Anyone downloading the recently released ATI 5.10 Catalyst driver suite must have noticed the absence of any reference to the X1K range of boards. This came as a surprise to most since these cards are all ATI seems to talk about nowadays.
According to a story on Hexus.net, citing ATI insiders as the source, the Canadians will unleash the full force of their nVidia fighting machines in version 5.11 of the drivers expected in November. The same sources claim that ATI will use the release to publicly introduce enhanced OpenGL support. This means that ATI expects that it will be able to surpass its rivals performance in games such as Doom 3, a title that carries the flag for the graphics API.
The improvements mentioned suggest an up to 35 per cent increase in performance during Doom 3 gameplay using antialiasing at high resolutions. ATI has apparently improved the way its core communicates with the board's memory during AA processing.
With Quake IV coming soon and expected to be very popular, ATI can ill-afford any delays in pledging its whole-hearted support for OpenGL and demonstrating how it can rival and even outperform nVidia, a company that has traditionally held the OGL crown.
