This article provides information on the latest posting of AMD’s software suite, AMD Catalyst 11.10. This particular software suite updates the AMD display driver and the AMD Catalyst Control Center / AMD Vision Engine Control Center. This unified driver has been updated to provide enhanced level of power, performance, and reliability.

The AMD Catalyst software suite 11.10 contains the following:

• AMD display driver version 8.902
• HydraVision for Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7
• Southbridge/IXP Driver
• AMD Catalyst Control Center version 8.902 / AMD Vision Engine Control Center version 8.902.

Important ! Caution !

• The AMD display driver and the AMD Catalyst Control Center / AMD Vision Engine Control Center can be downloaded independently of each other. However, for better stability and performance AMD recommends that both components be updated from the same AMD Catalyst release.
• The AMD Catalyst Control Center / AMD Vision Engine Control Center requires that the Microsoft .NET Framework SP1 be installed for Windows XP and Windows Vista. Without .NET SP1 installed, the AMD Catalyst Control Center / AMD Vision Engine Control Center will not launch properly and the user will see an error message.

Notes.

• When installing the AMD Catalyst driver for Windows operating system, the user must be logged on as Administrator or have Administrator rights to complete the installation of the AMD Catalyst driver.
• The Catalyst driver requires Windows 7 Service Pack 1 to be installed.
• These release notes provide information on the AMD display driver only. For information on the ATI Multimedia Center, HydraVision, HydraVision Basic Edition, Remote Wonder, or the Southbridge/IXP driver, please refer to their respective release notes found at: http://support.amd.com/.
• AMD Eyefinity technology gives gamers access to high display resolutions. As pixel count grows, the graphics horsepower required to drive the displays at a reasonable frame rate can increase dramatically. Depending on the game and system configuration, users may notice texture corruption and reduced frame rates when running games in multi-monitor Eyefinity modes.
• Windows Driver Model (WDM) drivers are no longer bundled in the AMD Catalyst software suite. The WDM drivers install bundle can be downloaded independently through the AMD website

AMD Product Compatibility
The AMD Catalyst driver is compatible with the following AMD products.

AMD Mobility Product Family Compatibility
Catalyst Mobility is a notebook reference graphics driver with limited support for system vendor specific features. When used with Windows Vista or Windows 7, users may have unwanted experiences.

The Installation Verification Software will prevent driver download on certain notebook products. This is to protect against the installing of drivers that may disable features or functionality provided by the system manufacturer. If unwanted experiences occur while using Catalyst Mobility, it is recommended to revert back to the driver provided by your system vendor for your specific platform. Please contact your system vendor for the most recent drivers for your notebook.

Compatible Operating Systems
The latest version of the AMD Catalyst software suite is designed to support the following Microsoft Windows platforms:

• Windows 7 32-bit version
• Windows 7 64-bit version
• Windows Vista 32-bit version
• Windows Vista 64-bit version
• Windows XP Professional
• Windows XP Home Edition
• Windows XP Media Center Edition
• Windows XP Professional x64 Edition

Highlights of the AMD Catalyst 11.10 Windows release includes:

New Features

AMD Eyefinity enhancements

• Enables support for Eyefinity 5x1 display (portrait and landscape) configurations
• Maximum supported resolution has been increased to 16000 x 16000 pixels on the AMD Radeon HD 6000 Series. (limited to DX11 applications only)
• Bezel compensation is now possible when using sets of displays that have mismatched pixel densities.

AMD VECC/CCC enhancements

• Improvements have been implemented to better facilitate the enabling and control of the following features within the Vision Engine Control Center / Catalyst Control Center
• AMD Overdrive for GPUs
• Information Center (software and hardware)

Resolved Issues for the Windows 7 Operating System
This section provides information on resolved known issues in this release of the AMD Catalyst 11.10 software suite for Windows 7. These include:

• Improves performance in Battlefield 3 Open Beta release for both non-Anti-Aliasing and application enabled Anti-Aliasing cases on single GPU configurations using the AMD Radeon HD 6000 and AMD Radeon HD 5000 series of products.
• Improves performance in Battlefield 3 Open Beta release for both non-Anti-Aliasing and application enabled Anti-Aliasing cases on AMD CrossFire configurations using the AMD Radeon HD 6000 and AMD Radeon HD 5000 series of products.
• Improves performance in Rage on single GPU configurations using the AMD Radeon HD 6000, AMD Radeon HD 5000 Series and AMD Radeon HD 4000 series of products.
• Enables automatic Vsync for Rage
• Reduces random crashing and stability encountered when playing Rage on Windows 7 32-bit edition
• Reduces object / animation flickering and texture corruption encountered when playing Rage
• Reduces stuttering seen on Dual CPU and Tri CPU core systems
• Reduces intermittent crashing seen loading levels in Rage
• Reduces flickering of NPCs in Rage
• Some OpenGL games like Enemy Territory Quake Wars no longer experiences random corruption.
• Lost Planet 2 no longer experiences random crashes when running the benchmark.
• F1 2010 and Dirt 2 no longer experience random flashing during the game.
• Google Earth no longer displays random corruption when running in OpenGL mode.
• Mafia II no longer experiences a random crash during game loading / game play when Crossfire is enabled.
• Unigine Heaven running in DirectX 11 mode no longer experiences a performance drop when running with Dual Graphics enabled.
• Homefront no longer experiences random game crashes.
• Random flashing is no longer experienced when playing back SD/BD content on a 120Hz monitor.
• An application crash is no longer randomly observed while playing M2V/Mpeg2/Mpeg4 files and toggling the Hardware Acceleration setting.
• Display corruption is no longer experienced on the primary display when running in extended display mode with AERO enabled.

Resolved Issues for the Windows Vista  Operating System
This section provides information on resolved known issues in this release of the AMD Catalyst 11.10 software suite for Windows Vista. These include:

• Display corruption is no longer experienced on the primary display when running in extended display mode with AERO enabled.
• Scaling options are now correctly displayed when connecting DisplayPort / DFP monitors.
• An application crash is no longer randomly observed while playing M2V/Mpeg2/Mpeg4 files and toggling the Hardware Acceleration setting.

Resolved Issues for the Windows XP Operating System
This section provides information on resolved known issues in this release of the AMD Catalyst 11.10 software suite for Windows XP. These include:

• An application crash is no longer randomly observed while playing M2V/Mpeg2/Mpeg4 files and toggling the Hardware Acceleration setting.
• Display corruption is no longer experienced on the primary display when running in extended display mode with AERO enabled.

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:

• Screen tearing may be randomly observed while playing Portal 2.
• Total War – Shogun 2 may experience corruption when running at low game settings in a 2x1 Eyefinity environment.
• Random graphics corruption may be observed while playing Call of Duty 4 with the Edge Detect Filter enabled.
• Random crashes may be experienced while playing F1 2010 and Lost Planet 2 with in Crossfire mode in an Eyefinity configuration.
• Enemy Territory Quake Wars may experience random crashes when running in a 3x1 Eyefinity configuration.

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 options may be missing after installing the driver.
• A ‘ghosting cursor’ may be observed when playing Dragon Age 2 with Crossfire enabled.
• Random flickering may be observed when playing Dragon Age 2 with Crossfire enabled.
• Choppy playback may be experienced when playing BluRay content when Aero is enabled.
• Civilization V may experience random crashes when run at High or Medium game settings.
• F1 2010 may experience random hanging.