ATi Catalyst 7.3 has leaked on the net. Version number is 8.351.

We did a short test on our AMD 690G (ATi RS690) board. We noticed that the image quality has improved tremedously. Previously, the image quality in our HQV test reveals the weakness of the drivers 8.33 and 8.34. With this new version which we forced installed into the sytsem, we are able to get almsot perfect scores for all the Cadence test (8 x 5= 40 points). In addition to that, we are able to get 3:2 detection lock in within 2 secs. Previously, it was all moire and looks terrible with earlier drivers.

Using Windows XP running on AM2 X2 4000+ on the ASUS M2A-VM HDMI mainboard, we compared the scoreline using catalyst 7.2 vs 7.3 beta. The difference is very minor. Here is a break down of the scores.

Using the same hardware, we ran the board using MS VISTA. The results are as follow :

As we can see from the basic results here, the Catalyst 7.3 seems to be worse off in performance compared to Catalyst 7.2. Looks like we will have to wait for the real driver to appear.

Post your own findings in our Graphics forum.