catalyst 11.6 released

[hclarkjr]

http://sites.amd.com/us/game/downloads/Pages/downloads.aspx

Highlights of the AMD Catalyst 11.6 Windows release includes: New Features:

• AMD Steady Video
  • Steady Video is currently an AMD exclusive feature based on AMD APP Technology
  • By applying advanced algorithms behind the scenes, users do not have to deal with shaky or unstable video ever again!
  • Capabilities scale with hardware and are end user controlled
• Image Stabilization brought to YouTube!
• Decode Acceleration of MPEG-4 part 2 content
  • AMD has enabled decode acceleration of MPEG-4 part 2 content in Microsoft video player applications (through MFT support) for all AMD Radeon 6000 Series

Performance Enhancements
Performance highlights of the AMD Catalyst 11.6 release includes:

• Performance gains in Crysis of up to 7% on AMD Radeon HD 6000 series single card configurations.
• Performance gains in F1 2010 of up to 8% in DirectX 11 mode on AMD Radeon HD 6000 series products in single and Crossfire configurations.
• Performance gains in Far Cry 2 of up to 5% on AMD Radeon HD 6000 series products in single and Crossfire configurations.
• Performance gains in HAWX of up to 8% on AMD Radeon HD 6000 series products in single and Crossfire configurations.
• Performance gains in the Unigine OpenGL tests of up to 10% on AMD Radeon HD 6000 series single card configurations.

Resolved Issues for the Windows 7 Operating System
This section provides information on resolved known issues in this release of the AMD Catalyst 11.6 software suite for Windows 7. These include:

• Flashing titles are no longer displayed when playing F1 2010 in a Crossfire environment.
• Video playback no longer intermittently displays a black screen when using Windows Media Player.
• Graphics and Gaming scores are now correctly computed in the Windows Performance Index.
• A BSOD error is no longer generated randomly when Crossfire is enabled/disabled after video/LCD overdrive settings are changed on HD 6900 series products.
• Crossfire is now correctly enabled when playing The Witcher 2 on HD 6800 series products. (when used with AMD Catalyst 11.5 CAP 5 release)
• Screen tearing is no longer randomly seen when playing Riddick 2 at high performance settings and with Crossfire enabled.
• The game Kings Bounty now renders correctly.
• The game Empire Total War now no longer displays random flickering and in-game buttons display correctly.
• Google Earth now performs smoothly in OpenGL mode.
• Crossfire is now correctly enabled when playing Cars 2 on HD 6900 series products.
• Sid Meyers Civilization V no longer displays intermittent graphical corruption when played in DirectX 10 mode in a Crossfire environment.
• Heaven 2.1 running in DirectX 11 mode no longer displays intermittent graphical corruption in a Crossfire environment.
• Crossfire is correctly enabled when playing LEGO : Pirates of the Caribbean on HD6800 and HD 6900 series products.
• Poor performance is no longer experienced while Playing Heroes of Newerth and when the cursor is moved to the top right or bottom right corner of the screen.
• Mouse cursor corruption (in the upper right portion of the screen) should be resolved

Resolved Issues for the Windows Vista Operating System
This section provides information on resolved known issues in this release of the AMD Catalyst 11.6 software suite for Windows Vista. These include:

• The screen no longer briefly flashes green while changing screen resolution and playing a BluRay title using PowerDVD 10.

Resolved Issues for the Windows XP Operating System
This section provides information on resolved known issues in this release of the AMD Catalyst 11.6 software suite for Windows XP. These include:

• World of Warcraft no longer randomly crashes or fails to launch when using an A-Series APU.
• Random graphics corruption is no longer observed while playing World of Warcraft.
• Playing Dead Rising 2 no longer causes the system to hang.

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:

• Some BluRay content may experience jittery playback.
• Star Wars Jedi Knight II / Jedi Academy may randomly crash on launch.
• Image rotation might not function correctly in Photoshop CS5.
• OpenGL acceleration might not be available in Photoshop CS5.
• High GPU speeds might be retained after exiting a 3D application.
• Display corruption may be observed while changing video resolution / settings while playing a video clip using Windows Media Center.
• Shogun 2 cinematics may display rendering issues while running in DirectX 9 mode in certain Eyefinity configurations.

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:

• Windows Aero settings might not be available in some circumstances.
• Doom 3 and Quake 4 may experience random corruption on HD 4000 series products.
• Performing bezel compensation on a 3x2 configuration may cause the Bezel group to not appear.

 

[bart1975]

I assume all new drivers will only improve 6xxx series cards.

 

[Aikouka]

Does this fix the issue with 11.5 where a your PC will freeze up if you try and use your GPU (say... a flash video) while it's at 100% (like when you're bit-coining)?

 

[Lonyo]

When it says ALL 6000 series, does it mean ALL 6000 series or only non-HD6770 6000 series?

 

[crisium]

When it says ALL 6000 series, does it mean ALL 6000 series or only non-HD6770 6000 series?

Good question, and foolish on AMD's end. They should go by code name. Because I doubt Juniper has increased.

 

[Anubis]

humm im curious is this will fix the issue im having with some of the gadgets in win7, i installed 11.5b yesterday and 2 of my gadgets stopped working after i rebooted

CPU and Network meter are the 2 that bugged out on me

 

[penske2298977]

The release notes mention "... Crysis 2 – Resolves image quality issues with CrossFire enabled seen the latest version of the game patch...." so I hope this fixes flickering on ATI/AMD multi gpu setups -- still have not been able to play this game on 5970 x 2 quadfire. Will try when I get home from work.

 

[Phynaz]

SteadyVideo works on "AMD Radeon 6000 Series when used in combination with an AMD CPU."

Running an Intel CPU? No SteadyVideo for you!

 

[Red Hawk]

Wait, really? I don't see the AMD CPU requirement in the release notes...

 

[mhouck]

Wait, really? I don't see the AMD CPU requirement in the release notes...

Same here. I don't know where the quote is coming from but as far as I can tell it's not in the release note on AMD's page.

 

[penske2298977]

Gotta report this -- really stoked. This driver/CAP release coupled with the latest 1.8 patch from Crytek finally fixed the flickering/graphic issues on crossfired 5970's (quadfire) -- this game is finally playable at extreme settings and with no apparent microstuttering either. Hope this fixes the game (or those who still care) on similar setups.

 

[Anubis]

sigh didn't fix the gadget issue

 

[WaTaGuMp]

Far Cry 2 up to 5% better performance. I guess no one will be taking advantage of that.

 

[Phynaz]

Wait, really? I don't see the AMD CPU requirement in the release notes...

According to Tech Report it's in the press release:
http://techreport.com/discussions.x/21133

 

[Chiropteran]

Does this fix the issue with 11.5 where a your PC will freeze up if you try and use your GPU (say... a flash video) while it's at 100% (like when you're bit-coining)?

I'd like to know too, but since I went back to 5830s (which don't suffer from the bug) I can't test it right now.

 

[Aikouka]

I'd like to know too, but since I went back to 5830s (which don't suffer from the bug) I can't test it right now.

I'd test it, but I don't exactly like freezing up my computer like that haha.

 

[nboy22]

11.6 is causing the bottom half of my screen to flicker while doing things like scrolling on a website, or playing any games. Basically anything that needs to refresh the screen causes it to flicker.. absolute fail. Downgrading to 11.5 now.

 

[MichaelD]

*sigh* This does not bode well for my return to ATI cards. Drivers have always been ATI's achilles heel. They either work great, or they don't.

 

[Aikouka]

11.6 is working fine for me.

 

[StinkyPinky]

Meh, pointless for me to update on my 5850

 

[3DVagabond]

*sigh* This does not bode well for my return to ATI cards. Drivers have always been ATI's achilles heel. They either work great, or they don't.

If you look at nVidia driver threads you'll find some people's problems are fixed by the new releases, others are not. It's not vendor specific.

 

[Dark Shroud]

On top of that ATI/AMD has never released drivers that burned up their cards. Nvidia did this twice in one years time. On top of that right now Crossfire has better scaling than SLI.

 

[Borealis7]

Tweaktown's analysis shows small gains here and there.

http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/4149/amd_catalyst_11_6_windows_7_driver_analysis/index1.html

 

[Mem]

*sigh* This does not bode well for my return to ATI cards. Drivers have always been ATI's achilles heel. They either work great, or they don't.

I never understand this,I always update every month and never had any serious problems over the years,only time I can recall is with a Nvidia factory overclocked video card(which was not a driver issue),my point is probably something else other then driver causing the problem.

For the record another boring uneventful install for me,I must be 50 for 50 or something like that ,roll on next month .

 

[ImDonly1]

No problems for me, although haven't played that many games yet.