New features & improvements

• Speech API information
• SensorPanel graphs and gauges
• Intel 330 and OCZ Vertex 4 SSD support
• GPU details for nVIDIA GeForce 600 Series

Speech API information

A brand new multimedia information page to display various configuration details available via the Speech API. Voices and speech recognition engines enumeration with support for both SAPI4 and SAPI5 interface.
SensorPanel graphs and gauges

A flexible hardware monitoring module to display temperatures, fan speeds, voltages, currents, clock speeds, and various other system details on a graphical panel on the Windows Desktop. New 3D bars and customizable graph and gauge objects have been implemented to enhance the look & feel of the SensorPanel.

Enhanced UPS support

Improved monitoring capabilities for Uninterruptible Power Supplies and Smart Batteries. Temperature and capacity monitoring, input voltage, output voltage, output current, and power draw measurement for HID-capable UPS devices.

Support for the latest hardware technologies

Graphics processor, OpenGL and GPGPU details, temperature and cooling fan monitoring for the latest GPUs: nVIDIA GeForce GT 415, nVIDIA GeForce GT 610, nVIDIA GeForce GT 645, nVIDIA GeForce GTX 670, nVIDIA GeForce GTX 690. Crucial C400, Intel 330, OCZ Octane, OCZ Petrol, OCZ Vertex 4 SSD support.

More Information on the official website: http://www.aida64.com

Resolution:
This issue has now been addressed with the AMD Catalyst 12.4b hotfix driver. Users of the ATI Radeon HD 2400, 2600, 2900, 3400, 3600 and 4500 graphics cards should download this hotfix driver.

Driver Packaging Version: 8.961.3-120524a-139456E-ATI
Catalyst Version: 12.4
2D Driver Version: 8.01.01.1243
Direct3D Version: 7.14.10.0904
OpenGL Version: 6.14.10.11631
Catalyst Control Center Version: 2012.0524.1614.27160

New profiles added to this release:

• Alan Wake American Nightmare : Improves CrossFire performance
• Windows Media Center – Improve performance on APU configurations
• Max Payne 3 (DirectX11 version): Improves single GPU and CrossFire performance

Using AMD Catalyst 12.4 WHQL, I will compare performance and image quality between two situations: 1. Using CCC; 2. Not Using CCC. Also I will be looking at how CCC.exe and MOM.exe (processes used by CCC) behave in different circumstances.

Back in the day when I had a P3 and only 256MB of RAM I never installed the Catalyst Software, every KB of ram was important to me; I couldn’t be bothered with installing the NET Framework either, plus I didn’t even know what the settings were good for, not that I know now… But with the current hardware generation I really don’t think that CCC should be thought of as a RAM eater…We’ll have to see about that.

In order to have a clean OS I used Driver Sweeper 3.2.0 and Atiman Uninstaller 6.3.1 but using those two programs will not guarantee a clean OS of all AMD/ATI files so to be extra sure I did a manual registry keys search and removed everything that matched my searches. Then I installed 12.4 WHQL but without selecting CCC. Did all the tests and repeated the complete removal of all AMD files and installed the complete 12.4 WHQL package, redid the tests.

I will use 7 games to test performance and image quality:

1. Crysis 2 1.9 using Adrenaline Benchmark Tool – Extreme Preset – 1680×1050 – 4xAA – Hi-Res Textures – Central Park – 3 Runs.
2. DiRT 3 – Ultra Preset – 1680×1050 – 8xMSAA – 3 Runs using the in-game benchmark
3. Battlefield 3 – Ultra Preset – 1680×1050 – 4xMSAA – 16xAF – Multiplayer @ Strike at Karkand (32p map, Large Conquest), main street: US Deployment -> B Flag – 3 Runs x 60s.
4. Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim v1.5 – Ultra Preset – 1680×1050 – 8xAA – 16xAF – Tested in the area East of Rorikstead – 3 Runs x 60s.
5. Mass Effect 3 – Settings are maxed out @ 1680×1050 – 3 runs x 120s
6. Risen 2: Dark Waters – Settings are maxed out @ 1680×1050 – 3 runs
7. F1 2011 – Ultra Settings – 8xMSAA @ 1680×1050 – 3 runs using the in-game benchmark

Table of Contents:

Page 1 – Introduction
Page 2 – Performance Comparison
Page 3 – Image Quality Comparison
Page 4 – Conclusion

Page 2 – Performance Comparison

Resolution:
This issue has now been resolved in the AMD Catalyst 12.4a hotfix driver. Users of the ATI Radeon HD 2400, 2600, 2900, 3400, 3600 and 4500 graphics cards are the only AMD customers who need to download this hotfix driver.

Driver Packaging Version: 8.961.3-120507a-138363E-ATI
Catalyst Version: 12.4
2D Driver Version: 8.01.01.1243
Direct3D Version: 7.14.10.0903
OpenGL Version: 6.14.10.11631
Catalyst Control Center Version: 2012.0508.503.7041

Risen 2: Dark Waters was officially announced on August 18, 2010 by its published, DeepSilver. The PC version was released at the end of April and was developed by Piranha Bytes. The console versions will be released in a few months and the studio in charge for Risen 2 XBOX/PS3 development is Wizarbox.

Lately, it’s a rare thing to have a game first developed for PC and then for consoles. And another interesting thing is that Risen 2 uses Edge Anti-Aliasing instead of the more popular MultiSample Anti-Aliasing.

Because I couldn’t get consistent results in more demanding areas of Risen 2, I had to test the game “in calmer seas”, during the dialogue with Carlos to be more precise. This might not be the smartest thing to do but in this case, it was the safest one. Nevertheless, the results and CPU/GPU usage “trends” apply even in the most demanding areas of the game.

Each test contains 3 runs of 60 seconds each.

FPS was recorded using Beepa Fraps 3.4.7.
CPU usage was recorded using Windows Performance Monitor. Processor(_Total) with a sample interval of 1 second.
GPU Usage was recorded using MSI Afterburner 2.2.0.

Risen 2 performs the same no matter the Windows operating systems. There are no noticeable differences between the 6 OS tested. Performance, Image Quality, Loading Times and gameplay in general is no different between them.

The game requires a minimum 2.4 GHz dual-core processor but even such a low-end processor (by today’s standards) will run Risen 2 on the highest possible settings without a sweat. No more than 2 cores will be used and from the data I gathered it seems that Risen 2 isn’t optimized for CPU multithreading.

Under normal circumstances the GPU usage will stay at about 96-95% but more demanding areas such as the 2nd island will make the GPU work harder and performance will drop with another 10-15%.

Yet again, a 5% Overclock will boost performance with about 5% more frames rendered each second, the game is utilizing the GPU as it should. It always pays off to have a high overclockable card.

Using different AMD Catalyst drivers won’t make any difference with Risen 2, we’ll have to wait until AMD releases a driver with some optimizations for this game.

The most taxing setting in Risen 2 is , you guessed it, Shadows. Setting Shadows to Off from Ultra will give you a extra ~30 FPS but the game will look too dull with no shadows so I recommend going for Low. Anisotropic Filtering has a ~10 FPS hit. Having so many Image Quality Settings/Options gives gamers a wider choice in regard to how Risen 2 looks and feels.

Recap:

• Risen 2 performs the same on all Windows Operating Systems.
• CPU requirements aren’t high, low-end CPUs will play the game just fine even on Ultra/Maximum Settings.
• 1:1 OC Ratio, 1% in OC brings 1% in framerate.
• Shadow Quality is the most taxing IQ option.
• Switching between different AMD drivers didn’t improve/decrease performance.
• Low and Mainstream GPUs will not be able to reach 60 FPS on the highest settings.

Not everything is great with Risen 2. Character models, quality and animations are unpolished to say the least. Also, textures are not of the highest quality but the lighting effects does a great job in covering up this and the overall graphics are satisfying.

Moreover, texture pop-ins are frequent and somewhat annoying, a driver update should fix this in the future.

New profiles added to this release:

• Counter Strike: GO: Improves CrossFire performance
• FireFall: Improves CrossFire performance
• Test Drive: Ferrari Legend: Improves CrossFire performance
• Sniper Elite 2: Improves performance for single GPU configurations
• The Walking Dead: Resolve corruption when enabling Anti-Aliasing through the Catalyst Control Center on single GPU configurations
• Blades of Time: Resolve corruption when enabling Anti-Aliasing through the Catalyst Control Center on single GPU configurations
• Majesty HD: Disables CrossFire support, as the title is incompatible with CrossFire

I think it’s better for anyone that wants to test these drivers to install first the original, un-modded package just to see if there are any issues. If the original package gives you any kind of trouble then this modded version will do the same.

For more information on performance see the graphs here: http://benchmark3d.com/amd-catalyst-modding-guide-and-performance-test/2

Windows XP users won’t be able to install these drivers through Catalyst Install Manager (CIM), they must install the display driver manually and then the rest of the package. I’ve added a video tutorial at the end of this page just in case someone needs it.

I highly recommend doing a driver sweep prior to installing this driver (or any AMD driver for that matter).

Driver Packaging Version: 8.961-120405a-137224C-ATI
Catalyst Version: 12.4
2D Driver Version: 8.01.01.1243
Direct3D Version: 7.14.10.0903
OpenGL Version: 6.14.10.11631
Catalyst Control Center Version: 2012.0405.2205.37728

• Added OpenCL
• Added Catalyst Application Profiles 12.3 CAP 1
• Catalyst Control Center detects all supported cards as a HD7900 Series Card
• Unlocked Temporal AA
• Unlocked High Quality AF
• Unlocked Geometry Instancing
• Unlocked LOD option
• Unlocked Adaptive Anti-Aliasing Quality Slider
• Unlocked Test Custom Clocks and Auto-Tune options under OverDrive

• Added HydraVision 4.2.232.0
• Added AMD Video Convertor 12.4.100.20315
• Added AMD Avivo Codec
• Added Catalyst Application Profiles 12.3 CAP 1
• Catalyst Control Center detects all supported cards as a HD7900 Series Card
• Unlocked Temporal AA
• Unlocked High Quality AF
• Unlocked Geometry Instancing
• Unlocked LOD option
• Unlocked Adaptive Anti-Aliasing Quality Slider
• Unlocked Test Custom Clocks and Auto-Tune options under OverDrive
• Re-included atipdlxx.dll and atipdl64.dll into the package (better support with 3rd party tools)

Besides that the other major change is MLAA 2.0 is now officially implemented. Personally, I had one expectation from 12.4 WHQL, SSAA support for DX10+ games with HD5000 and HD6000 cards but AMD decided not to do this. After dropping monthly catalyst drivers support for pre-HD5000 cards, this feature should have been implemented, maybe next month…

But anyways let’s find out how 12.4 WHQL performs against 12.3 WHQL and the latest leaked driver that is also the best performing one to date, 8.97 18 April.

Prior to installing a driver, a sweep was done in safe-mode using Phyxion Driver Sweeper.

All 3 drivers are tested in 5 synthetic benchmarks and 5 games.

1. 3DMark06 1.02 Professional Edition - 1680×1050 – 2xAA – Anti Aliasing Quality = 0 – 4xAF – Shader Model 2.0 = Return to Proxycon + Firefly Forest – HDR/Shader Model 3.0 = Canyon Flight + Deep Freeze – 2 Runs.
2. 3DMark11 1.0.3 Professional Edition - 1680×1050 – 2xMSAA – 4xAF – Graphic Tests 1-4 – 2 Runs.
3. Unigine – Sanctuary 2.3 – 1680×1050 – 2xAA – 4xAF – High Shaders – Ambient Occlusion = OFF – 2 Runs.
4. Unigine – Tropics 1.3 – 1680×1050 – 2xAA – 4xAF – High Shaders – Ambient Occlusion = ON – Reflections = ON – 2 Runs.
5. Cinebench x64 11.5 – 3 Runs.
6. Crysis 2 1.9 using Adrenaline Benchmark Tool – Extreme Preset – 1680×1050 – 4xAA – Hi-Res Textures – Central Park – 3 Runs.
7. Metro 2033 using Update 1.2 Benchmark Tool – Very High Settings – 1680×1050 – 16xAF – No AA for DirectX 9 and 4xMSAA for DirectX 10 and DirectX 11 – 3 Runs.
8. DiRT 3 – Ultra Preset – 1680×1050 – 8xMSAA – 3 Runs
9. Battlefield 3 – Ultra Preset – 1680×1050 – 4xMSAA – 16xAF – Multiplayer @ Strike at Karkand (32p map, Large Conquest), main street: US Deployment -> B Flag – 3 Runs x 60s.
10. Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim v1.5 – Ultra Preset – 1680×1050 – 8xAA – 16xAF – Tested in the area East of Rorikstead – 3 Runs x 60s.

All synthetic benchmarks were ran 2 times except Cinebench (3 runs), all games were ran 3 times.

Table of Contents:

Page 1 – Introduction
Page 2 – 3DMark06,3DMark11,Cinebench and Unigine
Page 3 – Crysis 2, Metro2033, Battlefield 3, DiRT 3 and Skyrim
Page 4 – Conclusion

Page 2 – 3DMark06,3DMark11,Cinebench and Unigine

NEW FEATURES

Windows XP support for the AMD Radeon HD 7900 Series, AMD Radeon HD 7800, and AMD Radeon HD 7700 Series

• In addition to Windows 7 and Windows Vista support, Catalyst 12.4 now also introduces Windows XP (64-bit/32-bit) support for the AMD Radeon HD 7900, AMD Radeon HD 7800, and AMD Radeon HD 7700 Series

Super Sampling Anti-Aliasing: Level of Detail (LOD) Image Quality enhancements

• Supported on the AMD Radeon HD 7900, AMD Radeon HD 7800, and AMD Radeon HD 7700 Series
• LOD Image quality enhancements have been improved when enabling Super Sample Anti-Aliasing and Adaptive Anti-Aliasing through the AMD Catalyst™ Control Center for DirectX® 10 and DirectX® 11 applications.
• Applications must support in game Anti-Aliasing for the feature to work (Forced on Anti-Aliasing through the Catalyst Control Center is not supported for DirectX 10 and DirectX 11 applications)

Morphological Anti-Aliasing (MLAA): Significant performance enhancements

• Supported on the AMD Radeon HD 7900, AMD Radeon HD 7800, AMD Radeon HD 7700 Series, AMD Radeon HD 6000 Series, and AMD Radeon HD 5000 Series
• MLAA now operates up to 80% faster than previous versions

Texture filtering quality improvements

• Supported on the AMD Radeon HD 7900, AMD Radeon HD 7800, and AMD Radeon HD 7700 Series
• Improvements have been made to the texture filtering algorithm (for both DirectX9 and DirectX10/DirectX11 applications) to increase the quality of rendered textures, with no impact to performance

RESOLVED ISSUES

Resolved Issues for the Windows 7 Operating System

This section provides information on resolved known issues in this release of the AMD Catalyst 12.4 software suite for Windows 7. These include:

• Elder Scrolls: Skyrim: no longer hangs on single GPU configurations when used with AMD Catalyst 12.3 CAP1 and later CAP releases
• Elder Scolls: Skyrim: flickering square corruption is no longer observed.
• Rage: Vsync is no longer disabled after task switching.
• Enemy Territory: Quake Wars: no longer crashes when launched in High Performance Mode.
• Stalker – Call of Pripyat: flickering is no longer observed in trees with specific Catalyst Control Center settings.
• Tom Clancy HAWX 2: no longer crashes on game launch.
• Windows Media Center: no longer crashes when run in Eyefinity mode and High Performance mode settings.
• AMD Steady Video: an error message is no longer displayed when enabling AMD Steady Video for the Microsoft Internet Explorer 9.0 plugin.
• Duplicating displays no longer generates random corruption.
• Tearing is no longer observed on the third screen in 3×1 and 1×3 Eyefinity configurations.
• A system crash is no longer experienced when enabling Crossfire in a 4 display configuration.
• The advanced video quality settings are now correctly displayed in the Catalyst Control Center.

Resolved Issues for the Windows Vista Operating System

This section provides information on resolved known issues in this release of the AMD Catalyst™ 12.4 software suite for Windows Vista. These include:

• The Catalyst Control Center now renders correctly when launched while playing a Bluray disc using WinDVD.

Resolved Issues for the Windows XP Operating System

This section provides information on resolved known issues in this release of the AMD Catalyst™ 12.4 software suite for Windows XP. These include:

• Dirt 3: a system hang is no longer experienced when running game at maximum in game settings.
• Dragon Age 2: visual corruption is no longer observed.

KNOWN ISSUES

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:

• Blocky video corruption may be observed while using Windows Media Player to playback HD WMV content.
• The Catalyst Control Center may experience random crashes in specific configurations.
• A green screen may be triggered when playing back Flash content using Google Chrome and Firefox.
• The Unigine Tropics demo may experience random crashes when run with shaders=low and Vsync enabled.

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:

• Cyberlink PowerDVD may crash when enabling BOB de-interlace mode.

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:

• The system may fail to resume from sleep/hibernate mode is some configurations.