New version of ATI Catalyst drivers appear

CHIP DESIGNER AMD has released new versions of its yet to be rebranded ATI Catalyst drivers.

While the Catalyst 10.8 drivers are basically designed for those who are looking for better performance while playing StarCraft II there are some interesting hints at upcoming graphics attractions from AMD.

Buried amongst the drivers are some codenames of graphics cards that might be released someday. These include "223, CAYMAN GL XT (6700), NI CAYMAN 224, CAYMAN GL XT (6701), NI CAYMAN 225 ,CAYMAN GL XT (6702), NI CAYMAN 226, CAYMAN GL XT (6703), NI CAYMAN 227, CAYMAN GL PRO (6704)" and shedloads of others.

The NI references have Toms Hardware baffled. All it thinks those could refer to is Northern Islands based technology. But all we know about the next generation of ATI, er, AMD graphics gear is that it is all called Southern Islands, while Northern Islands will come later. And if you ask any New Zealander they will tell you that the South Island is a bit earthquake prone at the moment.

Leaving all that aside, the new ATI Catalyst drivers provide anti-aliasing for StarCraft II, City of Heroes and City of Heroes Going Rogue, as well as some new application profiles for Crossfire users and some performance enhancements for some games.

There are improvements to 3D accelerated graphics in web browsers that supports OpenGL ES 2.0, enhanced video options and performance enhancements for Eyefinity Quad ATI CrossFireX configurations. µ