AMD continues to roll out new Catalyst drivers and now its time for the second of the year anno 2011. Catalyst 11.2 has been released for download and we are offered performance optimization in games like Call of Duty: Black Opsoch Batman Arkham Asylum, but also better control of tessellation levels in separate applications.
Tessellation is the main attraction of Microsoft’s DirectX 11 framework and even if the technology can result in amazing graphics it is very demanding. In Catalyst 11.2 AMD has added levers for letting the user set the level of tessellattion or let game profiles handle the settings.
We also find updated functions for texture filtering and the possibility to change video setting when playing Blu-ray 3D. Detailed information on Catalyst 11.2 can be found below.
Download Catalyst 11.2 from AMD’s website.
Highlights of the AMD Catalyst™ 11.2 Windows release include:
New Features:
The new Catalyst Control Center features
- Catalyst AI Texture Filtering updates
- The Quality setting has now been improved to match the High Quality setting in all respects but one; it enables an optimization that limits tri-linear anisotropic filtering to areas surrounding texture mipmap level transitions, while doing bilinear anisotropic filtering elsewhere. This optimization offers a way to improve filtering performance without visibly affecting image quality
- The Performance setting has been updated to address the sharpness of the default Quality setting causing shimmering in certain cases. It now provides a smoother filtering option that eliminates most shimmering while preserving the improved detail provided by anisotropic filtering.
- Tessellation Controls
- Supported on the ATI Radeon HD 5000 Series and the AMD Radeon HD 6000 Series
- New settings give users full control over the Tessellation levels used in applications.
- The default selection “AMD Optimized” setting is intended to set the best level of Tessellation on a per application basis. The “AMD Optimized” setting is designed to help users get the maximum visual benefit of Tessellation, while minimizing the performance impact associated with enabling Tessellation. Currently no applications have been profiled.
- The “Use Application Settings” option gives applications full control over the Tessellation level.
- Users can also manually set the maximum tessellation level used by applications with the slider control
- Morphological Anti-Aliasing support for the ATI Radeon HD 5000 Series
- AMD Catalyst now includes official support for Morphological Anti-Aliasing for the ATI Radeon HD 5000 Series
Support Video Quality settings during Blu-ray 3D playback
- Supported on the AMD Radeon HD 6000 Series
- Requires Blu-ray 3D player software, 3D supported display and 3D Stereoscopic glasses
- Users can now enable the Video Quality settings within the Catalyst Control Center when playing Blu-ray 3D content
Performance highlights:
Call of Duty: Black Ops:
- Performance increases up to 11% on ATI Radeon™ HD 5000 Series single card configurations with anisotropic filtering and anti-aliasing enabled
Batman Arkham Asylum:
- Performance increases up to 4% on ATI Radeon™ HD 5000 Series single configurations with anisotropic filtering and anti-aliasing disabled.
