[Software] AMD Catalyst 12.6 BETA

Foi confirmado pela AMD à poucas horas que a empresa não irá adoptar mais a política de uma versão do Catalyst por mês, como vinha a fazer anos, desde os tempos de ATI.



A empresa acaba de anunciar o Catalyst 12.6 BETA, saltando a versão 12.5 que não saiu e nem sairá, sendo a versão 12.4 a última de um longo ciclo.

De acordo com a AMD, a decisão foi tomada visando o utilizador final, que poderá continuar a fazer os download´s dos drivers, desde que lhe as novidades lhe interessem. O sistema ano+mês vai continuar a ser mantido na
nomenclatura, mas não haverá mais uma versão por mês por obrigação como
vinha a acontecer.

Abaixo os detalhes do Catalyst 12.6 Beta e da 12.6 Beta CAP1.

Resolved issue highlights of the AMD Catalyst 12.6 Beta

• AMD Radeon HD 7900, AMD Radeon HD 7800 Tri-CrossFire
  configurations + Eyefinity no longer results in a BSOD when launching a DirectX application
  
• AMD Radeon HD 7900, AMD Radeon HD 7800 Eyefinity/Multiple
  Display configurations no longer results in a BSOD when using desktop applications
  
• AMD Radeon HD 7900, AMD Radeon HD 7800, and AMD Radeon HD 7700 cards no longer hang when system goes to sleep
  
• Please ensure that your System BIOS is up to date – some occurrences of this issue are related to outdated SBIOS
  

Resolves CrossFire scaling issues seen in AMD Catalyst 12.4 with:

• Elder Scrolls: Skyrim CrossFire
  
• AMD Catalyst Control Center – Overdrive page is no longer intermittently missing
  
• AMD Catalyst Control Center – GPU Activity gauge is no longer missing
  
• AMD Radeon HD 7900 CrossFire Configuration – no longer results in system hang after cinematic in Call Of Duty: Black Ops
  
• Heroes and Generals: Blocky corruption in scenes with smoke effects when run in DirectX 11 mode are no longer experienced.
  
• Dirt Showdown: Improves scaling for CrossFire configurations using the AMD Radeon HD 6000 Series
  
• HDMI audio is no longer disabled if the connected HDTV is powered Off/On.
  

Feature highlights of the AMD Catalyst 12.6 Beta:
Dual Graphics enhancements – new application profiles

Supported Dual Graphics configurations:
AMD Accelerated Processors for Desktop PCs

• AMD Radeon HD 7660D (A10-5700)
  
• AMD Radeon HD 7560D (A8-5500)
  

Notebooks with AMD Accelerated Processors

• 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:
o Diablo 3
o Elder Scrolls: Skyrim
o StarCraft 2
o Portal 2
o Call of Duty Modern Warfare
o Call of Duty Black Ops

· Future Catalyst releases will continue to add Dual Graphics support for additional titles

Feature highlights of the AMD Catalyst 12.6 Beta Linux driver:
This release of AMD Catalyst Linux introduces support for the following new operating systems

• SLED 11 SP2 production support
  
• RHEL 5.8 production support
  

New AMD Catalyst Application Profile is now available: http://sites.amd.com/us/game/downloads/Pages/crossfirex-app-profiles.aspx

Catalyst 12.6 Beta CAP1

• Max Payne 3 (DirectX11 version): Improves CrossFire scaling performance
  
• Krater: Resolves full screen flickering issue
  

AMD has also just released a new AMD Catalyst feature preview driver for the Windows 8 Release Preview: http://support.amd.com/us/kbarticles/Pages/Windows8ConsumerPreviewDrivers.aspx

Feature highlights of the AMD Catalyst feature preview driver for the Windows 8 Release Preview

Featuring full support for the new WDDM 1.2 driver model, this new
driver enables customers to take full advantage of the model’s features
as applications are updated to leverage them. These features include:

• Support for the AMD Radeon HD 7900 Series, AMD Radeon HD 7800 Series, and the AMD Radeon HD 7700 Series
  
• Native Stereo 3D support: Windows 8 natively supports
  stereoscopic 3D gaming and videos via compatible applications.
  Middleware applications will not be required for such apps.1
  
• 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 supporting
  applications.
  
• Optimized screen rotation for rotation-aware devices.
  
• Improved sleep/resume performance.
  
• Optimized GPU power consumption.
  

Support for AMD Features:
o AMD Eyefinity
o OpenCL
o OpenGL
o UVD
o AMD Dual Graphics / AMD CrossFire Technology
o AMD Overdrive
o AMD Catalyst Control Center / Vision Engine Control Center

Known issues found in the AMD Catalyst feature preview for Windows 8
(these issues will be resolved in the AMD production release for
Windows

• AMD Radeon HD 7900, AMD Radeon HD 7800, and the AMD Radeon HD
  7700 performance in DirectX 9 applications may be slower under Windows 8
  vs. Windows 7
  
• AMD CrossFireX configurations using the AMD Radeon HD 7900, AMD
  Radeon HD 7800, and the AMD Radeon HD 7700 in DirectX 9 and DirectX 11
  applications may be slower under Windows 8 vs. Windows 7
  
• AMD CrossFireX configurations using the AMD Radeon HD 7900, AMD
  Radeon HD 7800, and the AMD Radeon HD 7700 in OpenCL accelerated
  applications may cause a BSOD or system hang
  
• Blacklight Retribution (DirectX11 mode) played with a CrossFire
  configuration can result in a system crash when launching the
  application (32-bit OS only)
  
• Video corruption can be seen when playing back movie trailers with the Windows 8 Metro video player