ATI has released CATALYST 6.5 on http://www.ati.com
Highlights of the CATALYST 6.5 release include:
New Features:
Overlay Theater Mode Update
Catalyst® 6.5 introduces a new option for Overlay Theater Mode. The new option, Standard Dual Mode is available for Radeon® X1000 Avivo equipped graphics cards. This new feature allows users to playback video using hardware acceleration when it is played on both displays (clone mode). Hardware acceleration decreases CPU utilization, allowing the PC to run smoother and faster. When using two displays in clone mode, video playback will be identically displayed on both display devices. For Radeon® X1000 series products (Avivo Video) overlay is per-display and true overlay will be used for both displays. For pre-Radeon® X1000 boards, there is only one hardware overlay, so video on the second clone display device is either software-rendered (i.e. "Same on all" selection) or the Windows desktop is displayed but the video will not show through the color key (i.e., "Standard mode" selection).
Adaptive Anti-Aliasing for ATI Radeon® 9500 and above
Adaptive Anti-Aliasing uses super sample anti-aliasing on alpha-blended textures (such as a chain-link fence) that were previously impossible to anti-alias with normal multi-sample anti-aliasing. Using Adaptive Anti-Aliasing in combination with ATI’s multi-sample anti-aliasing delivers an incredible level of image quality. Previously this feature was available on the ATI Radeon® X1000 family products only. Starting with Catalyst® 6.5, Adaptive AA support is now available on ATI Radeon® 9500 and above products.
Performance Improvements
As with most Catalyst® releases, performance has increased in various situations. The PCI Express bandwidth optimization code in Catalyst® 6.5 brings performance improvements for both the ATI Radeon® X1600 and Radeon® X1300 Crossfire configurations, including:
Up to 23% gain in UT2004
Up to 20% gain in Splinter Cell
For more information on Catalyst 6.5, including all of the resolved issues in this release, please see the Catalyst 6.5 release notes found in driver download section.