AMD Catalyst Display Driver 12.10 for Windows 8 64-bit

AMD Catalyst 12.10 – Ready for Windows 8

For AMD Radeon™ HD 5000, HD 6000 and HD 7000 Series users, Microsoft® has certified today’s AMD Catalyst™ 12.10 release as “compatible with Windows 8.” With this driver, these products offer full support for WDDM 1.2, which is an updated model for graphics drivers that Microsoft has developed to ensure smooth performance and wide compatibility in their new operating system.

• Target-Independent Rasterization (TIR): TIR is a new rendering path that enables superior anti-aliasing in Direct3D driver applications
• Native Stereo 3D Support: Windows 8 natively supports stereoscopic 3D gaming and videos via compatible applications
• Unified Video API: Video playback has been integrated into the DirectX® 11 API, enabling simultaneous video and gaming content. Transcoding performance may also be improved for supported applications.
• Optimized screen rotation for rotation aware devices
• Improved sleep/resume performance
• Optimized GPU power consumption
• Major technologies / features also supported under Windows 8:
  • AMD Eyefinity technology
  • OpenCL™
  • OpenGL
  • Unified Video Decoder (UVD)
  • AMD Dual Graphics
  • AMD CrossFire technology
  • AMD Overdrive
  • AMD Catalyst Control Center/ AMD Vision Engine Control Center

AMD Catalyst Mobility support for AMD Enduro™ Technology

AMD Catalyst Mobility now includes support for AMD Enduro™ Technology. AMD Enduro Technology is currently supported on all notebook Intel® IvyBridge platforms and AMD Comal platforms that support the AMD Radeon HD 7900M, 7800M, 7700M – additional products will be supported in future Catalyst releases.”

• AMD Enduro™ Technology for Notebooks delivers:
  • Unbeatable battery life
  • GPU accelerated performance for gaming, video, and compute apps
  • A Seamless and automatic experience
• New Enduro™ Technology features found in Catalyst 12.10:
  • Re-designed Catalyst Control Center user interface
    • View all profiled applications
    • View recently run applications
    • Profile applications based on power source
  • Expert mode control and customization
    • Performance centric AC
    • Battery centric DC

The AMD Catalyst software suite 12.10 contains the following:

• AMD display driver version 9.002
• HydraVision™ for Windows Vista® and Windows® 7
• Southbridge/ IXP Driver
• AMD Catalyst Control Center version 9.002/ AMD Vision Engine Control Center version 9.002

Caution: The AMD Catalyst Control Center/ AMD Vision Engine Control Center requires that the Microsoft® .NET Framework SP1 be installed for 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.
• The Catalyst driver requires Windows 7 Service Pack 1 to be installed.
• 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 is designed to give 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

Supported Products:

AMD Desktop Product Family Compatibility

• AMD Radeon™ HD 7900 Series
• AMD Radeon HD 6500 Series
• AMD Radeon HD 7800 Series
• AMD Radeon HD 6410D Series
• AMD Radeon HD 7700 Series
• AMD Radeon HD 6370D Series
• AMD Radeon HD 7660D Series
• AMD Radeon HD 6310D Series
• AMD Radeon HD 7560D Series
• AMD Radeon HD 6300 Series
• AMD Radeon HD 7300 Series
• AMD Radeon HD 6200 Series
• AMD Radeon HD 6900 Series
• ATI Radeon HD 5900 Series
• AMD Radeon HD 6800 Series
• ATI Radeon HD 5800 Series
• AMD Radeon HD 6700 Series
• ATI Radeon HD 5700 Series
• AMD Radeon HD 6600 Series
• ATI Radeon HD 5600 Series
• AMD Radeon HD 6550D Series
• ATI Radeon HD 5500 Series
• AMD Radeon HD 6530D Series
• ATI Radeon HD 5400 Series

AMD FireStream™ Product Families

• AMD FireStream™ 9350
• AMD FireStream 9250
• AMD FireStream 9270
• AMD FireStream 9170

AMD Mobility Radeon™ 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, the user experience may be limited or compromised.

The Installation Verification Software is designed to 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. When used with Windows Vista or Windows 7, the user experience may be limited or compromised. In such a situation, 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

• AMD Mobility Radeon™ HD 7000M Series
• AMD Mobility Radeon HD 5400 Series
• AMD Mobility Radeon HD 6900M Series
• AMD Mobility Radeon HD 5100 Series
• AMD Mobility Radeon HD 6800M Series
• AMD Radeon HD 6620G Series
• AMD Mobility Radeon HD 6300M Series
• AMD Radeon HD 6520G Series
• AMD Mobility Radeon HD 6300 Series
• AMD Radeon HD 6480G Series
• AMD Mobility Radeon HD 6200 Series
• AMD Radeon HD 6380G Series
• AMD Mobility Radeon HD 5800 Series
• AMD Radeon HD 6310G Series
• AMD Mobility Radeon HD 5700 Series
• AMD Radeon HD 6250G Series
• AMD Mobility Radeon HD 5600 Series
• AMD PowerXpress™ enabled notebooks using AMD chipsets

The following notebooks are not compatible with this release:

1. Any notebook launched after this driver release
2. Toshiba notebooks (please contact the notebook OEM for driver support for these notebooks)
3. Sony VAIO notebooks (please contact the notebook OEM for driver support for these notebooks)
4. Panasonic notebooks (please contact the notebook OEM for driver support for these notebooks)

Compatible Operating Systems:

• Windows 8 32-bit version
• Windows 8 64-bit version
• Windows 7 32-bit version
• Windows 7 64-bit version
• Windows Vista 32-bit version
• Windows Vista 64-bit version

Resolved Issues:

This section provides information on resolved known issues in this release of the AMD Catalyst 12.10 software suite.

Resolved Issues for the Windows 8 Operating System

• Enemy Territory Quake Wars performance affected when run at high resolutions
• Wolfenstien performance affected when run at high resolutions
• System hangs when disabling Eyefinity
• World of Warcraft – Mists of Pandaria experiences graphical corruption when anti-aliasing is forced to 2X or higher

Resolved Issues for the Windows 7 Operating System

• F1 2011 : Vehicle textures flicker when game is run at low settings
• Dirt Showdown : Flickering seen when benchmark is run in DirectX 11 mode
• Battlefield – Bad Company 2 : Flickering textures seen in AMD CrossFire mode
• Alan Wake – Freezes when run in DirectX 9 mode with AMD CrossFire and Eyefinity enabled
• Portal 2 – Freezes when run in DirectX 9 mode with AMD Crossfire and Eyefinity enabled

Known Issues:

The following section provides a summary of open issues that may be experienced with the AMD Catalyst 12.10 software suite.

Known issues under the Windows 8 operating system

• AMD Eyefinity portrait resolutions may not apply correctly when AMD CrossFire is enabled

Known issues under the Windows 7operating system

• Serious Sam 3 may crash when AMD CrossFire and Eyefinity are enabled
• May Payne 3 may experience flickering and ghosting when in DirectX 9 mode with Anti Aliasing enabled

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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