Driver ATI Catalyst 8.12 disponibili

ATI ha rilasciato la nuova versione dei propri driver Catalyst, giunti alla release 8.12. Questi driver implementano varie innovazioni tra le quali segnaliamo il supporto alla tecnologia ATI Stream, per l'utilizzo della GPU per elaborazioni di GPU Computing, e l'integrazione di ATI AVIVO Video Converter, utility compatibile con le schede Radoen HD 4800 e Radoen HD 4600 che permette di eseguire operazioni di conversione e transcoding di flussi video servendosi in questo della potenza di elaborazione della GPU.

Di seguito i link per il download, dalla sezione software di Hardware Upgrade, in versioni per sistemi operativi Windows Vista e Windows XP, sia a 32bit che a 64bit.

Catalyst 8.12 Windows Vista 32bit

Catalyst 8.12 Windows Vista 64bit

Catalyst 8.12 Windows XP 32bit

Catalyst 8.12 Windows XP 64bit

A seguire le note fornite a corredo con i driver:

ATI Stream Computing Support

With the release of ATI Catalyst 8.12 users can unlock the potential of accelerated applications enabling ATI Stream technology for millions of ATI Radeon™ graphics processors worldwide

• ATI Stream computing harnesses the tremendous processing power of the graphics processing unit (GPU) for high-performance, data-intensive computations over a wide range of scientific, business and consumer applications.
• ATI Stream technology enables the hundreds of parallel Stream cores inside AMD graphics processors to accelerate general purpose applications. These capabilities will allow ATI Stream-enabled programs, for a variety of different tasks and from a growing number of software vendors, to operate with optimized performance or with new functionality.

ATI Stream Application: ATI AVIVO Video Converter

• Using ATI Stream technology, owners of ATI Radeon™ HD 4800 Series and ATI Radeon™ HD 4600 Series of graphics cards can help accelerate the conversion of standard and HD video into multiple formats for use on differing consumer electronics devices

ATI Catalyst Control Center: Noise Reduction for Progressive Video Content

• This release of Catalyst™ introduces a new advanced video quality control: Noise Reduction for progressive video content, which removes ghosting artifacts while preserving details of the original video. The slider control can be found in the All Settings page of the Avivo Video tab found in the Catalyst Control Center

Performance Improvements

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

• 3DMark Vantage DX10 – performance gains of up to 5% for Single and Crossfire mode. Performance gains were noticed on HD46xx, HD4550 and HD4350.
• Call of Duty: World at War DX9 – performance gains of up to 21% for Single and Crossfire mode. Performance gains were noticed on all Radeon HD48xx.
• Crysis DX10 – performance gains of up to 25% for Single and Crossfire mode. Performance gains were noticed on all Radeon HD4xxx.
• Crysis Warhead DX10 – performance gains of up to 13% for Single card mode and up to 16% for Crossfire mode. Performance gains were noticed on all Radeon HD4xxx.
• Devil May Cry 4 DX10– performance gains of up to 6% for Single and Crossfire mode. Performance gains were noticed on all Radeon HD4xxx and HD38xx.
• Fallout 3 – performance gains of up to 15% for Single card mode.
• Far Cry 2 DX10 – performance gains of up to 10% for Single card mode and up to 57% in Crossfire mode. Performance gains were noticed on all Radeon HD4xxx and HD38xx.
• FEAR DX9 – performance gains of up to 6% for Single and Crossfire mode. Performance gains were noticed on Radeon HD4870X2 and HD4870.
• Hellgate: London DX10 – performance gains of up to 6% for Single card mode and up to 10% for Crossfire mode. Performance gains were noticed on all Radeon HD4xxx.
• Left 4 Dead DX9– performance gains of up to 10% for Single card mode and up to 5% for Crossfire mode. Performance gains were noticed on all Radeon HD4870 series.
• Lost Planet Colonies DX10 – performance gains of up to 10% for Single and Crossfire mode. Performance gains were noticed on all Radeon HD4xxx and HD38xx.
• Prey OGL – performance gains of up to 15% for Crossfire mode. Performance gains were noticed on Radeon HD4870 1GB products, HD46xx, HD45xx.
• S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky – performance gains of up to 10% for Crossfire mode. Performance gains were noticed on all Radeon HD4xxx and HD38xx.
• Unreal Tournament 3 DX9 – performance gains of up to 18% for Single card mode and up to 15% in Crossfire mode, especially in cases where AA is enabled. Performance gains were noticed on all Radeon HD4xxx and HD38xx.