This morning my computer told me about an update for the AMD Catalyst Software Suite – taking it to version 12.10.
The AMD Catalyst software suite 12.10 contains the following:
- AMD display driver version 9.002
- HydraVision™ for Windows Vista® and Windows® 7
- Southbridge/ IXP Driver
- AMD Catalyst Control Center version 9.002/ AMD Vision Engine Control Center version 9.002
Caution!
- The AMD Catalyst Control Center/ AMD Vision Engine Control Center requires that the Microsoft® .NET Framework 4.0 be installed for Windows Vista and Windows 7. Without .NET 4.0 installed, the AMD Catalyst Control Center/ AMD Vision Engine Control Center will not launch properly and the user will see an error message.
Notes.
- When installing the AMD Catalyst driver for Windows operating system, the user must be logged on as Administrator or have Administrator rights to complete the installation of the AMD Catalyst driver.
- The AMD Catalyst driver requires Windows 7 Service Pack 1 to be installed.
- These release notes provide information on the AMD display driver only. For information on the AMD Multimedia Center™, HydraVision, HydraVision Basic Edition, Remote Wonder™, or the Southbridge/IXP driver, please refer to their respective release notes found at: http://support.amd.com/.
- AMD Eyefinity technology is designed to give gamers access to high display resolutions. As pixel count grows, the graphics “horsepower” required to drive the displays at a reasonable frame rate can increase dramatically. Depending on the game and system configuration, users may notice texture corruption and reduced frame rates when running games in multi-monitor Eyefinity modes.
- Windows Driver Model (WDM) drivers are no longer bundled in the AMD Catalyst software suite. The WDM drivers install bundle can be downloaded independently through the AMD website
FEATURE HIGHLIGHTS OF THE AMD CATALYST 12.10 DRIVER:
AMD Catalyst 12.10 – Ready for Windows 8
For AMD Radeon™ HD 5000, HD 6000 and HD 7000 Series users, Microsoft® has certified today’s AMD Catalyst™ 12.10 release as “compatible with Windows 8.” With this driver, these products offer support for WDDM 1.2, which is an updated model for graphics drivers that Microsoft has designed to provide smooth performance and wide compatibility in their new operating system.
- Target-Independent Rasterization (TIR): TIR is a new rendering path for superior anti-aliasing in Direct3D driver applications
- Native Stereo 3D Support: Windows 8 natively supports stereoscopic 3D gaming and videos via compatible applications
- Unified Video API: Video playback has been integrated into the DirectX® 11 API, for simultaneous video and gaming content. Transcoding performance may also be improved for supported applications
- Optimized screen rotation for rotation aware devices
- Enhanced sleep/resume performance
- Optimized GPU power consumption
- Major technologies / features also supported under Windows 8:
AMD Catalyst Mobility support for AMD Enduro™ Technology
AMD Catalyst Mobility now includes support for AMD Enduro™ technology. AMD Enduro technology is currently supported on all notebook Intel IvyBridge platforms and AMD “Comal” platforms that support the AMD Radeon HD 7900M, 7800M, 7700M. AMD plans for additional products to be supported in future AMD Catalyst releases.
AMD Enduro™ Technology for Notebooks delivers:
- Unbeatable battery life
- GPU accelerated performance for gaming, video, and compute apps
- A Seamless and automatic experience
New Enduro™ Technology features found in Catalyst 12.10:
- Re-designed AMD Catalyst Control Center user interface
- View all profiled applications
- View recently run applications
- Profile applications based on power source
- Expert mode control and customization
- Performance centric AC
- Battery centric DC
RESOLVED ISSUES
This section provides information on resolved known issues in this release of the AMD Catalyst 12.10 software suite.
Resolved Issues for the Windows 8 Operating System
- Enemy Territory Quake Wars – performance affected when run at high resolutions
- Wolfenstien – performance affected when run at high resolutions
- System hangs when disabling Eyefinity
- World of Warcraft – Mists of Pandaria experiences graphical corruption when anti-aliasing is forced to 2X or higher
Resolved Issues for the Windows 7 Operating System
- F1 2011 – Vehicle textures flicker when game is run at low settings
- Dirt Showdown – Flickering seen when benchmark is run in DirectX 11 mode
- Battlefield – Bad Company 2 : Flickering textures seen in AMD CrossFire mode
- Alan Wake – Freezes when run in DirectX 9 mode with AMD CrossFire and Eyefinity enabled
- Portal 2 – Freezes when run in DirectX 9 mode with AMD CrossFire and Eyefinity enabled
KNOWN ISSUES
The following section provides a summary of open issues that may be experienced with the AMD Catalyst 12.10 software suite.
Known issues under the Windows 8 operating system
- AMD Eyefinity portrait resolutions may not apply correctly when AMD CrossFire is enabled
Known issues under the Windows 7operating system
- Serious Sam 3 – crashes when AMD CrossFire and Eyefinity are enabled
- May Payne 3 – flickering and ghosting when in DirectX 9 mode with Anti Aliasing enabled
