AMD/ATI this week released new Catalyst drivers, now in version 9.6. The new driver package sports a number of performance improvements, including:

• Company of Heroes - up to 25 percent better performance with HD 4600 series
• Crysis - up to 13 percent better performance in multi-GPU configurations
• Crysis Warhead - up to 11 percent better performance in mutli-GPU configurations 
• World in Conflict - up to 30 percent better performance in settings that were previously CPU limited

In addition to goosing performance in a handful of titles, Catalyst 9.6 also squashes a boatload of bugs and resolves a ton of issues across all current Windows operating systems. Some of these include:

• Opening Crossfire pages no longer causes Catalyst Control Center to stop responding (all Windows OSes)
• Catalyst Control Center no longer appears interlaced when automatic deinterlacing is enabled (all Windows OSes)
• On some configurations, video artifacts are no longer visible during playback of transcoded video files (Vista)
• Team Fortress 2 some slowdowns no longer occur during gameplay (XP)
• Catalyst Control Center no longer shows Crossfire as disabled (Windows 7)

For a full list of improvements (and there are many), refer to the release notes (PDF). Driver downloads available here.

AMD has just released new Catalyst 9.4 drivers for ATI videocard owners. In keeping with the promise the company previously made, Catalyst 9.4 offers unified support for Windows 7, XP, and Vista.

Highlighted in the 9.4 release is the new ATI OverDrive auto-tuning application. Designed for the ATI Radeon HD 4000 series, the new OverDrive module claims to "accurately determine the best overclocked engine and memory values for ATI OverDrive supported ATI Radeon graphics accelerators." AMD cautions it will not warranty busted videocards that give up the ghost as a result of using the utility, which further highlights why it's so cool XFX, who will have your back, now sells ATI-branded cards.

Catalyst 9.4 resolves a number if issues covering all supported operating systems. Among the resolutions:

• World of Warcraft no longer flickers when Shadow is set to medium/high in a CrossFire configuration (Vista)
• Resolutions above 1024 x 768 will now full screen properly for specific HDMI displays (Vista)
• Overlay Theater Mode display no longer corrupt after enabling 3D screen saver (XP)
• Display now redraws correctly in City of Villains after changing graphics settings (Windows 7)
• No more jitter or flicker caused by WinDVD9 HD playback (Windows 7)

Release Notes (PDF)
Drivers Download

ATI has just released its Catalyst 9.1 driver package, bringing full OpenGL 3.0 support to the table, a feature which was made available to Nvidia videocard owners for the first time a month ago. While Direct3D has emerged as a front runner for Windows gaming, it should be noted that OpenGL 3.0's features can be enabled on both XP and Vista, and also Linux and Mac OS.

As can be expected are a number of bug fixes with the new driver, but perhaps surprisingly to some, ATI's Catalyst 9.1 shares the love with Linux, an area long considered a weak spot. ATI says the new driver introduces support for Ubuntu 8.10, while also enabling Hybrid CrossFireX. Also in the driver's bag of open-source tricks is MultiView support, which can be enabled using single or multiple GPU configurations.

Grab your download(s) here.