AMD Radeon Software Crimson set to replace Catalyst drivers later this year

[Julio Franco]

Owners of AMD Radeon graphics cards will be happy to learn an overhaul is coming for their GPU drivers and control panel. In fact, new branding and user interface will have them doing away with the long-standing Catalyst name in favor of "Radeon Software," and I've got to say the first snapshots we've got look promising.

The new Control Panel called Radeon Settings will be faster and more intuitive. AMD is ditching .NET in the backend in favor of QT framework which promises to boost startup and response times dramatically. They are also streamlining driver options in an evident effort to get back to Nvidia's GeForce Experience software.

Radeon Settings can detect your installed games and allow you to set antialiasing, tessellation, v-sync, frame rate target control and even overclocking on a per-game basis. Meanwhile, recommended game settings will continue to be available in the separate Gaming Evolved application which is crowd-sourced and powered by a third party, with potential plans to integrate recommendations to Crimson down the road.

Features in Radeon Settings are grouped in five areas, inhering most of what Catalysts do today: Gaming, Video, Display, Eyefinity and System. As you can see in the screenshots below, the interface looks clean and modern:

Improved performance is not part of the announcement (for now), this is more about user experience. AMD's driver release schedule won't change dramatically under the new Radeon Software banner and the year.month convention will be kept as well. "Crimson Edition" is the major yearly version of the driver and is likely to change after a year or two.

To be noted, this is one of the first initiatives of the newly formed Radeon Technologies Group led by graphics expert Raja Koduri, that is AMD's dedicated Radeon division that started acting as its own business group since last September.

The first release of Radeon Software Crimson is planned before before the end of the year, with a possible launch date later this month.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/62638-amd-radeon-software-crimson-set-replace-catalyst-drivers.html

 

[RustyTech]

So let me get this straight...I ditched amd many years ago because of their software and just recently decided to give them another shot because it seems to have improved drastically - and now you're telling me that it will be getting even better!? YES PLEASE!

I think amd just got another customer - unless they do something really really stupid between now and when I'm ready to upgrade my video card.

 

[psp100travis]

Finally!!!!! Catalyst Control Center is the biggest piece of $hit I have to install on all of my computers. It is the biggest reason I was thinking of switching to Nvidia the past couple of years. Looks like I won't have to now.

 

[Flebbert]

This is awesome news, very glad I went AMD for my recent refresh.

 

[Myth1337]

Definitely a step in the right direction, thumbs up from me.

 

[mrtraver]

I hope this is more than a pretty new skin, and it will keep the display settings that I set. Currently I have to re-do my dual monitor setup every time I restart, so it will extend the desktop to the 2nd monitor rather than clone to it.

 

[Steve]

I hope this is more than a pretty new skin, and it will keep the display settings that I set. Currently I have to re-do my dual monitor setup every time I restart, so it will extend the desktop to the 2nd monitor rather than clone to it.

Have you Googled that issue? Is it widespread? Sounds like it could be something as simple as a file write access issue or a permission issue with your system. I personally have never had that issue on any of my systems.

 

[amstech]

Well holy sh!t.

 

[crocography]

Finally!!!!! Catalyst Control Center is the biggest piece of $hit I have to install on all of my computers. It is the biggest reason I was thinking of switching to Nvidia the past couple of years. Looks like I won't have to now.

Nope, biggest piece of $hit software is definitely Apple's iTunes.

 

[agb81]

I hope this is more than a pretty new skin, and it will keep the display settings that I set. Currently I have to re-do my dual monitor setup every time I restart, so it will extend the desktop to the 2nd monitor rather than clone to it.

For me, is the audio when using my tv as a second monitor, video switches but audio won't.

 

[darkzelda]

It looks really good, that's one thing I miss from having an AMD card, Nvidia Control Panel is atrocious and not just ugly, it doesn't have as many useful features as the AMD counterpart.

 

[lripplinger]

About time that AMD got rid of the horrid Catalyst control center. Buggy as hell and slow as all get out. This step alone in the right direction will be a big help. Nvidia has had it right all along with their GeForce Experience software. Nvidia needs to revamp their display control panel though. I hope that AMD and Gaming Evolve will integrate more as one solution. That would make them golden. If they get this right, I would consider AMD more again for graphics cards.

 

[Evernessince]

According to the AMD webpage, everyone is to expect a good speed increase in addition to the lower latency and improved GUI

http://www.amd.com/en-us/innovations/software-technologies/catalyst

An even bigger speed increase if you have an AMD APU.

 

[cliffordcooley]

According to the AMD webpage, everyone is to expect a good speed increase in addition to the lower latency and improved GUI

Isn't AMD the one that promises and then under-delivers damn near all the time?

 

[mrtraver]

Have you Googled that issue? Is it widespread? Sounds like it could be something as simple as a file write access issue or a permission issue with your system. I personally have never had that issue on any of my systems.

Now, why would I do something useful like that? What would I complain about on the internets if I actually fixed the problem?

Actually, I have looked some, but the only suggestions I have found for my specific issue are uninstall and reinstall drivers (didn't fix problem) or maybe a hardware issue.

 

[Steve]

Now, why would I do something useful like that? What would I complain about on the internets if I actually fixed the problem?

Actually, I have looked some, but the only suggestions I have found for my specific issue are uninstall and reinstall drivers (didn't fix problem) or maybe a hardware issue.

Did you use the DDU to uninstall? Display Driver Uninstaller works much better. If you didn't use it I suggest you try that.

http://www.guru3d.com/files-details/display-driver-uninstaller-download.html

 

[mrtraver]

I'll try that; thanks! I used Revo Uninstaller.

http://www.revouninstaller.com/

 

[Puiu]

They are finally fixing one of their biggest problems, the catalyst.
It seems to me that they are working hard on making sure that when people start testing dx12 titles and their new HBM2 cards next year they will also give good scores for the driver software. Something they have been criticised for a long time.

According to the AMD webpage, everyone is to expect a good speed increase in addition to the lower latency and improved GUI

Isn't AMD the one that promises and then under-delivers damn near all the time?

They don't really have anything to underdeliver here. It's well know that the current offering is slow and has a lot of problems. Rebuilding it from scratch and ditching the slow legacy .NET code will give it a good performance boost. The normal driver optimizations will give the performance boost in games - don't expect crimson itself to give ingame performance boost without you messing with the settings (like the per game overclocking, etc)

 

[infiltrator]

Now we just need less buggy drivers and more performance.

 

[cliffordcooley]

Now we just need less buggy drivers and more performance.

That now with DX12 is the responsibility of Game Developers and their Game Engine.

Don't you just love how GPU makers can now for the most part dodge that bullet? They layout their hardware to be driven as close to hardware level as possible, for Game Developers to have full control and blame for any graphical glitches.

 

[Arris]

Finally!!!!! Catalyst Control Center is the biggest piece of $hit I have to install on all of my computers. It is the biggest reason I was thinking of switching to Nvidia the past couple of years. Looks like I won't have to now.

I wouldn't rate my "Geforce Experience" experience much different to that of catalyst. It's like the AMD gaming evolved app merged with the driver software interface.