ATI Catalyst 10.6 Drivers

AMD has just released new ATI Catalyst 10.6 drivers for Windows 7, Windows Vista and Windows XP in both 32-bit and 64-bit flavors. The drivers incorporate a number of new features and performance enhancements. While there are a handful of game-specific performance enhancements, it's the new video-related features that are potentially the most interesting.

GPU acceleration of H.264 video content using Adobe Flash Player 10.1
 * AMD GPU acceleration of Adobe Flash Player 10.1 delivers smooth high definition video playback and reduces system resource utilization
 * Adobe Flash Player 10.1 can be accelerated on notebook and desktop platforms featuring AMD graphics including:
 o ATI Radeon HD 5000 and ATI Radeon HD 4000 series
 o ATI Mobility ATI Radeon HD 400 series (and higher)
 o ATI Radeon HD 3000 series integrated graphics (and higher)

Video De-blocking support
 * Reduces blocking artifacts seen in low-bit rate video during playback
 * Supported on the ATI Radeon HD 5000 Series of products

Mosquito noise reduction
 * Reduces mosquito noise seen in highly compressed progressive video, during playback
 * Supported on the ATI Radeon HD 5000 Series of products

Official support for OpenGL 4.0 and OpenGL 3.3
 * ATI Catalyst 10.6 delivers official support for OpenGL 4.0 on the ATI Radeon HD 5000 Series
 * ATI Catalyst 10.6 delivers official support for OpenGL 3.3 on the ATI Radeon HD Series