Introduction

As we enter 2006 we see the first Catalyst driver set for the New Year labeled as the 6.1s. These come out just in time for the release of the latest FutureMark benchmark application labeled 3DMark06 funnily enough.

With the New Year we have also changed our line up of graphics cards. We have moved to the latest generation of cards, the X550 has moved to the Sapphire X1300, the X700PRO has moved to the HIS X1600XT and the X800XT has been moved to the X1800XT.

Let's get things started and check out what ATI has in store for Radeon users for the first set of their drivers of 2006.

Release Notes from ATI

From ATI:

The following section provides a summary of the issues that have been resolved in the latest version of Catalyst®. These include:

BattleField 2 Special Forces: A blooming or ghosting effect is no longer noticed when playing the game in night vision mode. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-21263

Beyond Good and Evil: Flickering artifacts are no longer noticed on the game characters after approximately 15 minutes of game play. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-20795

Dark Age of Camelot: The game no longer exits to the desktop immediately after launching, or after playing for up to 15 minutes. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-20794

Everquest II, The Fall, and World of Warcraft: A VPU Recover event or the operating system failing to respond no longer occur when playing the game. Further details on these resolved issues can be found in topic number 737-21437

Half-Life2: Enabling Catalyst AI no longer results in the outer edges of the water appear dark or black in color. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-21448

World of Warcraft: Rotating or zooming within the Blackwing Lair or Seering George level of the game no longer results in a VPR Recover occurring after approximately a few minutes of game play. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-21265

Catalyst Control Center: The Display Properties aspect is now translated correctly for Traditional Chinese. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-21440

Attempting to hot-plug a DFP display device using the HDMI-DVI connector no longer results in the DFP display device failing to display an image. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-21442

Viewing TV for several hours under Windows XP Media Center Edition on a system containing either an ATI Radeon® X1300 or an ATI Radeon® X1800 no longer results in an extraordinary long delay in the shut down and no longer results in Windows XP MCE TV failing to restart. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number

The radio seek function found in the Windows XP Media Center Edition operating system is now functioning properly when using an ATI Radeon® X800. Further details on this resolved issue can be found in topic number 737-21449

As we can see, even if there are no performance increases in the latest drivers from ATI, the fixes alone make the upgrade worthwhile. Let's check out the performance now.