**ATi Catalyst 10.6**

AMD is poised to release a new Catalyst drive package, v10.6, that incorporates a number of new features and performance enhancements. While there are a handful of game-specific performance enhancements, it's the new video-related features that are potentially the most interesting.

Links on whats new:

New AMD Catalyst 10.6 Drivers Improve Video Playback, Gaming Performance

Adobe Flash Player 10.1 – ATi Stream, Catalyst 10.6

HQV Benchmark 2.0 Analysis – ATi, nVidia and Intel

Will upload driver links as they become available.

Update:

ATI Catalyst™ 10.6 Driver – What’s New?

New Windows Features

Highlights of the ATI Catalyst™ 10.6 Windows release includes:

GPU acceleration of H.264 video content using Adobe® Flash Player 10.1

* AMD GPU acceleration of Adobe® Flash Player 10.1 delivers smooth high definition video playback and reduces system resource utilization on notebook and desktop platforms featuring AMD graphics including:
o ATI Radeon™ HD 4000 and HD 5000 series Graphics
o ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 4000 series (and higher) Graphics
o ATI Radeon™ HD 3000 series integrated graphics (and higher)

Video De-blocking support

* Reduces blocking artifacts seen in low-bit rate video during playback
* Supported on ATI Radeon™ HD 5000 series Graphics

Mosquito noise removal

* Reduces mosquito noise seen in highly compressed progressive video, during playback
* Supported on ATI Radeon™ HD 5000 series Graphics

Official support for OpenGL 4.0 and OpenGL 3.3

* ATI Catalyst™ 10.6 delivers official support for OpenGL 4.0 on ATI Radeon™ HD 5000 series Graphics
* ATI Catalyst™ 10.6 delivers official support for OpenGL 3.3 on ATI Radeon™ HD series Graphics

New Linux Features

Highlights of the ATI Catalyst™ driver for Linux 10.6 release includes:

Official support for OpenGL 4.0 and OpenGL 3.3

* ATI Catalyst™ 10.6 delivers official support for OpenGL 4.0 on ATI Radeon™ HD 5000 series Graphics
* ATI Catalyst™ 10.6 delivers official support for OpenGL 3.3 on ATI Radeon™ HD series Graphics

Support for new Linux operating systems

* This release of ATI Catalyst™ driver for Linux introduces support for the following new operating systems:
o RHEL 5.5 production support

2D performance enhancements

* ATI Catalyst™ 10.6 delivers a new architecture for 2D acceleration. The new 2D architecture delivers fast windows resizing with Compiz/Visual-Effects and general 2D performance improvements in all AMD supported Linux distributions.

More info on the official Release Notes.

Driver Linky:

ATi Mobilty Catalyst 10.6 : Includes CCC and Device Driver

HydraVision Package : Multi Virtual Display Support, At last it works

Avivo™ Package : Package Includes: Encoder, Parental Control, Visual C++ Patch, Avivo Video Converter

Download from http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/windows/Pages/radeonmob_win7-64.aspx
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ATi Catalyst 10.6 : Desktop version, Needed to install HDMI Driver

ATi Application Profiles : Enhances particular games performance

Download from http://game.amd.com/us-en/drivers_catalyst.aspx

 

Here's a question I would love someone to explain the answer to.

If the ATI release notes say, for example in the performance section:

Game Name 1:
10% improvement observed for Mobility Radeon HD 5650 cards
12% improvement for Mobility Radeon HD 5xxx Crossfire configurations

Are they just talking about that game and card combination? (Or will that game run a little better for all cards? And will the card listed for any game work better in games NOT listed?)

 

They percentage would most likely be based on that game and card...

 

sucks it only shows improvement in the Mobility Radeon HD 5xxx series

 

Once it comes out, what is usually the best way to install the new version?

Do you completely uninstall the old one, or just install the new one on top of the old one?

 

Depends. Usually, you can install new ATI drivers over the old ATI drivers without any problems. However, if you get errors doing this, then you would have to use Driver Sweeper or some other removal program to uninstall old ATI drivers before installing the new ATI drivers.

 

10.6 fails to install over the latest Dell driver. Doesn't seem worth the trouble to uninstall, only to find out later that HDMI audio doesn't work or something.

 

ill hold off on this 10.6. i dont want to cause any problem on my dell. the 10.5 seems to work fine.

 

10.6 installed fine on my 1640, haven't seen any noticeable improvements

 

I guess the driver was uploded when I was asleep . Not a problem. Thread updated with whats new and driver links

 

A Guide to ATi Catalyst Installation. Hope it helps

 

installed 10.6, then started having problem starting up from sleep status - no video is shown on several occasions. does anyone with the updated ati driver have problems waking up from sleep mode?

 

I didnt face this issue. Did you upgrade or a clean install the driver??

 

reverted back to 10.5 and all is well again - always with a clean install.

i notice that my games were a bit slower with more tearing with 10.6. also, the sxps will sometime not be able to show the screen upon waking up from sleep convinced me to go back to 10.5.

this new driver is quite disappointing. just read alot of complaints about it in ati forums.

 

I also have the sleep problem, when awakening from sleep the screen will not turn on, putting to sleep then awakening again and it works, really anoying.

 

yes, that's exactly what i have but it doesn't happen all the time. so, i went back to 10.5 and the issue is gone. that was annoying but causing more micro stutters during game is what caused me to revert to 10.5.

it's a shame really. the idea of gpu support for flash support 10.1 and updated opengl are great. but i will not put up with these annoyances. most of gpu flash support are incorporated in older version already.

i'll hold off for the next driver.