AMD Catalyst 12.3 WHQL Released

[hclarkjr]

http://sites.amd.com/us/game/downloads/Pages/downloads.aspx

Feature highlights of the AMD Catalyst™ 12.3 driver:

AMD Catalyst 12.3 now provides support for Windows 7 64-bit/32-bit and Windows Vista 64-bit/32-bit for the following products:

• AMD Radeon HD 7970 Series
• AMD Radeon HD 7950 Series
• AMD Radeon HD 7870 Series
• AMD Radeon HD 7850 Series
• AMD Radeon HD 7770 Series
• AMD Radeon HD 7750 Series

Windows XP support for the AMD Radeon HD 7900, AMD Radeon HD 7800, and AMD Radeon HD 7700 Series will be made available in AMD Catalyst 12.4​

Resolved issues: Highlights of the AMD Catalyst™ 12.3 driver:

• AMD Catalyst Control Center startup issues/delays have been resolved
• Elder Scrolls: Skyrim : No longer displays flickering and texture corruption with Anti-Aliasing enabled
• Alan Wake : A system crash is no longer experienced when running the game in DirectX 9 mode with Crossfire enabled.
• Far Cry 2 : A random system hang is no longer experienced when running the game at high in game setting.
• Tom Clancy HAWX : No longer crashes after task switching with MLAA (Morphological Anti-Aliasing) and Anti-Aliasing enabled.
• Furmark Benchmark : No longer crashes when launched in High Performance mode.
• Quake 4 : No longer display corruption after task switching when run in High Performance mode
• XPlane : Textures no longer exhibit flicker and corruption.

 

[Bobisuruncle54]

So they'll still work on Quake 4 when GTA 4 is in dire need of a patch for crossfire support on the 6000 series...

 

[d4a2n0k]

No performance improvements?

 

[Chiropteran]

No change in bitcoin mining performance with this driver on a 6970.

 

[MrK6]

Maybe it's me, but I don't understand how an entire team of software engineers can only come up with that in a month. Unless it's just one guy.

 

[OVerLoRDI]

Maybe it's me, but I don't understand how an entire team of software engineers can only come up with that in a month. Unless it's just one guy.

I'd imagine that writing drivers is harder than we tend to assume on this forum. Many different video cards, many different games, 2-3 different operating systems, 3 different APIs, and endless combinations of software and hardware... I don't envy them.

So they'll still work on Quake 4 when GTA 4 is in dire need of a patch for crossfire support on the 6000 series...

That is really weird. Quake 4? That game is quite old now.

 

[d4a2n0k]

If my memory is still working, werent AMD crapping out new drivers every 2-3 weeks last year with the 6xxx series? i feel very neglected as a 7970 owner.

 

[Bobisuruncle54]

I'd imagine that writing drivers is harder than we tend to assume on this forum. Many different video cards, many different games, 2-3 different operating systems, 3 different APIs, and endless combinations of software and hardware... I don't envy them.



That is really weird. Quake 4? That game is quite old now.

Yup, it's not even a demanding game either.

 

[mak360]

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1678032 12.4


http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/windows/Pages/radeonaiw_vista64.aspx12.3
http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/windows/Pages/radeonaiw_vista64.aspx

 

[mak360]

Maybe it's me, but I don't understand how an entire team of software engineers can only come up with that in a month. Unless it's just one guy.

I agree, AMD need more people in the drivers department. Its no use making the best hardware when you don`t have equally good software (They are getting better though).

 

[Chiropteran]

I agree, AMD need more people in the drivers department. Its no use making the best hardware when you don`t have equally good software (They are getting better though).

Why? What exactly is broken with the existing drivers?

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk

 

[Aikouka]

I'd imagine that writing drivers is harder than we tend to assume on this forum. Many different video cards, many different games, 2-3 different operating systems, 3 different APIs, and endless combinations of software and hardware... I don't envy them.

I'm not sure if I would count the number of games unless you want to consider that more entities using your products = more chance that one of them will encounter an unknown bug.

I don't code drivers, but I would imagine that the drivers essentially serve as middleware between the DirectX and OpenGL APIs (what's your third API?) and the actual video card hardware. Along those lines, I would assume that similar ISAs is what makes driver development easier. The fact that AMD is now coding for VLIW4, VLIW5 and GCN can't make the process too easy, and there's a chance that they may also write code for specific hardware to implement speed increases.

I also don't envy them... low-level programming sounds like the source of much aggravation.

 

[mak360]

Why? What exactly is broken with the existing drivers?

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk

Don`t remember saying "broken" hhmm

The 7970 is a beast, it needs more juice (drivers) to unleash its full potential, am not seeing that yet (everyone has different expectations)

 

[dust]

Quake 4 eh?

I took care of that with a 7800gt like a million years ago. Who's superb idea was this to highlight it in the driver improvements list?

 

[Stuka87]

Quake 4 eh?

I took care of that with a 7800gt like a million years ago. Who's superb idea was this to highlight it in the driver improvements list?

There is a pretty big following for Quake 4 still. Which is most likely the only reason they bothered fixing it.

 

[Nintendesert]

Why? What exactly is broken with the existing drivers?

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk

Well that POS flickering bug in Skyrim, I couldn't get rid of it no matter what settings I used. It appears it might be fixed now with these drivers at least. Though I've dumped my 5870 so it's a little late.

 

[gammaray]

SKyRIM, AA works now, i tried it.

 

[Infraction Jack]

Would love to see updated consumer preview drivers for windows 8

 

[chimaxi83]

Well, at least they stopped working on improvements to Aliens versus Predator.

 

[Elixer]

Maybe it's me, but I don't understand how an entire team of software engineers can only come up with that in a month. Unless it's just one guy.

Not sure of the specifics, but by the time 12.3 finally passes WHQL, they are already outdated by at least 3-4 weeks. If you noticed, these are pretty much the same as the 12.3 betas that were out a few weeks back.

AMD does have beta 12.4 drivers outs, and they also have other versions as well.

The main problem is, they don't have enough quality people to fix everything, and from what I have seen, their bug reporting gateway isn't very good at all.

Then again, they are about as good as what Nvidia puts out, and vastly superior to what intel or S3/via puts out.

In the end, it is a wash between AMD & Nvidia, some months AMD is better, and other months Nvidia is better.

 

[stag3]

hmm i'm getting something like screen tearing with these drivers.
it almost flashes for a second on the bottom 1/2 of my screen, like windows of what i have open or something, then goes away.

this happens when i do anything, resize a window, close or open a window or application....ugh, guess i'll roll back to 12.2 or try the 12.4

 

[Stayfr0sty]

Time to install driver sweeper.
This means 15 min of work, arggggh.

 

[bigsnyder]

Just upgraded to HD7850 from HD4850. Using 1920x1080 and the other "HDTV" resolutions on my 1920x1200 monitor was nice and crisp with 12.1 on the HD4850 (Centered timings of course). Now with the latest driver and the HD7850, the HDTV resolutions are stuck on filling image to screen, unable to select centered timings. Looks like crap, blurry text. All other non-native resolutions look great (like 1600x1200, 1680x1050, etc). Just the HDTV modes refuse to use centered timings and setting overscan to 0% helps, but not completely. What gives here?

 

[DarkKnightDude]

I never use driver sweeper when installing drivers, never had a problem with overwriting the previous one, always works for me.

 

[bigsnyder]

I believe ATI (excuse me AMD), just now recommends installing over the old ones if you are just upgrading to newer version.