14 DAY TRIAL // As it happens every month, ATI, business unit of Advanced Micro Devices, has completed and brought out the latest version of its ATI Catalyst Driver Suite for graphics adapters. The new version is known as Catalyst 10.7 and brings along a fair number of improvements and fixes for certain issues that existed in all Windows operating system, and Windows 7 in particular. Furthermore, the new installment even enables ATI Radeon GPU acceleration of VLC 1.1.1 Media Player.
One thing the software does is enhance the pull-down detection algorithm which, in turn, improves visual quality on certain types of video content. This feature is supported on all Radeon HD 5000 GPUs. In terms of Eyefinity technology, the window is now maximized across multiple displays and will take into account user-defined bezel compensation. Furthermore, dialog boxes will be properly placed, and users can choose which display to show them on. Not only that, but even the windows position can be adjusted when dragging and dropping windows, and this improves title bar visibility.
When it comes to raw performance, Radeon HD 5800 and HD 5700 Series cards will run 3-5% better with anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering enabled. HD 5600 cards will run 2-6% better, as will HD 5500 models under similar conditions. The HD 4800 line will get 2-10% more powerful, both in single-card or Crossfire setups. As for the dual-GPU HD 5970, it should get 3-8% better, whether in single-GPU or multi-GPU scenarios.
VLC 1.1.1 Media Player will now be able to use GPU acceleration of h.264 video content on ATI Radeon HD 5000 and ATI Radeon HD 4000 Series. As for a final bonus, AMD managed to resolve some issues that plagued previous iterations of this driver on all versions of Windows, and Windows 7 in particular, mostly related to error reporting and certain critical issues. For one, system failure will no longer occur when running Unigine Heaven 2.1 (OpenGL) with "Tessellation" enabled. The screen will also no longer turn blank when turning the flashlight on in The Chronicles of Riddick 2" with Screen Space Ambient Occlusion enabled.
For the full list of changes, as well as direct download of the suitable versions of the Catalyst Display Driver 10.7, users need only follow one of the links below.
ATI Catalyst Display Driver Suite 10.7 for XP ATI Catalyst Display Driver Suite 10.7 for XP64 ATI Catalyst Display Driver Suite 10.7 for Vista/Win7 ATI Catalyst Display Driver Suite 10.7 for Vista64/Win7 x64