AMD Catalyst Driver Update Thread [ 12.8 ]

S

As most of us know the Catalyst 12.6 WHQL is out now.
Here are some of the resolved issues:

RESOLVED ISSUES

Resolved Issues for the Windows 7 OperatingSystem

This section provides information on resolved known issues in this release of the AMD Catalyst12.6 software suite for Windows 7. These include:

CERT recently approached AMD with information pertaining to what they believed to be a possible video driver vulnerability exposed by non-default settings of the Microsoft Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit (EMET). EMET is a security test tool that allows system administrators to create test conditions to validate correct behavior of system components or indicate potential weak points.
The AMD Catalyst 12.6 driver for the AMD Radeon HD 7000, AMD Radeon HD 6000, and AMD Radeon HD 5000 Series is designed to resolve a possible video driver vulnerability issue and to minimize the occurrence of system crashes.
AMD Radeon HD 7900, AMD Radeon HD 7800 Eyefinity/Multiple Display configurations - BSOD when using desktop applications.
AMD Catalyst 12.6 includes some additional fixes(not found in the AMD Catalyst 12.6 Beta) for the AMD Radeon™ HD 7900, AMD Radeon HD 7800, and AMD Radeon HD 7700 graphics cards for issues related to the GPU hanging when the system goes to sleep. Please ensure that your System BIOS is up to date. Some occurrences of this issue may be related to an outdated System BIOS.
Heroes and Generals - Blocky corruption in scenes with smoke effects when run in DirectX 11 mode.
AMD Radeon™ HD 7900 CrossFire Configuration – system hang after cinematics in Call of Duty: Black Ops.
AMD A4, AMD A6, AMD A8 and AMD A10 APU Products - crashes after repeated toggling between VGA and HDMI monitors.
System hangs after playing various DVD and Bluray titles with PowerDVD.
Video corruption seen after playing some DivX video clips using Windows Media Center.
AMD Radeon 7800 series products: Crysis 2 hangs when run in DirectX 9 mode.
AMD Radeon HD 7900, AMD Radeon HD 7800 Eyefinity/Multiple Display configurations - BSOD when using desktop applications in DirectX 11 mode.

Resolved Issues for the Windows Vista Operating System

This section provides information on resolved known issues in this release of the AMD Catalyst™12.6 software suite for Windows Vista. These include:

Call of Duty: Black Ops - Poor game performance experienced when run in Tridef mode with in-game AA enabled.

Full release notes can be found here.

You can download it from here.

PERSONAL EXPERIENCE:

So I'm using a Sapphire HD 7850 and started with 12.4. After upgrading to 12.6, I played 2 games, namely Battlefield 3 and GTA IV.

In BF3 the minimum FPS increased by about 11(getting min FPS of 53 in multiplayer now :doublethumb:

, earlier it was 42).

In GTA IV the average FPS now stays in the range of 53-63. Earlier it was always under 55 and rarely crossed 60. Also the minimum FPS has now become 38 from 29.

Thus for me 12.6 is a great update :clap2:

. Please share your views on it's performance. Also I've heard 12.7 is even better. Anybody try the beta yet?

will post a comparison soon....

I'm now getting upto 45fps in max payne 3 in all high settings, 2x mxaa and t'tion at medium. :hyper:

Awesome update!!

J

Does the 12.6 improve performance of the 6850?

Jripper said:
Does the 12.6 improve performance of the 6850?

I've seen improvement for my HD 6950.

Jripper said:
Does the 12.6 improve performance of the 6850?

even I'm eager to know that but I think I will go for 12.7 - installed 12.4 before - faced lots of issue ( actually this started with 12 series driver ) - currently using 11.12 driver but if 12.6 proves to be stable for HD6850 I might update to it.

J

@topgear Hmm I heard changing drivers is always a bit of a mess. :S I didn't have a gpu before and the first drivers I installed were the 12.4 ones. So far no issues in any games.

@ico That sounds promising.

But I think I'll wait for someone else to try he 12.6 on the 6850 first

Drivers are mature now. You can just overlay.

Jripper said:
But I think I'll wait for someone else to try he 12.6 on the 6850 first

try yourself na

will there be any performance boost for my HD5770?

S

Hey guys don't be cowards

Try it yourself and find out if there are any performance improvements.

Do we have to remove older driver 1st or just update it?

^^ I just updated it.

kapilove77 said:
Do we have to remove older driver 1st or just update it?

If Win7, just over ride it.

I always prefer clean install using driversweeper just to be free from any issue - anyway, I'll give 12.6 a try with DiRt showdown ;-)

I am currently on ATI 12.4 will jump to 12.6

abhidev said:
will there be any performance boost for my HD5770?

No changes for HD5770 but u can still update to make performance optimum :-D

On 12.7 beta for a while. Great performance.

It may be witcher 2 enhanced edition's optimization or catalyst drivers since last year because except ubersampling EVERY SETTING is at max (textures 1 below because my HD5850 is a 1GB card).

And this time not only is the performance smoother at HIGHER settings, I'm also using MLAA. Higher frame rate, higher settings, MLAA enabled. I couldn't really ask for more.

ico said:
^^ I just updated it.

ok thx

asingh said:
If Win7, just over ride it.

Yes win7 ok thx.

comp@ddict said:
On 12.7 beta for a while. Great performance.

It may be witcher 2 enhanced edition's optimization or catalyst drivers since last year because except ubersampling EVERY SETTING is at max (textures 1 below because my HD5850 is a 1GB card).

And this time not only is the performance smoother at HIGHER settings, I'm also using MLAA. Higher frame rate, higher settings, MLAA enabled. I couldn't really ask for more.

did not know that even you areusing a HD6850 - great and thkas for feedback on 12.7 beta ;-)

BTW, guys how do I benchmark games like BF3, BFBC2, MP3 - I mean I don't want to use fraps - any dedicated benchmark tools for them like Crysis 2 benchmark tool ?? Also Witcher 2 and Skyrim has built in benchmark tools or not ??

^^they don't

facing the same problem here.....

On my 6950 (unlocked), my 3D Mark 11 scores have shot up in the last six months. I used to score around 51xx in Performance preset last year, but now, I am getting scores in 55xx, so it's a decent bump in scores.

Gamewise, not much has changed though. Still can't enable AA in BF3, without dropping FPS..

Downloading now, will surely update the performance.

Edit: Downloaded and installed, to my surprise the screen turned completely white, with horizontal black lines. It scared the living .... out of me!!
Perhaps some downloading error? Did a system restore, uninstalled the ATi display drivers and downloaded the 12.7 beta from the website, installed and *boom*, every game runs sweeter now, specially skyrim! It runs really smooth, much better than before. Will check more games!

sumonpathak said:
^^they don't
facing the same problem here.....

ok ... I'll do my best to make a benhcmark comaprision with all possible games but this may take 2-3 days more.

I have installed 12.6 and I'm facing a problem. My screen is not fitted into monitor bezel.

So I set Overscan under Scaling Options. (I have also used this setting previously)

So the problem is, whenever I reboot my PC, it goes to same old state. When I open Catalyst Control Center, it shows Overscan settings perfectly fine, still it's not fitted till screen bezel.

I have to manually Detect Display everytime I start my PC, this is really frustrating.

Any idea what's wrong..??

(Sorry for my bad english, if I'm not able to explain the problem perfectly)

krishnandu.sarkar said:
I have installed 12.6 and I'm facing a problem. My screen is not fitted into monitor bezel.

So I set Overscan under Scaling Options. (I have also used this setting previously)

So the problem is, whenever I reboot my PC, it goes to same old state. When I open Catalyst Control Center, it shows Overscan settings perfectly fine, still it's not fitted till screen bezel.

I have to manually Detect Display everytime I start my PC, this is really frustrating.

Any idea what's wrong..??

(Sorry for my bad english, if I'm not able to explain the problem perfectly)

AMD Catalyst 12.6 Released (+ 12.7 Beta) - Beyond3D Forum

Example of where to create:

*i.imgur.com/w3HlR.png

PS: I haven't faced this problem.

^^Thanks I created the dword value as it's stated. Let's reboot and check

Yeah I got that. I created under ###/0000 with most values / settings.

UPDATE : Not working

[Solved] Catalyst 12.6 Overscan setting restart issue. - ATI - Graphic-Displays

They say the problem is fixed. But not for me.

Well, the problem is not fixed, instead the font got hazy...

*i.imgur.com/pnF2w.jpg

Will be trying 12.7 Beta and if it doesn't works revert back to 12.4

Y

i am not even able to download from amd site..their download link is dead i think..
tried from their US site also but to no avail..

there's not much performance improvement I can see compared to 11.12 - actually the performance has degraded so far in most of the benchmarks - will complete other benchmark tests today and post the complete result tomorrow.

krishnandu.sarkar said:
I have installed 12.6 and I'm facing a problem. My screen is not fitted into monitor bezel.

So I set Overscan under Scaling Options. (I have also used this setting previously)

So the problem is, whenever I reboot my PC, it goes to same old state. When I open Catalyst Control Center, it shows Overscan settings perfectly fine, still it's not fitted till screen bezel.

I have to manually Detect Display everytime I start my PC, this is really frustrating.

Any idea what's wrong..??

(Sorry for my bad english, if I'm not able to explain the problem perfectly)

Same problem with me Exactly same.

Update: It really works I just created without changing any values in it and Restarted my pc n voila it worked!

T

krishnandu.sarkar said:
I have installed 12.6 and I'm facing a problem. My screen is not fitted into monitor bezel.

So I set Overscan under Scaling Options. (I have also used this setting previously)

So the problem is, whenever I reboot my PC, it goes to same old state. When I open Catalyst Control Center, it shows Overscan settings perfectly fine, still it's not fitted till screen bezel.

I have to manually Detect Display everytime I start my PC, this is really frustrating.

Any idea what's wrong..??

(Sorry for my bad english, if I'm not able to explain the problem perfectly)

Same happening with me. But 5 minutes after rebooting, the screen automatically fits upto the bezel.

yesterday i updated drivers to 12.6 from 12.4 and while checking some videos, the screen kind of changed colour (32 to 16bit i guess) and after a few minutes back to normal. and also whole system kind of locked up for 10-12sec. This happened for the first time in a long time. Though it is fine after that. no affect on any game i played today.

Looks like with the removed support for legacy GPU some important codes got erased too.

@kapilove77 Ok trying without changing the value.

@the_conqueror Well, the situation is same for me. So I'm assuming it's not working. It doesn't mean anything if it gets fixed after five mins. So I end up opening Catalyst Control Center everytime.

kapilove77 said:
Update: It really works I just created without changing any values in it and Restarted my pc n voila it worked!

The fix I posted, right?

yea, it should be working for everyone.

CPU: AMD Phenom(tm) II X4 955 Processor
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-MA785GM-US2H x.x
Installed RAM: 4.00 GB
Installed Memory Type and Speed : DDR2 800 Mhz
Operating System: Windows 7 x64 SP1
Video adapter: AMD Radeon HD 6850 ( 800/1100 )
Video driver: Catalyst 11.12 and 12.6
Resolution : 1080P - maximum settings used in every benchmark with all the advanced option like Tessellation, DoF, Physx etc. turned on*

Test Result : ( left is 11.12 and right is 12.6 )
Green = Performance Increase
Blue = Performance decrease

===========================================
AvP 2010 :
Average FPS: 29.9 - 33.4
===========================================
Sniper Elite v2 :
Average FPS: 10.2 - 9.9
============================================
PLA Game BenchMark : ( Unreal Engine 3.0 )
Average FPS: 37 - 37
============================================
3DMark 11 BenchMark ( Xtreme Preset ) :
Graphics Score: 1037 - 1052
Physyx Score : 3773 - 3815
============================================
Street Fighter IV BenchMark :
Graphics Score: 10380 - 8896
Average FPS: 130.04 - 115
============================================
Lost Planet 2 BenchMark :
Average FPS: B - 33.4 ( Test A ) - 31.0
Average FPS: C - 25.0 ( Test B ) - 25.6
=============================================
METRO 2033 BENCHMARK:
Average Framerate: 16.00 - 15.67
Max. Framerate: 33.95 - 30.68
Min. Framerate: 6.58 - 6.37
============================================
3DMark Vantage BenchMark : ( 1080P )
Graphics Score: X7190 - X7141
============================================
Crysis 2 BenchMark :
Average FPS: 23 ( Central Park - Edge Blur - High Res Tex - Ultra ) - 23
Average FPS: 31 ( Times Square - Edge Blur - High Res Tex - Ultra ) - 31
============================================
Unigine Heaven 3.0 :
FPS: 18.7 - 18.8
Scores: 470 - 474
Min FPS: 5.7 - 8.2
============================================
RE5 DX10 :
AVG FPS :76.2 ( Fixed ) - 76.1
AVG FPS :87.9 ( Variable ) - 88
============================================
DiRT ShowDown :
Min FPS :28 - 25.26
AVG FPS :38 - 33.21

So guys post your feedback ;-)

ico said:
The fix I posted, right?

yea, it should be working for everyone.

Yeah, it's working fine without the values.

@ico That solution doesn't work if you set that default DWORD value.

ico said:
The fix I posted, right?

yea, it should be working for everyone.

Yes its working. thx :razz:

S

topgear how can the average fps for Sniper Elite V2 be so low? My PC does over 120 fps maxed out and AFAIK the difference between a HD 6850 and a HD 7850 can't be 110 fps??!!

^^ yep, that's odd - I can run the game at Ultra settings ( with every other settings maxed out too ) smoothly - must be ~30+fps but the benchmark tool of this game is really acting weird - will update to 12.7 beta and test again with only with the benchmark software ( large one ) - this time I won't use the adrenaline bench tool for the benchmark app.

Downloaded the 12.6 driver.will install today

currently testing with 12.7 beta .

S

^^ Great! Please post some benchmarks soon

BTW your name is one of my fav TV shows

Increased max payne 3 FPs by 9-11 . Now game feels awsome . This drivers also boost performance for 5xxx card .

^^ using FRAPS to benchmark MP3 ??

SunE said:
^^ Great! Please post some benchmarks soon

BTW your name is one of my fav TV shows

tomorrow I'll post benchmark results.

and that was even my fav show once ;-)

topgear said:
^^ using FRAPS to benchmark MP3 ??

Yeah !

I din't get any increase in FPS still now

^^ compared to which version and on which games ?

iittopper said:
Yeah !

OK .. which chapter yu are isng for benchmark/Performance monitoring or this is based on overall game performance based on different chapters ?

Anyway, here's the Benchmark Results with 12.7 Beta :

CPU: AMD Phenom(tm) II X4 955 Processor
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-MA785GM-US2H x.x
Installed RAM: 4.00 GB
Installed Memory Type and Speed : DDR2 800 Mhz
Operating System: Windows 7 x64 SP1
Video adapter: AMD Radeon HD 6850 ( 800/1100 )
Video driver: Catalyst 11.12 and 12.6
Resolution : 1080P - maximum settings used in every benchmark with all the advanced option like Tessellation, DoF, Physx etc. turned on*

Test Result : ( left to right 11.12 - 12.6 - 12.7 Beta )

===========================================
AvP 2010
Average FPS: 29.9 - 33.4 -33.4
===========================================
Sniper Elite v2 :
Average FPS: 10.2 - 9.9 - 10
============================================
PLA Game BenchMark :
Average FPS: 37 - 37 -37
============================================
3DMark 11 BenchMark ( Xtreme Preset ) :
Graphics Score: 1037 - 1052 -1053
Physyx Score : 3773 - 3815 - 3801
============================================
Street Fighter IV BenchMark :
Graphics Score: 10380 - 8896 - 8675
Average FPS: 130.04 - 115 - 110.55
============================================
Lost Planet 2 BenchMark :
Average FPS: B - 33.4 ( Test A ) - 31.0 - 32.7
Average FPS: C - 25.0 ( Test B ) - 25.6 - 27.8
=============================================
Average Framerate: 16.00 - 15.67 - 15.67
Max. Framerate: 33.95 - 30.68 - 37.58
Min. Framerate: 6.58 - 6.37 - 5.70
============================================
3DMark Vantage BenchMark :
Graphics Score: X7190 ( 1080P ) X7141 - x7150
============================================
Crysis 2 BenchMark :
Average FPS: 23 ( Central Park - Edge Blur - High Res Tex - Ultra ) - 23 - 23.6
Average FPS: 31 ( Times Square - Edge Blur - High Res Tex - Ultra ) - 31 - 31.6
============================================
Unigine Heaven 3.0 :
FPS: 18.7 - 18.8 - 18.8
Scores: 470 - 474 - 473
Min FPS: 5.7 - 8.2 - 7.7
============================================
RE5 :
AVG FPS :76.2 ( Fixed ) - 76.1 - 76.2
AVG FPS :87.9 ( Variable ) - 88 - 88.9
============================================
DiRT ShowDown :
Min FPS :28 - 25.26 - 21.62
AVG FPS :38 - 33.21 - 29.95

so that completes the performance test among 11.12, 12.6 and 12.7 by me - overall though old 11.12 has got the performance crown ;-)

I m facing an issue after 12.6 update...
the scaling option is not working..
I have set the resolution to 1080p but still I used to get black borders around the screen..so I used scaling option in CCC (which worked perfectly to cover full screen).
but right in 12.6 I can all set the same in CCC but after a reboot it all gets changes to those black bars

what to do?

^ Read my post in previous page. I've posted the solution.

ico said:
^ Read my post in previous page. I've posted the solution.

Oh man lot of other users r facing the same issue...
I guess the problem is with HDMI connection (which i m using)?

thanx for the solution.

AMD shud fix this minor issue in next stable release

Thanks ico..the solution worked.

topgear said:
^^ compared to which version and on which games ?

OK .. which chapter yu are isng for benchmark/Performance monitoring or this is based on overall game performance based on different chapters ?

Updated the game from original to 1.0.0.22 and updated the driver from 12.5 to 12.6 . Fps increase by 5-6 in almost every chapter . Earlier getting 26 fps and now constant 30-33 fps :wink:

Ok .. thanks for the info

BTW, any news n the final release of 12.7 driver or we will see a jump to 12.8 directly ??

12.8 is out.
Any threads anywhere about performance increase?

^^ renamed the thread - why not test the 12.8 driver by yourself - compare it with the previous version you have and post the result here.

topgear said:
^^ renamed the thread - why not test the 12.8 driver by yourself - compare it with the previous version you have and post the result here.

Seriously i dont have any expertise to compare the versions and post the comparisons here.
I recently bought a HD6670 and 12.6 is my 1st version!
Excuse me!

^^ play a particular segment of a game. use FRAPS to benchmark it. update driver and play same segment of the game. post the difference. this is what TG did. it doesn't need any expertise.

^^ buddy I did not play any game to benchmark ;-)

and I don't trust on Fraps FPS measurement - what I did is used some pre built game benchmark app which made the process a lot more easier.

well he was asking for performance numbers. Thats why i told him to do the simple test himself rather than ask others to test and post the new values.
yes, that way results will be much more accurate

P

i updated from 12.7 to 12.8 and the difference in bf3 and syrim + max payne3 is very noticeable
we are talking 4-5 fps in bf3, 10 fps (yes 10) in skyrim and another 4-5 fps in max payne 3
great update
thanks amd !

J

^ Seriously?

Thats huge improvement. Wonder whether my 6850 will show improvement as well. Will try it out soon.

if the improvements are that huge I'll update to 12.8 from 12.7 beta I've.

panwala95 said:
i updated from 12.7 to 12.8 and the difference in bf3 and syrim + max payne3 is very noticeable
we are talking 4-5 fps in bf3, 10 fps (yes 10) in skyrim and another 4-5 fps in max payne 3
great update
thanks amd !

Yes... I can confirm as well. 12.8 seems to be a very good driver.

@topgear - Update it right away

P

yea i had gotten a big improvement even from 12.7

Any improvements for HD 6770 ? If yes than I am looking forward to update as my PC Crashes as soon as I start GTA Bully, it it this month's earlier driver only which I downloaded from AMD

. So, Lets see

any improvements ?

I uninstalled AMD CCC completely.

Wanna try out the win-update drivers..

P

the post i have made are with respect to a hd 6770
please refer to my signature

In my case, Max Payne 3 has become slower.

Yeah 12.8 seems nice. Updated it just now

P

Skud said:
In my case, Max Payne 3 has become slower.

how is that possible?
12.8 enabled me to use tessalation very high
what setings are you using?
i play @ 1600x900 all settings very high, shadows at high and tessalation at high with 40-50 fps(yes i now a huge margin) with a hd 6770 (see my siggy for details)

Really !! AMD has this amazing Driver out. I used to get 52 FPS with my MSi HD 6770 MD1GD5 (No OC) and now I get around 67 FPS ! Huge difference !

here's some benchmark for you guys :
AMD Catalyst 12.8 WHQL Benchmark – BenchmarK3D

P

koolent said:
Really !! AMD has this amazing Driver out. I used to get 52 FPS with my MSi HD 6770 MD1GD5 (No OC) and now I get around 67 FPS ! Huge difference !

which game did you use to benchmark?

Guys I'm facing BSOD issues after updating to 12.8....It shows BSOD after Welcome screen

what gfx card do you have ?? try removing the dirver from safe mode/ run driver sweeper in safe mode as well and re-install only the driver using custom install mode.

I have 6770m 2GB DDR5 in hp dv6 6121tx..Actually I've heard that 12.8 doesnt support switchable graphics.

looks true but why ??

AMD Catalyst