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Catalyst 8.12, arguably the most significant revision of 2008, is now available to download at game.amd.com.

The release introduces support for ATI Stream - AMD's take on general purpose GPU acceleration - and promises to "unlock the potential of accelerated applications for millions of Radeon graphics processors worldwide".

In addition to bringing the Radeon display driver up to version 8.561, Catalyst 8.12 is accompanied by a 22mb freeware download of AMD's Avivo Video Converter. The free utility offers GPU-accelerated video transcoding, providing Radeon HD 4800-series and Radeon HD 4600-series users with a first-hand look at what the GPU has to offer to everyday computing tasks.

Aside from the added functionality, there's a healthy bump in performance across a range of titles as detailed by AMD below:

• 3DMark Vantage DX10 – performance gains of up to 5% for Single and Crossfire mode. Performance gains were noticed on HD46xx, HD4550 and HD4350.
• Call of Duty: World at War DX9 – performance gains of up to 21% for Single and Crossfire mode. Performance gains were noticed on all Radeon HD48xx.
• Crysis DX10 – performance gains of up to 25% for Single and Crossfire mode. Performance gains were noticed on all Radeon HD4xxx.
• Crysis Warhead DX10 – performance gains of up to 13% for Single card mode and up to 16% for Crossfire mode. Performance gains were noticed on all Radeon HD4xxx.
• Devil May Cry 4 DX10– performance gains of up to 6% for Single and Crossfire mode. Performance gains were noticed on all Radeon HD4xxx and HD38xx.
• Fallout 3 – performance gains of up to 15% for Single card mode.
• Far Cry 2 DX10 – performance gains of up to 10% for Single card mode and up to 57% in Crossfire mode. Performance gains were noticed on all Radeon HD4xxx and HD38xx.
• FEAR DX9 – performance gains of up to 6% for Single and Crossfire mode. Performance gains were noticed on Radeon HD4870X2 and HD4870.
• Hellgate: London DX10 – performance gains of up to 6% for Single card mode and up to 10% for Crossfire mode. Performance gains were noticed on all Radeon HD4xxx.
• Left 4 Dead DX9 – performance gains of up to 10% for Single card mode and up to 5% for Crossfire mode. Performance gains were noticed on all Radeon HD4870 series.
• Lost Planet Colonies DX10 – performance gains of up to 10% for Single and Crossfire mode. Performance gains were noticed on all Radeon HD4xxx and HD38xx.
• Prey OGL – performance gains of up to 15% for Crossfire mode. Performance gains were noticed on Radeon HD4870 1GB products, HD46xx, HD45xx.
• S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky – performance gains of up to 10% for Crossfire mode. Performance gains were noticed on all Radeon HD4xxx and HD38xx.
• Unreal Tournament 3 DX9 – performance gains of up to 18% for Single card mode and up to 15% in Crossfire mode, especially in cases where AA is enabled. Performance gains were noticed on all Radeon HD4xxx and HD38xx.

For a complete breakdown of what Catalyst 8.12 has to offer, including all the resolved issues, please refer to the official release notes at game.amd.com.

To find out more about ATI Stream, please head on over to our hands-on analysis.

Useful links
Download Catalyst 8.12

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