AMD says goodbye to Catalyst with the launch of the new Radeon Software Crimson platform. AMD Radeon Settings what is this program

Brand new interface, functionality and performance improvements

Introduction

We do not often write articles devoted exclusively to updating the versions of video drivers, even if in special versions they promise a large increase in performance in games, to which we are already accustomed. But there are exceptions, as was the case with the AMD Catalyst Omega driver, which was reviewed on our website about a year ago. This release was a major update to AMD's drivers, bringing new features and performance improvements to many popular games. Since the release of the Catalyst Omega driver, AMD software has been downloaded over 60 million times - an impressive figure.

Improving drivers for video cards is very useful, since a modern video card is not just a hardware solution, but a software and hardware solution, in which software is the most important part that can be improved without the need to replace hardware solutions. Drivers for video cards from AMD under the familiar name Catalyst were first released a long time ago, the first version of ATI Catalyst appeared back in 2002, and video drivers for Radeon in general have been produced for over 20 years.

During this time, video card drivers have become more than just device drivers, solely designed to keep them running. The driver package now includes a decent set of software: user interfaces, libraries, tools, applications, etc. This whole set of software is commonly called a video driver, but in fact it is already almost a small graphical operating system. Unsurprisingly, quality software is essential for gamers, game developers and graphics professionals.

Today the next big and important video driver update for AMD is coming out. Since this is the first announcement on behalf of the new division of the Radeon Technologies Group, they decided to give it a new name - Radeon Software. We say goodbye to the usual Catalyst drivers, their era is over and a new era has begun. The first version of Radeon Software drivers was named Crimson Edition, and in the future, global versions will be released, named one of the shades of red (Crimson - crimson).

The announcement of the planned release of a radically new version of video drivers aroused great interest: dozens of articles and news were published, thousands of comments were written in social networks and forums. AMD users were clearly looking forward to the new driver. And for good reason, because it gives them a completely new user interface with reduced load times, new and improved features, including lower power consumption when watching videos and simple games, as well as optimizing 3D rendering performance.

In 2015, there were three large releases of WHQL drivers and nine beta versions, all important game projects like GTA V, Star Wars Battlefront, Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 received optimized versions of drivers from the day they went on sale. But the plans for 2016 are even broader: up to six major WHQL driver releases are planned, and additional beta versions as needed and significant popular games are released.

New Radeon Settings user interface

One of the most important changes in the new driver package is a completely new graphics card settings user interface and a redesigned installer. AMD has redesigned its Catalyst Control Center (CCC) settings utility with a completely new tool called Radeon Settings. He received a modern user interface, quite simple and straightforward, and most importantly - much faster than the previous CCC. A number of new features have also been added to Radeon Settings.

In its work, Radeon Settings uses a software development toolkit called Qt. Since this set of libraries and tools is cross-platform, then, theoretically, it is possible to easily port the code to other operating systems, for example, Android. But so far, the new user interface works in all operating systems of the Windows family - in versions 7, 8.1 and 10.

Among the main improvements of the new driver, we note: much faster application start time, an intuitive interface for GPU settings, a new settings and profiles manager for gaming applications, a new interface for GPU overclocking, as well as changed settings for display, video processing and AMD multi-monitor output configuration Eyefinity.

The highlight of the Radeon Software Crimson Edition is a completely redesigned Settings and Installer interface to improve the user experience when installing, launching and using the new software version. As a theater begins with a hanger, familiarity with any driver package begins with its installer. According to AMD, in the new version, the installation time has been reduced by about 1.4-1.5 times compared to the previous installer. He also got a new interface - pretty simple and straightforward.

The functionality of the installer has not changed - you can select the driver components required for installation in a similar way. Of the unusual (perhaps this is true only for the beta version issued to the press), we note only the ability to select the installation of the user interface: either Radeon Settings (AMD Settings) or AMD Control Center (CCC). But we liked the simplified and more understandable installer progress bar - now it is one.

Otherwise, apart from simplifying the interface and speeding up the installation, the process is not much different from the previous version. But the launch of the Radeon Settings themselves after their installation is much faster than it was in the case of the clumsy CCC. To launch Radeon Settings, just select the appropriate item in the context menu of the Windows desktop or double-click on the special red icon in the system tray. This menu also allows you to quickly select a profile for games and video data.

New Radeon Settings are launched in just a second, the total application launch time has been reduced by 2-3 times, compared to previous versions, and this is really noticeable, especially when you reopen the settings.

In addition, the initialization time of the connected displays has been significantly reduced - from 11 to 3 seconds. If this is not so important for the main monitor at system startup, then when connecting an external display or projector to a laptop, such acceleration can only be welcomed.

As for the convenience of the new interface, here we can note a decrease in the number of necessary actions in order to get to any settings. For example, it took seven mouse clicks to install the previous driver, and the new Radeon Software Crimson Edition is content with just three clicks. Much the same applies to the Radeon Settings interface itself.

Let's start by looking at all the pages of the new Radeon Settings panel. The start page is shown in the screenshot above, and the next one shows the page for checking for software updates - this is done quite conveniently, although it was not necessary to give a separate page for updates:

Moving on to the settings of the Radeon Settings utility itself - there is a convenient and popular option to restore all default settings, the ability to enable a tray icon, contact AMD, as well as some interface settings, including the ability to disable advertising banners (probably a reserve for the future ).

The additional settings button brings up a separate window with a completely different interface, familiar to us from previous versions of CCC - here you can configure some additional parameters for working with displays and sound, which (so far?) Are not included in Radeon Settings:

But let's move on to the main sections of the new utility. The first button with the game controller icon calls up a menu with a set of game profiles found by the driver in the user's system. There is also the possibility of changing the global 3D rendering quality settings:

On the one hand, profiles for games and changing their settings are made quite conveniently, on the other hand, the games are not cataloged in any way, they all lie in one dump list, which is not very convenient. Global settings and settings for specific games are about the same and differ little in functionality from the previous ones:

The main visual difference of the new interface is that it stretches and the utility window resizes to whatever you want (almost, the minimum borders still remain), automatically rearranging the order of the controls. This is especially important and convenient given the huge difference in resolutions between modern consumer devices.

Alas, you have to pay for everything - it seems to us that the settings have slightly lost in convenience and clarity, compared to what they used to be, because all the controls are the same and their location in the window is not fixed - now you have to look for them before any changes.

The overclocking options, which are familiar from the set of settings, but in a new interface, are also configured right there. On this panel, you can see the current frequencies, temperature, fan speed, as well as change the target frequencies, power consumption and fan speed - everything is as usual.

The next panel is designed to configure the video data output - you can either select a preset profile from several configured in AMD, or customize your own custom settings, enabling all the quality improvement technologies as needed. Let us remind you that some settings remained in the additional menu, called separately (see above).

This setting panel is for configuring displays. In this case, an LG monitor with support for FreeSync technology is connected to the test system, and we found it very convenient to indicate the frequencies within which this technology will work: from 48 to 75 Hz. The choice of settings is not too rich, you can also find all the rest in the additional menu.

We just have to look at the panel with information about the software and hardware configuration of the user system - it shows in a convenient form everything you need in maximum detail on as many as three pages.

Overall, the new Radeon Settings interface is quite user-friendly and you can get used to it. It really works noticeably faster than CCC and does not consume too much memory. However, if you open many tabs after launch, then the consumption of system memory can reach 175-200 MB, which is too much even by modern standards.

Now let's talk about subjective disadvantages. Of the shortcomings we have noted - the absence (or we did not find) a direct choice of the interface language - the system is used exclusively. It would be nice to be able to install the English interface, and not even because the translation is imperfect, but because many Russian words are too long for such an interface and are not included in short blocks. We also did not like the fact that you cannot turn off the currently fashionable translucency of the interface.

And we also lack additional functionality, such as monitoring temperatures, frequencies, voltages and other parameters with their display when playing or in the form of graphs, as is done in third-party utilities. In addition, despite the assurances of better stability of the new settings panel, the application in inactive mode was terminated several times without any action from the user - there is still work to be done:

However, it is very likely that this issue is attributable to the overhead of the preview beta, so we won't be too nitpicky hoping the final Radeon Software Crimson Edition will be free of these annoying flaws.

From what remains to be added on the topic - a new utility for uninstalling AMD drivers and cleaning the system from their "tails" -. This utility removes all previously installed AMD Catalyst drivers, including video and audio drivers, and cleans up files and registry entries left behind. A useful thing.

Optimizing performance

And here's another interesting section - the increase in rendering speed in games is one of the most expected for all users. Such expectations are especially high when special versions are released, such as the Catalyst Omega or the Crimson Edition. In the case of the Catalyst Omega, there were more performance optimizations than usual, but for the Crimson Edition, the main change was the new interface. But improvements in the speed of 3D rendering and an overall increase in comfort in AMD have also promised us.

Radeon Software Crimson Edition provides performance enhancements to nearly all Radeon graphics card users, but in different sizes and conditions. For example, the increase in frame rate for one of the popular DirectX 12 benchmarks Fable Legends is 7-20%, depending on the resolution: FullHD or 4K, in the latter case, the increase in performance will be less. This test was performed on a system with an AMD Radeon R9 Fury X graphics card, comparing the Radeon Software Crimson Edition drivers with the rather old AMD Catalyst 15.7.1 release.

But not by benchmarks alone, AMD representatives also note solid speed gains in modern games. For example, the average frame rate gain in Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 is around 6-8%, depending on the resolution. In this case, the Radeon Software Crimson Edition is compared with AMD Catalyst 15.10 Beta.

This chart shows the gains in several recent popular games from installing Radeon Software Crimson Edition drivers over Catalyst 15.10 Beta. Improvements in rendering speed in the Linux operating system are also noted. The gains from the Radeon Software Crimson Edition in this system are most often about 10-15%, but sometimes it comes up to 50-55% (for the Total War game).

As usual, AMD compares the rendering speed on the latest drivers and fairly old versions, like Catalyst 15.7.1 and 15.10, and the gains are not very high, even according to AMD itself. It seems to us that it would be much more interesting to compare the speed of the latest version with more current drivers, including the latest Catalyst 15.11.1 Beta beta version available on the company's website, which we did ourselves. We also took another old version - 15.9.1 Beta.

The set of games for our own express test is as follows: Star Wars Battlefront, Fallout 4 and Call of Duty: Black Ops 3... For our measurements we used the video card of the model Radeon R9 380 and a test system based on a top Intel processor running Windows 7 SP1, took a resolution of 1920 × 1080 and tried to set the maximum game settings (except for the very demanding Call of Duty: Black Ops 3, where the settings were set to High). Let's see if we got any speed gains in these games?

As you can see, there are still small gains in the most modern games, although they are quite insignificant when comparing the Crimson Edition with the latest available beta version of Catalyst. But compared to the not-new 15.9.1 driver, the AMD test card received an additional 5-25% speed boost. Probably, for Call of Duty: Black Ops 3, the driver has already been optimized earlier, but the rest of the games accelerated decently. But if we compare the new product with Catalyst 15.11.1 Beta, then the gains in games turned out to be within the measurement error - up to 2-4%.

Let's take a look at the frame rate graphs in the above games, obtained as a result of testing:

The performance graphs in the games we tested confirm our findings - there was no significant performance improvement over the latest available Catalyst 15.11.1 Beta video driver. But the driver of the outdated version 15.9.1 clearly lags behind them in almost all games used for tests.

Shader caching

But not only the frame rate measures user comfort, there are other metrics that have been improved in the new Crimson Edition driver. For example, we note the emergence of the possibility of shader caching - storing the compiled shader code on the drive, which can speed up the loading and execution of many game projects using DirectX 10 and DirectX 11.

Why is shader caching needed at all? Many games now present an open "seamless" world, in which shaders are sent to the video driver right during the game, but they still need to be compiled, which can cause jerks in frame rates and longer loading times for levels and missions. The shader cache, on the other hand, stores previously compiled shaders and quickly retrieves them from storage as needed, ready-made, which requires less work for the CPU and video driver. The result is reduced load times for games and levels, and eliminates some of the dramatic drops in performance (frame rate spikes) while playing.

Shader cache usage is set in game profiles and information is stored in the AppDataLocalAMDDXCache directory. For some games, Shader Cache is already enabled in their profiles by default, but it can always be disabled in the Radeon Settings 3D Manager.

These are all words, but what about the real load time, does it really decrease? According to AMD, enabling Shader Cache significantly reduces reload times (when the cache already contains compiled shaders) in games such as Bioshock Infinite and Star Wars Battlefront. The benchmark load in the first game without shader caching is 11.35 seconds, and with the cache enabled it is already only 9.96 seconds, which is 12% less. For Star Wars Battlefront, the load time of the Survival - Endor level with shader caching is 34.5% faster - it takes 11.2 seconds instead of 17.10 seconds. Nice gains!

As for improving fluidity right in the gameplay process, another scenario in which the shader cache helps is games that send shaders for execution right as the game progresses, and not when the level is loaded. In this case, performance jumps are possible due to the fact that the CPU performs the work of compiling the shader code right during the game. Shader cache significantly reduces the possibility of such problems, related to compilation of shaders.

As you can see in the middle of the graph, with shader caching disabled in Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare (High Quality settings, SMAA T2X anti-aliasing enabled at 4K resolution) on a configuration of a pair of Radeon R9 390X video cards in CrossFire mode, the shader compilation moment is clearly visible when disabled caching. A value of 2149 ms for rendering a frame means very noticeable "brakes" in the game process - for more than two seconds one frame was shown on the screen, and the player's actions are not displayed on it all this time. Enabling the shader cache results in the peak drop in rendering speed being significantly reduced, and as a result, the user sees a relatively smooth footage.

Frame pacing improvements

Support for smoother multi-chip rendering using frame pacing technology has been around in AMD drivers for a long time, since Catalyst 13.12. The technology works for CrossFire configurations consisting of dedicated desktop GPUs and when combined APU and GPU power when working on rendering - in AMD Dual Graphics configurations. The new Radeon Software Crimson Edition brings this technology to games that use not only DirectX 10 and 11, but DirectX 9 as well, including many games known as esports.

The graph shows the frame rendering times in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, which uses DirectX 9 on a test CrossFire system consisting of a pair of Radeon R9 Fury X video cards - as you can see, unpleasant frame rendering time changes for comfort, typical of early multi-GPUs systems, in this case, are absent. The technology works on all supported AMD GPUs, as well as the older APU A8 models.

FreeSync technology improvements

We have already talked more than once about AMD FreeSync's dynamically variable refresh rate technology, which eliminates artifacts when displaying a sequence of frames, such as tearing (tearing, which appears when V-Sync off) and eliminates delays and non-smooth frame output when enable sync (if V-Sync on).

Radeon Software Crimson Edition brings support for CrossFire to DirectX 9 games, this release introduces low frame rate compensation, and AMD has announced that it is working with monitor manufacturers to enable FreeSync dynamic sync when connected to HDMI displays.

We are most interested in low frame rate compensation Low Framerate Compensation (LFC)... When the frame rate drops below the minimum supported refresh rate for a FreeSync-enabled display, a special adaptive algorithm automatically adjusts the output frames and their refresh rate to reduce the annoying framerate stuttering.

In other words, at FPS below the minimum refresh rate and VSync on, FreeSync did not work before, which caused irregular frame rates. But now, with LFC enabled, the frame rate will be smooth. When synchronization is disabled, under the same conditions, frame breaks are observed (the so-called tearing), and enabling LFC reduces it.

No user customization or monitor refresh is required, this feature is automatically enabled on all FreeSync-enabled monitors that have a maximum refresh rate of twice or more than the minimum. For example, in our LG test monitor, the minimum refresh rate is 48 Hz, and the maximum is 75 Hz, and this technology will not work, since 75/48 \u003d 1.5625, which is less than two times. Alas.

Energy optimization

Recently, the issue of energy efficiency has become very important, especially for solutions from AMD, which are clearly not among the leaders on this issue. The new Radeon Software Crimson Edition driver includes some power optimizations that, under certain conditions (when watching videos and playing non-demanding game projects), improve these indicators for Radeon video cards, including the Radeon R7 360, R9 380, R9 390 and R9 Fury models.

For example, a clear reduction in power consumption is achieved when viewing high-definition video data. The energy savings in this case are very noticeable, and it will result, among other things, in reducing the noise from the cooling system of the video card and the case, if it is regulated depending on the temperature inside the PC. The following graph shows the change in power consumption when streaming FullHD YouTube video on a 4K display.

Compares the power consumption of a system based on an Intel Core i7 5960X processor and a Radeon R9 Fury X graphics card when installing the Catalyst 15.7.1 and Radeon Software Crimson Edition drivers. The new version allows you to significantly reduce power consumption in this case, the consumption of the GPU itself is significantly reduced, and the overall energy efficiency of the system is also noticeably improved.

A decent improvement in energy efficiency can be achieved in some games using technology Frame Rate Target Control (FRTC)that allows you to set a target frame rate, reducing both the load on the GPU and its power consumption. We've already written about this technology, which was introduced back in Catalyst 15.7, it allows you to reduce the power consumption of the GPU, since it does not need to do unnecessary work, resulting in useless ultra-high frame rates. Instead, the GPU will use less power and generate less heat, resulting in less cooler noise.

It is important that FRTC works not only in 3D scenes, but also on loading screens and in game menus, where FPS very often reaches exorbitant frequencies, and the GPU does a lot of useless work. For obvious reasons, FRTC is most applicable in "light" games where the load on the GPU is not high, such as old projects, or if the monitor connected to a relatively powerful system has a low resolution.

The Crimson Edition brings broader support for games and a wider target frame rate range. Now all applications using DirectX versions 9, 10 and 11 are supported (earlier version D3D9 was simply not supported), and the target frame rate can be in the range from 30 to 200 FPS. The following diagram shows the energy efficiency improvement achieved by enabling FRTC in Rocket League using DirectX 9 at 1920 × 1080.

A powerful system based on the AMD Radeon R9 Fury X graphics card in the absence of FPS limits consumes 297 W, of which 175 W falls on the Fury X, and the frame rate limit set at 90 FPS gives only 172 W and 61 W, respectively. There is a total savings of 125W with the Radeon Software Crimson Edition.

FRTC has also been improved for DirectX 10 and DirectX 11 gaming applications. Although support for it dates back to Catalyst 15.7.1, Radeon Software Crimson Edition modifications provide better performance than older drivers. So, in the game Bioshock Infinite in 4K resolution, using the most powerful video card Radeon R9 Fury X and limiting the frame rate at 60 FPS, savings of up to 107 W are achieved when using Radeon Software Crimson Edition, although Catalyst 15.7.1 saves only 50 W. Roughly the same with the game Sniper Elite in the same conditions, but with a FPS limit of up to 55 - the Crimson Edition saves 190 watts of energy, and the old version of Catalyst only 90 watts. Energy efficiency improvements are evident!

Improvements in video playback and image output

Among the new features of the Radeon Software Crimson Edition, we also note some improvements designed to improve the quality of video playback. The new drivers include adaptive contrast adjustment technologies and improved directional scaling. The new version of AMD drivers has six pre-installed profiles, as well as a default profile and user settings.

Selecting a profile changes some of the settings depending on the screen resolution, the content being played and the player used. At default settings, all advanced image processing technologies are disabled. In custom mode, you can choose any value for sharpness, color saturation, steady video and fluid motion technologies.

A new feature introduced in the Crimson Edition is directional scaling, which is designed to improve the smoothness of lines on the edges of the image when displaying a low-resolution picture on modern displays - when playing 1080p video on 4K monitors. In simple terms, the technology can significantly reduce the "ladders" in the image, obtained with conventional scaling algorithms. The easiest way to understand this is with an example (imitation):

The directional scaling algorithm renders 1080p content better on 4K displays, and uses an adaptive directional filter that improves edges and eliminates image ladder. This filter requires a Radeon R9 Fury Series or Radeon Nano graphics card and supported browsers and media players. The technology is automatically enabled when playing video data in 1080p resolution on 4K displays.

With the release of the Crimson Edition, the dynamic contrast algorithm for video data has become adaptive, changing depending on the video content. Adaptive dynamic contrast allows you to increase the overall contrast of the image, leaving the dark areas intact so that the image on them remains visible. Dynamic contrast depends on the selected video profile and is disabled by default. The adaptive contrast algorithm for video data requires a Radeon R9 285, R9 380 (X) or R9 Fury series graphics card.

Some of the advanced video processing capabilities previously unavailable on APUs are now available on 6th generation 35W TDP APUs such as the AMD FX-8800P and AMD A10-8700P. Features include blur reduction, frame rate flattening, and an advanced filter to improve detail. The first two features work when playing Blu-ray discs with CyberLink PowerDVD 15.

The new Crimson Edition drivers now support adding custom resolutions, allowing you to create your own mode by changing timings, refresh rates, etc. This feature is available in advanced Radeon Settings, invoked in a separate window.

The ability to create custom resolutions using the Radeon Crimson Software Edition is available for all AMD Radeon GPUs running on Windows 7, 8.1, and 10 operating systems.

There is another interesting feature - virtual resolution increase not only for 3D applications, but for all tasks, including the Windows 10 desktop. This feature allows you to get more display space when using Windows 10 and a monitor with high resolution and pixel density more than 150 DPI.

VSR technology can be used to set a higher desktop resolution on a lower resolution display, which can be useful in some cases - for example, when displaying the same high-resolution image on two monitors at different resolutions, or for tasks requiring as much as possible spaces like large tables, video and photo editing, programming and other occasions.

For example, on a laptop with a 1920 x 1080 pixel display at 150 DPI, you can set the resolution to 2560 x 1440 pixels to get more room for windows on the desktop.

New for developers

Not only players and other users of AMD solutions, but also software developers, in particular, 3D games, are interested in stable operation and rich functionality of drivers for video cards. For them, one of the good news will be the emergence of technology support. AMD LiquidVR in the Crimson Edition driver, this is the first publicly available driver with this functionality.

The AMD initiative to introduce and improve virtual reality allows developers to use some of the new driver capabilities associated with the operation of VR devices: affinity multi-GPU (a pair of GPUs each work on a different half-frame of a VR image), Direct to Display (simplifies the connection of virtual reality), Latest Data Latch (reduced latency with fast sending data to the GPU), asynchronous execution of Asynchronous Shaders. LiquidVR technology requires Windows 7 and Windows 10 operating systems, and supports Radeon R9 290, Radeon R9 390 and Radeon R9 Fury GPUs and dual-chip configurations.

A few words about the asynchronous execution of shader code, which AMD is proud of. All their solutions based on GPUs of the GCN architecture have hardware support in the form of special Asynchronous Compute Engine, which asynchronously execute incoming commands. The hardware implementation has a significant advantage over the software approach of competitors, and can improve performance when different types of calculations are performed simultaneously.

This feature is already widely used by some game developers, including console ones, but not only - asynchronous execution of shaders is also useful for virtual reality applications. Since greater parallelism in the execution of various computations leads to a decrease in latency, which is vital for the comfort of users using virtual reality headsets.

In addition to the recent VR topic, the new version of the Radeon Software Crimson Edition drivers now supports some of the optional features included in OpenCL 2.0 (Open Computing Language), the generally accepted industry standard for general high-performance computing. These features include 32-bit support for Generic Address Space (Windows only), support for buffers larger than 4 GB, support for mipmap-level images and depth maps.

Let's mention another important solution for developers that AMD is promoting. Just a few days ago, AMD CodeXL 1.9 was released - a set of utilities for full-fledged work on profiling, analysis and search for errors in software for 3D developers. CodeXL works both when integrated into the Microsoft Visual Studio package, and separately, and does not require the introduction of special code into the applications under study.

New features introduced or improved in this version of CodeXL: power profiling (power consumption, frequencies, core voltage and temperature in real time, including separately for APU components: video core and universal computing cores) for more than two GPUs simultaneously, static analysis, writing OpenGL shaders on Linux, finding bugs (GPU Debugging) in HSAIL applications, supporting the Ubuntu 15.04 operating system and fixing found bugs.

Bug fixes for previous versions of Catalyst

To achieve better quality and stability, the company ran twice as many automated driver tests as the Catalyst Omega driver, and spent a quarter more time in user testing using 15% more different firmware configurations.

Moreover, AMD decided to continue the practice of asking users what problems need to be solved first in their opinion. This year, before the release of the Crimson Edition, they surveyed the AMD community of users, and created a list of ten most important questions for existing driver versions. To solve them, the company created a separate team, which was engaged in catching such errors and eliminating them, and all these problems were successfully solved in the discussed version of the drivers.

Here is a list of the ten most important fixes in the Crimson Edition driver:

• Launching a game application while simultaneously playing a video on a separate display could cause the system to freeze
• FreeSync technology sometimes did not work if the game was launched simultaneously with the playback of certain types of video data, such as streaming videos from YouTube
• For a pair of Radeon 295X2 video cards, the option to enable and disable CrossFire configuration using CCC might not be available
• Autodesk 3ds Max 2016 sometimes freezes when using Radeon graphics cards
• A black screen was observed during the boot of the Windows 10 operating system in the interval between the display of the Windows logo and the user login window in Windows
• Diablo 3 crashed unpredictably at Act 2 Desolate Sands
• GTA V crashed on some configurations with Radeon R9 390X
• An error could occur when installing the latest drivers on some Radeon R9 380 series video cards
• Ashes of the Singularity Crashes Unexpectedly on Certain Radeon 300 Series Graphics Cards with 2GB VRAM
• MPEG2 video playback caused video playback or decoding error

Conclusion

Summing up our review material devoted to describing the capabilities of a completely new version of the AMD Radeon Software Crimson Edition video driver, it can be noted that the company's software novelty is really seriously different from previous versions of the driver called Catalyst, it gives users and developers some new opportunities, improving the existing ones.

The new version of the driver, called the Radeon Software Crimson Edition, has also improved stability and fixed the most serious bugs of previous versions, including those suggested by users. There has also been a slight increase in 3D rendering performance in most modern games under some conditions, albeit only marginally, compared to the most recent beta version of Catalyst.

The main thing to highlight among the new products of the first edition of Radeon Software is a completely new interface for video driver settings called Radeon Settings. Yes, it was not without flaws, but the new interface clearly looks much more modern than the old CCC, it scales to different resolutions and window sizes, has several new features and settings. In addition, it is much more convenient to use it, since the time for launching the configuration utility and installing the driver as a whole has been significantly reduced.

Separately, improvements can be highlighted to improve the quality of video data playback: special post-processing algorithms that increase image quality, improve comfort and smooth frame rates when playing with the advent of shader cache and improve frame pacing technology for multi-chip rendering, etc. We also note improvements in AMD FreeSync dynamic refresh rate technology and increased energy efficiency when watching video data and playing games using FRTC technology - they allow you to reduce system power consumption in the event of a significant performance headroom.

For developers, the new version of the drivers will also not pass without a trace, because for the first time there appeared public support for LiquidVR virtual reality technologies, some new functions of the OpenCL 2.0 computing standard, support for new versions of the CodeXL utility, and much more.

Hopefully, the Radeon Technologies Group will continue to improve both the software and hardware of AMD's graphics solutions and incorporate new technologies and capabilities into them. The final driver will be available for download.

Hello. So guys, look, I'm a little confused here. There is an AMD Radeon Software Crimson Edition video driver. But Radeon Settings is like a new user interface. I read that they redesigned the Catalyst Control Center (CCC) utility at AMD, and so they changed that they decided to give a new name, that is, Radeon Settings. And this new program has a much higher speed of work, everything is conveniently done and works smoothly \u003d)

The Radeon Settings program launches quickly, the video processor settings are conveniently made, there is some kind of new settings manager. They also improved the vidyuhi overclocking options there. In short, everything was done well, now the program works quickly and has a new name.

In general, guys, to be honest, it is vaguely written on the Internet what AMD Radeon Settings is. As I understand it, these are AMD vidyuhi settings, but to be more precise, that is how they called the new shell or even a new program for setting, in short, it is not entirely clear and write so abstruse .. Of course, you should not delete AMD Radeon Settings, because these are settings.

Well, look how this program looks like (here is only part of it, because all of it is too big):

It's not entirely clear what's what, a bunch of settings, I hope that there is Russian here, because without it it will be very difficult to figure it out. At the bottom of the program there are Gaming buttons (I don't know for sure, but like overclocking settings), a Video, Display button (here, for example, settings for changing the screen resolution), there is also an Eyefinity button (this is like a setting for multiple monitors to work).

So, here I found another picture and I again show only a part of it, because it is large:

Here the Gaming tab is open and we see the settings for overclocking. Although this tab is also open in the first picture, something else is shown there ...

I found another picture like this:

And I also found:

Guys, that's all, I hope we somehow figured out what AMD Radeon Settings is \u003d) Good luck and health!

AMD Radeon Software Crimson Edition - a comprehensive package of drivers for Windows designed to improve the graphics capabilities of video cards from the well-known AMD company. By installing them, you can significantly improve the performance of your video card, provide extended control over its functions, and at the same time make the playback of videos and games smoother and more smooth. In addition, AMD Radeon Drivers provide useful utilities to help you conveniently control your computer's multimedia capabilities. Versions are available for 32-bit and 64-bit Windows 7, as well as Windows 10 on 64 Bit.

Purpose of the program:

• Improving the performance characteristics of AMD graphics cards.
• Improving the quality of 2D and 3D graphics.
• Flexible adjustment of screen parameters: change resolution, color, refresh rate, orientation, etc.
• Configurable up to nine desktops.
• Saving individual parameters for each screen.
• Support for VSR technology - rendering images in a higher resolution than the one set in the display settings.
• AMD CrossFire support - combining two or more video cards to increase overall performance.
• Smoothing video streams in games using AMD FreeSync technology.
• Manage different applications through a specific desktop.

Among other features, AMD Radeon utilities can assign hotkeys for easier operation and provide settings for some parameters of 3D applications, viewing the characteristics of the hardware responsible for the video.

Installing AMD Radeon Drivers

The package is installed as a normal program, it does not need fine tuning. Determination of equipment (video cards) on a computer is performed automatically using the Autodetect utility. Download AMD Radeon Software Crimson Edition free in Russian is available on this page, all popular versions of Windows are supported.

Whatever technical characteristics and power the video card installed in a PC or laptop possesses, its performance and demonstrated performance indicators directly depend on one of the most important software components of any system -. For graphics adapters manufactured by Advanced Micro Devices Inc, the most correct and effective method to resolve all driver issues is to use.

Download and update AMD drivers via Radeon Software Adrenalin Edition

Actually, it is precisely the maintenance of video adapter drivers that is the primary task assigned to the AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin Edition software package by the developers.

Radeon Software Adrenalin Edition - the name of the software that replaced Radeon Software Crimson... This is the same application, but from a different generation. The Crimson driver is no longer relevant!

Automatic installation

The easiest and most correct way to get a fresh driver for an AMD video card is to install the manufacturer's proprietary software on the system. AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin Edition contains the necessary components of the latest version at the time of downloading from the official site, so in order for the current graphics adapter driver to be installed, it is enough to follow a few simple steps.

1. Download the Radeon Software Adrenalin Edition installer from the Advanced Micro Devices technical support site, selecting the type and model line of the graphics processor on the basis of which the video card is built from the drop-down lists.

   

   Find your version and bitness of the operating system and expand the tab to the plus sign.

   In the list of suggested software, find Radeon Software click "Download"... In some cases, there are 2 such files - start from the application revision number and the release date. A newer driver may be unstable on some PCs, for this reason, the service offers a previous version that you can roll back to if problems arise.



2. We launch the installer. Immediately, the system will automatically scan the hardware components for the presence of an AMD GPU-based graphics card.



3. After determining the video card, in the absence of components necessary for normal operation

   

   or the possibility of updating them, a corresponding message will be displayed.



4. Push the button "Express installation" and observe the installation process of all the necessary components.



During the installation of Radeon Software Adrenalin Edition, the screen may black out several times. Don't worry - this is how the graphics adapter initializes with the new driver.

5. The final stage of installing AMD Radeon Adrenalin Edition, which means that all the necessary components for the graphics adapter to work, is a system reboot. Push the button Restart Now.



6. After rebooting, we get a video card with the latest driver installed.

Updating drivers

Over time, any software becomes obsolete and requires updating. With AMD Radeon Software Crimson, updating the system components necessary for the graphics adapter to function properly is easy, with all the features included.

Reinstalling the AMD driver, rolling back the version

If it becomes necessary to reinstall the AMD graphics card drivers, removing all previously installed components and clearing the system of data accumulated during the Radeon Software Adrenalin Edition operation, you will need an application installer. In addition, by following the steps below, you can revert to the previous version of the driver if the updated one does not work correctly. You do not need to remove the already installed software and driver before reinstalling! The installer will do this automatically.

Thus, we can state that all issues with the drivers of modern AMD video cards are quite easily solved using the manufacturer's proprietary software. Installing, updating and reinstalling Advanced Micro Devices graphics drivers is almost completely automated, so you don't waste time and effort looking for the right solution.

The need to download drivers for AMD Radeon video card for free for a number of reasons: a new game, Bitcoin mining, an upgrade, reinstalling Windows, a system glitch, or simply the video is not displayed correctly on the screen. In any case, you need to select the appropriate latest version of AMD Catalyst Drivers and download AMD Radeon Software Crimson Edition firewood for free in Russian via a direct link or from the manufacturer's official website.

In principle, there are two ways: just download the drivers for the video card for Windows 7, 8, 8.1, 10, Vista or XP for free (sometimes for Linux), or choose the required version automatically by downloading the appropriate utility, or make a manual selection on the Advanced website Micro Devices. This is done on a light green background below.

About a computer, or what is a video card for

For those who are not in the know, let's start in order. A computer consists of a system unit, a monitor (one or more), a keyboard, a mouse and peripheral devices (steering wheel, pedals, virtual reality helmet, external FireWire or USB disk, printer and other devices). The system unit houses the power supply, HDD and motherboard, into which the processor, memory, video adapter, HDD cable and a few other wires are stuck. The laptop is similar, only more compact. Normal vidyaha is responsible for rendering and creating an image for displaying it on a screen (projector, glasses, helmet, etc.) or a multi-monitor system at the same time. Advanced Micro Devices Radeon video controllers (formerly ATI Radeon and ATI Catalyst Drivers, respectively) support all current video standards:

• DirectX,
• OpenGL,
• HD3D,
• Eyefinity,
• DisplayPort,
• HDMI,
• CrossFireX,
• Custom Filter Anti-Aliasing,
• Morphological Anti-Aliasing,
• Supersampling,
• Multisampling,
• Anti-aliasing of transparent textures,
• Rotation mode,
• 720p and 1080 HDTV,
• Stereo 3D to HDMI,
• Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio, etc.

and are rightfully the leaders in the video adapter market. New control hardware is usually installed to improve the stability of the equipment and increase its power. The AMD Catalist Display package includes drivers for video and utilities and this software provides:

• managing a desktop or multiple tables,
• the ability to configure up to nine monitors,
• high definition video processing with excellent quality,
• fine-tuning monitors using HyrdaVision technology,
• work with audio and video content in Multimedia Center,
• setting the Multi-monitor mode,

as well as advanced capabilities to customize and use profiles for specific programs, managing 3D and CrossFireX settings for Direct3D.

Variety of Radeon Video Card

The number of types of AMD Radeon branded video cards and their modifications from other manufacturers (ASUS, HIS, Gigabyte, MSI, Sapphire, PowerColor, etc.) has grown so much that it is very difficult to find the necessary software for a video card even on a specialized driver search site. This problem is especially relevant when for a new release of your favorite game you need to update the video card drivers to the latest version. Often you need a certain version of the driver for your favorite game or effective Bitcoin mining, when the program does not work with the latest version of the drivers .. Every owner of a cool video card or laptop, pumped with high-quality video, can quickly and free download drivers for a laptop or a video card of an ordinary computer with Windows 7, 8, 8.1, 10, as well as XP and others. Windows.

Download AMD Radeon Software Crimson Edition Drivers latest or ...

Compatibility of the latest version of drivers has been checked with video adapters Radeon R7, Radeon R9, as well as Radeon HD series from 5000 to 8000. Whoever has fresh Radeon drivers can simply download AMD Catalyst Drivers for free without registration and SMS for Windows 7, 8, 8.1, 10, Vista , XP, 2000 (32 bit and 64 bit). The new version fixes minor bugs, accelerates performance in new games and programs, and introduces new features.

For video cards Radeon HD series from HD 2000 to HD 4000 version 12.6 is usually suitable, earlier Radeon from X300 to X1950, as well as from 9500 to 9800 are controlled by version 10.2. Yes, in the world of video card software everything is very run down. To avoid errors, use the selection of compatible software either automatically by downloading the utility, or manually by clicking on the link to the Advanced Micro Devices website. On a Windows XP computer, Catalyst Control Center requires Microsoft .NET Framework to be installed, without it there will be an error message.

Free Download AMD Drivers for Windows