When Vista RC1 launched on Friday I was surprised by the lack of RC1-optimized drivers on the ATI web site. They've been stuck in 'Beta 2 Land' for quite some time. Even more surprising was the fact that nVidia drivers were almost immediately available. Well, I'm pleased to report that ATI released RC1-optimized drivers last night (9/2/2006).
Here's a direct link to the download page.
Note: ATI drivers are available in both 32 & 64-bit flavors. Once installed you will find out these drivers were compiled on 8/25/2006 and carry the version 8.29.100.0.
Aside from the additional configuration options provided by ATI's Catalyst Control Center, the most important development in this release is fact that it enables my laptop to resume from sleep. Prior to installing ATI's updated drivers my RC1 laptop (and all prior releases, mind you) would simply hang at sleep time - or when it was time to wake up. I'm happy to report that sleep now works as advertised, which is good given how prominent Microsoft has made sleep in Vista.
Enjoy!