AMD has timed its latest 8.6 Catalyst drivers to be released just prior to the launch of RV770 (which we've just heard has been pushed forward to a mere 10 hours away from now - expect our first article online right on the nda lift, and with more to follow soon after).

The new Catalyst 8.6 release brings much in the way of new features, some BIG performance increases and bug fixes. You can get the full run down of all the changes and additions within the official release notes here.

Download 'em for XP and Vista (both 32 and 64-bit) here.

- 3DMark Vantage: Performance increases between 10% to 15% across the ATI Radeon HD 3000 Series and the ATI Radeon HD 2000 Series of products, with larger performance gains in specific cases.

- Call of Duty 4: Performance increases across the ATI Radeon HD 3000 Series and the ATI Radeon HD 2000 Series of products, with performance gains as large as 35% in specific maps.

- Call of Juarez DX10: Performance increases between 2% and 9% across all ATI Radeon HD 3000 Series and the ATI Radeon HD 2000 Series of products

- Company of Heroes (DX10 version): Performance increases between 4% and 10% across the ATI Radeon HD 3600 Series and the ATI Radeon HD 3400 Series of products.

- Lost Planet (DX10 version): Performance increases of 1 or 2 frames per second across the ATI Radeon HD 3000 Series products and the ATI Radeon HD 2000 Series of products, resulting in as much as a 20% performance increase.

- Lost Planet (DX9 version): Performance increases between 2% and 20% across the ATI Radeon HD 3000 Series and the ATI Radeon HD 2000 Series or products

- Prey (OpenGL): Performance increases between 3% and 5% s across the ATI Radeon HD 3000 Series and the ATI Radeon HD 2000 Series or products

- Quake 4 (OpenGL): Performance increases up to 8% across the ATI Radeon HD 3000 Series and the ATI Radeon HD 2000 Series or products