AMD releases Catalyst 12.6 and 12.7 drivers

AMD has released the latest versions of its WHQL and beta drivers. The Catalyst 12.6 WHQL (signed) and 12.7 beta drivers include numerous performance improvements as well as stability improvements.  A number of improvements relate to problems that caused the dreaded Blue Screen of Death when attempting to run a DirectX application.

Links to download:

Catalyst 12.7 beta Vista/7 32-bit

Catalyst 12.7 beta Vista/7 64-bit

Catalyst 12.6 WHQL Vista/7 32-bit

Catalyst 12.6 WHQL XP 32-bit

Catalyst 12.6 WHQL Vista/7 64-bit

Catalyst 12.6 WHQL XP 64-bit

Below are the full release notes of the Catalyst 12.6 WHQL drivers followed by the release notes for the 12.7 beta drivers.

Feature Highlights of the AMD Catalyst 12.6:

Dual Graphics enhancements – new application profiles for DirectX 9 applications

• Supported Dual Graphics configurations:
  AMD Accelerated Processors for Desktop PCs 
  • AMD Radeon™ HD 7660D (A10-5800K)
  • AMD Radeon™ HD 7660D (A10-5700)
  • AMD Radeon™ HD 7560D (A8-5600K)
  • AMD Radeon™ HD 7560D (A8-5500)

Notebooks with AMD Accelerated Processors
AMD Radeon™ HD 7660G (A10-4600M)

• AMD Accelerated Processors for Desktop PCs
  • AMD Radeon™ HD 7660G (A10-4600M)
  • AMD Radeon™ HD 7640G (A8-4500M)
  • AMD Radeon™ HD 7520G (A6-4400M)

• New profiles have been added for the following titles:
  • Diablo 3
  • Elder Scrolls: Skyrim
  • StarCraft 2
  • Portal 2
  • Call of Duty Modern Warfare
  • Call of Duty Black Ops
    

RESOLVED ISSUES

Resolved Issues for the Windows 7 OperatingSystem

This section provides information on resolved known issues in this release of the AMD Catalyst12.6 software suite for Windows 7. These include:

• CERT recently approached AMD with information pertaining to what they believed to be a possible video driver vulnerability exposed by non-default settings of the Microsoft Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit (EMET). EMET is a security test tool that allows system administrators to create test conditions to validate correct behavior of system components or indicate potential weak points.
  • The AMD Catalyst 12.6 driver for the AMD Radeon HD 7000, AMD Radeon HD 6000, and AMD Radeon HD 5000 Series is designed to resolve a possible video driver vulnerability issue and to minimize the occurrence of system crashes.
• AMD Radeon HD 7900, AMD Radeon HD 7800 Eyefinity/Multiple Display configurations – BSOD when using desktop applications.
• AMD Catalyst 12.6 includes some additional fixes(not found in the AMD Catalyst 12.6 Beta) for the AMD Radeon™ HD 7900, AMD Radeon HD 7800, and AMD Radeon HD 7700 graphics cards for issues related to the GPU hanging when the system goes to sleep.  Please ensure that your System BIOS is up to date.  Some occurrences of this issue may be related to an outdated System BIOS.
• Heroes and Generals – Blocky corruption in scenes with smoke effects when run in DirectX 11 mode.
• AMD Radeon™ HD 7900 CrossFire Configuration – system hang after cinematics in Call of Duty: Black Ops.
• AMD A4, AMD A6, AMD A8 and AMD A10 APU Products – crashes after repeated toggling between VGA and HDMI monitors.
• System hangs after playing various DVD and Bluray titles with PowerDVD.
• Video corruption seen after playing some DivX video clips using Windows Media Center.
• AMD Radeon 7800 series products: Crysis 2 hangs when run in DirectX 9 mode.
• AMD Radeon HD 7900, AMD Radeon HD 7800 Eyefinity/Multiple Display configurations – BSOD when using desktop applications in DirectX 11 mode.

Resolved Issues for the Windows Vista Operating System

This section provides information on resolved known issues in this release of the AMD Catalyst™12.6 software suite for Windows Vista. These include:

• Call of Duty: Black Ops – Poor game performance experienced when run in Tridef mode with in-game AA enabled.

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:

• AMD Radeon HD7900 series products – Crysis Warhead may crash when launched.
• Total War: Shogun 2 – flickering text when run in DirectX^® 11 mode with AMD CrossfireX enabled.
• Dirt: Showdown 8-Ball Track – may hang when run in AMD CrossFireX™ mode.

This release of AMD Catalyst™ 12.7 Beta includes a number of performance optimizations for the AMD Radeon ™ HD 7900, AMD Radeon HD 7800, and AMD Radeon HD 7700 Series.

Performance highlights of AMD Catalyst 12.7 Beta

• Up to 25% Skyrim
• Up to 6% in Crysis 2
• Up to 20% in Total War: Shogun 2
• Up to 3.3% in Battlefield 3
• Up to 6.9% In 3DMark™ 11
• Up to 4.8% in Aliens vs. Predator
• Up to 6.5% in Batman: Arkham City
• Up to 8% in Crysis Warhead
• Up to 7.2% in F1 2010
• Up to 8% in Just Cause 2
• Up to 12% in Wolfenstein MP

Feature highlights of AMD Catalyst 12.7 Beta

Diablo 3: Anti-Aliasing support:

• Users can now enable Multi-Sample Anti-Aliasing and Super Sample Anti-Aliasing for Diablo 3 through the AMD Catalyst Control Center.

Resolved Issues for the Windows® 7, Windows Vista® and Windows XP Operating System

• Elder Scrolls: Skyrim- screen flickering when in AMD CrossFire™ mode
  Note: This issue was first observed with version 1.6 of Skyrim.

Source : AMD