ATI Catalyst 10.6 Windows XP 32-bit

ATI released Catalyst 10.6 drivers. The new drivers have several enhancements, especially video playback related.

Here is a breakdown of the new features available in the Catalyst 10.6 display driver release, snapped directly from the release notes:

GPU acceleration of H.264 video content using Adobe Flash Player 10.1

• AMD GPU acceleration of Adobe Flash Player 10.1 delivers smooth high definition video playback and reduces system resource utilization
• Adobe Flash Player 10.1 can be accelerated on notebook and desktop platforms featuring AMD graphics including:
  • ATI Radeon HD 5000 and ATI Radeon HD 4000 series
  • ATI Mobility ATI Radeon HD 400 series (and higher)
  • ATI Radeon HD 3000 series integrated graphics (and higher)

Video De-blocking support

• Reduces blocking artifacts seen in low-bit rate video during playback
• Supported on the ATI Radeon HD 5000 Series of products

Mosquito noise reduction

• Reduces mosquito noise seen in highly compressed progressive video, during playback
• Supported on the ATI Radeon HD 5000 Series of products

Official support for OpenGL 4.0 and OpenGL 3.3

• ATI Catalyst 10.6 delivers official support for OpenGL 4.0 on the ATI Radeon HD 5000 Series
• ATI Catalyst 10.6 delivers official support for OpenGL 3.3 on the ATI Radeon HD Series

Gaming Improvements
We're sure many of you would like to know which gaming titles are improved with the Catalyst 10.6 drivers as well, so we've ripped that data from the release notes as well. According to AMD, the following performance gains are offered with the Catalyst 10.6 drivers:

3DMark Vantage

• Overall scores improve up to 5% on a single ATI Radeon HD 5970

Batman: Arkham Asylum

• Performance improves up to 5% on CrossFire ATI Radeon HD 5800 Series products
• Performance improves up to 10% on CrossFire ATI Radeon HD 5970 configurations

Aliens vs. Predator DirectX 11 Benchmark

• Performance improves up to 4% on CrossFire ATI Radeon HD 5800 Series products
• Performance improves up to 10% on CrossFire ATI Radeon HD 5970 configurations
• Performance improves up to 3% on CrossFire ATI Radeon HD 5700 Series products

Company of Heroes DX10

• Performance improves up to 7% on CrossFire ATI Radeon HD 5800 Series products
• Performance improves up to 5% with single card and CrossFire ATI Radeon HD 5970 configurations

Crysis Warhead

• CrossFire performance improves by up to 7% on ATI Radeon HD 5000 Series products

DiRT 2 DX9

• Performance improves up to 10% on single card ATI Radeon HD 5800 Series products
• Performance improves up to 10% on single card ATI Radeon HD 5970 configurations
• Performance improves up to 4% on single card ATI Radeon HD 5700 Series products

The Chronicles of Riddick - Assault on Dark Athena

• Performance improves up to 15% on CrossFire ATI Radeon HD 5800 Series products
• Performance improves up to 13% on CrossFire and single card ATI Radeon HD 5970 configurations
• Performance improves up to 8% on CrossFire ATI Radeon HD 5700 Series products

Unigine Tropics

• CrossFire performance improves by up to 8% on ATI Radeon HD 5000 Series products

World in Conflict

• Performance improves up to 6% on CrossFire ATI Radeon HD 5800 Series products
• Performance improves up to 8% on CrossFire and single card ATI Radeon HD 5970 configurations

Wolfenstein

• Performance improves up to 18% on CrossFire ATI Radeon HD 5800 Series products
• Performance improves up to 18% on CrossFire and single card ATI Radeon HD 5970 configurations
• Performance improves up to 11% on CrossFire ATI Radeon HD 5700 Series products

The Catalyst 10.6 drivers should be posted on AMD.com very soon, if they're not available already, should you want to check them out for yourselves.