AMD Releases Catalyst 11.8; Introduces CPU Overclocking

AMD has released the latest version of its Catalyst graphics driver, 11.8, and with it come the usual slew of bug fixes and game performance improvements, in addition to a new feature that Black Edition processor users will enjoy – CPU overclocking. That’s right, in the major first step of turning its Catalyst Control Center into a system-wide tool, Black Edition owners will be able to overclock their CPU from within the same tool that they may use to overclock their GPU.

Unfortunately, AMD doesn’t provide a screenshot of this feature in action, nor do I have a Black Edition PC setup to test. Like the GPU overclocking section, though, we can expect that this built-in tool will be more for the lightweight overclockers, not the hardcore, in terms of all the knobs and sliders that can be adjusted.

In addition to that feature, AMD has also implemented performance improvements for Crysis 2 in DirectX 11 mode when using anti-aliasing, F.E.A.R. 3 when using anti-aliasing, and Call of Duty: Black Ops when running both single and multi-GPU setups. Working to improve its morphological anti-aliasing performance, this driver promises a 30% boost there as well.

As always, a slew of bug fixes have been implemented as you’d expect, so if you’ve been experiencing an issue with 11.7 or earlier, it’s recommended you download 11.8, or at least refer to the official release notes to see if your particular issue is mentioned.