AMD, Nvidia release new graphics drivers

Matthew DeCarlo

Posts: 5,271   +104
Staff

With the end of March drawing near, AMD has released its monthly driver update for Radeon graphics cards. Catalyst 11.3 doesn't offer much in the way of new features besides "seamless GPU compute support," and there are no individual application performance gains to speak of. That said, AMD has squashed a handful of bugs in Windows, including one on Windows 7 that caused tearing in Bioshock with Vsync and MLAA enabled, and another that crashed Need for Speed Shift on Windows XP.

Catalyst 11.3 release notes
Desktop: Windows XP 32-bit | Windows XP 64-bit | Windows Vista/7 32-bit | Windows Vista/7 64-bit
Mobile: Windows Vista/7 32-bit | Windows Vista/7 64-bit

Intrepid individuals might want to skip the stable 11.3 release and download the more substantial Catalyst 11.4 Early Preview. Version 11.4 improves performance in more than a dozen games when running the Radeon HD 6000 series and Windows 7, including Shogun 2, Civ V, Black Ops, HAWX, STALKER, and L4D2. There's also various tweaks to the Catalyst Control Center including new task-based Display Management controls, a Catalyst update notification, and a new Eyefinity setup group.

Catalyst 11.4 release notes
Desktop: Windows Vista/7 32-bit and Windows Vista/7 64-bit

Meanwhile, folks running an Nvidia card can take advantage of the new GeForce 270.51 beta drivers -- the first release in the 270 family (versions 270.xx to 274.xx). Nvidia's 3D Vision Controller is included in all 270 drivers and today's release brings a massive 241% to 516% performance increase in Dragon Age 2 when playing with certain quality settings on the GTX 580 and GTX 560 Ti. There are also minor boosts (4% to 11%) in Just Cause 2, Far Cry 2, Black Ops, HAWX 2, Civ V, L4D2 and Metro 2033.

GeForce 270.51 beta release notes
Desktop: Windows XP 32-bit | Windows XP 64-bit | Windows Vista/7 32-bit | Windows Vista/7 64-bit
Mobile: Windows Vista/7 32-bit | Windows Vista/7 64-bit

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Don't forget the CAP's. They are for single gpu/card users as well. Latest is 11.3 http://www.rage3d.com/index.php?cat=75#newsid33975741
 
WTH!!! Why the GTX 570 is not listed in the supported desktop products of this driver release???!!!
 
HUGE WARNING for Photoshop users!
ATI 5850 User here 11.3 and 11.4 both have gimped out the Smooth zooming in PS CS5

I tryed all kinds of things thinking, it may have been somthing else and all the new drivers packs and options. Then just downgraded to 11.2 everything is back to working 100%

I'd like to know from ATI 6xxx users if the same thing happend I was thinking about getting a 6870 upgrade and am now disgusted that AMD would gimp somthing like this just because it's not a firepro card.
 
I hope the 270 drivers will be getting the WHQL certification soon. Its been more than 2 months since Nvidia released the last unified WHQL driver.
 
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