ATI Catalyst 10.3 Preview Drivers Released
Just after the release of NVIDIA GeForce 197.13 Beta drivers, AMD has now offered the download of Catalyst 10.3 Preview driver. The new release supports the production version of Windows 7 and Windows Vista for notebooks featuring the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 2000/3000/4000/5000 series, and is also supported by most major OEMs and ODMs.
What’s new:
* Display Bezel Compensation
Easy-to-use wizard shows users how to adjust their display layout to remove the pixels occupied by their display bezels
* Per-Display Color Adjust
Individual Color, Brightness and Contrast controls
* Multiple ATI Eyefinity Groups
Create more than one ATI Eyefinity group from multiple displays
* Improved Display Configuration switching
Support for ATI Eyefinity groups and the ATI Catalyst Control Center profile manager
* Easy to toggle between cloned and extended desktop modes
Additionally, AMD has updated its Direct3D (Quad buffer support) driver to enable 3rd party middleware vendors such as iZ3D to output stereo L/R images at 120Hz (60Hz per eye)
Download:
March 18th, 2010 at 10:09 pm
I just love the healthy competition between ATI and Nvidia, because the consumer keeps winning. Example: the ATI 5850 came out at 249 and since Nvidia had no competing board actually went up in price to 299. When Fermi finally is released then the 5850 will drop in price to 229- or 199-. On the obverse Intel does not have another company “hot on their tails” and that is why they have the luxury in their words of doing what they want. It would befefit us all if AMD was a closer competitor. It would lower Intels prices and they would release newer CPUs faster. Why release something faster when you are already the fastest. You don’t have to. Intel is artificially setting the read and write speeds on their ssds. By artificially I mean “anywhere they want” because all they have to do is stay just ahead of the competition. I am not complaining, I love their ssds, but to know my write speeds are set and could be increased just by a simple flash bios upgrade? Again that will happen when and if Intel wants it too. Intel could release the Gen 3 drives today but they just don’t have to. This is just the current state of this market, not complaining, well maybe a little.
March 19th, 2010 at 8:09 am
I agree with some of that.
I think AMD will price-match 480/470 with 5890/5870. The 5850 will sit in some weird limbo because as the best value it can; until G104 is released. Then the two will spar. That would be AMD drinking nVIDIA’s milkshake, as it were. Come 28nm though at the end of this year or beginning of the next, both will likely be equals again; competitive in each segment.
As for CPUs, I actually have faith in AMDs plans. I think the setup, which is Llano (Fusion) versus dual-core Sandy Bridge and Zambezi (’4/8-core’ Bulldozer) above and below quad-core SB, will certainly spur Intel to get Haswell together on the GPU front. It’s too late for Ivy Bridge as we already know that will be essentially a quad-core Intel CPU against a Bulldozer with 2nd-gen Fusion for the mid-range and 6-8 (or what AMD would call 12-16) at the higher-end. Did I mention a half-Llano ‘Bobcat’ for laptops on 28nm in 2011? Yes, there will be competition in CPUs.
Concerning SSDs, there’s not a lot to be happy about at the moment, for which I agree, but the ~$100 boot drives (32/40GB) are a good start. Given the upcoming NAND shrinks from not only Intel, but the other suppliers, not-to-mention the new controllers like Sandforce, I think a year from now there will be not only good value on the low-end, but in-turn speed improvement and price-wars on the higher-end; bringing the tech as a whole one step closer to the mainstream. I Don’t expect true acceptance until the next-gen after that, but still, improvement and competition which is the point.
In short: Yes, 2010 kind of sucks from a consumer value and competition standpoint. But 2011 will bring good value and innovation as companies dabble in 32nm and smaller (28/25nm) process tech and products become good-enough versus their set counterparts, ie a mid-range gfx card and a low-end cpu playing a new dx11 game on a cheap 1920×1200(1080) monitor versus it’s dx9 brethern at 720p on XBOX360/PS3. End of 2011 into 2012 should bring some awesome things as well as companies create products that will eventually be transitioned to 22nm.