AMD has launched the ATI Catalyst 10.8 WHQL driver suite that brings a few game specific improvements as well as containing some hidden information that reveals more about the companies upcoming product lines.

Hidden within a file in the driver package appears to be a listing of previously unknown codenames for what can only be surmised as the expected Northern Island series of cards; seemingly designated by an “NI” in the title.

The codenames (see photo) include Cayman, Blackcomb, Barts, Whistler, Onega, Turks, Seymour and Caicos and all include different suffixes such as GL XT, GL Pro, GL LE, GL, XT,  LP, Gemini and Pro

Causing further confusion is the clear lack of Southern Island codenames, which was rumoured to be AMD’s first step on its way to a  full Northern Island release.

Back to the drivers, the release notes highlight these specific improvements Download link available below.

New Features:

OpenGL ES 2.0 support

• ATI Catalyst 10.8 delivers full support for OpenGL ES 2.0 specification
• Enables 3D accelerated graphics within a web browser that supports OpenGL ES 2.0
• Supported on Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7

Video Quality default options

• The Default video options for ATI Catalyst have been greatly enhanced to deliver the best quality video viewing experience. Users can also choose to apply these settings to Internet Video via a new checkbox control within the ATI Catalyst Control Center.

Performance enhancement for Eyefinity Quad ATI CrossFireX configurations

• Performance has been greatly improved for users running with ATI Eyefinity on a Quad ATI CrossFireX configuration

Anti-Aliasing support for StarCraft II

Performance Improvements:

Far Cry 2

• Performance increases 2-6% on ATI Radeon HD 5800 Series single and CrossFire configurations
• Performance increases 2-4% on ATI Radeon HD 5700 Series single and CrossFire configurations
• Performance increases 3-8% on ATI Radeon HD 4800 Series single and

CrossFire configurations

Left 4 Dead 2

• Performance increases 3-5% on CrossFire ATI Radeon HD 5800 series and CrossFire ATI Radeon HD 5700 series configurations

Stormrise

• Performance increases 5-10% on ATI Radeon HD 5600 series and ATI Radeon HD 5500 series configurations

Driver Download: http://game.amd.com/us-en/drivers_catalyst.aspx