Catalyst 7.8: Overdrive CrossFire

AMD has just made available on-line, like each month, new Catalyst drivers, this time the version 7.8. They are destined for 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows XP & Vista and for Linux. There is support for the entire line of this firm’s DirectX 9 & 10 desktop GPUs as well as its IGPs of the same generation.

One innovation is an improved Overdrive for the Radeon HD 2400 and 2600 and now they can be used in CrossFire mode. A new stress test has been integrated in order to better verify if selected frequencies are supported, however, this is not yet perfectly operational because they are currently limited to the first GPU.

In terms of optimizations, there are performance gains of 11% and more with the Radeon HD 2900XT in the DirectX 10 game Lost Planet when anti-aliasing is used. In Serious Sam 2 with HDR activated, gains up to 14.5% can be observed on the entire Radeon HD 2000 line. Probably less interesting is the 6% gain in 3D Mark 2005 & 2006 with the Radeon HD 2400 & 2600 (with or without CrossFire).

Finally, a series of bugs has been corrected, notably in the games Call of Duty : United Offensive in Windows Vista, as well as in Star Wars knights of the Old Republic II, and in games that use the Valve Source engine in Windows XP. Of course, these are just the main bugs and the complete list is found in the release notes available only through AMD’s website.