Wednesday, April 25th 2012

AMD Releases the Catalyst 12.4 WHQL Driver

by
Cristian_25H
 Discuss (75 Comments)
AMD has today let loose the newest Catalyst release, the WHQL-certified Catalyst 12.4 which includes the 8.961 graphics driver and features support for the Radeon HD 2000, HD 3000, HD 4000, HD 5000, HD 6000 and HD 7000 Series desktop cards.

Download links Windows 7/Vista (32-bit) | Windows 7/Vista (64-bit) | Windows XP (32-bit) | Windows XP (64-bit)

Catalyst 12.4 Release Highlights

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

- 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.

Resolved Issues for the Windows Vista Operating System

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

Resolved Issues for the Windows XP Operating System

- 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.

The advanced video quality settings are now correctly displayed in the Catalyst Control Center.

Related News

Add your own comment

75 Comments on AMD Releases the Catalyst 12.4 WHQL Driver

#51
Prima.Vera
Anyone test the quality of MLAA for 58xx cards yet?
Posted on Reply
#52
Frizz
Ok these fixed the idle clocks on my 7970, happy enough.
Posted on Reply
#53
cedrac18
RebelstarI'm on multi-monitor since 5XXX series and with 6XXX they invented new display logic (or something) and every user experienced tearing problem. I have currently triple screen setup and 2 of 3 displays suffer from tearing. I fed up already with AMD cards, OFCOURSE this new driver DIDN'T FIX any tearing. I did a whole driver uninstall and installed this 12.4, tearing is still here on DVI-DVI, DVI-DVI, DP-VGA setup. I know new Nvidia cards don't have that obscure problem. Fck AMD!! Time to move to something like GTX670 once they released.
Maybe its only fixed if you are not using a displayport adapter. We need more testing from others.
Posted on Reply
#54
fullinfusion
Vanguard Beta Tester
can I just install this driver over the 11.9 cat I'm still using?
Posted on Reply
#55
2wicked
AMD VISION Engine control center now controls audio and this sucks for htpc and hdmi audio users.
My htpc is also my server and stays on 24/7 yet now if I turn off my tv it disables the hdmi audio and will not renable it when the tv is turned back on without repluging the hdmi cable or a reboot.
Posted on Reply
#56
Fatal
devguyI just tried going from WHQL 12.3 to 12.4 and I still have the tearing "line" horizontally across my third monitor. Damn... I just ran the AMD intaller and installed over the 12.3; could that be the problem? I'm anxious to hear the results of others.

Edit: some depressing news I read over by the Catalyst Beta Testers at Rage3d:


So, they have no software workaround for the difference of display interfaces (DisplayPort vs DVI/HDMI), and were just fixing some bug that caused worse tearing due to memory clock speeds. Meh...
I have tearing with my Eyefinity 3x1 portrait but from what I saw was just with my browser will check when I get home. My daughter has been playing Assassins Creed 2 and has not said any thing yet.
Posted on Reply
#57
eidairaman1
The Exiled Airman
LifeOnMarsOh dear, had issues with my new HD 7850 and CTD's/total freeze in games with weird pink vertical lines. 12.3 runs without issues in everything. Rest of the PC is 100% stable and stock.

I'll wait to see if anyone has the same issues.
read the known issues deal on the drivers, I installed them ontop of 11.12s on a 6770 and no issues here
Posted on Reply
#58
Prima.Vera
Still no MLAA and CrossFireX in games like SWTOR...:((
Posted on Reply
#59
eidairaman1
The Exiled Airman
Prima.VeraStill no MLAA and CrossFireX in games like SWTOR...:((
use catalyst feedback program for suggestions n what is and isnt working etc
Posted on Reply
#60
LifeOnMars
eidairaman1read the known issues deal on the drivers, I installed them ontop of 11.12s on a 6770 and no issues here
Well, like I said, no issues on 12.3 whatsoever and everything running amazingly well so I'm not really bothered. Plus, I don't use MLAA so it's no loss to me. Just interested as to whether it's an issue with some 7850s.
Posted on Reply
#61
Prima.Vera
eidairaman1use catalyst feedback program for suggestions n what is and isnt working etc
What's that? Do actually think they are monitoring those? Common. They must receive millions daily. I wrote them 2 emails already and no answer from the support. They don't care about their customers at all.
Posted on Reply
#62
Fatal
Update: I am only getting the tearing on my browsers when I scroll up or down Eyefinity 3x1 portrait.
Posted on Reply
#63
cedrac18
FatalUpdate: I am only getting the tearing on my browsers when I scroll up or down Eyefinity 3x1 portrait.
I used to get that to on 11.4 but that's now gone on 12.4. Are you using a displayport adapter?
Posted on Reply
#66
Mr McC
fullinfusioncan I just install this driver over the 11.9 cat I'm still using?
I have been letting CCC overwrite existing drivers for quite some time without issue. I have used and advocate erocker's driver install guide, but it seems that installing on a clean slate is no longer necessary, at least not for me.
Posted on Reply
#67
fullinfusion
Vanguard Beta Tester
Mr McCI have been letting CCC overwrite existing drivers for quite some time without issue. I have used and advocate erocker's driver install guide, but it seems that installing on a clean slate is no longer necessary, at least not for me.
Yeah been doing the same thing at times but this driver gave me some issues... back to good ol 11.9 :D
Posted on Reply
#68
Steevo
MLAA is much better, audio over HDMi requires a unplug and replug of HDMI to work though.
Posted on Reply
#69
L'Eliminateur
ValVed RaYThis was really bugging me, I eventually found out when i had a youtube.com or any other video open it would downclock one of my cards to 250mhz and my games were unplayable until i closed the video. i don't know if this is your problem. i registered just in case to help out though :D
it's a BUG of AMD/ATI, i've been trying with zero success for one of the large review sites to publish an article doing an indepth study of this complete and utter SHAM by amd...

at least on 5870 and 4xxx it happens, i don't know if the 6xxx and 7xxx cards have the same "feature".

the best you can do is to disable HW acceleration of flash, i know it's retarded but i can go so far to spread this news....
Posted on Reply
#70
cedrac18
L'Eliminateurit's a BUG of AMD/ATI, i've been trying with zero success for one of the large review sites to publish an article doing an indepth study of this complete and utter SHAM by amd...

at least on 5870 and 4xxx it happens, i don't know if the 6xxx and 7xxx cards have the same "feature".

the best you can do is to disable HW acceleration of flash, i know it's retarded but i can go so far to spread this news....
Yeah, have them same issue with my 5770, and now with the 12.4 drivers my card wont downclock to 157mhz anymore when not in use.
Posted on Reply
#71
Steevo
Mine still downclocks fine, and flash videos as well as html5 and divx play fine with the new drivers. Its just the HDMI that i have issues with, ONLY since I decided to upgrade my drivers. AMD didnt coererce me or hold a gun to my hwad and force me, or anyone else for that matter.
Posted on Reply
#72
L'Eliminateur
that's a separate issue, if you overclock in software(ANY software), your 2D clock=UVD clocks which is 400MHz.
it's another completely retarded "feature" that apparently fixed problems with multimonitor, yet it seems it's too hard for the AMD driver codemonkeys to actually implement.. you know.. a detection routing for when you have several monitor or not...
Posted on Reply
#73
LifeOnMars
Going to try these again on a fresh install. I take it for a single card (7850) I should still install the latest cap as they also contain single card fixes?
Posted on Reply
#74
Steevo
If you want to.


Others have reported even better performance with 12.5 beta drivers. However, as always, installing a newer driver if you are happy with the one you have/had is a roll of the dice, as the card you have may lose/gain features/benefits/performance/stability/issues due to optimizations made for other series of cards.

And lo, the casting of pearls before swine......
Posted on Reply
#75
LifeOnMars
SteevoIf you want to.


Others have reported even better performance with 12.5 beta drivers. However, as always, installing a newer driver if you are happy with the one you have/had is a roll of the dice, as the card you have may lose/gain features/benefits/performance/stability/issues due to optimizations made for other series of cards.

And lo, the casting of pearls before swine......
:laugh:
I figure it has to be worth trying these again with my card being fairly new.... I would like to think any new optimizations would be tailored to mostly the newer 7 series. I already tried these once but I think my windows install was borked. I'll report back later if I see any improvements / stability issues.
Posted on Reply
Add your own comment
Apr 26th, 2024 08:12 EDT change timezone

Latest GPU Drivers

New Forum Posts

Popular Reviews

Controversial News Posts