AMD Releases the Catalyst 12.4 WHQL Driver

[Cristian_25H]

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.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[joyman]

I hope the annoying bug with sticking the 3d frequencies in idle is fixed...

 

[dj-electric]

Finally i can start my re-benches. I've waited for too long AMD...

 

[devguy]

- Tearing is no longer observed on the third screen in 3x1 and 1x3 Eyefinity configurations.

OMG, if this is true and they've finally fixed this, I will be a very happy man!

 

[Jurassic1024]

After the 2000, 3000 and 4000 series cards move to quarterly updates, I sure as hell hope we see more performance improvements in games from the leaner drivers for the rest of the GPU lineup rather than just fixes, or I'm going back to the dark side and staying there.

 

[Mistral]

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

Whoever wastes those cards on Windows XP deserves to be shot.

MLAA now operates up to 80% faster than previous versions

 

[LifeOnMars]

Nice, I shall try these out on my new 7850 later on today

 

[Random Murderer]

- MLAA now operates up to 80% faster than previous versions

Bout damn time, AMD.
this is HUGE news for those of us who like to run MLAA in addition to other AA.

 

[TheMailMan78]

Does anyone still play this?

- Enemy Territory: Quake Wars: no longer crashes when launched in High Performance Mode.

 

[Random Murderer]

Does anyone still play this?

i do...
there's actually still a quite large community of players.

 

[TheMailMan78]

i do...
there's actually still a quite large community of players.

I used to enjoy that game a lot. I always felt like "This would be so cool......but".

The game seemed like it was always on the verge of greatness IMO. But things like the sounds (Quake plink on impact) and the cheesy Earth voice always kept me from being immersed into the game. You know what I mean?

But there was a lot of strategy in that game. Some I wish they would have done in BF3. Like the commander perks of setting up a hammer behind enemy lines and stuff.

 

[RejZoR]

Groovy. Have been using 12.3 Preview for quite some time due to MLAA 2.0. It's much faster, smooths edges better and doesn't make textures slightly blurry. MLAA 2.0 now comes for real with Cat 12.4 WHQL

 

[devguy]

I used to enjoy that game a lot. I always felt like "This would be so cool......but".

The game seemed like it was always on the verge of greatness IMO. But things like the sounds (Quake plink on impact) and the cheesy Earth voice always kept me from being immersed into the game. You know what I mean?

But there was a lot of strategy in that game. Some I wish they would have done in BF3. Like the commander perks of setting up a hammer behind enemy lines and stuff.

I actually much preferred the original Wolfenstein: ET, and it still has a good following today. Maybe I'm just a sucker for WW2 games, but I found it to not only be the best free game of all time, but one of the better MP FPS in general. I wish they would upgrade the graphics using ETQW engine (or even Id Tech 5), or at least release a ET:Live (like Quake III: Live). The ETXreal project is pretty awesome, but putting Id Tech 3 era assets on a modern day engine still doesn't look that impressive (even with the lighting and other changes).

 

[ValVed RaY]

I hope the annoying bug with sticking the 3d frequencies in idle is fixed...

This 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

 

[Random Murderer]

I used to enjoy that game a lot. I always felt like "This would be so cool......but".

The game seemed like it was always on the verge of greatness IMO. But things like the sounds (Quake plink on impact) and the cheesy Earth voice always kept me from being immersed into the game. You know what I mean?

But there was a lot of strategy in that game. Some I wish they would have done in BF3. Like the commander perks of setting up a hammer behind enemy lines and stuff.

the plink can be disabled in options, but after going from QIII:A to Q4 to ET:QW, most of us are used to it, lol.
as far as the Earth voices go, yea they were a bit cheesy but tolerable.
Strategy? some of the best i've found in an FPS without playing scrims in other FPS games...
enough strategy to be fun and make you plan, but not enough that both teams are so competitive that it's not fun anymore.


Back on topic, I hadn't realized this was MLAA 2.0. glad it's finally WHQL, blurry textures were bothersome.

 

[xBruce88x]

good news indeed, esp MLAA 2.0. Now I don't have to hear my friend complain about my 8800GT handling AA better than his 6850 lol

 

[Atom_Anti]

Any new driver for Windows 8 x64?

 

[SK-1]

I just ran BF3, Metro, DiRT 3 and Skyrim with these drivers.... now Im not wanting to sell my 5870's....

 

[Random Murderer]

I just ran BF3, Metro, DiRT 3 and Skyrim with these drivers.... now Im not wanting to sell my 5870's....

that good, huh?

 

[SK-1]

that good, huh?

So far.... Maybe I've just been a little lucky. Ill continue to test them out with longer gaming sessions tonight.

 

[semantics]

good news indeed, esp MLAA 2.0. Now I don't have to hear my friend complain about my 8800GT handling AA better than his 6850 lol

Yeah MLAA 2.0 is actually at a point where i can consider using it. I still prefer the latest TXAA for scenes in motion and then FXAA

 

[Dos101]

I just ran BF3, Metro, DiRT 3 and Skyrim with these drivers.... now Im not wanting to sell my 5870's....

What kind of performance bump did you notice with BF3 and Metro? I've got two 5870's that I've been trying to sell, but if these drivers make them last a little longer then I'll have to rethink selling them

 

[TheoneandonlyMrK]

no benchmark improvement noticeable(amd prob overideing my forced defaults) but ultimate IQ gameing does seem to have improved with morpho enabled , think i am indeed set for a bit

I go for morpho + 4xmsaa ,looks good in most situations, 1080p though

 

[Isenstaedt]

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

Why didn't they just wrote "Supported on the AMD Radeon HD 7000 Series, AMD Radeon HD 6000 Series, and AMD Radeon HD 5000 Series"?

 

[TheoneandonlyMrK]

cos thats massively shorter