ATi has just released the Catalyst 8.5 drivers for Windows XP and Vista, you can download a copy here (hotlinking to the actual driver page is disabled).
The entire 8.x line has been of sub-par quality to date (8.3 and 8.4 in particular, which seem to crash randomly on a large percentage of Vista machines), hopefully the 8.5 release can provide a much-needed boost in terms of quality and stability.
It’s obviously too early to tell if the 8.5 releases addresses these issues, which are not listed in the release notes, but it’s possible that some of the causes of the problem have been resolved as a result of one or more of the bugfixes in this version.
8.5 sucks compared to 8.4
For the first time since 7. something i had huge issues installing the update. CCC wouldn’t install properly again and again. Finally it installed manually after the driver, but having stability issues and the odd bsod now. Running crossfirex 3870’s, freakin bs.
Well, I can (unfortunately) confirm that the 8.5 ATi drivers have not solved the atikmdag issues.
AMD really needs to overhaul its driver department, their Windows Vista drivers are terrible!
Having some better luck now that its been a few days. Running Company of Heroes max/ultra everything + 8xAA avg 50fps in benchmark.
After installing a new Asus graphics card (EAH3450/HTP/512M Radeon HD 3450) with 512 on board (trying to up by Vista Experience Score) and having huge driver issues (including having CCC unistall my mobo chipset drivers), the card is in its box awaiting better Vista drivers.
I wiped the machine in the meantime and am using the on-board graphics. The came card had the same problem in the gf’s Gateway 5622. Yes, I bought two of them.