ATI New Catalyst 10.10 WHQL Driver Suite

On the occasion of kick-starting its new generation of graphics processors, the Radeon HD 6800 series, AMD backed it up with the launch of [the first] AMD Catalyst, version 10.10 WHQL. The Catalyst software suite installs drivers for installed ATI/AMD Radeon graphics processors, AMD chipsets, as well as installs relevant system software. The major change of course is added official support for Radeon HD 6800 series GPUs, but also a big set of new features, namely support for Blu-ray 3D, Stereoscopic 3D powered by Dynamic Digital Depth (DDD) and iZ3D; AMD Catalyst Accelerated Parallel Processing (APP) technology; added hardware video acceleration for HD WMV, and enahnced Dynamic Contrast video controls. It doesn't stop here, a boat-load of game and GPU-specific performance increments were announced, that covers a number of Radeon HD 5000 series GPUs, which are detailed below.

A detailed list of changes follows.

New Features

• Introduction of AMD HD3D Technology
• Blu-ray 3D support
o This release of AMD Catalyst provides support for Blu-ray 3D playback
o Requires Blu-ray 3D player software, 3D supported display and 3D Stereoscopic glasses
o Supported on the AMD Radeon HD 6800 Series

• Stereo 3D gaming support
o This release of AMD Catalyst provides support for Stereo 3D gaming via 3rd party Stereo 3D Conversion Software from Dynamic Digital Depth (DDD) and iZ3D
o Requires 3D supported display and 3D Stereoscopic glasses
o Supported on the ATI Radeon HD 5000 Series and AMD Radeon HD 6800 Series

• Introduction of AMD Catalyst Accelerated Parallel Processing (APP) technology Edition
• There will now be two variants of the AMD Catalyst package available:
1. AMD Catalyst – includes the Direct3D, OpenGL, Display driver and AMD Catalyst Control Center components
2. AMD Catalyst Accelerated Parallel Processing (APP) technology Edition Edition (same as ATI Catalyst, but includes the OpenCL driver) – Everything found in AMD Catalyst, plus the OpenCL driver

• Users can still grab all of the individual AMD Catalyst components as well (which will also include the OpenCL driver as well)
• Video accleration for HD WMV video content
• This release of AMD Catalyst provides video acceleration support for WMV HD (Microsoft video codec) under Windows 7
• Supported on the ATI Radeon HD 5000 Series of products
• Enahnced Dynamic Contrast video controls
• This release of AMD Catalyst enhances the Dynamic Contrast setting found in the Catalyst Control Center by adding support for histogram based detection

Performance Highlights of the AMD Catalyst 10.10 release include:

• Metro 2033:
o Performance increases up to 7% on ATI Radeon HD 5800 Series single and CrossFire configurations
o Performance increases up to 8% on ATI Radeon HD 5700 Series single and CrossFire configurations
o Performance increases up to 5% on ATI Radeon HD 5600 Series in DirectX 11 and 10 modes
o Performance increases up to 5% on ATI Radeon HD 5500 Series in DirectX 11 and 10 modes
o Performance increases up to 4% on ATI Radeon HD 5400 Series in DirectX 11and 10 modes

• S.T.A.L.K.E.R. : Call of Pripyat Benchmark:
o Performance increases up to 7% on single ATI Radeon HD 5800 Series products

• Unigine Heaven:
o Performance increases up to 9% on ATI Radeon HD 5800 Series single and CrossFire configurations with anti-aliasing enabled
o Performance increases up to 8% on ATI Radeon HD 5700 Series single and CrossFire configurations with anti-aliasing enabled

• World in Conflict:
o Performance increases up to 9% on ATI Radeon HD 5600 Series
o Performance increases up to 10% on ATI Radeon HD 5500 Series

• Aliens vs. Predator DirectX 11 Benchmark:
o Performance increases up to 6% on ATI Radeon HD 5800 Series single and CrossFire
o Performance increases up to 5% on ATI Radeon HD 5700 Series single and CrossFire
o Performance increases up to 5% on ATI Radeon HD 5600 Series
o Performance increases up to 5% on ATI Radeon HD 5500 Series
o Performance increases up to 4% on ATI Radeon HD 5400 Series

• Crysis Warhead:
o Performance increases up to 9% on Single ATI Radeon HD 5800 Series products with anti-aliasing enabled

• Far Cry 2:
o Performance increases up to 7% on Single ATI Radeon HD 5800 Series products