ATI Mobility Catalyst Display Drivers 11.4 Vista/7 64-bit

Package Content

The AMD Catalyst software suite 11.4 contains the following:

• AMD display driver version 8.841
• AMD HydraVision for Windows® XP, Windows Vista® and Windows 7
• Southbridge / IXP Driver
• AMD Catalyst Control Center version 8.841

Important! Caution!

The AMD display driver and the AMD Catalyst Control Center can be downloaded independently of each other. However, for better stability and performance AMD recommends that both components be updated from the same AMD Catalyst release.

The AMD Catalyst Control Center requires that the Microsoft® .NET Framework SP1 be installed for Windows XP and Windows Vista. Without .NET SP1 installed, the AMD Catalyst Control Center will not launch properly and the user will see an error message.

Notes:

When installing the AMD Catalyst driver for Windows operating system, the user must be logged on as Administrator or have Administrator rights to complete the installation of the AMD Catalyst driver.

These release notes provide information on the AMD display driver only. For information on the ATI Multimedia Center, HydraVision, HydraVision Basic Edition, Remote Wonder™, or the Southbridge / IXP driver, please refer to their respective release notes found at: http://support.amd.com/.

ATI Eyefinity™ technology gives gamers access to high display resolutions. As pixel count grows, the graphics horsepower required to drive the displays at a reasonable frame rate can increase dramatically. Depending on the game and system configuration, users may notice texture corruption and reduced frame rates when running games in multi-monitor Eyefinity modes.

Windows Driver Model (WDM) drivers are no longer bundled in the AMD Catalyst software suite. The WDM drivers install bundle can be downloaded independently through the AMD website

Highlights of the AMD Catalyst 11.4 Windows release includes:

New Features:

Enhancements to the AMD Vision Engine Control Center / AMD Catalyst Control Center

• New task based Display Management controls
  • Simplifies the configuration of displays and display settings
• New Eyefinity setup group
  • Setting up an Eyefinity group has never been easier
• AMD Catalyst update notification (found within the Information Center)
  • This feature notifies users that new AMD Catalyst software packages are available

GPU Compute enhancements:

• The OpenCL runtime (included in AMD Catalyst 11.4) includes performance enhancements supporting zero-copy on APUs and increased performance for PCIe transfers between a CPU and discrete GPU.

Performance Enhancements

• A number of performance enhancements are seen with the AMD Radeon HD 6900 Series and AMD Radeon HD 6800 Series:
• Call of Duty Black Ops – gains of up to 15% with Anti-Aliasing and Anisotropic Filtering on single GPU configurations.
• Battleforge – gains of up to 15% with Anti-Aliasing and Anisotropic Filtering on single and multiple GPU configurations.
• Batman Arkham Asylum – gains of up to 20% with Anti-Aliasing and Anisotropic Filtering on single and multiple GPU configurations.
• Aliens vs. Predator – gains of up to 8% with Anti-Aliasing and Anisotropic Filtering on single and multiple GPU configurations.
• Civilization 5 – gains of up to 15% on single and multiple GPU configurations.
• Far Cry 2 – gains of up to 6% on single and multiple GPU configurations.
• Just Cause 2 – gains of up to 9% on single and multiple GPU configurations.
• Lost Planet 2 – gains of up to 10% on single and multiple GPU configurations.

Resolved Issues for the Windows 7 Operating System

This section provides information on resolved known issues in this release of the AMD Catalyst 11.4 software suite for Windows 7. These include:

• The GPU no longer shows high GPU usage after running Firefox 4 with hardware acceleration enabled.
• Bioshock no longer displays random tearing and screen corruption with Vsync and MLAA enabled.
• Water textures no longer flicker in Two Worlds II in Crossfire mode.
• Bulletstorm lightshafts no longer appear broken when running on a HD 6970 series product.
• Bulletstorm no longer displays random texture corruption when running in Crossfire mode.
• FI 2010 no longer slows down intermittently when in Crossfire mode.
• PowerDVD no longer crashes if Crossfire is enabled / disabled during playback of a BD title.
• WinDVD no longer displays corrupted BD playback when the monitor is rotated to portrait mode.
• Crysis Warhead corruption is no longer randomly observed when launching the game.
• Running the Heaven benchmark no longer displays graphics corruption during DirectX 11 tests.
• Catalyst Control Center Avivo settings are now correctly displayed after connecting a secondary display.
• The Catalyst Control Center screen no longer flickers while adjusting screen brightness.

Resolved Issues for the Windows Vista Operating System

This section provides information on resolved known issues in this release of the AMD Catalyst 11.4 software suite for Windows Vista. These include:

• Mpeg2 video clips now use hardware acceleration when played using Windows Media Player or Windows Media Center.
• Adding bezel compensation to a 2x1 Eyefinity configuration no longer causes both displays to blank out.
• The Catalyst Control Center screen no longer flickers while adjusting screen brightness.

AMD Product Compatibility

AMD Mobility Product Family Compatibility

AMD Catalyst Mobility is a notebook reference graphics driver with limited support for system vendor specific features. When used with Windows Vista or Windows 7, users may have unwanted experiences.

The Installation Verification Software will prevent driver download on certain notebook products. This is to protect against the installing of drivers that may disable features or functionality provided by the system manufacturer. If unwanted experiences occur using AMD Catalyst Mobility, it is recommended to revert back to the driver provided by your system vendor for your specific platform. Please contact your system vendor for the most recent drivers for your notebook.

AMD Mobility Product Families

• ATI Mobility Radeon HD 6900M Series of Products
• ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4200 Series of Products
• ATI Mobility Radeon HD 6800M Series of Products
• ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4100 Series of Products
• ATI Mobility Radeon HD 6300M Series of Products
• ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3800 Series of Products
• ATI Mobility Radeon HD 6300 Series of Products
• ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3600 Series of Products
• ATI Mobility Radeon HD 6200 Series of Products
• ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3400 Series of Products
• ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5800 Series of Products
• ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3200 Series of Products
• ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5700 Series of Products
• ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3100 Series of Products
• ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5600 Series of Products
• ATI Mobility Radeon HD 2700 Series of Products
• ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5400 Series of Products
• ATI Mobility Radeon HD 2600 Series of Products
• ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5100 Series of Products
• ATI Mobility Radeon HD 2400 Series of Products
• ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4800 Series of Products
• ATI PowerXpress™ enabled notebooks using AMD chipsets
• ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4600 Series of Products
• ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4500 Series of Products

The following notebooks are not compatible with this release:

• Any notebook launched after this driver release
• Switchable Graphics enabled notebooks using Intel® chipsets.

Toshiba® notebooks (please contact the notebook OEM for driver support for these notebooks)

Sony® VAIO® notebooks (please contact the notebook OEM for driver support for these notebooks)

Panasonic® notebooks (please contact the notebook OEM for driver support for these notebooks)

Note: Before proceeding with your driver installation we suggest you make sure you are installing the latest version available and for the appropriate model/revision and Operating System. We strongly suggest following 'readme' instructions for installing drivers when available. Often restarting your system will be necessary for the new driver to become active and start functioning properly.

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