel comp).
I have not seen the silder bar in the new interface. I run through the calabration tool for
bezel compensation and no new options show up in CCC like they used to.
I have driver version 11.3 with the latest CCC Interface.
Where is that slider option in the new Interface?.. or at least somehere that I can
see that I am actually getting 6044x1080.