Oh boy, this is a great day for all AMD fans out there as two Catalyst drivers have just been released. These are not leaked drivers but official ones, coming straight from AMD. Therefore, get ready to test both Catalyst 11.12 and a preview version of the upcoming 12.1 drivers. Well, we guess that everyone will go for the 12.1 preview version but we’ll provide you with the release notes of both drivers, so you can pick whichever suits your needs. Happy testing, gaming and benchmarking everyone!

AMD Catalyst 11.12
AMD Catalyst 12.1 Preview

Highlights of the AMD Catalyst 11.12 Windows release includes:

IMPROVEMENTS

AMD OpenGL 4.2 production support

· AMD Catalyst 11.12 delivers official support for the OpenGL 4.2 specification

AMD Eyefinity technology enhancements

· Enables support for AMD HD3D technology when using a 3×1 Landscape Eyefinity display group, on supported DisplayPort 3D monitors.

AMD Vision Engine Control Center enhancements for Dual Graphics

· Improvements have been implemented to better facilitate the enabling and control of the Dual Graphics within the Vision Engine Control Center

RESOLVED ISSUES

Resolved Issues for the Windows 7 Operating System:

This section provides information on resolved known issues in this release of the AMD Catalyst 11.12 software suite for Windows 7. These include:

-All required PAL formats are now correctly listed in the Vision Control Center on the HDTV support page.
-Playing Dirt2, Dirt3 and Portal2 in DirectX 9 mode no longer causes a random system hang.
-Portal 2 no longer displays random screen tearing when run in DirectX 9.
-Total War Shogun 2 no longer displays random corruption when played at low in game settings and 2×1 and 3×1 Eyefinity modes.
-Playing Lost Planet 2 in Eyefinity mode and Crossfire enable no longer randomly crashes.
-Portal 2 will no longer randomly crash when the GPU is switched to Low Power mode.
-Running Stalker Clear Sky in DirectX 10 mode in a Tri-Crossfire configuration no longer randomly hangs when in-game settings are set to high.
-Tom Clancy Endwar no longer randomly hangs with a pinstripe display.
-Playing Enemy Territory Quake Wars no longer generates a random system hang.
-Graphics corruption is no longer randomly exhibited while playing video clips using Windows Media Center.
-Doom 3 no longer experiences random corruption when Anti Aliasing is enabled.
-Crysis 2 no longer displays random flickering when run in DirectX9 mode.
-Far Cry2, Dragon 2, Homefront, Stalker: Metro 2033 and Bioshock 2 no longer display random flashing textures.
-Left 4 Dead 2 no longer experiences random hangs.
-HAWX2 no longer experiences random hangs when navigating in game menus.
-Lost Planet 2 and Dragon Age 2 no longer display random flickering when run in DirectX 9 mode.

Resolved Issues for the Windows Vista Operating System:

This section provides information on resolved known issues in this release of the AMD Catalyst 11.12 software suite for Windows Vista. These include:

-Random ghosting is no longer observed while playing Dragon Age 2 in Crossfire mode.
-Character Avatars no longer flash in Dragon Age 2 in Crossfire mode.
-Stalker – Clear Sky no longer displays random black horizontal lines on initial startup.
-Playing Tom Clancy HAWX 2 in Eyefinity mode no longer generates a random system reboot.
-Random choppy Flash playback is no longer experienced.
-Running Civilization V in DirectX 11 mode no longer crashes randomly when run at medium and high in-game settings.
-F1 2010 no longer hangs intermittently on launch.
-Flashing textures are no longer randomly observed while playing Bulletstorm.
-Dead Space 2 no longer hangs randomly.

Highlights of the AMD Catalyst 12.1 Preview Windows release includes:

AMD HD3D technology support enhancement

-Enables support for AMD HD3D technology in conjunction with AMD CrossFireX configurations
-Delivers a new Stereo 3D mode over HDMI 1.4a connections – 1080p at 30Hz is now enabled on supported displays.

AMD Catalyst Control Center / Vision Engine Control Center enhancements – Application Profiles

-AMD Catalyst 12.1 Preview driver enables users to create per application profiles to individually control 3D and CrossFireX settings for Direct3D applications
-Please be sure to select the “Restore Factory Defaults” option under the Catalyst Control Center Preferences menu before using the new application profiles feature – this ensures there are no compatibility issues between previous drivers and the new AMD Catalyst 12.1 Preview driver with regards to application profiles

AMD Catalyst Control Center / Vision Engine Control Center enhancements – Video UI improvements

-AMD Catalyst 12.1 Preview driver includes user interface enhancements to simply adjustment of video color and video quality controls

Performance highlights of the AMD Catalyst 12.1 Preview driver (in addition to the AMD Catalyst 11.11c performance driver)

-Improves performance (10%) in Elder Scrolls: Skyrim when Multi-Sample Anti-Aliasing is enabled on the AMD Radeon HD 6900 Series for single GPU and AMD CrossFireX configurations

John Papadopoulos

John is the founder and Editor in Chief at DSOGaming. He is a PC gaming fan and highly supports the modding and indie communities. Before creating DSOGaming, John worked on numerous gaming websites. While he is a die-hard PC gamer, his gaming roots can be found on consoles. John loved – and still does – the 16-bit consoles, and considers SNES to be one of the best consoles. Still, the PC platform won him over consoles. That was mainly due to 3DFX and its iconic dedicated 3D accelerator graphics card, Voodoo 2. John has also written a higher degree thesis on the “The Evolution of PC graphics cards.”
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