AMD Radeon Software, AMD's new driver naming scheme | NotebookReview

Game7a1 ?

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http://wccftech.com/amd-radeon-soft...ced-completely-redesigned-from-the-ground-up/
http://arstechnica.co.uk/gaming/201...imson-a-new-name-and-a-new-look-for-catalyst/
It's not out yet, but it starts out with the "Crimson Edition" driver, 15.11.
This post will be updated once a new Radeon Software driver is released.
EDIT: Driver now live (15.30.1025). Remember to install the beta driver as it has the fan fix.
http://support.amd.com/en-us/download/desktop?os=Windows+10+-+64
http://support.amd.com/en-us/download/desktop?os=Windows+7+-+64
http://support.amd.com/en-us/download/desktop?os=Windows+8.1+-+64
Highlights (release notes a couple posts below):

Radeon Settings

New Install UI

Liquid VR

Asynchronous Shaders

Shader Cache

Optimized Flip Queue Size

Freesync™ Enhancements

Custom Resolution Support

Frame Pacing Enhancements

Frame Rate Target Control Enhancements

Updated Video Feature support for 'Carrizo' products

Power Optimization

Directional Scaling

Dynamic Contrast Update

DisplayPort to HDMI 2.0 support

Some reviews:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/9811/amd-crimson-driver-overview
http://wccftech.com/amd-radeon-software-performance-analysis-is-this-the-crimson-tide/
https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/Radeon_Crimson_Edition_Drivers/1.html

Last edited: Dec 1, 2015

Game7a1, Nov 2, 2015

#1

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Raidriar ლ(ಠ益ಠლ)

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This looks like a GUI rehash and not anything substantial, unfortunately.

Raidriar, Nov 2, 2015

#2

Game7a1 ?

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"Unfortunately only small performance improvements and stability improvements of the actual underlying driver are expected with this release."
Seems that way, but an improvement is an improvement. I actually want to see how much the drivers have improved since the "Omega" drivers.

Game7a1, Nov 2, 2015

#3

octiceps Nimrod

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This is funny. 3 years ago they switched away from monthly WHQL updates because they couldn't consistently meet deadlines. Now they're going back to that. Jeez AMD, make up your mind.

octiceps, Nov 2, 2015

#4

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Game7a1 ?

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Bump.

Release Notes said:

This driver is not intended for use on AMD products running in Apple Boot Camp platforms. Users of these platforms should contact their manufacturer for driver support.

When installing the AMD Radeon Software Crimson Edition for the Windows® operating system, the user must be logged on as Administrator, or have Administrator rights to complete the installation of the AMD Radeon Software Crimson Edition.

The AMD Radeon Software Crimson Edition requires Windows 7 Service Pack 1 to be installed.

Resolved Issues:

[57198] GTA V - game crashes with a TDR error

[59298] Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward - game crashes when run in DirectX® 11 mode on some AMD Radeon™ R9 390x series products

[76921] The AMD Radeon Settings application will use the system default browser when launching web content

[77703] A crackling noise is heard when running a 3D application in AMD Crossfire™ mode with Vsync enabled

[78455] Autodesk Max 2016 - A crash may be experienced when launching the application on some AMD Radeon™ products

[78465] Prepar3D® - A TDR error may be experienced when launching the application on some AMD Radeon™ R9 200 and AMD Radeon™ R9 300 series products

[80838] A TDR error may be experienced when playing fullscreen video using the Windows® 10 Movies & TV app on some laptops with AMD processors and GPU's

[80840] Assassin's Creed Syndicate - Poor scaling may be experienced when launching the game in AMD Crossfire™ mode

[80939] Secondary adapter may display error code 43 when enabling/disabling AMD Crossfire™

[81499] AMD Freesync™ does not function on some Intel + AMD laptop systems under Windows® 7 and Windows® 8.1

[81531] Assassin's Creed Syndicate - Flickering may be observed on rain drops that fall on in game characters

[81593] A BSOD error may be encountered when launching Bluray / Windows Media Player with a wireless display

[81790] Skype - The system may hang when connecting to a 1080p video call

[81827] Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege - Random corruption may be experienced in-game

[99999] AMD Freesync™ does not function if a Youtube video is playing alongside a 3D application

Issues Resolved since AMD Catalyst 15.7.1 and included in this driver

[58233] Ashes of the Singularity™ may fail to launch on some GPUs with 2GB Video Memory.

[58435] Driver installation may halt on some configurations

[58450] Some BENQ 144hz Freesync™ monitors may lose the signal while uninstalling the driver

[58485] Anti-Aliasing settings not being retained after changes are applied

[58495] DiRT Rally™ crashes during gameplay and benchmarking when launched in DirectX® 11 mode on some BENQ 144HZ Freesync monitors

[58646] Assassin's Creed® Unity may experience minor frame stutter when AMD CrossFire™ mode is enabled

[58677] World of Warships may crash on some AMD Radeon HD5000 and HD6000 series products

[58800] Dragon Age: Inquisition may crash if launched in Mantle mode

[59081] The AMD Catalyst Control Center 'update' option fails to download the latest driver

[59403] Ashes of the Singularity™ ‐ A 'Driver has stopped responding' error may be experienced in DirectX® 12 mode

[59474] Diablo 3 crashes in the Act 2 Desolate Sands area of the game

[76924] A TDR error may be experienced while toggling between minimized and maximized mode while viewing 4K YouTube content

[76930] Intermittent playback issues with Cyberlink PowerDVD when connecting to a 3D display with an HDMI™ cable

[77073] Star Wars™: Battlefront is able to use high performance graphics when launched on mobile devices with switchable graphics

[77176] A TDR error is experienced when launching Star Wars™: Battlefront while a You Tube video plays in the background

[77255] The secondary graphics adapter is missing in the Device Manager and the AMD Catalyst™ Control Center after installation of the driver

[77754] A TDR error or crash is experienced when running the Unreal Engine 4 DirectX® benchmark

[77786] Video playback of MPEG2 video fails with a playback error/error code message

[77970] Ashes of the Singularity™ may crash on some AMD 300 series GPUs

[78654] An error may be experienced when installing the latest graphics driver package on some AMD Radeon™ R9 380 series products

[79577] The Intel graphics is flagged in an error state in the Device Manager in systems with switchable graphics

[79796] The Oculus runtime may crash on launch

[419871] BSOD observed when performing an express uninstall of the display driver in 4K resolution

[421165] Battlefield™ Hardline becomes unresponsive after toggling the in-game Vsync option.

[421444] Transcoded clips may fail to play on some Drag and Drop devices

[421570] Audio driver is banged out for non-primary ASIC after enabling CF and rebooting system

[422056] 3DMark Farandole may crash when AMD Mantle is selected from the test suite

[422249] A ‘missing Dll’ error message may be experienced while doing an express uninstall of the current driver

[422249] DLL missing popup message may be encountered when performing an express uninstall of the display driver.

[422261] Mantle-based application may crash when system is woken from sleep mode

[422273] A crash may be experienced on some AMD Radeon™ R9 300 series products while running the Unigene benchmark

[422291] Battlefield™ 4 may crash if run in Mantle mode with AMD Crossfire™ enabled

[422342] Cyberlink PowerDVD plays 3D content in 2D mode

[422621] With quad AMD CrossFire™ mode enabled, TDR or blank display occurs when launching DirectX® 9 application in full screen

[422671] Flickering corruption may occur in Dirt Rally™ with Advanced Blending enabled

[422674] Corruption may occur in DiRT Rally™ with CMAA enabled with Portrait SLS and AMD CrossFire™ mode enabled

[422675] Intermittent BSOD occurs when launching a race in Dirt Rally™

[422797] Display profiles are not retained after driver upgrade from 14.502 to 15.20

[422800] Some “Kaveri” APU-based systems may experience minor performance drop on PCMark8® video_group_chat & Casual Gaming tests

[422806] Battlefield™ Hardline crashes on pressing Ctrl+Alt+Del while running in AMD Mantle mode

[422853] Some systems experience a minor performance drop from 15.15 to 15.20 in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt with HairWorks enabled

[423759] Unable to apply Fill mode in Eyefinity if 2560x1600 and 2560x1440 resolutions are used together

[423924] Unable to create an Eyefinity SLS if one of the displays is a MST display device

[425417] Windows 10 driver installation may halt on some systems with an AMD 990FX chipset and AMD CrossFire™ enabled.

[425432] Some BENQ 144hz Freesync monitors may lose the signal while uninstalling the driver

[425484] DiRT Rally™ crashes during gameplay and benchmarking when launched in DirectX 11® mode on some BENQ 144HZ Freesync monitors

[425496] Mad Max ‐ Color corruption is observed when Alt+Ctrl+Del is pressed followed by the Escape key

[425659] Assassin's Creed® Unity may experience minor frame stutter when AMD CrossFire™ mode is enabled

Known Issues:

[58978] Dirt Rally - A crash may be experienced starting a new race with AMD Crossfire™ and AMD Freesync™ enabled

[78139] PowerDVD - 3D playback may fail on some configurations using an HDMI 2.0 dongle

[79428] Starcraft 2: Flickering may be observed in the 'Episode 3' campaign

[80251] Fable Legends: The DirectX® 12 benchmark may fail to launch on some configurations

[80836] Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 - Flickering or poor performance may be experienced when running in AMD Crossfire™ mode

[81402] Assassin's Creed Syndicate - A crash may be experienced when setting game to Ultra-High graphics mode

[81403] Flickering may be observed on some Freesync monitors while playing Wolfenstein - The New Order and Battlefield™: Hardline with Vsync disabled

[81448] A system restart may be experience when waking the system from sleep mode on some systems with Intel processors

[81489] Unable to create 4x1 or 2.1 portrait mode SLS with 4K displays

[81651] Star Wars™: Battlefront - texture corruption may be experienced if the game "Field of View" setting is > 100

[81736] Call of Duty Online - the game may crash if the Printscreen key is pressed on a 4K monitor

[81777] Launching a game from the Game Manager may launch on a single display after enabling and disabling AMD Crossfire™ in a 3x1 AMD Eyefinity™ setup

[81809] A crash may be experienced if an HDMI™ display is a cloned display device on an HP Envy 15 notebook

[81844] Unable to change resolution if a wireless display is the only connected display

[81856] Marginally increased power consumption may be observed during video playback

[81859] Flickering may be experienced on some monitors when AMD Freesync™ is enabled

[81915] Assassin's Creed Syndicate - Building textures may be missing on some AMD Freesync™ displays with Vsync enabled

[82083] Ark Survival Evolved - Poor performance may be experienced when running in AMD Crossfire™ mode

[82093] Star Wars™ : Battlefront - Some flickering may be experienced in shaded areas of the screen while game levels are loading

[82213] Star Wars™ : Battlefront - Some users may experience minor flickering or corruption at different game location or while viewing the in-game cinematics

[82387] Assassin's Creed Syndicate - The game may crash if the Gaming Evolved "In Game Overlay" is enabled. A temporary workaround is to disable the AMD Gaming Evolved "In Game Overlay"

Click to expand...

Does not support HD 6000 or 5000 series GPUs. HD 76xx(m) and lower and HD 84xx(m) and lower series also not supported.

Last edited: Nov 24, 2015

Game7a1, Nov 24, 2015

#5

Raidriar ლ(ಠ益ಠლ)

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I guess that's the end of TeraScale 2 GPU support :/

EDIT: Crimson beta is supported on the TeraScale 2 GPUs, but only in the beta form. They didn't get included in the WHQL release.

Last edited: Nov 24, 2015

Raidriar, Nov 24, 2015

#6

TomJGX likes this.

TBoneSan Laptop Fiend

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Anyone here noticed an improvement in dx9 frame pacing in CF?

TBoneSan, Nov 25, 2015

#7

littlecx Notebook Deity

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finally switchable graphic's zero core is working on windows 10 again with this driver and 3dmark is higher as well

littlecx, Nov 25, 2015

#8

TomJGX likes this.

TomJGX I HATE BGA!

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While NVIDIA nerfs drivers, AMD improves them.....

TomJGX, Nov 25, 2015

#9

triturbo, Papusan and i_pk_pjers_i like this.

Game7a1 ?

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TomJGX said: ↑

While NVIDIA nerfs drivers, AMD improves them.....

Click to expand...

Speaking of this, I wonder what the total percentage of improvements and impairments the AMD and Nvidia drivers have had on the desktop and mobile GPUs since, I don't know, last year (around the time before or of the Omega drivers).
People have been making claims that AMD's stock GPU performance is getting better than Nvidia's stock performance, but I wonder if it's more to do with AMD driver's actually improving or that Nvidia's driver are actually that detrimental (and I know both play a factor, but I wonder which one is most influential).

Game7a1, Nov 25, 2015

#10

Game7a1 ?

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So I did some benching (well, not really) with the latest driver (the on that includes the fan fix). This doesn't mean much since

I'm on Windows 10, and I suspect there's better performance on Windows 7 because

I'm using my laptop.

Nonetheless, here's what I have to present for the R9 285 + i7-5500u. This is today versus my performance of when I was doing the Graphics Amplifier Analysis. It is a bit inconsistent since I'm comparing two drivers and two Operating Systems, so don't take it very seriously.
http://www.3dmark.com/compare/fs/6667243/fs/5356490/fs/6294063 (Marginal GPU improvement, but I will say that they are better than the beta drivers AMD has rolled out in between the drivers as those gave me worse performance on I think 7, 8.1, and 10, which I've added at the end and is hidden from everyone because I don't like it).
Bioshock Infinite Performance (Settings: 1080p, Ultra preset but no AA) (Order: Min, Average, Max)
15.7: 8.88, 80.96, 159.98
Crimson: 24.73, 83.94, 168.02
EVGA GTX 960 SC on 353.30 (because why not): 30.67, 86.86, 175.66
So some improvements, as expected. But it's not going to replace my GTX 960. And fun fact, the Crimson performance in Bioshock: Infinite is almost (very close) the average on Avg and Max FPS between 15.7 and GTX 960 353.30.

Game7a1, Dec 1, 2015

#11

triturbo likes this.