AMD Catalyst 11.7 Driver Analysis

Another month has passed, so it seems and that means a lot of things to many people. For me, it’s the next chapter in my life as my first daughter is due to be born any day. For others it means the middle of summer is here and for the tech world it means that AMD have released another set of drivers.

In typical AMD fashion as of late, a monthly driver update has been released with bug fixes for a variety of things including video playback including HD footage, feature improvements and more importantly to us; bug fixes and improvements where it matters the most, and that is of course, games.

Whilst Catalyst 11.7 has been released, it’s also worth noting that Catalyst 11.8 preview has also been let loose to the public, but we will wait to look at that when it becomes official. For now, it’s time to get down to it and to take a look at what 11.7 is all about and if it makes for any improvements in our benchmarks and games.

Release notes
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Package Content
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The AMD Catalyst Control Center / AMD Vision Engine Control Center 11.7 software suite contains the following:
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• AMD display driver version 8.872
• HydraVision™ for Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7
• Southbridge/IXP Driver
• AMD Catalyst Control Center version 8.872 / AMD Vision Engine Control Center version 8.872.

[B]Important ! Caution ![/B]

• The AMD display driver and the AMD Catalyst Control Center / AMD Vision Engine Control Center can be downloaded independently of each other. However, for better stability and performance AMD recommends that both components be updated from the same AMD Catalyst release.
• 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.

[B]Notes.[/B]

• 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.
• 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

[B]AMD Product Compatibility

[/B]The AMD Catalyst driver is compatible with the following AMD products.

[B]AMD Desktop Product Family Compatibility

[/B]AMD Radeon™ HD 6900 Series of Products
ATI Radeon HD 4800 Series of Products
AMD Radeon HD 6800 Series of Products
ATI Radeon HD 4700 Series of Products
AMD Radeon HD 6600 Series of Products
ATI Radeon HD 4670 Series of Products
AMD Radeon HD 6500 Series of Products
ATI Radeon HD 4650 Series of Products
AMD Radeon HD 6300 Series of Products
ATI Radeon HD 4600 Series of Products
AMD Radeon HD 6200 Series of Products
ATI Radeon HD 4550 Series of Products
ATI Radeon HD 5900 Series of Products
ATI Radeon HD 4350 Series of Products
ATI Radeon HD 5800 Series of Products
ATI Radeon HD 3800 Series of Products
ATI Radeon HD 5700 Series of Products
ATI Radeon HD 3600 Series of Products
ATI Radeon HD 5600 Series of Products
ATI Radeon HD 3400 Series of Products
ATI Radeon HD 5500 Series of Products
ATI Radeon HD 2900 Series of Products
ATI Radeon HD 5400 Series of Products
ATI Radeon HD 2600 Series of Products
ATI Radeon HD 4890 Series of Products
ATI Radeon HD 2400 Series of Products
ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 Series of Products

ATI Radeon HD 4850 X2 Series of Products

[B]AMD FireStream Product Families

[/B]AMD FireStream™ 9350 Series of Products
AMD FireStream 9250 Series of Products
AMD FireStream 9270 Series of Products
AMD FireStream 9170 Series of Products

[B]AMD Chipset Product Families

[/B]ATI Radeon HD 4290 Series of Products
ATI Radeon 3200 Series of Products
ATI Radeon HD 4250 Series of Products
ATI Radeon 3100 Series of Products
ATI Radeon HD 4200 Series of Products
ATI Radeon 3000 Series of Products
ATI Radeon HD 3300 Series of Products

[B]AMD Mobility Product Family Compatibility

[/B]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 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.

[B]AMD Mobility Product Families

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

The following notebooks are not compatible with this release:

• Any notebook launched after this driver release
• Switchable Graphics enabled notebooks using Intel® chipsets.
• 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)

[B]Compatible Operating Systems

The latest version of the AMD Catalyst software suite is designed to support the following Microsoft Windows platforms:[/B]

• 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

[B]Highlights of the AMD Catalyst 11.7 Windows release includes:

Resolved Issues for the Windows 7 Operating System

This section provides information on resolved known issues in this release of the AMD Catalyst 11.7 software suite for Windows 7. These include:[/B]

• All issues experienced with mouse cursor lag have been resolved
• Resolves system hangs seen in the AMD Catalyst 11.6 driver on specific HDMI and DP displays
• Log event (Event ID 62464) issues when playing video content have been resolved
• Bluray playback using PowerDVD 10 under High Performance mode no longer randomly displays a blank screen.
• Bluray playback using PowerDVD 10 under High Performance mode no longer randomly hangs.
• Some Divx format files no longer display video corruption using WinDVD.
• AVIVO Video Quality settings are now correctly applied to Flash Video Content.
• AMD SteadyVideo is now applied to Home Video clips when using WinDVD 10.
• Random screen corruption is no longer displayed when changing desktop themes.
• Chequerboard corruption is no longer displayed intermittently when playing DirectX 10 titles in a Crossfire configuration with Eyefinity enabled.
• Shogun II now renders the cinematics correctly when run in various Eyefinity configurations.
• Video playback now works correctly when Hardware acceleration is enabled with VLC Player version 1.1.9.
• 720P Divx video clips no longer display stuttering when played using Windows Media Center and Windows Media Player.
• Crossfire now functions correctly when playing Hamilton’s Great Adventure.
• Video corruption is no longer observed when when using the Forward slider on 720P Divx format video clips using Windows Media Player and Windows Media Center.
• PowerDVD now correctly handles 3D Bluray content.
• Portal 2 no longer displays flickering on water surface textures with Medium and Low Shader detail settings.
• Image stabilization now functions correctly when playing Divx content using Windows Media Player.
• Wraparound corruption is no longer displayed intermittently after exiting a 3D application.

[B]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:[/B]

• Star Wars Jedi Knight II / Jedi Academy may randomly crash on launch.
• Image rotation might not function correctly in Photoshop CS5.
• OpenGL acceleration might not be available in Photoshop CS5.
• High GPU speeds might be retained after exiting a 3D application.
• Crysis 2 may display random corruption when Crossfire is enabled and run in DirectX 9 mode
• Homefront may experience random crashes during gameplay.
• Crossfire may not perform as expected when playing Earthsim, Bad Company 2 and Metro 2003 under DirectX 11 mode.

[B]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:[/B]

• PowerDVD may display a blank screen during Bluray playback when Crossfire is enabled.
• Doom 3 and Quake 4 may display random screen corruption.
• Performing Bezel compensation in certain Eyefinity configurations may cause some bezel groups to not appear.
• Windows Aero options may no longer be available after installing the driver.