AMD packed ATI Catalyst 8.3 with a double-barreled set of leading technologies to simultaneously push the Ultimate Visual Experience to new heights and to a wider population of PC users,” said Rick Bergman, senior vice president, AMD Graphics Product Group. “We deliver industry firsts that make a visible difference to PC users, whether it’s CrossFireX and the first ever quad-GPU performance on Windows Vista, or ATI Hybrid Graphics that bring a new level of performance to mainstream PC platforms.”

Advancing Multi-GPU Gaming with CrossFireX

Through three- and four-GPU configurations in CrossFireX, gamers can see multi-GPU performance scaling across a range of today’s most popular DirectX 9 and DirectX 10 games on Windows Vista — up to 3.2 times the performance over a single GPU2 in some scenarios. The flexible architecture of CrossFireX allows for the mixing and matching of high-performing ATI Radeon™ GPUs. Any ATI Radeon™ HD 3850, ATI Radeon™ HD 3870 or ATI Radeon™ HD 3870 X2 cards can be combined to harness the power of up to four GPUs. CrossFireX also supports a wide range of platforms, enabling many gamers to take advantage of three- and four-GPU gaming on their existing hardware.

Boosting Game Performance through ATI Hybrid CrossFire

ATI Catalyst 8.3 also introduces ATI Hybrid Graphics support for Windows Vista. An industry first that is unique to AMD processor-based platforms, ATI Hybrid CrossFire™ delivers a significant 3D performance boost. Up to 70 percent increases in performance are possible in some gaming scenarios3 based on PCs comprised of an AMD 780G motherboard and ATI Radeon HD 3400 Series graphics product in Windows Vista. ATI Hybrid Graphics also support up to four independent displays through the SurroudView™ feature for those who want to maximize productivity.