Introduction

 

The second part to our Catalyst Performance Analysis is to have a look at the new X1800XT and how it benefits from the latest driver release - Catalyst 5.12 (December 2005).

 

What we found out in our first look at the 5.12s is that the higher end X850XT and mid level X700PRO got the most advantage on the latest release.

 

If you didn't get a chance to look at our first article we have just recapped below the release notes from the latest driers.

 

Release Notes from ATI

 

From ATI:

 

Catalyst 5.12 improves a variety of CPU-bound performance cases when an ATI product is installed in conjunction with a dual-core or hyperthreading CPU. Performance gains include:

 

3DMark05 gains as much as 5.7%

 

3DMark03 gains as much as 3.3%

 

3DMark2001 SE gains up to 10%

 

Aquamark 3 gains up to 16%

 

Comanche 4 improves as much as 20%

 

Far Cry gains as much as 25% on some product configurations

 

Half-Life 2 performance improves as much as 8%

 

Splinter Cell improves as much as 8% in certain parts of the game

 

Tomb Raider Angel of Darkness runs as much as 10% faster

 

Unreal Tournament 2004 framerates improve as much as 10%