ATI Mobility Catalyst Display Driver 11.8 for Windows Vista/7 32-bit

This article provides information on the AMD Catalyst Control Center / AMD Vision Engine Control Center 11.8 driver release. The release notes provides a description of 11.8 download contents including product compatibility, new features and resolved issues. The 11.8 software suite updates both the AMD display driver, and the AMD Catalyst Control Center / AMD Vision Engine Control Center. This unified driver has been updated to provide enhanced level of power, performance, and reliability.

Package Content:

The AMD Catalyst Control Center / AMD Vision Engine Control Center 11.8 software suite contains the following:

• AMD display driver version 8.881
• HydraVision for Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7
• Southbridge/IXP Driver
• AMD Catalyst Control Center version 8.881 / AMD Vision Engine Control Center version 8.881.

Important! Caution:

• The AMD display driver and the AMD Catalyst Control Center / AMD Vision Engine 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 / AMD Vision Engine 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 / AMD Vision Engine 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/.
• AMD 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

What's New:

New Features

• AMD Overdrive has been enhanced to include both CPU and GPU over-clocking controls within the AMD Vision Control Center
• CPU over-clocking is only supported on AMD Black edition CPUs

Performance Highlights

• Improves performance up to 10% in Crysis 2 DirectX 11 version for both non-Anti-Aliasing, and application enabled
• Anti-Aliasing cases on the AMD Radeon HD 6000 and AMD Radeon HD 5000 Series
• Improves performance up to 8% in Fear 3 DirectX 11 version with application enabled Anti-Aliasing on the
  AMD Radeon HD 6000 and AMD Radeon HD 5000 Series
• Improves performance up to 30% when AMD’s Morphological Anti-Aliasing (MLAA) is enabled through the
  Catalyst Control Center on the AMD Radeon HD 6000 and AMD Radeon HD 5000 Series
• Improves performance up to 20% in Call of Duty Black Operations for single GPU and Multi-GPU configurations on the AMD Radeon HD 6000 and AMD Radeon HD 5000 Series

AMD Product Compatibility:

The AMD Catalyst driver is compatible with the following AMD products:

• AMD Desktop Product Family Compatibility
• AMD Radeon HD 6900 Series of Products
• ATI Radeon HD 4800 Series of Products
• AMD Radeon HD 6800 Series of Products
• ATI Radeon HD 4700 Series of Products
• AMD Radeon HD 6600 Series of Products
• ATI Radeon HD 4670 Series of Products
• AMD Radeon HD 6500 Series of Products
• ATI Radeon HD 4650 Series of Products
• AMD Radeon HD 6300 Series of Products
• ATI Radeon HD 4600 Series of Products
• AMD Radeon HD 6200 Series of Products
• ATI Radeon HD 4550 Series of Products
• ATI Radeon HD 5900 Series of Products
• ATI Radeon HD 4350 Series of Products
• ATI Radeon HD 5800 Series of Products
• ATI Radeon HD 3800 Series of Products
• ATI Radeon HD 5700 Series of Products
• ATI Radeon HD 3600 Series of Products
• ATI Radeon HD 5600 Series of Products
• ATI Radeon HD 3400 Series of Products
• ATI Radeon HD 5500 Series of Products
• ATI Radeon HD 2900 Series of Products
• ATI Radeon HD 5400 Series of Products
• ATI Radeon HD 2600 Series of Products
• ATI Radeon HD 4890 Series of Products
• ATI Radeon HD 2400 Series of Products
• ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 Series of Products
• ATI Radeon HD 4850 X2 Series of Products

AMD FireStream Product Families

• AMD FireStream 9350 Series of Products
• AMD FireStream 9250 Series of Products
• AMD FireStream 9270 Series of Products
• AMD FireStream 9170 Series of Products

AMD Chipset Product Families

• ATI Radeon HD 4290 Series of Products
• ATI Radeon 3200 Series of Products
• ATI Radeon HD 4250 Series of Products
• ATI Radeon 3100 Series of Products
• ATI Radeon HD 4200 Series of Products
• ATI Radeon 3000 Series of Products
• ATI Radeon HD 3300 Series of Products

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 while using 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.

• 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 Mobility Radeon HD 4600 Series of Products
• ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4500 Series of Products
• ATI PowerXpress enabled notebooks using AMD chipsets

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)

Compatible Operating Systems:

The latest version of the AMD Catalyst software suite is designed to support the following Microsoft Windows platforms:

• Windows 7 32-bit version
• Windows 7 64-bit version
• Windows Vista 32-bit version
• Windows Vista 64-bit version
• Windows XP Professional
• Windows XP Home Edition
• Windows XP Media Center Edition
• Windows XP Professional x64 Edition

Resolved Issues for the Windows 7 Operating System

This section provides information on resolved known issues in this release of the AMD Catalyst 11.8 software suite for Windows 7. These include:

• The option to “Apply current video quality settings to internet video" is no longer randomly missing from the AMD Catalyst Control Center / AMD Vision Engine Control Center.
• 3DMark 11 no longer intermittently generates a BSOD error when run using a standard user account.
• Playing HD video content overnight using Windows Media Center no longer causes the system to hang or generates a BSOD error.
• Random graphical corruption is no longer experienced when playing Crysis 2 in a Crossfire environment.
• Image stabilization is now correctly applied to DivX clips when using Windows Media Player.
• Enabling AntiAliasing when playing Starcraft 2 no longer causes random screen blackouts.
• Video corruption is no longer seen when scrolling through DivX 5 video files using Windows Media Center and Windows Media Player.
• Menu corruption is no longer seen when running F.E.A.R 3 in DirectX 11 mode.
• Video playback now functions correctly after enabling hardware acceleration in VLC version 1.1.10.

Resolved Issues for the Windows Vista Operating System

This section provides information on resolved known issues in this release of the AMD Catalyst 11.8 software suite for Windows Vista. These include:

• PowerDVD no longer randomly displays a blank screen when playing back BluRay content with Crossfire enabled.
• BSOD errors are no longer intermittently experienced after installing the driver with Crossfire enabled.

Resolved Issues for the Windows XP Operating System

This section provides information on resolved known issues in this release of the AMD Catalyst 11.8 software suite for Windows XP. These include:

• PowerDVD no longer randomly displays a blank screen during video playback when switching from extended display mode to cloned display mode.
• Known issues under the Windows 7 operating system
• The following section provides a summary of open issues that may be experienced under the Windows 7 operating system in the latest version of AMD Catalyst. These include:
• STALKER - Call of Pripyat may randomly hang when entering a new or saved game.
• Random corruption may be observed when running the Unigine Heaven benchmark in Fixed High Performance mode.
  F1 2010 may randomly hang on application launch.
• Battlefield – Bad Company 2 may randomly hang after a period of game play.
• Dungeon Siege 3 may randomly hang on application launch.
• Dead Rising 2 may randomly hang on application launch.
• Random flashing may be observed while playing F1 2010 and Dirt 2.
• OpenGL acceleration may not function within Photoshop CS5.

Known Issues under the Windows Vista Operating System

The following section provides a summary of open issues that may be experienced under the Windows Vista operating system in the latest version of AMD Catalyst. These include:

• Windows Aero options may not be available after installing the driver.
• Doom 3 and Quake 4 may experience graphical corruption.
• Performing Bezel compensation in certain Eyefinity configurations may cause some bezel groups to not appear.

Known Issues under the Windows XP Operating System

The following section provides a summary of open issues that may be experienced under the Windows XP operating system in the latest version of AMD Catalyst. These include:

• Enemy Territory – Quake Wars may experience random graphics corruption.
• Quake 4 may experience random graphics corruption.

Installing the AMD Catalyst Software Driver

For further information and general help on software driver installation, game issues, and more, visit AMD Customer Care. Installation information can be found at: How to Install Your AMD Product.

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.

You can check back regularly for the latest updates at TechSpot's Drivers section or stop by our homepage for the best daily coverage of PC technology news on the Web.