AMD Talks Performance Increases with Catalyst 11.4

On Wednesday, we posted a look at AMD’s upcoming Catalyst 11.4 driver, and yesterday, the company sent along even more information on what to expect in terms of performance. In the same e-mail, the company reiterated a project it kicked off this past December, called Mjölnir. According to AMD, Mjölnir is a “multidimensional effort aimed at increasing performance and providing improved stability of the AMD Catalyst software.“

In essence, Mjölnir seems to refer to a Catalyst release where a huge number of performance tweaks and fixes are present. In that regard, Catalyst 11.4 is considered Mjölnir I, with Mjölnir II and III being slated for release in the months ahead. So what will Mjölnir I bring to the table? Take a look:

• Up to 70% performance improvement in Civilization V
• Up to 49% performance improvement in Call of Duty: Black Ops
• Up to 23% performance improvement in F1 2010
• Up to 21% performance improvement in Wolfenstein MP
• Up to 15% performance improvement in Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X
• Up to 17% performance improvement in S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat
• Up to 28% performance improvement in Metro 2033
• Up to 33% performance improvement in Left 4 Dead 2
• Up to 26% performance improvement in FarCry 2
• Up to 15% performance improvement in Crysis Warhead
• Up to 50% performance improvement in Unigine Heaven
• Up to 22% performance improvement in Batman: Arkham Asylum
• Up to 19% performance improvement in Aliens vs. Predator

Some of these increases are rather impressive; especially Civilization V, Call of Duty: Black Ops and Unigine’s Heaven 2.0. It seems that AMD has made some major strides with its tessellation performance, as both Heaven and Civilization V make fair use of it.

Currently, AMD is offering a “preview” release of Catalyst 11.4, which should be considered a beta. If you don’t mind that, you can grab it at the URL below. For the rest of you, the final driver should be released in the next couple of weeks.