This release note provides information on the latest posting of AMD's industry leading software suite, Catalyst®. This particular software suite updates both the AMD Display Driver (version 8.321), and the Catalyst® Control Center (version 6.12). This unified driver has been further enhanced to provide the highest level of power, performance, and reliability. The AMD Catalyst® software suite is the ultimate in performance and stability.
The Catalyst® 6.12 Release Note provides information on the following:
- Web Content
- AMD Desktop product family support
- AMD Chipset Product Support
- Operating systems supported
- New Features
- Issues Resolved in Catalyst® Software Suite 6.12
- Known Issues for Catalyst® Software Suite 6.12
- AMD Customer Care
- Installing the latest Catalyst® Software Suite
- Catalyst® Crew Driver Feedback
Web Content
The Catalyst® software suite 6.12 contains the following:
- Radeon® display driver 8.321
- Multimedia Center™ 9.16
- HydraVision™
- Remote Wonder 3.04
- WDM Driver Install Bundle
- Southbridge/IXP Driver
- Catalyst® Control Center Version 6.12
Caution: The Catalyst® software driver and the Catalyst® Control Center can be downloaded independently of each other. However, for maximum stability and performance AMD recommends that both components be updated from the same Catalyst® release
Caution: The Catalyst® Control Center requires that the Microsoft .NET Framework version 1.1 or 2.0 be installed. Without .NET version 1.1 or 2.0 installed, the Catalyst® Control Center will not launch properly and the user will see an error message.
Note: These release notes provide information on the Radeon® display driver only. For information on the ATI Multimedia Center™, HydraVision™, HydraVision Basic Edition, WDM, Remote Wonder™, or the Southbridge/IXP driver, please refer to their respective release notes found at: https://support.ati.com/
AMD Desktop product family support
The Catalyst® software suite is designed to support the following AMD desktop products:
- ATI Radeon® X1950 series
- ATI Radeon® X1900 series
- ATI Radeon® X1800 series
- ATI Radeon® X1600 series
- ATI Radeon® X1550 series
- ATI Radeon® X1300 series
- ATI Radeon® X850 series
- ATI Radeon® X800 series
- ATI Radeon® X700 series
- ATI Radeon® X600 series
- ATI Radeon® X550 series
- ATI Radeon® X300 series
- ATI Radeon® 9800 series
- ATI Radeon® 9700 series
- ATI Radeon® 9600 series
- ATI Radeon® 9500 series
Note: All-in-Wonder® variants based on the above are also supported.
Note: All Radeon® PC Graphic cards are optimized for Microsoft's Media Center Edition 2005 when coupled with a supported video capture card.
Note: Software driver support and release notes for earlier AMD products can be found at: support.ati.com
AMD Chipset Product Support
The Catalyst® software suite is designed to support the following AMD chipset products:
Operating systems supported
The latest version of the Catalyst® software suite is designed to support the following Microsoft Windows platforms:
- Windows XP Professional
- Windows XP Home Edition
- Windows XP Media Center Edition (graphics driver support only)
Note: Catalyst® 6.12 is not supported under the Windows Vista operating system. Catalyst® software drivers for the Windows Vista operating system can be found at: support.ati.com
New Features
This release of the ATI Catalyst™ software suite introduces DirectX video acceleration for CrossFire™ enabled configurations.
Issues Resolved in Catalyst® Software Suite 6.12
The following section provides a summary of the issues that are resolved in the latest release of Catalyst®. These include:
- Black&White 2: Slow frame rate is no longer noticed when playing the game under Windows XP when setting the graphics to the lowest possible settings. Further details can be found in topic number 737-23714
- Neverwinter Nights: Enabling super AA and CrossFire within the Catalyst Control Center no longer results in display corruption being noticed within the game's main menu. Further details can be found in topic number 737-23718
- Catalyst® Control Center->CrossFire™: Attempting to resume from a standby state no longer results in the Windows XP operating system failing to respond when using a Radeon® X19x0 CrossFire™ Edition series of product. Further details can be found in topic number 737-23713
- Catalyst Control Center: Setting the language option to French for the Catalyst Control Center no longer results in the text found in Catalyst Control Center being cropped. This issue was known to occur under all supported operating system. Further details can be found in topic number 737-23716
- Using PowerDVD to playback a DVD no longer results in the playback appearing choppy. Further details can be found in topic number 737-23719
- Catalyst Control Center: The translation for Centered Timings is now translated properly for Simplified Chinese. Further details can be found in topic number 737-24337
- The index in the Catalyst Control Center help no longer contains double entries for various aspects. Further details can be found in topic number 737-24338
- Catalyst Control Center->Help: Clicking on the CrossFire help no longer results in a page not found error message being displayed. Further details can be found in topic number 737-24339
- Using the Avivo Video Converter to convert a video file no longer exceeds the 300MB for a VCD encoded file. Further details can be found in topic number 737-24340
- Catalyst Control Center->Help: Clicking on certain help file links no longer results in the incorrect help file being displayed. Further details can be found in topic number 737-24341
- Catalyst Control Center: The Profile Manager is now translated properly for Italian. Further details can be found in topic number 737-24342
- Catalyst Control Center: Various options such as Select a Language and Deinterlacing for the Thai language are now translated properly. Further details can be found in topic number 737-24343
- Changing the language to Korean in the Catalyst Control Center no longer results in the degree symbol appearing corrupted within the rotation page. Further details can be found in topic number 737-24344
- Catalyst Control Center->Basic View: Selecting Japanese as the language no longer results in various aspects of the Easy Setting Wizard and Setup Display Settings not being translated properly. Further details can be found in topic number 737-24345
- Using hotkeys to switch between LCD mode and CRT+LCD mode no longer results in the hotkey function failing when attempting to switch back to LCD mode only. Further details can be found in topic number 737-24288
- Using PowerDVD to playback a DVD no longer results in the playback appearing jittery. Further details can be found in topic number 737-23719
- CrossFire: Playing Windows XP games such as Labyrinth or HyperBowl no longer results in display corruption being noticed in the game's menu page. Further details can be found in topic number 737-24335
- Hardware acceleration no longer becomes disabled when running the HQV benchmark DVD with CrossFire enabled. Further details can be found in topic number 737-24336
Known Issues for Catalyst® Software Suite 6.12
The following section provides a summary of open issues in the latest version of Catalyst®. These include:
- Battlefield 2: Attempting to launch the game under Windows XP with the in-game display setting at 1920x1440 or 2048x1536 and AA set to 6x may result in the game failing to launch. Further details can be found in topic number 737-22817
- Sniper Elite: Playing the game under Windows XP with a Radeon® X1600 series installed may result in texture corruption being noticed. Further details can be found in topic number 737-22820
- Enabling CrossFire™ may result in display corruption being noticed when playing a DVD or media clip using either WinDVD 7, Windows Media Player or PowerDVD 6. Further details can be found in topic number 737-22806
- Catalyst® Control Center->Basic View: Connecting a secondary display device and attempting to enable it, may result in the inability to enable the device when using Basic view. Further details can be found in topic number 737-23446
- Intermittent display issues may be noticed when using an Apple Cinema HD 30" display device. Contact AMD Customer Care for a solution. AMD Engineering is aware of the issue and a resolve will be available in an up-coming software driver release. Further details can be found in topic number
- During video playback, DirectX Video Acceleration (DXVA) may not be available when CrossFire mode is enabled. This will result in software mode video playback. To enable DXVA, CrossFire™ mode must be disabled. Further details can be found in topic number 737-23447
- Uninstalling the graphics drivers may result in some of the files and folder failing to be removed in the Program File folder. Further details can be found in topic number 737-23715
- Attempting to maximize an OpenGL application window may result in either the OpenGL window maximizing slowly or the system failing to respond. Further details can be found in topic number 737-23717
- Clicking on the Restore Factory Defaults button found in the Catalyst Control Center->TV Properties may result in the TV position failing to be restored to the factory defaults. Further details can be found in topic number 737-24346
- Catalyst® Control Center->Basic View: Connecting a secondary display device and attempting to enable it, may result in the inability to enable the device when using Basic view. Further details can be found in topic number 737-24347
- Setting the display panel attributes to Scale Image to Full Panel Size, followed by entering an S3 state may result in the desktop failing to resume to a full screen mode. Further details can be found in topic number 737-24348
- Catalyst Control Center: Connecting an HDTV or DFP display device may result in some of the HDTV formats being listed twice in the Catalyst Control Center->Digital Panel Properties->HDTV Support. Further details can be found in topic number 737-24349
- Catalyst Control Center->Digital Panel Properties->HDTV Support: Adding custom formats to the 1080i and attempting to remove those custom formats may result in the formats failing to removed. Further details can be found in topic number 737-24350
- Catalyst Control Center->Help: Clicking on the Monitor and Digital Panel Properties found in the Contents section of the Help may result in a message indicating that the page cannot be displayed. Further details can be found in topic number 737-24351
For further information and general help on software driver installation, game issues, and more, visit AMD Customer Care.
AMD Customer Care
The AMD Customer Care website provides a high level of technical support and easy of navigation. The AMD Customer Care website provides accurate and up-to-date product support for optimum usability and performance. Technical issues are categorized and personalized to enhance user experience. The AMD Customer Care Website can be found at: support.ati.com
To view a known or resolved issue, do the following:
- Go to: support.ati.com. The AMD Customer Care web page is displayed.
- In the top left hand pane, click Advanced Search. The Advanced Search pane is displayed.
- Under Search Type: Select the By: ID option.
- Enter the Topic number.
- Click Go.
Installing the latest Catalyst® Software Suite
Installation information can be found at: ati.amd.com/install
Catalyst® Crew Driver Feedback
This driver release incorporates suggestions received through the Catalyst® CREW Driver Feedback program. To provide us with your feedback, visit: Catalyst® Crew Driver Feedback.
Advanced Micro Devices Inc.
http://ati.amd.com
Voice: (905) 882-2600
Fax: (905) 882-2620