catalyst 12.4 released

[hclarkjr]

http://sites.amd.com/us/game/downloads/Pages/radeon_win7-32.aspx
http://sites.amd.com/us/game/downloads/Pages/radeon_win7-64.aspx

AMD Catalyst™ Software Suite Version 12.4 Release Notes

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Last Updated

4/23/2012
Article Number

GPU-159
This article provides information on the latest posting of AMD’s software suite, AMD Catalyst™ 12.4. This particular software suite updates the AMD display driver and the AMD Catalyst Control Center/AMD Vision™ Engine Control Center. This unified driver has been updated to provide enhanced level of power, performance, and reliability. Package Content
The AMD Catalyst software suite 12.4 contains the following:

• AMD display driver version 8.961
• HydraVision™ for Windows Vista® and Windows® 7
• Southbridge/IXP Driver
• AMD Catalyst Control Center version 8.961 / AMD Vision Engine Control Center version 8.961

Important !
Caution !

• The AMD Catalyst Control Center / AMD Vision Engine Control Center requires that the Microsoft® .NET Framework SP1 be installed for Windows XP and Windows Vista. Without .NET SP1 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 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 ATI 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 gives 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.

AMD Product Compatibility
The AMD Catalyst driver is compatible with the following AMD products.

AMD Desktop Product Family Compatibility​

AMD Radeon™ HD 7900 Series
ATI Radeon HD 5500 Series
AMD Radeon HD 7800 Series
ATI Radeon HD 5400 Series
AMD Radeon HD 7700 Series
ATI Radeon HD 4890 Series
AMD Radeon HD 7300 Series
ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 Series
AMD Radeon HD 6900 Series
ATI Radeon HD 4850 X2 Series
AMD Radeon HD 6800 Series
ATI Radeon HD 4800 Series
AMD Radeon HD 6600 Series
ATI Radeon HD 4700 Series
AMD Radeon HD 6550D Series
ATI Radeon HD 4670 Series
AMD Radeon HD 6530D Series
ATI Radeon HD 4650 Series
AMD Radeon HD 6500 Series
AMD Radeon HD 6500 Series
AMD Radeon HD 6410D Series
ATI Radeon HD 4600 Series
AMD Radeon HD 6370D Series
ATI Radeon HD 4550 Series
AMD Radeon HD 6310D Series
ATI Radeon HD 4350 Series
AMD Radeon HD 6300 Series
ATI Radeon HD 3800 Series
AMD Radeon HD 6200 Series
ATI Radeon HD 3600 Series
ATI Radeon HD 5900 Series
ATI Radeon HD 3400 Series
ATI Radeon HD 5800 Series
ATI Radeon HD 2900 Series
ATI Radeon HD 5700 Series
ATI Radeon HD 2600 Series
ATI Radeon HD 5600 Series
ATI Radeon HD 2400 Series

AMD FireStream Product Families​

AMD FireStream™ 9350
AMD FireStream 9250
AMD FireStream 9270
AMD FireStream 9170

AMD Chipset Product Families​

ATI Radeon™ HD 4290
ATI Radeon 3200 Series
ATI Radeon HD 4250
ATI Radeon 3100 Series
ATI Radeon HD 4200 Series
ATI Radeon 3000 Series
ATI Radeon HD 3300 Series

AMD Mobility Product Family Compatibility
AMD Catalyst Mobility is a notebook reference graphics driver with limited support for system vendor specific features. When used with Windows Vista or Windows 7, users may have unwanted experiences.
The Installation Verification Software will prevent driver download on certain notebook products. This is to protect against the installing of drivers that may disable features or functionality provided by the system manufacturer. If unwanted experiences occur while using Catalyst Mobility, it is recommended to revert back to the driver provided by your system vendor for your specific platform. Please contact your system vendor for the most recent drivers for your notebook.

AMD Mobility Product Families​

AMD Mobility Radeon™ HD 6900M Series
AMD Mobility Radeon HD 4200 Series
AMD Mobility Radeon HD 6800M Series
AMD Mobility Radeon HD 4100 Series
AMD Mobility Radeon HD 6300M Series
AMD Mobility Radeon HD 3800 Series
AMD Mobility Radeon HD 6300 Series
AMD Mobility Radeon HD 3600 Series
AMD Mobility Radeon HD 6200 Series
AMD Mobility Radeon HD 3400 Series
AMD Mobility Radeon HD 5800 Series
AMD Mobility Radeon HD 3200 Series
AMD Mobility Radeon HD 5700 Series
AMD Mobility Radeon HD 3100 Series
AMD Mobility Radeon HD 5600 Series
AMD Mobility Radeon HD 2700 Series
AMD Mobility Radeon HD 5400 Series
AMD Mobility Radeon HD 2600 Series
AMD Mobility Radeon HD 5100 Series
AMD Mobility Radeon HD 2400 Series
AMD Mobility Radeon HD 4800 Series
AMD PowerXpress™ enabled notebooks
AMD Mobility Radeon HD 4600 Series
using AMD chipsets
AMD Mobility Radeon HD 4500 Series

AMD Radeon HD 6620G Series

AMD Radeon HD 6520G Series

AMD Radeon HD 6480G Series

AMD Radeon HD 6380G Series

AMD Radeon HD 6310G Series

AMD Radeon HD 6250G Series


The following notebooks are not compatible with this release:

• Any notebook launched after this driver release
• Switchable Graphics enabled notebooks
• Toshiba notebooks (please contact the notebook OEM for driver support for these notebooks)
• Sony VAIO notebooks (please contact the notebook OEM for driver support for these notebooks)
• Panasonic notebooks (please contact the notebook OEM for driver support for these notebooks

Compatible Operating Systems
The latest version of the AMD Catalyst software suite is designed to support the following Microsoft® Windows® platforms:

• Windows 7 32-bit version
• Windows 7 64-bit version
• Windows Vista 32-bit version
• Windows Vista 64-bit version
• Windows XP Professional
• Windows XP Home Edition
• Windows XP Media Center Edition
• Windows XP Professional x64 Edition

Highlights of the AMD Catalyst 12.4 Windows release includes:

NEW FEATURES


Windows XP support for the AMD Radeon HD 7900 Series, AMD Radeon HD 7800, and AMD Radeon HD 7700 Series

• In addition to Windows 7 and Windows Vista support, Catalyst 12.4 now also introduces Windows XP (64-bit/32-bit) support for the AMD Radeon HD 7900, AMD Radeon HD 7800, and AMD Radeon HD 7700 Series

Super Sampling Anti-Aliasing: Level of Detail (LOD) Image Quality enhancements

• Supported on the AMD Radeon HD 7900, AMD Radeon HD 7800, and AMD Radeon HD 7700 Series
• LOD Image quality enhancements have been improved when enabling Super Sample Anti-Aliasing and Adaptive Anti-Aliasing through the AMD Catalyst™ Control Center for DirectX® 10 and DirectX® 11 applications.
• Applications must support in game Anti-Aliasing for the feature to work (Forced on Anti-Aliasing through the Catalyst Control Center is not supported for DirectX 10 and DirectX 11 applications)

Morphological Anti-Aliasing (MLAA): Significant performance enhancements

• Supported on the AMD Radeon HD 7900, AMD Radeon HD 7800, AMD Radeon HD 7700 Series, AMD Radeon HD 6000 Series, and AMD Radeon HD 5000 Series
• MLAA now operates up to 80% faster than previous versions

Texture filtering quality improvements

• Supported on the AMD Radeon HD 7900, AMD Radeon HD 7800, and AMD Radeon HD 7700 Series
• Improvements have been made to the texture filtering algorithm (for both DirectX9 and DirectX10/DirectX11 applications) to increase the quality of rendered textures, with no impact to performance

RESOLVED ISSUES

Resolved Issues for the Windows 7 Operating System
This section provides information on resolved known issues in this release of the AMD Catalyst 12.4 software suite for Windows 7. These include:

• Elder Scrolls: Skyrim: no longer hangs on single GPU configurations when used with AMD Catalyst 12.3 CAP1 and later CAP releases
• Elder Scolls: Skyrim: flickering square corruption is no longer observed.
• Rage: Vsync is no longer disabled after task switching.
• Enemy Territory: Quake Wars: no longer crashes when launched in High Performance Mode.
• Stalker – Call of Pripyat: flickering is no longer observed in trees with specific Catalyst Control Center settings.
• Tom Clancy HAWX 2: no longer crashes on game launch.
• Windows Media Center: no longer crashes when run in Eyefinity mode and High Performance mode settings.
• AMD Steady Video: an error message is no longer displayed when enabling AMD Steady Video for the Microsoft Internet Explorer 9.0 plugin.
• Duplicating displays no longer generates random corruption.
• Tearing is no longer observed on the third screen in 3x1 and 1x3 Eyefinity configurations.
• A system crash is no longer experienced when enabling Crossfire in a 4 display configuration.
• The advanced video quality settings are now correctly displayed in the Catalyst Control Center.

Resolved Issues for the Windows Vista Operating System

This section provides information on resolved known issues in this release of the AMD Catalyst™ 12.4 software suite for Windows Vista. These include:

• The Catalyst Control Center now renders correctly when launched while playing a Bluray disc using WinDVD.

Resolved Issues for the Windows XP Operating System
This section provides information on resolved known issues in this release of the AMD Catalyst™ 12.4 software suite for Windows XP. These include:

• Dirt 3: a system hang is no longer experienced when running game at maximum in game settings.
• Dragon Age 2: visual corruption is no longer observed.

KNOWN ISSUES

Known issues under the Windows 7 operating system
The following section provides a summary of open issues that may be experienced under the Windows 7 operating system in the latest version of AMD Catalyst. These include:

• Blocky video corruption may be observed while using Windows Media Player to playback HD WMV content.
• The Catalyst Control Center may experience random crashes in specific configurations.
• A green screen may be triggered when playing back Flash content using Google Chrome and Firefox.
• The Unigine Tropics demo may experience random crashes when run with shaders=low and Vsync enabled.

Known issues under the Windows Vista operating system
The following section provides a summary of open issues that may be experienced under the Windows Vista operating system in the latest version of AMD Catalyst™. These include:

• Cyberlink PowerDVD may crash when enabling BOB de-interlace mode.

Known issues under the Windows XP operating system
The following section provides a summary of open issues that may be experienced under the Windows XP operating system in the latest version of AMD Catalyst™. These include:

• The system may fail to resume from sleep/hibernate mode is some configurations.

Installing the AMD Catalyst Software Driver
For further information and general help on software driver installation, game issues, and more, visit AMD Customer Care.

Installation information can be found at: How to Install Your AMD Product.

 

[Rvenger]

This driver doesn't sound too promising. I have a feeling there are more open issues then stated.

 

[SickBeast]

Thanks OP, I'm installing them now.

What is MLAA exactly? Is it better than MSAA?

 

[shingletingle]

This driver doesn't sound too promising. I have a feeling there are more open issues then stated.

Why exactly?

 

[OVerLoRDI]

Cool. I'll snag these on my fresh install this afternoon

 

[RavenSEAL]

12.3 was an absolute disaster, I don't want any of this. It's 12.1 for me until something more relevant comes out.

 

[KingFatty]

Thanks OP, I'm installing them now.

What is MLAA exactly? Is it better than MSAA?

MLAA is morphological AA, where the effect is applied with very low overhead. It kind of just looks for what it thinks are jaggies and smooths them, without knowing specifics about the actual geometry etc. Almost like a fancy blurring filter over the whole screen, except selectively applied to regions of high contrast that suggest aliasing is present. Note - this is why it might cause text to look funny, because it doesn't know for sure if something needs anti-aliasing or not, it doesn't look at the geometry.

Benefit is it's almost free to implement, very low overhead.

I noticed these 12.4's address screen tearing on the 3rd screen in eyefinity - I remember someone arguing that it was a hardware limitation and that this would be impossible to fix, but apparently not?

 

[mojothehut]

Just installed 12.4 up from 12.3

First thing I've noticed, my 3dmark 2011 increased a bit.
12.3 score 6130
12.4 score 6407

-AMD 975@4ghz
8gb DDR1600
ATi 7950 (950/1250)
Win 7

 

[zokudu]

Installed. Hope they're better than the 12.3's have been for me.

 

[lavaheadache]

Am I crazy for expecting/wanting performance increases with my 7970?

 

[zokudu]

Am I crazy for expecting/wanting performance increases with my 7970?

I wouldn't say so this is the first release since the first official driver. I was expecting more performance increases as well but if the eyefinity screen tearing issue is fixed I'll take that. :thumbsup:

 

[Piano Man]

Can anyone confirm this fixes the Skyrim issues that 12.3 broke?

 

[Don Karnage]

I lost over a thousand points in 3dmark11 with 12.4. Back to 12.3

 

[railven]

I lost over a thousand points in 3dmark11 with 12.4. Back to 12.3

You make sure it didn't reset your OC? Losing 1k point is huge.

What other issues do you guys run into with driver upgrades? I personally can't remember the last time I've had issues and required a down-grade. Just curious.

 

[Don Karnage]

You make sure it didn't reset your OC? Losing 1k point is huge.

What other issues do you guys run into with driver upgrades? I personally can't remember the last time I've had issues and required a down-grade. Just curious.

Just checked. Physics score is still over 9200 so overclock is good. POS amd driver team

 

[Subyman]

Just checked. Physics score is still over 9200 so overclock is good. POS amd driver team

I think he meant your GPU OC if you had it OCed.

 

[thelastjuju]

I try to update AMD drivers as LITTLE as possible.. only with my other PC, which has an nvidia card, do I keep up to date with the latest drivers. Whenever I update Nvidia drivers, everything goes smoothly.. everything including brand new AND PC games from a generation, two, or even older are still 100% compatible.. almost never the case with AMD from my experience.

Really doesn't matter luckily.. all my games run maxed out and flawlessly, running on like year old drivers.. For the past three times I've attempted to update AMD drivers, I've run into a slew of issues. Last time, two third of my games wouldn't even load, until I rolled back.. another, I couldn't run in 60hz, it was stuck at 30hz for whatever reason.. and then another I couldn't force AA and AF in games anymore.. no more AMD updates for me until they really overhaul the way they do things.

nvidia really does have the AMD team beat when it comes to drivers.

 

[stag3]

upgraded from 12.2 as afterburner caused problems with 12.3 for me

12.4 running flawless with the new afterburner now.

 

[mojothehut]

Not only did my 3dmarks go up several hundred, my Vantage score increased by a nice chunk

12.3 18698
12.4 19880

SWTOR performance with MLAA on seems to be quite a bit better too, so far loving these drivers.

-AMD 975@4ghz
8gb DDR1600
Sapphire 7950 (950/1250)

 

[hdfxst]

new version of trixx https://www.sapphireselectclub.com/ssc/TriXX/TriXX.aspx to go with the drivers

 

[blackened23]

I lost over a thousand points in 3dmark11 with 12.4. Back to 12.3

Sounds like an issue with Lucid MVP? Did you test any actual games with it? Most others are reporting slight 3dmark increases, so thats odd. Also, you have to extend clocks (again) with a new driver installation AFAIK.

Also - ...physics score depends 50% on your cpu. I'd probably glance at afterburner to verify overclocks, i'm pretty sure I had to re-extend overclock range with every new WHQL install.

 

[Don Karnage]

Sounds like an issue with Lucid MVP? Did you test any actual games with it? Most others are reporting slight 3dmark increases, so thats odd. Also, you have to extend clocks (again) with a new driver installation AFAIK.

Also - ...physics score depends 50% on your cpu. I'd probably glance at afterburner to verify overclocks, i'm pretty sure I had to re-extend overclock range with every new WHQL install.

I had a driver issue which I found and corrected.

 

[toyota]

Thanks OP, I'm installing them now.

What is MLAA exactly? Is it better than MSAA?

lol, are you morally opposed to google or what? you ask questions all the time that you can immediately find answers to yourself.

for example just simply typing "MLAA" and "MSAA" gives you definitions, tons of examples and even comparisons. https://www.google.com/search?sourc....,cf.osb&fp=b57f3adcf5e98368&biw=1920&bih=989

not trying to be a jerk but seriously just try a quick search next time instead of waiting for others to always give you answers. you will learn a lot more that way too.

 

[bxcloud]

My score dropped 700 points with drivers 12.4, switch back to 12.3, 12.4 beta. Same thing, weird. Overclocks are the same.

 

[blackened23]

Thanks OP, I'm installing them now.

What is MLAA exactly? Is it better than MSAA?

MLAA sucks compared to MSAA and is generally only useful if the game does not have native AA. Then you can use MLAA to blur the hell out of everything. Or you can also use the FXAA tool, or inject SMAA tool.