AMD HAS ANNOUNCED its latest Catalyst 10.2 drivers, which in itself isn’t really big news as AMD has been releasing graphics drivers on a monthly basis for quite some time now. However, what is the new is that AMD is aiming to offer monthly driver updates for those with a Radeon Mobility card in their notebook, which is a huge step forward.
It’s also something of a slap in the face for Nvidia, which has just announced that it’ll start releasing its mobile graphics driver updates quarterly. From March AMD will be releasing drivers on a monthly basis for all its ATI Mobility Radeon HD notebook solutions from the 2000-series and up for Windows 7 and Vista. This is great news, especially as many notebook users are stuck using outdated drivers that might not work with the latest games or lack support for certain new features.
AMD also announced that it’s working on building a 3D “ecosystem” that will enable third-party middleware to bring 3D stereoscopic gaming to owners of ATI graphics cards. It looks like AMD is going down a similar route as Nvidia, as 120Hz screens appear to be a prerequisite. There’s no mention as to what companies AMD will be working with, but hopefully we’ll be hearing more about this from AMD’s partners shortly, as CeBIT is less than two weeks away.
Other updates in the 10.2 driver release include support for game profiles, which AMD will be able to release much quicker than a full driver. The press release states that AMD is focusing on providing access to the game profiles when a new game launches “often on the day of launch”. Once again, this is something of a blow for Nvidia, as this is something it is working on as well but has yet to deliver.
AMD is also working on wider support for panoramic gaming with CrossFireX as well as improved Eyefinity support. A new wizard has been developed to make it easier to adjust for screen bezels when Eyefinity is used, as well as providing the user more control over each of the screens in an Eyefinity setup. It’s good to see that AMD is spending more resources on its driver development because there are still many users who are complaining about AMD’s graphics driver efforts. Hopefully some of the new additions announced today will change their minds.S|A
Lars-Göran Nilsson
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