The main new addition to Radeon Software is a redesigned driver utility called Radeon Settings that focuses on accessibility and usability. Rather than hiding various features in confusing drop-down menus and cluttered panels, Radeon Settings is now much easier to navigate thanks to suitable separation of features into different tabs.

Highlights:

  • ​Radeon Settings
  • New Install UI
  • Liquid VR
  • Asynchronous Shaders
  • Shader Cache
  • Optimized Flip Queue Size
  • Freesync Enhancements
  • Custom Resolution Support
  • Frame Pacing Enhancements
  • Frame Rate Target Control Enhancements
  • Updated Video Feature support for 'Carrizo' products
  • Power Optimization
  • Directional Scaling
  • Dynamic Contrast Update
  • DisplayPort to HDMI 2.0 support

Radeon Settings:

Radeon Settings is the new, streamlined user interface, engineered to bring out the best of AMD graphics hardware. User-friendly and feature-rich, Radeon Settings is lightning fast and starts upto 10x times faster1​ than the previous AMD Catalyst Control Center. Radeon Settings provides a brand new game manager, improved AMD Overdrive options per game and new video, display and Eyefinity tabs.

New Install UI:

The driver installer now provides a brand new, streamlined user experience with a reduced number of clicks required, providing better usability and an easy to install user experience.

Liquid VR:

The AMD Radeon Software Crimson edition is the first publicly available driver that enables all LiquidVR features, which are currently being validated and tested by VR headset manufacturers and ecosystem partners.

Asynchronous Shaders:

A feature that has been extensively used by game console developers is now available to PC Gamers. Asychronous Shaders break complex serial workloads into smaller parallel tasks, thereby allowing idle GPU resources to be used more efficiently and parallel workloads allow taskes to be completed much faster.

Shader Cache:

The shader cache feature allows complex shaders to be cached, thereby resulting in reduced game load times, lower CPU usage and reduced stuttering and latency during gameplay2​.

Optimized Flip Queue Size:

The optimized Flip Queue Size provides users with the very latest keyboard and mouse positional information during gameplay to reduce input latency on DirectX 9® , DirectX® 10 and DirectX 11 applications. This feature is a driver optimization, therefore it is automatically enabled and requires no user configuration or setup.

Freesync Enhancements:

Minimum/Maximum display rate is now listed in Radeon Settings​
Low framerate compensation to reduce or eliminate judder when application FPS falls below the minimum refresh rate of an AMD Freesync enabled display
New support for AMD Freesync with AMD Crossfire in DirectX 9 titles

Custom Resolution Support:

This feature provides users more control over display capabilities allowing the user to create custom display profiles to attempt to drive their display with chosen resolution, timings, refresh rates and pixel clocks.

Frame Pacing Enhancements:

Frame pacing support is now extended to DirectX 9 titles.

Frame Rate Target Control Enhancements:

FRTC enhancements include: power saving capabilty, support for DirectX 9 titles and an extended range for target control (30 - 200 FPS).

Updated Video Feature support for 'Carrizo' products:

  • FluidMotion for smoothing playback of 24/30 FPS video using Cyberlink PowerDVD 15 for Blu‐Ray playback
  • Improved edge enhancement for sharper images
  • Improved de‐interlacing for interlaced content

Power Optimization:

Improved power optimizations for video, gaming and FRTC enabled gaming environments (AMD Radeon R7 360, AMD Radeon R9 380, AMD Radeon R9 390 series and AMD Radeon Fury series).

Directional Scaling:

Enhanced image quality for 1080p media content scaled to 4K resolution using adaptive directional filtering technology (AMD Radeon Fury products).

Dynamic Contrast Update:

Qualative changes are now content adaptive and provides video enthusiasts with improved video quality and contrast settings (AMD Radeon™ R8 285, AMD Radeon™ R9 380 and AMD Radeon Fury products).

DisplayPort to HDMI 2.0 support:

Provides full support for DisplayPort to HDMI 2.0 connections via certified dongles.​​

What's New:

Before attempting to install the AMD Radeon Software Crimson Edition Proprietary Linux Graphics Driver, the following software must be installed:

  • Xorg/Xserver 7.4 and above (up to 1.17)
  • Linux kernel 2.6 or above (up to 3.19)
  • glibc version 2.2 or 2.3
  • POSIX Shared Memory (/dev/shm) support is required for 3D applications

NOTE: If a Linux 2.6.11 or newer kernel was built with CONFIG_AGP enabled, the kernel AGP frontend is required to load the fglrx kernel module. To identify whether your kernel with CONFIG_AGP enabled, look for CONFIG_AGP=y in the kernel config file, or if the 'agpgart' module is loaded

System Recommendations

  • For optimal performance and ease of use, the following are available:
    • Kernel module build environment
  • Kernel source code include either the Kernel Source or Kernel Headers packages
  • The RPM utility should be installed and configured correctly on your system, if you intend to install via RPM packages

The following packages must be installed in order for the AMD Radeon Software Crimson Edition Proprietary Linux Graphics Driver to install and work optimally:

  • gimp-help-en
  • gimp-help-common
  • XFree86-Mesa-libGL
  • libstdc++
  • libgcc
  • XFree86-libs
  • fontconfig
  • freetype
  • zlib
  • gcc

Resolved Issues:

  • [SWDEV-55204] Stuttering when running glxgears with VSync enabled
  • [SWDEV-7339] Intermittent mouse cursor corruption

Supported Products:

The AMD Radeon Software Crimson Edition Proprietary Linux Graphics Driver is compatible with the following AMD products. ​

  • AMD Radeon R9 Fury X
  • AMD Radeon R7 200 Series
  • AMD Radeon R9 Fury
  • AMD Radeon R5 230 Series
  • AMD Radeon R9 Nano
  • AMD Radeon HD 8000 Series
  • AMD Radeon R9 300 Series
  • AMD Radeon HD 7000 Series
  • AMD Radeon R9 200 Series
  • ATI Radeon HD 6000 Series
  • AMD Radeon R7 300 Series
  • AMD Radeon HD 5000 Series

​AMD All-In-One Desktop Product Family Compatibility ​

  • AMD Radeon HD 7600A Series
  • AMD Radeon HD 6600A Series
  • AMD Radeon HD 7450A Series
  • AMD Radeon HD 6350A Series

AMD APU Product Family Compatibility ​

  • A-Series AMD Radeon R7 Graphics
  • A-Series AMD Radeon R6 Graphics
  • A-Series AMD Radeon R5 Graphics
  • A-Series AMD Radeon R4 Graphics
  • A-Series AMD Radeon R3 Graphics
  • FX-8800P AMD Radeon R7 Graphics
  • E-Series AMD Radeon R2 Graphics
  • AMD Radeon HD 8000D Series
  • AMD Radeon HD 7000D Series
  • AMD Radeon HD 6000D Series
  • AMD Radeon HD 8000G Series
  • AMD Radeon HD 7000G Series
  • AMD Radeon HD 6000G Series

​AMD Mobility Product Family Compatibility

  • AMD Radeon R9 M200 Series
  • AMD Radeon HD 7000M Series
  • AMD Radeon R7 M200 Series
  • AMD Radeon HD 6000M Series
  • AMD Radeon R5 M200 Series
  • ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5000 Series
  • AMD Radeon HD 8000M Series

Previous versions: