Here it is the first Catalyst drivers for the year 2008 are finally online. They are logically numbered 8.1, and thus their output with a dedicated beta hotfix Radeon AGP cards.
MultiView: OpenGL acceleration for all graphics cards
The main improvement of these drivers Catalyst 8.1 Concerning support for hardware acceleration of OpenGL applications for all Radeon graphics cards in the PC and not just for the primary graphics card. This function is called MultiView interest and therefore particularly those who use an extended desktop on several screens eg for 3D design applications. So far, the performance OpenGL graphics cards other than the main were more than disappointing lack of hardware acceleration. MultiView does not of course CrossFire configurations, since in that case the acceleration of OpenGL applications had already managed.
New Radeon HD Supported
Apart from the MultiView, these drivers Catalyst 8.1 also fixes some bugs in video games Bioshock, Call of Juarez, Enemy Territories Quake Wars, Half-Life 2: Episode 2, FEAR, Oblivion, Stalker, TianJi, TimeShift, World and World In Conflict of Warcraft. But we should also note in this version 8.1 support GPUs Radeon 3200 HD, Radeon 3450 HD, Radeon 3470 HD, and even support for the new weapon AMD / Ati, the Radeon 3870 HD X2, which will be equipped with two GPUs running in CrossFire on the same card. The latter is expected for the month of February.
The drivers ignored Linux
Usually always updated with the same frequency as their counterparts Windows, Linux Edition Catalyst drivers have not yet emerged in version 8.1. But their release said it should not delay. Note that the function MultiView detailed above will be supported on Linux probably with version 8.1.
The Radeon AGP again supported?
Alongside these drivers Catalyst 8.1 WHQL graphics driver whose 8.451.0 is dated December 20, 2007, Ati also offers a hotfix based on the Catalyst 8.1, which contains the pilot 8.451.4 dated January 11, 2008. According to the manufacturer, this hotfix or beta this driver finally corrects compatibility problems with the Radeon AGP cards which we talked about yet TLD few days ago especially with DirectX applications (see the News and The Catalyst ' AGP, it is still not that ...). As you know, Ati has completely set aside the support AGP in its drivers from Catalyst 7.7 of last summer, which is hard to understand! Hopefully, these drivers 8.1 beta redorent coat of arms of the manufacturer pending WHQL drivers for the Radeon AGP ...
Note that these drivers Catalyst 8.1 beta are also intended for the owners of a CrossFire configuration wishing to give heart to joy in the video game Crysis performance since DirectX 10 were revised upwards.
