The AMD Catalyst software suite 12.6 contains the following:

  • AMD display driver version 8.98
  • HydraVision™ for Windows Vista® and Windows® 7
  • Southbridge/IXP Driver
  • AMD Catalyst Control Center version 8.98/AMD Vision Engine Control Center version 8.98.

Caution! 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.

Note:

  • 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: https://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.

AMD Product Compatibility

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

  • AMD Desktop Product Family Compatibility
    • AMD Radeon™ HD 7900 Series
    • ATI Radeon HD 5600 Series
    • AMD Radeon HD 7800 Series
    • ATI Radeon HD 5500 Series
    • AMD Radeon HD 7700 Series
    • ATI Radeon HD 5400 Series
    • AMD Radeon HD 7300 Series
    • ATI Radeon HD 4890 Series
    • AMD Radeon HD 6900 Series
    • ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 Series
    • AMD Radeon HD 6800 Series
    • ATI Radeon HD 4850 X2 Series
    • AMD Radeon HD 6700 Series
    • ATI Radeon HD 4800 Series
    • AMD Radeon HD 6600 Series
    • ATI Radeon HD 4700 Series
    • AMD Radeon HD 6550D Series
    • ATI Radeon HD 4670 Series
    • AMD Radeon HD 6530D Series
    • ATI Radeon HD 4650 Series
    • AMD Radeon HD 6500 Series
    • ATI Radeon HD 4600 Series
    • AMD Radeon HD 6410D Series
    • ATI Radeon HD 4550 Series
    • AMD Radeon HD 6370D Series
    • ATI Radeon HD 4350 Series
    • AMD Radeon HD 6310D Series
    • ATI Radeon HD 3800 Series
    • AMD Radeon HD 6300 Series
    • ATI Radeon HD 3600 Series
    • AMD Radeon HD 6200 Series
    • ATI Radeon HD 3400 Series
    • ATI Radeon HD 5900 Series
    • ATI Radeon HD 2900 Series
    • ATI Radeon HD 5800 Series
    • ATI Radeon HD 2600 Series
    • ATI Radeon HD 5700 Series
    • ATI Radeon HD 2400 Series
  • AMD FireStream™ Product Families
    • AMD FireStream™ 9350
    • AMD FireStream 9250
    • AMD FireStream 9270
    • AMD FireStream 9170
  • AMD Chipset Product Families
    • ATI Radeon™ HD 4290
    • ATI Radeon 3200 Series
    • ATI Radeon HD 4250
    • ATI Radeon 3100 Series
    • ATI Radeon HD 4200 Series
    • ATI Radeon 3000 Series
    • ATI Radeon HD 3300 Series
  • AMD Mobility Radeon™ Family Compatibility
    • AMD Catalyst Mobility is a notebook reference graphics driver with limited support forsystem 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 systemvendor for your specific platform. Please contact your system vendor for the most recentdrivers for your notebook.
  • AMD Mobility Product Families
    • AMD Mobility Radeon™ HD 6900M Series
    • AMD Mobility Radeon HD 4200 Series
    • AMD Mobility RadeonHD 6800M Series
    • AMD Mobility Radeon HD 4100 Series
    • AMD Mobility Radeon HD 6300M Series
    • AMD Mobility Radeon HD 3800 Series
    • AMD Mobility Radeon HD 6300 Series
    • AMD Mobility Radeon HD 3600 Series
    • AMD Mobility Radeon HD 6200 Series
    • AMD Mobility Radeon HD 3400 Series
    • AMD Mobility Radeon HD 5800 Series
    • AMD Mobility Radeon HD 3200 Series
    • AMD Mobility Radeon HD 5700 Series
    • AMD Mobility Radeon HD 3100 Series
    • AMD Mobility Radeon HD 5600 Series
    • AMD Mobility Radeon HD 2700 Series
    • AMD Mobility Radeon HD 5400 Series
    • AMD Mobility Radeon HD 2600 Series
    • AMD Mobility Radeon HD 5100 Series
    • AMD Mobility Radeon HD 2400 Series
    • AMD Mobility Radeon HD 4800 Series
    • AMD PowerXpress™ enabled notebooks
    • AMD Mobility Radeon HD 4600 Series using AMD chipsets
    • AMD Mobility Radeon HD 4500 Series
  • The following notebooks are not compatible with this release:
    1. Any notebook launched after this driver release
    2. Switchable Graphics enabled notebooks
    3. Toshiba notebooks (please contact the notebook OEM for driver support for these notebooks)
    4. Sony VAIO notebooks (please contact the notebook OEM for driver support for these notebooks
    5. 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

Feature Highlights of the AMD Catalyst 12.6:

Dual Graphics enhancements – new application profiles for DirectX 9 applications

  • Supported Dual Graphics configurations:
    • AMD Accelerated Processors for Desktop PCs
      • AMD Radeon™ HD 7660D (A10-5800K)
      • AMD Radeon™ HD 7660D (A10-5700)
      • AMD Radeon™ HD 7560D (A8-5600K)
      • AMD Radeon™ HD 7560D (A8-5500)
    • Notebooks with AMD Accelerated Processors
      • AMD Radeon™ HD 7660G (A10-4600M)
  • AMD Accelerated Processors for Desktop PCs
    • AMD Radeon™ HD 7660G (A10-4600M)
    • AMD Radeon™ HD 7640G (A8-4500M)
    • AMD Radeon™ HD 7520G (A6-4400M)
  • New profiles have been added for the following titles:
    • Diablo 3
    • Elder Scrolls: Skyrim
    • StarCraft 2
    • Portal 2
    • Call of Duty Modern Warfare
    • Call of Duty Black Ops

Resolved Issues

Resolved Issues for the Windows 7

This section provides information on resolved known issues in this release of the AMD Catalyst12.6 software suite for Windows 7. These include:

  • CERT recently approached AMD with information pertaining to what they believed to be a possible video driver vulnerability exposed by non-default settings of the Microsoft Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit (EMET). EMET is a security test tool that allows system administrators to create test conditions to validate correct behavior of system components or indicate potential weak points.
    • The AMD Catalyst 12.6 driver for the AMD Radeon HD 7000, AMD Radeon HD 6000, and AMD Radeon HD 5000 Series is designed to resolve a possible video driver vulnerability issue and to minimize the occurrence of system crashes.
  • AMD Radeon HD 7900, AMD Radeon HD 7800 Eyefinity/Multiple Display configurations - BSOD when using desktop applications.
  • AMD Catalyst 12.6 includes some additional fixes(not found in the AMD Catalyst 12.6 Beta) for the AMD Radeon™ HD 7900, AMD Radeon HD 7800, and AMD Radeon HD 7700 graphics cards for issues related to the GPU hanging when the system goes to sleep. Please ensure that your System BIOS is up to date. Some occurrences of this issue may be related to an outdated System BIOS.
    Heroes and Generals - Blocky corruption in scenes with smoke effects when run in DirectX 11 mode.
  • AMD Radeon™ HD 7900 CrossFire Configuration – system hang after cinematics in Call of Duty: Black Ops.
  • AMD A4, AMD A6, AMD A8 and AMD A10 APU Products - crashes after repeated toggling between VGA and HDMI monitors.
  • System hangs after playing various DVD and Bluray titles with PowerDVD.
  • Video corruption seen after playing some DivX video clips using Windows Media Center.
  • AMD Radeon 7800 series products: Crysis 2 hangs when run in DirectX 9 mode.
  • AMD Radeon HD 7900, AMD Radeon HD 7800 Eyefinity/Multiple Display configurations - BSOD when using desktop applications in DirectX 11 mode.

Resolved Issues for the Windows Vista

This section provides information on resolved known issues in this release of the AMD Catalyst™12.6 software suite for Windows Vista. These include:

  • Call of Duty: Black Ops - Poor game performance experienced when run in Tridef mode with in-game AA enabled.

Known Issues

Known issues under the Windows 7

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:

  • AMD Radeon HD7900 series products - Crysis Warhead may crash when launched.
  • Total War: Shogun 2 - flickering text when run in DirectX® 11 mode with AMD CrossfireX enabled.
  • Dirt: Showdown 8-Ball Track - may hang when run in AMD CrossFireX™ mode.