Introduction

Over the years it has become the norm for graphics cards manufacturers NVIDIA and AMD to release updates to their drivers in shorter and shorter intervals, with the norm quickly becoming once a month. In this new series of driver analysis articles we will present you a performance summary of new Catalyst and GeForce driver releases that show the immediate improvements going from one version to another, but also the long term performance development that the vendors have achieved.

Our performance testing will use a sample selection of DirectX 11 capable GPUs from AMD and NVIDIA:

• AMD: Radeon HD 4870, Radeon HD 5870, Radeon HD 6970.
• NVIDIA: GeForce GTX 285, GeForce GTX 480, GeForce GTX 580.

Downloads

Downloads of the new drivers can be found at the following locations:

• Windows XP 32-bit
• Windows XP 64-bit
• Vista & Windows 7 32-bit
• Vista & Windows 7 64-bit

Official Catalyst 10.12 Changelog

Support for DivX on the AMD Radeon 6800 Series

• With DivX® software installed on an AMD Radeon™ HD 6800 Series and later GPU and the DivX Accelerated™ solution, consumers can enjoy an improved DivX video playback experience by lowering CPU load, extending computer battery life on notebooks, reducing noise on home theater PCs and improving overall computer operation.
  Grab the DivX Accelerated download from here (Available December 15) go.divx.com/accelerated

Support for OpenGL 4.1

• Features introduced in OpenGL 4.1
  - Full compatibility with OpenGL ES 2.0 APIs for easier porting between mobile and desktop platforms
  - The ability to query and load a binary for shader program objects to save re-compilation time
  - The capability to bind programs individually to programmable stages for programming flexibility
  - 64-bit floating-point component vertex shader inputs for higher geometric precision
  - Multiple viewports for a rendering surface for increased rendering flexibility
• New ARB extensions introduced with OpenGL 4.1
  - Linking OpenGL sync objects to OpenCL event objects for enhanced OpenCL interoperability
  - The ability to set stencil values in a fragment shader for enhanced rendering flexibility
  - Features to improve robustness, for example when running WebGL applications
  - Callback mechanisms to receive enhanced errors and warning messages