ATI's Catalyst 3.8 Drivers: ATI Sanctioned Overclocking

Eager to get started with testing, the next stop on the list was the 3D tab.

Rather than having separate tabs for DirectX and OpenGL, ATI has combined them into one panel with a radio button selecting which API we are working on at the moment.

Since the selection of AA, AF, and quality options has been removed to a separate dialog box (activated by clicking on the "Custom" button), it seems like ATI is pushing the use of the Quality/Performance slider, which I don't personally like but is used to simplify things for the masses who don’t know what AA/AF are. Of course, they have made up for this by adding a feature to save a settings profile. Since people tend to tweak their settings for each game they play, there is much less hassle involved in the settings process.

What we would really like to see in the future is the ability to associate settings with an actual game executable file, so we can set all our games the way we want them and never have to touch the control panel.

The properties dialog opened by the customize buttons on the D3D and OGL panel brings us to a rather familiar looking list of selections. Nothing has really changed here other than the separation from the rest of the controls.

Of course, when we look at the top, we see the smartshader tab. We didn't expect this feature to be any good at all, but honestly we were strangely fascinated with it. Still definitely only an oddity, but its interesting for a few minutes.

That’s it for UI and functionality enhancements, lets check out the performance.