Are driver updates going to enable AMD's latest cards to reach their full potential in existing games? We're hopeful that a tweak here and a bit of code there will help maximise the company's new GCN architecture, but it looks like we may be waiting another month for any perceivable jump in performance.
This month's driver release, Catalyst 12.3, is more of a utilitarian update that fixes a wide range of issues under Windows 7 and Windows Vista.
The new driver, available to download from amd.com, is the first to fully support all Radeon HD 7000 series products and prevents crashes or system hangs in titles such as Alan Wake, Far Cry 2 and Tom Clancy's HAWX. There doesn't appear to be a new set of Catalyst application profiles to go with it, meaning no CrossFire improvements as yet, but if any of the below issues are hampering your gameplay experience, now's a good time to grab the update.
Catalyst 12.3 Release Notes
NEW FEATURES
Full Support for AMD Radeon HD 7000 series of products
- Catalyst 12.3 now fully supports the AMD Radeon HD 7900, AMD Radeon HD 7800 and AMD Radeon HD 7700 series of products
RESOLVED ISSUES
Resolved Issues for the Windows 7 Operating System
This section provides information on resolved known issues in this release of the AMD Catalyst 12.3 software suite for Windows 7. These include:
- AMD Catalyst Control Center startup issues/ delays have been resolved
- Tom Clancy HAWX: No longer crashes after task switching with MLAA (Morphological Anti-Aliasing) and Anti-Aliasing enabled
- Furmark Benchmark: No longer crashes when launched in High Performance mode.
- Quake 4: No longer display corruption after task switching when run in High Performance mode
- XPlane: Textures no longer exhibit flicker and corruption
- Skyrim: No longer displays flickering and texture corruption.
- Alan Wake: A system crash is no longer experienced when running the game in DirectX 9 mode with Crossfire enabled
- Far Cry 2: A random system hang is no longer experienced when running the game at high in game setting
Resolved Issues for the Windows Vista Operating System
This section provides information on resolved known issues in this release of the AMD Catalyst 12.3 software suite for Windows Vista. These include:
- AMD Catalyst Control Center startup issues/ delays have been resolved
- Enemy Territory Quake Wars : no longer exhibits random corruption
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:
- Vsync may be disabled after task switching when playing Rage
- Enemy Territory Quake Wars may crash when launched in High Performance mode
- Crysis 2 may hang randomly when run in DirectX 11 mode.
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:
- The Catalyst Control Center may not display if launched while using WinDVD to play a BluRay disc.
Known issues under the Windows XP operating system
The following section provides a summary of open issues that may be experienced under the Windows XP operating system in the latest version of AMD Catalyst. These include:
- The system may hang when playing Dirt 3 at maximum in-game settings
- The system may hang when launching Crysis – Warhead at maximum in game settings
- Dragon Age 2 may display random graphics corruption
