Following pubilication of the most recent WHQL drivers from NVIDIA, a certain number of users found themselves unable to overclock their graphics cards. This was because of a bug that NVIDIA has hurried to correct by publishing a new version of its drivers, Betas this time. These 196.34s are now available for download here.

	At a time when the 5850s and 5870s are slowly (timidly) becoming available in some shops, the majority of the offer is still based on stock models. The stock card is relatively quiet, but it’s always possible to find improvements, either on the overclocking side or in terms of reduction of noise. Saphire were the first to show their colours with the Vapor-X version of its 5870. It looks as if Powercolor are also now joining the ranks with a customized 5850. It is reported to be equipped with an in-house cooling system, with 4 heatpipes and an 80mm fan. This should give a fairly quiet cooling system at reasonable temperatures. In keeping with the PCS+ range, this 5850 is likely to be factory overclocked but by as little as 25 MHz, more symbolic than anything else… No date has been given in terms of availability or pricing, but this card should soon be listed by the major online retailers.

	Before the announcement of the Radeon 5xxxs, users wanting to be able to connect their machine up to more than 2 screens had the option of using a Matrox solution, the DualHead2Go (or TripleHead2Go). This external box basically allows you to divide the graphics card sockets into two or three. ATI’s EyeFinity is therefore walking all over the Matrox shrubbery by offering a native solution that links up to 3 or even 6 screens (should SiX versions come out one day…). Matrox, then, had to react and its response comes in the form of GXM (Graphics eXpansion Module). This consists of secondary Dual and TripleHead2Go boxes that can be plugged into the second socket on the graphics card, even though a first box is already connected to the first. This gives a total of four (2x2) or six (3x2) screens, as many as Eyefinity. Looking at pricing, the range is from $169 for an analogue (VGA) DualHeat2Go to $329 for a TripleHeat2Go DisplayPort of DVI (Dual versions costing $229). Note that one of the weaknesses of this solution is also one of its strengths: the box is external and therefore perfectly compatible with a laptop.

	Monthly publication of ATI’s Catalysts is not always easy to keep up and, once again, the latest cutting is out at the end of the month. The Catalyst 10.1s are here for Windows XP, Vista, 7 and Linux. These first 2010 drivers improve performances by 3% in Left 4 Dead and Crysis with a Radeon 57xx or 58xx and correct a certain number of bugs, some of which affect the Eyefinity function on Radeon 5xxxs. Note also the resolution of a problem that sometimes led to the abnormal functioning of Firefox during YouTube video play on a machine equipped with Flash Player 10. ATI has also announced that the Catalyst 10.2s should bring certain changes… In the meantime, you can check out the release notes for the 10.1s here, and download them via the following links: - Catalyst 10.1 for WIndows XP 32 bits - Catalyst 10.1 for Windows XP 64 bits - Catalyst 10.1 for Windows Vista 32 bits - Catalyst 10.1 for Windows Vista 64 bits - Catalyst 10.1 for Windows 7 32 bits - Catalyst 10.1 for Windows 7 64 bits