AMD är mycket väl medvetna om läget. Deras totala dominans på konsumentmarknaden för grafikkort det senaste halvåret kommer snart att se sitt första rikta hot när NVIDIA i slutet av månaden lanserar sin GeForce GTX 400-serie av Fermi-baserade grafikkort. Men AMD har vetat att denna dagen skulle komma och man har förberett sig så väl man kunnat, bland annat genom att satsa stenhårt på prestandaoptimeringar i sina Catalyst-drivrutiner, något nu verkar gett utslag.

AMD har presenterat en första förhandstitt av Catalyst 10.3 som lovar stora prestandaökningar i flera tunga speltitlar;

3DMark Vantage
Overall scores increase by up to 8% with ATI Radeon HD 5970 graphics products
Overall scores increase by up to 4% on ATI Radeon HD 5800 Series products and up to 3% on ATI Radeon HD 5700 Series products

Aliens vs. Predator
Overall performance increases 5% on ATI Radeon HD 5000 Series products

Battleforge
Improves up to 8% on ATI Radeon HD 5000 Series products
Improves up to 3% on ATI Radeon HD 4800 Series products

Call of Duty: World at War
Improves up to 2% on ATI Radeon HD 5800 Series products
Improves up to 6% on ATI Radeon HD 4800 Series products

Company of Heroes
Improves up to 6% on ATI Radeon HD 5000 Series products
Improves up to 3% on ATI Radeon HD 4800 Series products

Crysis and Crysis Warhead
Improves up to 6% on ATI Radeon HD 5000 Series products
Improves up to 2% on ATI Radeon HD 4800 Series products

Devil May Cry 4
Improves up to 10% on ATI Radeon HD 5000 Series products
Improves up to 6% on ATI Radeon HD 4800 Series products

DiRT 2
Improves up to 30% on ATI Radeon HD 5970 graphics products
Improves up to 20% on ATI Radeon HD 5800 Series and ATI Radeon HD 5700 Series products
Improves up to 10% on ATI Radeon HD 4800 Series products

Enemy Territory: Quake Wars
Improves up to 5% on ATI Radeon HD 5800 Series products
Improves up to 3% on ATI Radeon HD 5700 Series products
Improves up to 2% on ATI Radeon HD 4800 Series products

Far Cry 2
Improves up to 6% on ATI Radeon HD 5000 Series products
Improves up to 4% on ATI Radeon HD 4800 Series products

Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2
Improves up to 3% on ATI Radeon HD 4800 Series products

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. – Call of Pripyat Benchmark
Improves up to 10% with Anti-Aliasing enabled on ATI Radeon HD 5000 Series products

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. – Clear Sky
Improves up to 2% with ATI Radeon HD 5970 graphics products
Improves up to 2% on ATI Radeon HD 5800 Series products

Resident Evil 5
Improves up to 5% on ATI Radeon HD 5000 Series products
Improves up to 3% on ATI Radeon HD 4800 Series products

Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X.
Improves up to 15% with ATI Radeon HD 5970 graphics products
Improves up to 20% on ATI Radeon HD 5800 Series products and ATI Radeon HD 5700 Series products
Improves up to 3% on ATI Radeon HD 4800 Series products

Unigine Tropics
Improves up to 5% on ATI Radeon HD 5000 Series products

World in Conflict
Improves up to 5% on ATI Radeon HD 5800 Series products
Improves up to 3% on ATI Radeon HD 5700 Series products
Improves up to 5% on ATI Radeon HD 4800 Series products

Wolfenstein
Improves up to 4% on ATI Radeon HD 5000 Series products
Improves up to 4% on ATI Radeon HD 4800 Series products

Källa: ShaneBaxtor.com

Detta lär föra AMDs Radeon HD 5000-familj ett steg närmare NVIDIAs nya värstingkort, samtidigt som andra funktioner som stöd för stereoskopisk 3D och bättre verktyg för Eyefinity-konfigurering gör Catalyst 10.3 till en av de roligaste drivrutinerna på bra länge.

En första prestandaöversikt av drivrutinerna bådar gott och för dem som själa vill testa finns drivrutinerna att hämta på AMDs hemsida.