New ATI Catalyst 10.6 drivers are available for Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7

ATI released Catalyst 10.6 drivers. The new drivers have several enhancements, especially video playback related.

Here is a breakdown of the new features available in the Catalyst 10.6 display driver release, snapped directly from the release notes:

GPU acceleration of H.264 video content using Adobe Flash Player 10.1

AMD GPU acceleration of Adobe Flash Player 10.1 delivers smooth high definition video playback and reduces system resource utilization
Adobe Flash Player 10.1 can be accelerated on notebook and desktop platforms featuring AMD graphics including:
ATI Radeon HD 5000 and ATI Radeon HD 4000 series
ATI Mobility ATI Radeon HD 400 series (and higher)
ATI Radeon HD 3000 series integrated graphics (and higher)

Video De-blocking support

Reduces blocking artifacts seen in low-bit rate video during playback
Supported on the ATI Radeon HD 5000 Series of products

Mosquito noise reduction

Reduces mosquito noise seen in highly compressed progressive video, during playback
Supported on the ATI Radeon HD 5000 Series of products
Official support for OpenGL 4.0 and OpenGL 3.3

ATI Catalyst 10.6 delivers official support for OpenGL 4.0 on the ATI Radeon HD 5000 Series
ATI Catalyst 10.6 delivers official support for OpenGL 3.3 on the ATI Radeon HD Series

Gaming Improvements
We're sure many of you would like to know which gaming titles are improved with the Catalyst 10.6 drivers as well, so we've ripped that data from the release notes as well. According to AMD, the following performance gains are offered with the Catalyst 10.6 drivers:

3DMark Vantage

Overall scores improve up to 5% on a single ATI Radeon HD 5970
Batman: Arkham Asylum

Performance improves up to 5% on CrossFire ATI Radeon HD 5800 Series products
Performance improves up to 10% on CrossFire ATI Radeon HD 5970 configurations

Aliens vs. Predator DirectX 11 Benchmark

Performance improves up to 4% on CrossFire ATI Radeon HD 5800 Series products
Performance improves up to 10% on CrossFire ATI Radeon HD 5970 configurations
Performance improves up to 3% on CrossFire ATI Radeon HD 5700 Series products
Company of Heroes – DX10

Performance improves up to 7% on CrossFire ATI Radeon HD 5800 Series products
Performance improves up to 5% with single card and CrossFire ATI Radeon HD 5970 configurations

Crysis Warhead

CrossFire performance improves by up to 7% on ATI Radeon HD 5000 Series products
DiRT 2 – DX9

Performance improves up to 10% on single card ATI Radeon HD 5800 Series products
Performance improves up to 10% on single card ATI Radeon HD 5970 configurations
Performance improves up to 4% on single card ATI Radeon HD 5700 Series products

The Chronicles of Riddick - Assault on Dark Athena

Performance improves up to 15% on CrossFire ATI Radeon HD 5800 Series products
Performance improves up to 13% on CrossFire and single card ATI Radeon HD 5970 configurations
Performance improves up to 8% on CrossFire ATI Radeon HD 5700 Series products

Unigine Tropics

CrossFire performance improves by up to 8% on ATI Radeon HD 5000 Series products

World in Conflict

Performance improves up to 6% on CrossFire ATI Radeon HD 5800 Series products
Performance improves up to 8% on CrossFire and single card ATI Radeon HD 5970 configurations

Wolfenstein

Performance improves up to 18% on CrossFire ATI Radeon HD 5800 Series products
Performance improves up to 18% on CrossFire and single card ATI Radeon HD 5970 configurations
Performance improves up to 11% on CrossFire ATI Radeon HD 5700 Series products

ATI Catalyst 10.6 Win 7 | Vista 64-bit download from Guru3D.com
ATI Catalyst 10.6 Win 7 | Vista 32-bit download from Guru3D.com
ATI Catalyst 10.6 Windows XP 32-bit download from Guru3D.com