A few days ago, we reported that ATi Catalyst 7.3 was leaked and did a test on it. 2 days ago, ATi has officially announced and put its Catalyst 7.3 driver on its website for downloading. You can download it from http://ati.amd.com/support/driver.html

We downloaded the XP version and did a check. It is not to our surprise that the driver version is just like the one on the web, The 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.

Using Windows XP running on AM2 X2 4000+ on the ASUS M2A-VM HDMI mainboard. We ran the tests again using the Catalyst 7.3 driver with PowerDVD ver 7.3. Before we show you the numbers, here is how the system must be configured to achieve the best results.

Firstly, on this Catalyst 7.3, it comes with the Catalyst Control Centre. You would need to install it. In the previous version, you wouldn't see the option pulldown detection. It is added in Catalyst 7.3. Click the check box to enable this feature.

Secondly, the hardware acceleration option in PowerDVD must be enabled to take advantage of AVIVO.

Post your own findings in our Graphics forum.