CATALYST 4.3 Driver Report

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The Firing Squad have thrown up their Catalyst 4.3 Driver Report!

They tested Catalyst 4.2 against the newly released Catalyst 4.3 using the following Radeon cards 9800 XT , 9800 Pro 128 MB, 9700 Pro, 9600 Pro, 9500 Pro, 9500, 8500 and using the following benchmarks NASCAR Racing 2003 Season, Quake III: Arena version 1.32, Unreal Tournament 2003, IL-2 Sturmovik: Forgotten Battles, Splinter Cell and Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness.

While the public continues to speculate about ATI?s upcoming PCI Express and graphics plans, ATI?s CATALYST driver team has been busy cranking out new drivers. Each new release this year has added new features, whether its enhanced OVERDRIVE, newer MultiMedia Center software, or what was arguably CATALYST 4.2?s most popular feature, Direct3D setting enhancement, ATI?s most recent drivers have all contained something new to talk about.

CATALYST 4.3 is no exception, as ATI has incorporated SURROUNDVIEW in this driver set. SURROUNDVIEW is a feature that was introduced with ATI?s integrated RADEON 9100 IGP for the Pentium 4 platform. When a RADEON 9100 IGP-based motherboard is paired with a dual display card like the RADEON 9800, up to three displays can be used simultaneously by the end user. SURROUNDVIEW is supported by the entire RADEON 9x00 family (excluding the RADEON 9700 and RADEON 9100), giving end users with one of these graphics cards or motherboards, a tempting excuse to upgrade.

We recently got our hands on ASUS? RADEON 9100 IGP board, the P4R800-V Deluxe and will have a full review shortly with our impressions of SURROUNDVIEW and gaming/productivity applications.

CATALYST 4.3 Driver Report