Driver ATI Catalyst 8.6 disponibili per il download

AMD ha reso disponibili per il download una nuova versione di driver Catalyst, sia per sistemi operativi Windows XP e Vista che per quelli Linux. Tra le principali novità segnaliamo varie ottimizzazioni prestazionali con alcuni titoli, in particolare per le schede video ATI Radeon HD delle serie 2000 e 3000, oltre all'inclusione del supporto all'Adaptive Anti Aliasing con API Open GL.

Il supporto alle tecnologie CrossfireX con 3 e 4 schede video in parallelo è stato inoltre esteso anche alle API Open GL: con le precedenti versioni di driver questo era infatti limitato alle sole API DirectX. Di seguito i link per il download diretto delle versioni di driver per sistemi operativi Windows XP e Windows Vista, a 32bit come a 64bit.

• Driver ATI Catalyst 8.6 Windows Vista 32bit
• Driver ATI Catalyst 8.6 Windows Vista 64bit
• Driver ATI Catalyst 8.6 Windows XP 32bit
• Driver ATI Catalyst 8.6 Windows XP 64bit

Queste le principali novità implementate nei nuovi driver Catalyst per sistemi operativi Windows XP e Windows Vista:

Performance improvements

• 3DMark Vantage: Performance increases between 10% to 15% across the ATI Radeon™ HD 3000 Series and the ATI Radeon HD 2000 Series of products, with larger performance gains in specific cases.
• Call of Duty 4: Performance increases across the ATI Radeon™ HD 3000 Series and the ATI Radeon™ HD 2000 Series of products, with performance gains as large as 35% in specific maps.
• Call of Juarez DX10: Performance increases between 2% and 9% across all ATI Radeon™ HD 3000 Series and the ATI Radeon™ HD 2000 Series of products
• Company of Heroes (DX10 version): Performance increases between 4% and 10% across the ATI Radeon™ HD 3600 Series and the ATI Radeon™ HD 3400 Series of products.
• Lost Planet (DX10 version): Performance increases of 1 or 2 frames per second across the ATI Radeon™ HD 3000 Series products and the ATI Radeon™ HD 2000 Series of products, resulting in as much as a 20% performance increase.
• Lost Planet (DX9 version): Performance increases between 2% and 20% across the ATI Radeon™ HD 3000 Series and the ATI Radeon™ HD 2000 Series or products
• Prey (OpenGL): Performance increases between 3% and 5% s across the ATI Radeon™ HD 3000 Series and the ATI Radeon™ HD 2000 Series or products
• Quake 4 (OpenGL): Performance increases up to 8% across the ATI Radeon™ HD 3000 Series and the ATI Radeon™ HD 2000 Series or products
• Shadermark 2.1: Minor performance improvements across the ATI Radeon™ HD 3000 Series and the ATI Radeon™ HD 2000 Series or products, with the largest gains appearing on the ATI Radeon™ HD 3650 (up to 9%)
• ViewPerf 10: Substantial performance improvements across several of the sub-tests, with the largest gains in ugnx (up to 55%), catia (up to 17%) and tcvis (up to 10%) across the ATI Radeon™ HD 3000 Series and the ATI Radeon™ HD 2000 Series or products

New features

OpenGL Adaptive Anti-Aliasing Custom Filters support

• This release of Catalyst™ introduces Adaptive Anti-Aliasing Custom Filters support for OpenGL applications for the ATI Radeon HD 3000 Series, ATI Radeon HD 2000 Series of products.  Using the Edge Detect Custom Filter, users can enable 12X and 24X Anti-Aliasing.  Selecting 4X Anti-Aliasing plus selecting the Edge Detect filter delivers the equivalent of 12X Anti-Aliasing.  Selecting 8X Anti-Aliasing plus selecting the Edge Detect filter delivers the equivalent of 24X Anti-Aliasing. 

OpenGL CrossFireX (QUAD) support – 3 or 4 GPUs in CrossFire mode

• This release of Catalyst™ introduces CrossFireX QUAD support for OpenGL applications.  Users with any combination of a ATI Radeon™ HD 3870, ATI Radeon™ HD 3850, and ATI Radeon™ HD 3870 X2 graphics accelerators running with 3 or 4 GPUs will be able to run in CrossFireX QUAD mode (when used in a CrossFireX compatible PC). 

Catalyst Install enhancement – No reboot required after Catalyst upgrade install

• This release of Catalyst™ introduces an enhancement to the Catalyst installer.   Users are no longer required to reboot their system after Catalyst has finished installing (as long as the installation is an upgrade from a previous Catalyst install).

Resolved Issue highlights

• Bioshock: Corruption is no longer noticed in the water's reflection.
• Call of Duty 4: Enabling AA no longer results in intermittent corruption being noticed when playing the game on a system running Windows Vista with an ATI Radeon™ HD 38x0 series of product installed.
• Crysis: Momentary corruption is no longer noticed in the body of water when a soldier pierces through the clouds.
• Crysis: Playing a DX10 version of the game no longer results in flickering being noticed within the bushes and on the trees when the in-game advanced setting are set to low.
• Frontlines: Fuel of War: Flickering and corruption is no longer noticed when playing the game on a system containing an ATI Radeon™ HD 3800 series of product when CrossFire™ is enabled.
• Guitar Hero III: Shadows are no longer seen in the middle-bottom portion of the display where the music score is located.
• Lost Planet: Running the cave test on a system containing an ATI Radeon™ HD 38x0 series of product no longer results in low FPS values.
• Sins of a Solar Empire: Corruption is no longer noticed when playing the game on a system running Windows Vista and containing either an ATI Radeon™ X1xx0 or 9700 series of product.
• Stalker: Enabling CrossFire™ no longer results in the clear sky failing to scale properly.
• Unreal Tournament 3: Scaling is now functioning when using 24 or more bots when CrossFire™ is enabled.

AMD ha inoltre rilasciato anche una versione di driver Catalyat 8.6 per sistemi operativi Linux; di seguito le principali note a corredo con questi driver:

New features

Support for UYVY and YUY2 pixel formats

• This release of ATI Catalyst™ Linux introduces support for UYVY and YUY2 pixel format conversion to RGBA output for video playback

Resolved Issue highlights

• Enemy Territory: Quake Wars: Playing the demo on a system running X no longer results in corruption being noticed.
• Maya 2008: An incorrect colormap is no longer displayed for texture selector on systems running X.
• Quake 3 Arena (demo): Segmentation faults no longer occur when attempting to play the game.
• Quake3: Corruption is no longer noticed when changing the display resolution when the game is running.