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AMD touts Radeon X1000 series' Zune friendliness

Posts latest Catalyst driver update too

By Tony Smith • Get more from this author

Posted in PC Builder, 16th November 2006 12:55 GMT

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AMD is pitching its ATI Radeon X1000-series graphics cards as the ideal add-on for anyone who buys Microsoft's Zune media player. Separately, the company updated its Catalyst drivers package to version 6.11.

The graphics cards' Zune friendliness arises from AMD's Avivo video processing system, which uses the GPUs pixel shaders to tweak video images and accelerate not only the compressed video data decode process but also speeds up conversions from one video format to another.

AMD said its Avivo Video Converter tool, part of the Catalyst Control Center utility, can quickly convert content created by its DVR software into the format favoured by Portable Media Center devices - a format Zune will also play.

Save the file in your MyVideos folder and Zune will automatically copy it across the next time it's connected to your PC.

Meanwhile, AMD said Catalyst 6.11 was now available for download in both Windows and Linux forms. The Windows release improves framerate performance, AMD said, in particular when running Call of Duty 2. It also adds Software CrossFire support for Radeon X1900 and X1950 products, excluding the X1950 Pro.

The Linux version of the driver package simply fixes a number of glitches when run with X Server.

Both forms can be downloaded here. ®

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