Catalyst™ 8.6 introduces the following new features:
OpenGL Adaptive Anti-Aliasing Custom Filters support
This release of Catalyst™ introduces Adaptive Anti-Aliasing Custom Filters support for OpenGL applications for the ATI Radeon™ HD 3000 Series, ATI Radeon™ HD 2000 Series of products. Using the Edge Detect Custom Filter, users can enable 12X and 24X Anti-Aliasing. Selecting 4X Anti-Aliasing plus selecting the Edge Detect filter delivers the equivalent of 12X Anti-Aliasing. Selecting 8X Anti-Aliasing plus selecting the Edge Detect filter delivers the equivalent of 24X Anti-Aliasing.
OpenGL CrossFireX™ (QUAD) support - 3 or 4 GPUs in CrossFire™ mode
This release of Catalyst™ introduces CrossFireX™ QUAD support for OpenGL applications. Users with any combination of a ATI Radeon™ HD 3870, ATI Radeon™ HD 3850, and ATI Radeon™ HD 3870 X2 graphics accelerators running with 3 or 4 GPUs will be able to run in CrossFireX™ QUAD mode (when used in a CrossFireX™ compatible PC). Users are also able to run in CrossFireX™ QUAD mode while running in extended desktop mode on the Windows Vista desktop.
Catalyst Install enhancement - No reboot required after
Catalyst upgrade install
This release of Catalyst™ introduces an enhancement to the Catalyst installer. Users are no longer required to reboot their system after Catalyst has finished installing (as long as the installation is an upgrade from a previous Catalyst install).
Performance Improvements (See Release Notes for details)