Disponibili online i driver ATI Catalyst 10.2

ATI ha reso disponibile la versione 10.2 dei propri driver Catalyst per schede video Radeon; si tratta di una cosiddetta mayor release, nella quale quindi trovano spazio varie ottimizzazioni e novità particolarmente importante. Segnaliamo tra le principali:

• integrazione delle application profiles per le configurazioni ATI CrossFireX;
• supporto della tecnologia PowerPlay per configurazioni CrossFireX;
• supporto di segnale audio via connessione DisplayPort;
• supporto CrossFireX a configurazioni Eyefinity con 3 display;
• varie ottimizzazioni prestazionali.

Maggiori informazioni su questi driver, nonché sulle novità che verranno implementate a Marzo nella release 10.3 dei driver, sono disponibili in questo articolo di approfondimento. A seguire i link per il download:

• Catalyst 10.2 Windows Vista - 7 32bit
• Catalyst 10.2 Windows Vista - 7 64bit
• Catalyst 10.2 Windows XP 32bit
• Catalyst 10.2 Windows XP 64bit

Di seguito la lista completa degli aggiornamenti implementati:

ATI Catalyst™ application profiles for ATI CrossFireX™ supported configurations

This release of ATI Catalyst™ delivers support for the latest ATI CrossFireX™ profiles in a separate executable file, ensuring users have access to the absolute latest set of profiles installed on their PC.

- The ATI Catalyst™ 10.2 package includes the fully qualified ATI Catalyst™ 10.2 application profile list (which includes all ATI CrossFireX profiles) and is installed by default
- The latest application profile list is posted on amd.com in a separate .exe file that users can install to get the absolute latest application profiles (that have not yet been added to the official ATI Catalyst™ release)

ATI Catalyst™ support for PowerPlay™ on ATI CrossFireX™ technology supported configurations

Significant power saving benefits for users with ATI Radeon™ HD 5900 Series, ATI Radeon™ HD 5800 Series, and ATI Radeon™ HD 5700 Series setup in ATI CrossFireX™ configurations.

- Automatically enabled in the ATI Catalyst™ driver for Windows® 7 and Windows Vista
- Sets secondary GPU(s) engine and memory clocks to low levels and reduces voltage when the GPU(s) are not in use

ATI Catalyst™ support for DisplayPort audio

This release of ATI Catalyst™ provides support for DisplayPort audio for DisplayPort panels.

Support for ATI CrossFireX™ on Eyefinity configurations

The ATI Catalyst™ 9.12 hotfix release provides ATI CrossFireX™ support on Eyefinity configurations, allowing users to take advantage of their additional GPUs for increased gaming performance when driving high resolution Eyefinity display groups.  Supported on the ATI Radeon™ HD 5970 Series, ATI Radeon™ HD 5800 Series, ATI Radeon™ HD 5700 Series, and ATI Radeon™ HD 5600 Series.

Performance Improvements

The following performance gains are noticed with this release of Catalyst™ 10.2:

- DiRT 2 – Overall performance improves up to 8% on ATI Radeon™ HD 5970, ATI Radeon™ HD 5800 series, and ATI Radeon™ HD 5700 series products
- Battleforge – CrossFire ATI Radeon™ HD 5870 performance improves up to 6%
- Unigine Heaven – DirectX 9 CrossFire performance has improved significantly on ATI Radeon™ HD 5700 and ATI Radeon™ HD 5800 series products
-  The Chronicles of Riddick – Assault on Dark Athena – Overall performance on ATI Radeon™ HD 5970 improves up to 4%