AMD would like to share a preview of AMD's 12.1 Catalyst driver. Not only does this driver raises the bar on performance and fixes a few issues, but it also introduces quite a few new features, as well as UI enhancements. You'll find the list of changes below.

AMD HD3D technology support enhancement
· Enables support for AMD HD3D technology in conjunction with AMD CrossFireX configurations
· Delivers a new Stereo 3D mode over HDMI 1.4a connections - 1080p at 30Hz is now enabled on supported displays.

AMD Catalyst Control Center / Vision Engine Control Center enhancements – Application Profiles
· AMD Catalyst 12.1 Preview driver enables users to create per application profiles to individually control 3D and CrossFireX settings for Direct3D applications
· Please be sure to select the “Restore Factory Defaults” option under the Catalyst Control Center Preferences menu before using the new application profiles feature – this ensures there are no compatibility issues between previous drivers and the new AMD Catalyst 12.1 Preview driver with regards to application profiles

AMD Catalyst Control Center / Vision Engine Control Center enhancements – Video UI improvements
· AMD Catalyst 12.1 Preview driver includes user interface enhancements to simply adjustment of video color and video quality controls

Performance highlights of the AMD Catalyst™ 12.1 Preview driver (in addition to the AMD Catalyst 11.11c performance driver)
· Improves performance (10%) in Elder Scrolls: Skyrim when Multi-Sample Anti-Aliasing is enabled on the AMD Radeon™ HD 6900 Series for single GPU and AMD CrossFireX configurations

The AMD Catalyst™ 12.1 Preview includes all of the features found in AMD Catalyst™ 11.12 and also includes all of the latest optimizations found in the AMD Catalyst 11.11c performance drivers (AMD Catalyst 11.12 does not include the latest 11.11c optimizations). It is highly recommended that all gamers use the AMD Catalyst 12.1 Preview driver.

Does this mean you can set profiles for individual exes/programs like you can through the Nvidia control panel?

They kick in automatically when the system sees that .exe starting up, working good for me, is that not working the same for you?

So far I am pretty impressed with this preview driver, working well for me even with no CAPs installed but it seems to already have profiles for most of my games ( FSX, Skyrim etc).

Here's hoping it signals a new era of good drivers for AMD which has been one of the things NV seemed to kick their butt on, but NV have had their own driver troubles of late.

Additional changes for upcoming update of Rage
Resolves some new texture corruption issues introduced by the latest version of the game
Improved performance ~5%
Smoother game play and reduces multicore sync points
Fixed mapbuffer failures when switching maps on 32-bit systems.
Fixed a game crash when switching maps back and forth on 32 and 64bit systems

Does the HDR work properly with DCS titles on 69xx series cards ? i.e. have the white flashing squares buggered off ?!

Thanks for the heads up, I have been loving the 12.1 preview, but was super disappointed with Rage's blurry performance, I would never have predicted that my longtime favorite Id and Carmack could put out such a crappy performing PC game, hell hath frozen over indeed... 25 GB dowload of blurry ass crappy textures, Quake2 with HD mod looks and plays better IMHO... Since I couldn't stand it long enough to get to the cool turret weapons or anything yet.

Anywho I am hoping this will make Rage decent.

It'll make it pretty but as to the game itself...

Thread hijack - I was utterly disappointed by Rage. They had all the elements there - the developers, the AI, the graphics, all the elements to make an epic game but then dropped the ball.