ATI Catalyst 10.1 BETA Adds New OpenGL Extensions

A new set of Catalyst graphics drivers is available. This driver is the BETA version of the upcoming Catalyst 10.1.

From this source, there are several new things in Catalyst 10.1:

• CrossFire X profiles per application will now be in a separate XML file that it will be possible to update independently of the driver itself
• ATI CrossFire X with PowerPlay for the Radeon 5x00s: reduced energy consumption of additional cards
• AMD Dual Graphics: Possibility of combining performances of the IGP of the RS880 with the forthcoming entry level GPUs from the Cedar and Park ranges.
• 3D Stereoscopics: Update of the D3D driver so as to allow third party firms such as IZ3D to use their 3D solution with 120 Hz screens. Support for Bit Cauldron glasses.
• Eyefinity: Bezel Management
• Better GPU acceleration in Windows 7 Video Converter
• Support for DisplayPort Audio (already in the 9.12 hotfix)
• If laptop manufacturers allow it, possibility of installing the Catalysts on a laptop in Vista and 7
• Improvement of 2D performance in Linux
• Support for Ubuntu 9.10 and OpenSUSE 11.2

Some details from GPU Caps Viewer (version 1.8.2 is HERE):

- Drivers Version: 8.700.0.0 – Catalyst 09.12 (12-10-2009) – atiglpxx.dll
- ATI Catalyst Version String: 09.12
- ATI Catalyst Release Version String: 8.70-091210a-092787E-ATI
- OpenGL Version: 3.2.9327 Compatibility Profile Context
- OpenGL Extensions: 178 extensions

For OpenGL developers, Catalyst 10.1 beta adds 2 new extensions compared to Catalyst 9.12:

• GL_AMD_shader_stencil_export: not yet documented. But in short, this extension allows a pixel shader to write values into the stencil buffer…
• GL_EXT_histogram

The OpenCL GPU driver has been updated from version CAL 1.4.515 to CAL 1.4.519.

You can download Catalyst 10.1 beta via Rage3D.

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