AMD Catalyst™ 10.12 Release Notes 

This article provides information on the latest posting of AMD’s software suite, AMD Catalyst 10.12. This particular software suite updates both the AMD display driver, and the AMD Catalyst Control Center. This unified driver has been updated to provide enhanced level of power, performance, and reliability.

Package Content
The AMD Catalyst™ software suite 10.12 contains the following:

• AMD display driver version 8.801
• HydraVision™ for Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7
• Southbridge/IXP Driver
• AMD Catalyst™ Control Center version 8.801

Important !

Caution !

• The AMD display driver and the AMD Catalyst™ 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 requires that the Microsoft® .NET Framework SP1 be installed for Windows XP and Windows Vista. Without .NET SP1 installed, the AMD Catalyst™ 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.
• 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/.
• ATI 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
• The Drag and Drop Transcoding feature is a beta level feature provided only for evaluation purposes. The Drag and Drop Transcoding feature is only supported on single and dual core CPUs, and supported on devices that support Media Transfer Protocol (MTP).
• When upgrading from a non-Stream™ Edition driver suite to a Stream Edition driver suite with the ATI Stream™ SDK v2 installed, it is recommended that you uninstall the ATI Stream SDK v2 Developer component from the system prior to installing Stream Edition driver suite
• When installing the ATI Stream SDK v2 after a Stream Edition driver suite has been installed on a system, you may encounter a maintenance dialog for the developer component of the SDK. This is normal and can be ignored by canceling the dialog box.

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 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™ 10.12 Windows release includes:

New Features:

• Support for DivX on the AMD Radeon 6800 Series
• With DivX® software installed on an AMD Radeon™ HD 6800 Series and later GPU and the DivX Accelerated™ solution, consumers can enjoy an improved DivX video playback experience by lowering CPU load, extending computer battery life on notebooks, reducing noise on home theater PCs and improving overall computer operation.
• Grab the DivX Accelerated download from here (will be available Dec 15)  http://go.divx.com/accelerated
• Support for OpenGL 4.1
• New features introduced in OpenGL 4.1
• Full compatibility with OpenGL ES 2.0 APIs for easier porting between mobile and desktop platforms
• The ability to query and load a binary for shader program objects to save re-compilation time
• The capability to bind programs individually to programmable stages for programming flexibility
• 64-bit floating-point component vertex shader inputs for higher geometric precision
• Multiple viewports for a rendering surface for increased rendering flexibility
• New ARB extensions introduced with OpenGL 4.1
• Linking OpenGL sync objects to OpenCL event objects for enhanced OpenCL interoperability
• The ability to set stencil values in a fragment shader for enhanced rendering flexibility
• Features to improve robustness, for example when running WebGL applications
• Callback mechanisms to receive enhanced errors and warning messages
• AMD Stream 2.3 SDK release
• Performance improvements for AMD’s OpenCL toolset
• Support UVD video hardware component through OpenCL driver (Windows 7 only)
• Support for the Stream Profiler on Linux (command line version)
• Support added for AMD Radeon HD 6800 Series and AMD Radeon HD 6900 Series
• Support for FFT and BLAS-3 libraries
• Stream Profiler enhancements (including timeline visualization)
• Resolves a number of bug fixes from the Stream SDK 2.2 release

Resolved Known Issues for the Windows 7 Operating System
This section provides information on resolved known issues in this release of the AMD Catalyst™ 10.12 software suite for Windows 7. These include:

• DivX interlaced content no longer intermittently shows corruption.
• Tom Clancy’s Endwar no longer randomly hangs during game cutscenes.
• Crossfire no longer gets randomly disabled in some games after task switching.
• Random black streaks are no longer seen on menus in Metro 2033.
• Corruption is no longer randomly seen with certain graphical settings in F1 2010.
• Screen is now rendered correctly in Splinter Cell Conviction with Crossfire enabled.
• Random tearing is no longer observed when playing back XVID video files on an extended display.
• Random crashes are no longer observed when playing the Stone Giant DX11 Demo when Crossfire enabled.
• Random crashes are no longer observed when changing video settings in Supreme Commander 2.
• Need for Speed Shift no longer displays random corruption during game play if 2 races are played consecutively without exiting the game.
• WMV playback no longer goes blank occasionally after switching from 32bit to 16bit color.
• Random mouse cursor corruption is no longer seen
• The screen is does not intermittently display garbage when running 3dMark06.
• Dragon Age Origins no longer hangs intermittently during gameplay.
• Changing resolutions in Starcraft2 with forced AA no longer causes random application crashes.
• The desktop does not darken occasionally after exiting Eve Online.
• The desktop does not dim randomly after exiting Mafia II on some Radeon 4890 products.

Resolved Known Issues for the Windows Vista  Operating System

• The overscan/underscan slider is no longer occasionally disabled in certain optimized / customer modes.
• Enabling dynamic contrast no longer displays random fade-in effects when playing Yozakura.

Resolved Known Issues for the Windows XP Operating System

• The water surface in World of Warcraft no longer displays random corruption when Anti Aliasing is enabled.
• Random flickering is no longer observed in F1 2010 in systems with Crossfire enabled and forced Anti Aliasing enabled in the Catalyst™ Control Center.

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:

• Green texture corruption may be observed when resolution / video settings are changed in Metro 2033.
• Playing Dead Rising 2 in an Eyefinity configuration may display a black screen with a mouse pointer if Vsync is turned off.
• Video settings might not be retained after enabling / disabling Crossfire.
• The screen may flicker and objects may be duplicated when running Medal of Honor DX11 with Crossfire enabled.
• Texture corruption or missing text may be observed when running Nostradamus the Last Prophecy.
• Menu and Action bar borders may shimmer occasionally when MLAA is enabled in World of Warcraft.
• 8X Anti Aliasing may not be available in certain 3D applications.

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:

• Launching Left 4 Dead 2 in portrait mode may display the “Failed to create D3D device” error message.
• Performing bezel compensation on a 3x2 Eyefinity configuration may cause certain bezel group resolutions to be unavailable.

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

• Green playback may be observed when playing multiple HD streams from Youtube using Flashplayer 10.1.

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 ATI 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.