Another month, another Catalyst release. This time around, it's version 8.7 that's available to download from game.amd.com.
The release provides a handful of performance improvements and resolved issues, in addition to two new features. The first of which is Catalyst 8.7's introduction of support for new Linux operating systems, Ubuntu 8.04 and SLED 10 SP2.
Secondly, AMD has added Catalyst Control Center: Information Center enhancements. Information Center will now show full hardware information for each physical graphics accelerator installed in the system.
AMD lists the key performance improvements as follows:
- 3DMark Vantage: Performance increases of up to 20% is noticed in the Performance Preset on single card configured systems when using ATI Radeon™ HD 36xx or ATI Radeon™ HD 34xx products
- Company of Heroes DX10: Performance increases of 3% to 12% is noticed in specific maps on single card configured systems when using either an ATI Radeon™ HD 48xx, ATI Radeon™ HD 38xx, or an ATI Radeon™ HD 36xx product
- Lost Planet DX10: Performance increases of 4% to 15% is noticed in specific maps on single card configured systems when using either an ATI Radeon™ HD 48xx, ATI Radeon™ HD 38xx, or an ATI Radeon™ HD 36xx product
- Call Of Duty 4 DX9: Performance increases of up to 4% in specific maps is noticed on single card configured systems when using an ATI Radeon™ HD 48xx product
- Lost Planet DX9: CrossFire™ scaling improves up to 1.7x and performance increases up to 80% across all Radeon™ products when AA and AF is enabled
For a complete breakdown of what Catalyst 8.7 has to offer, including all the resolved issues and performance enhancements, please refer to the official release notes (PDF). If, on the other hand, you prefer to just install the latest-greatest right away, head on over to game.AMD.com, where Catalyst 8.7 is now available for both Windows and Linux users.
Thanks to kalniel for for flagging the new release!
Useful links
Download Catalyst 8.7
Catalyst 8.7 release notes (PDF)
