This particular software suite updates both the ATI Display Driver (version 8.252), and the Catalyst Control Center (version 6.5). This unified driver has been further enhanced to provide the highest level of power, performance, and reliability. The ATI Catalyst software suite is the ultimate in performance and stability.
Overlay Theater Mode Update
Catalyst 6.5 introduces a new option for Overlay Theater Mode. The new option, Standard Dual Mode is available for Radeon X1x00 series of graphics cards. This new feature now allows users to playback video using hardware acceleration when it is played on both displays (clone mode). Hardware acceleration decreases CPU utilization, allowing the PC to run smoother and faster. When using two displays in clone mode, video playback will be identically displayed on both display devices. For Radeon X1000 series products (Avivo Video) overlay is per-display and true overlay will be used for both displays. For pre-Radeon X1x00 boards, there is only one hardware overlay, so video on the second clone display device is either software-rendered (i.e. "Same on all" selection) or the Windows desktop is displayed but the video will not show through the color key (i.e., "Standard mode" selection).
Adaptive Anti-Aliasing for ATI Radeon 9500 and above
Adaptive Anti-Aliasing smoothes out the surfaces in an entire scene unlike Multi-Sample which works only on edge surfaces. Adaptive AA has the ability to work on transparent or opaque texels, like those that comprise a surface texture. Previously this feature was available on the ATI Radeon X1000 family products. Starting with Catalyst 6.5, Adaptive AA support is now available to ATI Radeon 9500 products and above.
Performance Improvements
As with most Catalyst releases, performance has increased in various situations. The PCI Express bandwidth optimization code in Catalyst 6.5 brings performance improvements for both the ATI Radeon X1600 and RadeonX1300 Crossfire configurations, including:
* Up to 23% gain in UT2004
* Up to 20% gain in Splinter Cell
Release Notes Download for Microsoft Windows 2000/XP Download for Microsoft Windows XP/2003 x64 Edition
