A Look at ATI's Catalyst 10.2 & 10.3 Drivers

[Rob Williams]

With its upcoming 10.2 and 10.3 Catalyst graphics drivers, AMD is making sure it goes well beyond the hardware to deliver the ultimate PC experience, whether or not it includes gaming. We're taking a look at all of the features on the horizon, including game profiles, CrossFireX and Eyefinity improvements, mobile drivers and more.

You can read our full look at AMD's upcoming Catalyst drivers here and discuss them here.

 

[wbknudsen]

There seems to be a typo under the "Mobile driver support" in the manufacturers that have opted out of this. You state "Currently, these companies include Panasonic, Toshiba and Panasonic". Are there really three or just two? I own a Toshiba but just wanted to get a clarification on the actual manufacturers.

 

[Rob Williams]

Fixed. I have no idea how I overlooked that during proofing. The third was Sony.

Thanks for pointing it out!

 

[Yangster]

Hmm. Just wondering after seeing that bezel thing, isn't pretty much any multimedia kinda dumb with dual monitors? I mean dual monitors is great for multitasking, but if you're gaming or watching movies doesn't the experience get ruined? I mostly play fps games so I rely on a cross hair, and they're always in the center of the screen. So now you have a huge space splitting your cross hair in half. And if you're watching a movie and they focus on something in the middle of the screen, like someone's face, then it'd get a split down the middle too. I don't have dual monitors, but I own a Nintendo DS and when they show movie cut scenes it's kind of awkward watching both top and bottom screens because of the split down the middle.

 

[Kougar]

Most people with dual monitors configure the center monitor to be the only one playing movies. Some games are designed for multi-monitor support (like Supreme Commander) and instead of stretching the main screen, they instead use the second monitor as a view window to monitor areas of the battlefield, for example. So you can keep the main screen on your base while using the other screen to watch your opponent's base, as one possibility...

 

[Yangster]

Ahhh so you would stretch your desktop to both monitors but for games like fps's you would only use one? Mmm that makes sense. I really like the idea of using the second monitor for viewing other parts of the game. Too bad all games don't let you do that. ;_;

 

[Rob Williams]

Ahhh so you would stretch your desktop to both monitors but for games like fps's you would only use one?

Yes, that's just how it works, although like Kougar said, some titles can take advantage of two screens, but those are rare (and tend to only be RTS). That said, the angle tool there was just an example. If you had three monitors, you would slide it from one bezel to the next in order to calibrate. AMD just used two monitors as an example just to better show off the feature.