AMD Releases Catalyst 12.2 Drivers, Supports Radeon HD 7000 Series
by Andrew Cunningham on March 12, 2012 12:15 AM EST- Posted in
- AMD
- Radeon HD 7000
- GPUs
AMD has released the WHQL-certified version of its Catalyst 12.2 driver package for 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows XP, Vista, and 7. In addition to the fixes and enhancements we'll discuss below, this is AMD's first unified driver package that has added support for members of the Radeon HD 7000 series in Windows Vista and Windows 7, specifically the 7900, 7700, and OEM-only 7300 series. Support for the 7800 series will follow at a later date, and Windows XP support will come in Catalyst 12.4.
The new Catalyst drivers enable Super Sampling Anti-Aliasing in DirectX 10 and 11 games, which can be enabled and disabled through the Catalyst Control Center in supported applications. AMD's Eyefinity multi-monitor technology has also been improved, bringing support for a wider range of custom resolutions, dynamic configuration changes when monitors are plugged in and unplugged, the ability to move and resive the Windows taskbar via HydraVision, and the ability to create multiple display profiles for easy configuration changes on the fly.
The new drivers also fix bugs in several games, including HAWX, Modern Warfare 3, Dragon Age 2, Battleforge, Battlefield: Bad Company 2, Batman: Arkham City, Dirt 3, and several Crossfire bugs. It also properly enables hardware acceleration for BluRay 3D content. A full list of bug fixes and known issues can be found in the release notes, linked below.
In addition to support for the 7000-series cards, the drivers also support Radeon HD 2000, 3000, 4000, 5000, and 6000 series graphics cards, IGPs, and APUs.
Source: AMD
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Mugur - Monday, March 12, 2012 - link
Hopefully they will also eliminate the usual Battlefield 3 bug with game not responding when level starts that I thought I was free of until I installed 12.1... :-)chizow - Monday, March 12, 2012 - link
Looks like SGSSAA DX10/11 support is still limited to 7-series parts only. Has AMD commented on why they aren't bringing that support to older gen parts as well? I know its tied to AAA, which older VLIW parts lack in DX10/11 as well, but it shouldn't be a result of any hardware limitation.Nice to see they finally got a WHQL driver out for the 7-series anyways.
Crazyeyeskillah - Monday, March 12, 2012 - link
have you ever tried to use SSAA? It tanks your fps to about 20% of what you would normally get with 1920x1080. Honestly, 6xxx cards can't even use it in new dx10/11 titles to make them playable. I have 2 7970s in crossfire and I can only use it on a few games at 2560x1600. It is that demanding. Even at that I can't go over 4x ssaa or it becomes unplayable under 30fps.You comment is like saying, "why can't i play crysis on my igp circa 2007 maxed out"
Glibous - Monday, March 12, 2012 - link
Whether VLW4/5 parts can handle SSAA in every game with playable FPS is irrelevant, Chizow was asking if the lack of SSAA in DX10/11 modes is due to architectural changes between VLW and GCN or if AMD is omitting that feature from previous parts as a selling feature. I think it's a very valid question. Because you have $1000 to burn on expensive parts doesn't mean you can troll.P.S. Use the "REPLY" button in the future. THANKS! :)
SunLord - Monday, March 12, 2012 - link
Given it's probably useless/unplayable at realistic resolutions for anyone save for maybe people with tri/quad-crossfire 6970s or 2x6990s it' likely not worth the trouble to get it working even if it was mostly compatible with VLW the driver/software team has more important things to focus on for now.kyuu - Monday, March 12, 2012 - link
Regardless of whether or not it is feasible to use SSAA in modern titles with a single 6xxx or whatever card, whether or not it can be supported in previous gen cards is still a valid question. Hell, you can't really use it in the latest titles at 1080p+ on 7xxx-series cards either without an Xfire solution, so by your guys' reasoning, it doesn't make sense for them to enable support even on the new cards.Also, it can be used to pretty up older titles that aren't very demanding for newer cards. In fact, that may be the only point it really has considering the performance cost.
chizow - Monday, March 12, 2012 - link
Hi yes I've used the feature even on much slower Nvidia hardware (GTX 280 SLI), and no its not that demanding especially with 2-3 card configs at 1080p. 5850 in CF should be able to handle SGSSAA just fine in many DX10 games given DX10 is going on 5 years the option is certainly welcome for older titles especially.DX11 games will be hit or miss, but turning down the most demanding features like DoF, HBAO, and Tesselation should allow for good performance with SGSSAA.
Sufo - Tuesday, March 13, 2012 - link
Indeed. I have a 5850 xfire setup and I just started Mass Effect 1 (a game with no native AA support) and it runs just fine with 4x SSAA (always above 60fps). I'm using radeonpro to achieve this.destey - Monday, March 12, 2012 - link
Wish they would enable dynamic power by default.echo "dynpm" > /sys/class/drm/card0/device/power_method
Doesn't work for me. The other methods seem like a headache.
haplo602 - Tuesday, March 13, 2012 - link
you are talking about OSS drivers. this article is related to the binary blob.btw dynpm causes frame blinking on my 5830 under wine.