Thoughts
When you are seeing a new driver set from a company month in, month out, it's unfair to expect massive performance leaps every time. And thus the release of CATALYST 5.1 is one such day, where the focus of ATI's driver team has clearly been that of bug fixing over performance gains - Still a welcome sight, especially for those of you experiencing the issues listed in the release notes. There is nothing more frustrating than not being able to play or fully enjoy your favourite game thanks to a driver bug, so getting a slew of bug fixes each month is a real bonus.
Special mention should also be made of the new pause and stop buttons added in to the 3D preview of CATALYST Control Center - I'm sure I'm not the only person who has been frustrated by the sluggishness this 3D preview can add when trying to change settings, so this new functionality gets the thumbs up from me. I can fully understand the usefulness of the preview for more novice users, and its inclusion is to be applauded, but now I can also sleep soundly knowing that us 'power users' who already know our way around the more advanced 3D settings are still being thought of too.
As I just mentioned, if all you are looking for is big performance gains, then CATALYST 5.1 isn't the place to look. That doesn't mean that there are no increases to be had however, as Doom 3 and Half-Life 2 in particular shows that there is still room for driver-based speed gains in these two titles. Half-Life 2 should particularly be singled out, as the odd performance issue I saw in my last driver round-up now appears to have been resolved. Doom 3 also finds itself gaining a few frames per second in many a situation, so good news for fans of id Software's flagship title also.
All in all, a quietly impressive showing from ATI. These drivers are now publicly available, so if they sound like your cup of tea, it's time to pop over to ATI.com again.
