ATI Catalyst 10.4 WHQL Drivers Released

After a couple of preview releases, AMD has released the final version of the ATI Catalyst 10.4 drivers. While the previous preview release also addressed loading times for most of the Radeon line, only the loading fix for Battlefield: Bad Company 2 for the 5000 series was included in this 10.4 WHQL version. Those of you with cards below the 5000 line should stick with your preview release if you're fond of playing BC2.

Aside from that, here's what's new:

New Windows Features

ATI Catalyst – Video enhancements

  • H.264 Level 5.1 support
  • ATI Catalyst can now playback  5.1 level streams on all support players
  • Allows for playback of high resolutions (4Kx2K)

AMD video transcoding updates

  • This release of ATI Catalyst provides enhanced support for the Windows 7 Drag and Drop video converter
  • Performance improvements
  • New formats supported (H.264 file formats – MTS, WTV, and WMV9 Complex profile interlaced content)
  • ATI Catalyst Control Center™ option for enabling/disabling GPU acceleration

Support for the ATI Video converter is now available in the advanced view of the ATI Catalyst Control Center

New Linux Features

Support for new Linux operating systems

  • This release of ATI Catalyst driver for Linux introduces support for the following new operating systems: 
  • Ubuntu 10.04  early look support

Click here to download the driver.

Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam served as Tom's Hardware News Director during 2008-2014. He entered tech media in the late 90s and fondly remembers the days when an overclocked Celeron 300A and Voodoo2 SLI comprised a gaming rig with the ultimate street cred.
  • dlpatague
    If you have Catalyst 10.4a preview drivers installed then you do not need to install this WHQL 10.4 version. In fact the 10.4a preview drivers are newer than the WHQL drivers. So I'd even say find the 10.4a drivers instead.
    Reply
  • tpi2007
    Marcus, why on earth did you not mention the fact that the release notes clearly say that the 2D performance problems have been fixed ? You made a two part article on this problem and now don't even mention it ?

    "Performance on 2D applications and benchmarks has now been fixed"

    http://www2.ati.com/relnotes/Catalyst_104_release_notes.pdf
    Reply
  • JDFan
    @tpi2007 - I wouldn't say the 2d performance has been fixed for the 5xxx series cards with this release my 2d performance actually dropped on my 5770 using Tom's 2d benches with this new driver - which could be why it wasn;t mentioned !
    Reply
  • jsm6746
    true tom's... you started this thing on 2d performance... you can't back away from it now...
    Reply
  • Horray for Linux support! It's what I've been waiting for :)
    Reply
  • drutort
    its funny that the 2d fix is what i had come up with the fix, plus more of course, but my experimental discovery of the ram speed was true, now the ram throttles either to 900 or 1200 on my 5870, so its the ram mostly being an issue when throttling up/down

    either way its nice it works now, though we dont get the same benefits as previous clocks... toms needs to do the benchmark run and do the power consumption i bet it went up due to the higher core and mem speeds

    also dual displays seems still to be a bit bugged the throttled speed would not go down even after stopping play of HD content for example...
    Reply
  • outlw6669
    It would defiantly be nice if the 2d was fixed.
    Hopefully it was not mentioned because there is another article in the works...

    If not, might want to hop to it ;)
    Reply
  • back_by_demand
    So, Windows and Linux support.
    I got that.
    No Mac support?

    Oh, sorry, Mac gamers, :D :D :D
    Reply
  • etrom
    Is the 2d issue fixed for 4800 series too? Hoping to keep my 4870x2 up to date after two years of use ;)
    Reply
  • jkeopka
    I am confused and disappointed. I am running Lucid Lynx and I still don't have a driver for my Mob. Radeon 5870 :'(

    Unless I am missing something?
    Reply