AMD Catalyst™ Software Suite Version 12.4 Release Notes 

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 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.

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.

AMD Catalyst Crew Driver Feedback

This driver release incorporates suggestions received through the AMD Catalyst Crew Driver Feedback program. To provide us with your feedback, visit Catalyst Crew Driver Feedback.