AMD Radeon Software Crimson ReLive Drivers Released

[Raevenlord]

AMD has just announced their 2016 major software update release (following Catalyst Omega in 2014 and Crimson Edition in 2015). It's dubbed the "Crimson ReLive" release (numbered 12.6.1), and is purported to bring a lot of features and performance improvements across the board for AMD products, as has been historically achieved by AMD with these annual driver releases. This time, there's just one other thing: game recording and streaming through the built-in ReLive app. It serves as a streaming app that works for both professional, developer and consumer use cases. It supports major streaming giants (such as Twitch and YouTube), includes an in-app toolbar and custom overlay, and is apparently going to feature its own tab inside AMD's updated driver suite, with minimal reported impact on performance.

As always, you can grab the drivers right here on TPU: just follow the links below. And for more information, benchmarks, and a run-through of the new driver and its features, check out TPU's review of the driver suite, right here.



Download: AMD Radeon Software Crimson ReLive Edition 16.12.1 for Windows 10 64-bit | Windows 10 32-bit | Windows 8.1 64-bit | Windows 8.1 32-bit | Windows 7 64-bit | Windows 7 32-bit



AMD is investing in the driver suite, with improved looks and a streamlined interface, as well as clean install support (yay), an upgrade advisor, and the addition of a "user feedback" interface which will allow users to vote on new features and priority of issues to be fixed. One of the new features included with Crimson ReLive, and one of the most potentially game-changing, is Radeon Chill. This is a new power saving feature that dynamically regulates frame-rate based on in-game movement. In tests, the Radeon Chill features up to 31% lower average GPU power, while also reducing temperatures and, as a result, improving efficiency. On the performance side, Radeon cards such as the RX 480 see an up to 8% performance increase with ReLive - compared to software version 16.9.2.



New features include a stitching platform, aptly called Radeon Loom, which allows you to stitch up to 360º photos at an up to 8K x 4K mode, Open Capture and Analytics Tool (OCAT) for benchmarking (with support for DX11, DX12 and Vulkan), a Depth of Field focus tool with low performance impact for DX12, Tress FX 4.0, support for Advanced Media Framework 1.4, improving support for the H265 format, and FreeSync technology improvements.



On the LiquidVR side of the equation, multi-GPU affinity takes precedence, allowing a performance improvement of up to 20x versus a single graphics adapter (uh). Other advances in VR include multi-view rendering for lower processing overhead, and MultiRes Rendering (equivalent to NVIDIA's Multi-Res Shading seen in Shadow Warrior 2), as well as support for TrueAudio Next in Liquid VR environments, with dynamically-derived real-times physics being embedded on sound calculations, for truly immersive surround sounds.



Last, but not least, when it comes to the consumer side of things, AMD announced further Wattman support for even more products, now including the Radeon 200 series, Radeon 300 series and Radeon Fury series products that are listed in the slide below.



View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[ixi]

Sweet. Waiting for benches!

 

[Raevenlord]

Sweet. Waiting for benches!

Just follow the link at the end, W1zzard has already posted a review of the driver with those awesome benchmarks =)

 

[ixi]

Just follow the link at the end, W1zzard has already posted a review of the driver with those awesome benchmarks =)

Thank you!

 

[RejZoR]

C'mon AMD, add "Fast" V-Sync mode, the way NVIDIA offers it. Otherwise I'll never be able to go back to AMD! Yeah, it's that awesome.

 

[ironwolf]

AMD also updated their chipset drivers, if anyone cares.

 

[cdawall]

Well I will have to give these a shot. Wonder if they will help with my xfire woes

 

[RejZoR]

It seems AMD used HiAlgo tech (they hired its developer), but instead of resolution optimization during intense movement, they apparently used it for input detection and framerate control for the Radeon Chill feature.

After checking the review, I have to say I'm really impressed with the direction AMD is heading. They really stepped up the game on software front. Only thing I miss nowis the "Fast" V-Sync mode like NVIDIA has so you're not tied to FreeSync hardware to have lagless and tearless image in fast paced games. Then, they'll be actually more interesting than NVIDIA with its ugly, archaic, slow and clumsy control panel.

 

[TheGuruStud]

C'mon AMD, add "Fast" V-Sync mode, the way NVIDIA offers it. Otherwise I'll never be able to go back to AMD! Yeah, it's that awesome.

It just causes microstuttering for me. It's useless.

 

[Divide Overflow]

Working well here so far.

 

[Steevo]

Installed on 7970, Chill works even during video acceleration, and doing a clean install didn't break video hardware acceleration either. Clocks would change between 300/501 depending on GPU load. Will have to see if the occasional black screen when switching video streams still occurs when I have time.

 

[RejZoR]

It just causes microstuttering for me. It's useless.

What, the Fast V-Sync? I can't sense any on my GTX 980. It's stupendously smooth.

 

[TheGuruStud]

What, the Fast V-Sync? I can't sense any on my GTX 980. It's stupendously smooth.

I see everything

My old CRT was 120hz and it was necessary. Under 100hz and the flicker would drive me batty. 60hz gave me a headache.

 

[ADHDGAMING]

Installed on 7970, Chill works even during video acceleration, and doing a clean install didn't break video hardware acceleration either. Clocks would change between 300/501 depending on GPU load. Will have to see if the occasional black screen when switching video streams still occurs when I have time.

View attachment 81743

Makes me want to break out my Dual 7970 GHZ again lol

 

[RejZoR]

I see everything

My old CRT was 120hz and it was necessary. Under 100hz and the flicker would drive me batty. 60hz gave me a headache.

So do I. But I can't sense anything wrong because of Fast V-Sync. Do you experience that with Adaptive V-Sync as well?

 

[TheGuruStud]

So do I. But I can't sense anything wrong because of Fast V-Sync. Do you experience that with Adaptive V-Sync as well?

Adaptive is just normal v sync that kicks off when framerate goes under refresh, so it looks as it should.

 

[ADHDGAMING]

AMD also updated their chipset drivers, if anyone cares.

I care lol

 

[RejZoR]

Adaptive is just normal v sync that kicks off when framerate goes under refresh, so it looks as it should.

And Fast V-Sync just drops frames that aren't synced with refresh. Unless it's dropping frames all the time like crazy, I can't see a reason why would you even notice it. Unless you have 60Hz screen, where dropped frames will be more noticeable than my 144Hz which has over 2x frames. Meaning if any are dropped, I still have tons left. Not so much with 60Hz screen...

 

[darkangel0504]

Twitch stream is smooth and easy to set up with ReLive

 

[xpredator_13]

Working nice, but i lost my VRM temperature probe, HWInfo and others dont seen to find it anymore...R9 Nano here.

 

[HTC]

Tried downloading W7 64bit version but failed on 2 different TPU servers, so i went directly to AMD's page and the same thing happened ...

Anyone else experincing this?

EDIT

Nevermind: as they say ... 4th time is the right one ... just succeeded.

 

[TheGuruStud]

And Fast V-Sync just drops frames that aren't synced with refresh. Unless it's dropping frames all the time like crazy, I can't see a reason why would you even notice it. Unless you have 60Hz screen, where dropped frames will be more noticeable than my 144Hz which has over 2x frames. Meaning if any are dropped, I still have tons left. Not so much with 60Hz screen...

That's probably why lol.

 

[RejZoR]

Has AMD changed frame limiting in these ReLive drivers? I'm asking because I have a 144Hz screen and back then they didn't allow you to limit to 144fps. Is this possible now?

 

[thesmokingman]

Man, they seem to spend way too much effort on the visual aspect.

 

[RejZoR]

I disagree. Current AMD drivers and control panel looks really nice. Maybe they could consolidate it into a detailed view mode with on-off switches on the right side, but at least it's a fast, responsive and modern interface. NVIDIA's Control Panel is still the same sluggish slow, broken prehistoric control panel which is pissing me off every time I use it. Opening for ages on a freaking hexa core with 32GB RAM and fast SSD, the settings list resets to the top EVERY time you change ANY setting, applying settings takes several seconds on same said system. And it just looks dated with it's Windows XP look.

AMD really took a crown from NVIDIA with Crimson control panel. Now they just have to focus a bit more on driver side and they'll be a very real threat to NVIDIA even from software side.