AMD has just released new video card drivers. As many of you are no doubt aware, you don’t have to hack these drivers to get them to work on your laptop anymore–all Mobility Radeon cards are supported by default. If you have a laptop with switchable graphics, i.e., integrated Intel/dedicated Radeon, you may have to deactivate this functionality temporarily in the BIOS and then switch it back on after you update the drivers.
The performance improvements in the latest driver releases often make it worth your while to update them, especially of you’re playing any of the more recent titles. Changes in the Catalyst 11.3 package also include improved support for AMD’s Accelerated Parallel Processing (APP, also known as GPGPU) functionality, which is now enabled by default for applications that support it.
Also keep an eye open for the next release, Catalyst 11.4, as it promises some extraordinary improvements in some games, especially for owners of the 6800 and 6900 series:
- Up to 70% performance improvement in Civilization V
- Up to 49% performance improvement in Call of Duty: Black Ops
- Up to 12% performance improvement in Q1 2010
- Up to 21% performance improvement in Wolfenstein MP
- Up to 15% performance improvement in Tom Clancy’s HAWX
- Up to 17% performance improvement in STALKER: Call of Pripyat
- Up to 28% performance improvement in the Metro 2033
- Up to 33% performance improvement in left 4 dead 2
- Up to 26% performance improvement in FarCry 2
- Up to 22% performance improvement in Batman: Arkham Asylum
- Up to 18% performance improvement in Aliens Vs. Predator
An early preview is already available.