ATI Catalyst 5.11 Performance Analysis and Driver Download

Final Thoughts

 

There we have it, another month and another set of drivers for us to look at. It would seem that the biggest emphasis on this driver release was performance particular for OpenGL. We think that ATI have mainly concentrated on the new flagship Radeon X1800XT this month but in the mean time the higher and mid range cards both get a noticeable performance increase in games like Doom 3 and Quake 4.

 

There is no denying that OpenGL has always been one of ATI's weakest points but it is fantastic to see that they have stuck their heads together and figured out how to get more performance from games.

 

If you're only playing F.E.A.R. at the moment, upgrade anyway for the list of bug fixes that come with each new driver release and if you're playing anything that utilizes OpenGL, upgrade for more performance. All in all we have a great driver this time around and it does make writing so much easier when we start gaining a few FPS here and there in games. After all, it comes back to "free performance" and of course we don't have to tell you how much we love it.

The next big thing we want to see is better support for Dual Core processors, so come on ATI give us some more FPS and make nVidia sweat a bit more!

 

Editor Note: Later today we're talking about the new Catalyst drivers again in an article which will look fully at performance with the new X1800XT - make sure you check on the front page for the link.