Introduction

 

As we near the end of the year, we see the final official Catalyst release from ATI under the 5 series name. Next year we will have the 6.1's and start all over again as long as ATI keep up with their promise for monthly driver releases, which has remained true for a long while now.

 

In the mean time we will look at the final set of drivers from ATI for 2005 and see just how we go.

 

Let's have a quick once over look on the release notes, have a look at the test system and get those all important benchmark scores happening, the real reason you visited this article.

 

Release Notes from ATI

 

From ATI:

 

Catalyst 5.12 improves a variety of CPU-bound performance cases when an ATI product is installed in conjunction with a dual-core or hyperthreading CPU. Performance gains include:

 

3DMark05 gains as much as 5.7%

 

3DMark03 gains as much as 3.3%

 

3DMark2001 SE gains up to 10%

 

Aquamark 3 gains up to 16%

 

Comanche 4 improves as much as 20%

 

Far Cry gains as much as 25% on some product configurations

 

Half-Life 2 performance improves as much as 8%

 

Splinter Cell improves as much as 8% in certain parts of the game

 

Tomb Raider Angel of Darkness runs as much as 10% faster

 

Unreal Tournament 2004 framerates improve as much as 10%