AMD Catalyst 12.6 Beta and AMD Catalyst Feature Preview for Windows 8 Available

[btarunr]

AMD just released the AMD Catalyst 12.6 Beta. With the release of the Catalyst 12.6 Beta driver, AMD would also like to announce that we are moving away from our Monthly Catalyst release plan. Our goal is to ensure that every Catalyst release delivers a substantial benefit to our end users; as we have today with the release of the Catalyst 12.6a Beta. We will still continue with the Catalyst naming convention; Catalyst: Year.Month., You just won't see a new driver every single month. We are confident that this will only benefit the end user; you'll only need to upgrade to a new Catalyst driver, when it makes sense.

We would also like announce the introduction of our new AMD Issue Reporting Form. We made a number of improvements to the older Catalyst Crew Feedback form, making it more comprehensive, ensuring we get the best feedback possible. Feedback is very important in every product company's life, especially in our fast paced environment. This is not just a check-box for us - we take these reports very seriously. We will review every report posted here and investigate every issue encountered. Please use this form whenever you encounter something worth mentioning.

DOWNLOAD: AMD Catalyst 12.6 BETA | AMD Catalyst Windows 8 Feature Preview Driver

Resolved issue highlights of the AMD Catalyst 12.6 Beta

• AMD Radeon HD 7900, AMD Radeon HD 7800 Tri-CrossFire configurations + Eyefinity no longer results in a BSOD when launching a DirectX application
• AMD Radeon HD 7900, AMD Radeon HD 7800 Eyefinity/Multiple Display configurations no longer results in a BSOD when using desktop applications
• AMD Radeon HD 7900, AMD Radeon HD 7800, and AMD Radeon HD 7700 cards no longer hang when system goes to sleep
  o Please ensure that your System BIOS is up to date - some occurrences of this issue are related to outdated SBIOS
• Resolves CrossFire scaling issues seen in AMD Catalyst 12.4 with Elder Scrolls: Skyrim CrossFire
• AMD Catalyst Control Center - Overdrive page is no longer intermittently missing
• AMD Catalyst Control Center - GPU Activity gauge is no longer missing
• AMD Radeon HD 7900 CrossFire Configuration - no longer results in system hang after cinematic in Call Of Duty: Black Ops
• Heroes and Generals: Blocky corruption in scenes with smoke effects when run in DirectX 11 mode are no longer experienced.
• Dirt Showdown: Improves scaling for CrossFire configurations using the AMD Radeon HD 6000 Series
• HDMI audio is no longer disabled if the connected HDTV is powered Off/On.

Feature highlights of the AMD Catalyst 12.6 Beta:
Supported Dual Graphics configurations:
AMD Accelerated Processors for Desktop PCs

• AMD Radeon HD 7660D (A10-5700)
• AMD Radeon HD 7560D (A8-5500)

Notebooks with AMD Accelerated Processors

• AMD Radeon HD 7660G (A10-4600M)
• AMD Radeon HD 7640G (A8-4500M)
• AMD Radeon HD 7520G (A6-4400M)

New profiles have been added for the following titles:

• Diablo 3
• Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
• StarCraft 2
• Portal 2
• Call of Duty Modern Warfare
• Call of Duty Black Ops

Future Catalyst releases will continue to add Dual Graphics support for additional titles.

New AMD Catalyst Application Profile is now available
Catalyst 12.6 Beta CAP1

• Max Payne 3 (DirectX11 version): Improves CrossFire scaling performance
• Krater: Resolves full screen flickering issue

Find it here

AMD has also just released a new AMD Catalyst feature preview driver for the Windows 8 Release Preview.

Find it here.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[DoomDoomDoom]

I can see how moving away from "monthly" driver updates can be beneficial, but it sounds like AMD is having trouble keeping up with the schedule. Hopefully they continue to address any potential issues with driver suites as they occur.

 

[devguy]

Btarunr, can you add this line from the AMD site:

• 
  Tearing on Eyefinity configurations when different display connector types are used.

I'll test out if it's true tonight! I was also suffering from my card hanging when my PC went to sleep, so glad to see that's fixed.

 

[etayorius]

So they are only supporting latest gen Cards and Xfire setups apart from moving to a god knows when we will release another version? just great...

 

[Black Panther]

I'm still testing each driver to see if The Sims 3 works with my HD5970.
It used to work on the 9.12 drivers and those before it.
Afterwards, it quit. (Unless I roll back to 9.12 that is).
I am in email correspondence with AMD customer care about it.

Now let's see how this goes, though I'm not optimistic since there's no mention of that game in the release notes...

 

[erocker]

Software info:

 

[Psychoholic]

"AMD Radeon HD 7900, AMD Radeon HD 7800, and AMD Radeon HD 7700 cards no longer hang when system goes to sleep"

YES, I hope this really works, testing over the next few days. Widespread issue, and one that was/is making me want to go back green.

 

[Steevo]

Should have added the report into the CCC as a separate page that pulls system info and the name of currently running DX calling applications.

 

[TheoneandonlyMrK]

I can see how moving away from "monthly" driver updates can be beneficial, but it sounds like AMD is having trouble keeping up with the schedule. Hopefully they continue to address any potential issues with driver suites as they occur.

possibly due to them prepareing for and devoteing more staff to HSA

id advise caution if your on 5xxx xfire setup like me im back on 12.5 beta as i was getting constant and repeated BSD's, first driver issue ive had in a while,, and just when i was gettin optimistic too.

 

[fullinfusion]

Install went smooth but the monitor scaling seems broken for me using a 6990

It's only on a restart it does it. CCC Digital panel scaling is set to "0" but i just need to slide it back a bit then back to 0 for it to work

3Dmark 11 gave me just shy of 200 points more then the 12.4 driver did at stock settings

Anybody have any ideas on the scaling problem?

 

[Mussels]

hmmm, i wonder if the dual graphics profiles will work on my laptop with its 6520g, as it stands i'm only getting one GPU with diablo III.

 

[TheoneandonlyMrK]

hmmm, i wonder if the dual graphics profiles will work on my laptop with its 6520g, as it stands i'm only getting one GPU with diablo III.

if you dont want the driver you could just try its included app profile with old drivers, thats what ive done so far , i might retry them in a bit

 

[Psychoholic]

so far no issues with my monitors coming out of sleep.. Im liking this one.

 

[Mussels]

if you dont want the driver you could just try its included app profile with old drivers, thats what ive done so far , i might retry them in a bit

i tried, but still no luck. the 'old' APU i have doesnt work in crossfire in DX9 or OGL, so i wasnt expecting it to work.


anyway i managed to get D3 running fine, turns out i just needed to OC the CPU, not the GPU.

 

[alexsubri]

erm....I'm still on 12.3 should I upgrade to 12.6 beta...? Any performance increase/issues? anyone knows?

 

[Law-II]

Hi

Scaling broken on HD 5970 along with the clocks GPU 1 core 157 mem 300 GPU 2 core 725 mem 1000 with Ulps disabled in reg on desktop. Reported this to AMD, not holding my breath for a fix any time soon if ever as the Catalyst drivers have been broken for a while, last cat that did not have this issue was 12.1 preview

atb (all the best)

Law-II

 

[fullinfusion]

Hi

Scaling broken on HD 5970 along with the clocks GPU 1 core 157 mem 300 GPU 2 core 725 mem 1000 with Ulps disabled in reg on desktop. Reported this to AMD, not holding my breath for a fix any time soon if ever as the Catalyst drivers have been broken for a while, last cat that did not have this issue was 12.1 preview

atb (all the best)

Law-II

Yup all the same symptoms as my gpu

It's going to be a kick ass driver if they can keep the performance and fix their issues.

 

[TheoneandonlyMrK]

I got these drivers installed and working fine ,second attempt.

Prior to install(un cleaned up) i disabled xfire, thats all , installed drivers re enabled it and alls well, no real performance increase noted over 12.4 or 5, less crashes due to atidkmag or weva on high clocks, im putting it down to ageing and them being hammered 24/7 for 2 years now but i had been haveing crashes in game at 950+ clocks on gpu(crysis 2 max IQ etc)

 

[cadaveca]

12.6 not working for Trifire 6950's. OMG AMD, GET THIS SHIT FIXED!!!

 

[TheoneandonlyMrK]

12.6 not working for Trifire 6950's. OMG AMD, GET THIS SHIT FIXED!!!

dave, sounds daft and you may have tried it but did you un xfire prior to install, try it ya never know, ive had first boot crashes the last 4 updates, but doing it that way it installed cleanly with no crash(some of which took a few boots to clear), other then that sos man its a pain when the shits brokled

also as im thinkin i downloaded them again from a second place this time, just to be sure ya know
here
http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=2920

it worked, first downloaded driver set bork installed into repeated atidkmag weva crashes i say borked but initially prior to reboot they seemed fine(1st time)

 

[cadaveca]

I've spent about 12 hours since this driver was released doing OS installs, driver re-installs, everything. TriFire is broken, gives lower performance than two cards do. Remove one card, any card, and 2 cards work as they should.

Tried FX-8150 and CHV, 3960X/i7 3820 with X79 boards, as well as Z77 boards, fresh OS for each install.