AMD Radeon Software Crimson

AMD Radeon Crimson

AMD Catalyst Control Center
Original author(s) ATI Technologies
Developer(s) Advanced Micro Devices
Initial release June 13, 2002 (2002-06-13) (v. 2.1)
Stable release
Windows

16.9.2 (September 21, 2016 (2016-09-21)[1]) [±]

Linux
15.12 (December 17, 2015 (2015-12-17)[2]) [±]
Preview release
Windows
15.11.1 Beta (November 16, 2015 (2015-11-16)[3]) [±]
Operating system Microsoft Windows
Linux
Platform IA-32 and x64
.NET Framework
Qt
Size 288 MB
Type Device driver and system monitor
License Proprietary / Freeware
Website AMD Catalyst

AMD Radeon Software Crimson (formerly named ATI Catalyst and AMD Catalyst) is a device driver and utility software package for Advanced Micro Devices's graphics cards and APUs. It runs on Microsoft Windows and Linux, on 32- and 64-bit x86 processors.

Software bundle

Radeon Settings

Radeon Settings replaced the old AMD Catalyst Control Center. AMD Catalyst Control Center uses Qt as part of its toolchain.

Supported hardware

AMD Catalyst is targeted to support all function blocks present on a GPU's or APU's die. Besides IC targeted at rendering, this includes display controllers as well as their SIP blocks to do video decoding, Unified Video Decoder (UVD) and video encoding Video Coding Engine (VCE).

The device driver also supports AMD TrueAudio, a SIP block to do sound related calculations.

Supported products

AMD Catalyst supports the following AMD (and ATI-tradition) product lines targeted at rendering:

The following product lines are probably not supported by the AMD Catalyst, but instead by some other software, which (for example) is OpenGL-certified:

Multi-monitor support

Main article: AMD Eyefinity

Starting in Catalyst 14.6 AMD has enabled mixed resolution support, allowing for a single Eyefinity display group to be created while each monitor runs at a different resolution. This feature is made possible through the addition of two new Eyefinity display modes, Fit and Expand, which join the traditional Fill mode. In both Fit an Expand mode AMD is compensating for the mismatched resolutions by creating a virtual desktop that is of a different resolution than the monitors, and then either padding it out or cropping it as is necessary.[4]

Before Eyefinity, there was the Windows-only software "HydraVision", a desktop/screen management software mostly providing multi-monitor and virtual-screen management. It has extensive hot-key support.[5]

Video acceleration

Both of AMD's SIP cores for video acceleration, Video Coding Engine as well as Unified Video Decoder, are supported by AMD Catalyst.

Audio acceleration

Main article: AMD TrueAudio

Some AMD products contain SIP cores for audio acceleration branded AMD TrueAudio. Support for this audio acceleration DSP co-processor is part of AMD Catalyst.

Under Microsoft Windows the support for AMD TrueAudio is codenamed "ACP" (for audio co-processor) and implemented via "ACP user service" (amdacpusrsvc.exe), a background service that helps manage audio tasks in games.

Under Linux, AMD TrueAudio is codenamed "acp" as well, some code regarding this can be found in the /drivers/gpu/drm/radeon directory of the Linux kernel sources.

Power saving

Main article: AMD PowerTune

AMD Catalyst includes support for AMD PowerPlay, AMD PowerTune and AMD ZeroCore Power, AMD's set of technologies to reduce energy consumption in their graphics products.[6]

Supported interfaces

Rendering

The AMD Catalyst device driver supports multiple rendering interfaces, all designed to give the user-space programs, such as video games or CAD software, access to the correspondent SIP blocks.

Direct3D

Main article: Direct3D

Mantle

So far, only the Catalyst targeting Microsoft Windows includes support for Mantle (API).

OpenGL

Main article: OpenGL

Vulkan

Main article: Vulkan (API)

Vulkan 1.0 with 16.3.2 or higher for GCN

Video acceleration

The AMD Catalyst device driver supports multiple interfaces, all designed the give user-space programs, such as e.g. GStreamer or HandBrake software, access to the correspondent SIP blocks.

GPGPU

OpenCL

Main article: OpenCL

With Catalyst 9.12 support of OpenCL 1.0 was available.[7] In Catalyst 10.10 OpenCL 1.1 was available.[8] Catalyst 12.4 Supports OpenCL 1.2.[9] OpenCL 2.0 (includes 1.0 to 1.2) Driver Works since 14.41 for GCN-based Models. Terascale 2 Chips can use Level 1.2. [10]

Close to Metal

Main article: Close to Metal

Close to Metal was a low-level API by AMD which was abandoned in favor of OpenCL.

Other

AMD HD3D stereoscopic 3D API by AMD.

Heterogeneous System Architecture

With Catalyst 14.1 HSA is possible.[11] AMD main Prozessor graphic Units and Radeon graphic Card Units work combined.

AMD GPU Services (AGS)

AMD Display Library (ADL) SDK

Operating systems support

Linux

AMD Catalyst for Linux and Mesa will use the same Linux kernel drivers: amdgpu[12] and amdkfd.[13] Mantle is not supported on Linux.
Support for ASICs such as e.g. UVD, VCE, or AMD TrueAudio will be integrated into amdgpu.
In the past AMD Catalyst for Linux (here called: libGL-fglrx-glx) used a proprietary binary blob.

For a long time fglrx (an abbreviation for "FireGL and Radeon for X"[14]) had been the name of the proprietary graphics device driver for Linux. Starting from Catalyst 7.11, the ATI Proprietary Linux driver was renamed ATI Catalyst Linux, and was moved to the same release dates and version numbering as the versions for Microsoft Windows.[15]

In the first years of its development, the proprietary Linux driver fglrx had been criticized for its stability and performance issues as well as lack of options. AMD improved the driver in the following periods by including key features such as CrossFire, OverDrive, Catalyst AI, Stream Computing, new anti-aliasing functions, MultiView, SurroundView, etc. But the major breakthrough for fglrx was the strategic decision that AMD took in 2008, to increase the significance of Linux support: From then on all new GPUs in future are to be shipped with Linux driver support right from the first day of their release, instead of having to face a delay of several months as it used to be until then.[16] In the following years the state of the driver had continuously further improved over time, with AMD working in concert with application developers, and most instances of the drivers were considered to be solid enough for most tasks and functional for most users.[17]

Soon after its release as free and open-source software, VOGL, an OpenGL debugger available for Linux and Microsoft Windows, received support for the AMD Catalyst Linux driver.[18]

On the GDC 2014 AMD was publicly exploring the strategy of rebasing the user space components of the AMD Catalyst Linux driver from the current proprietary Linux kernel blob to the libDRM of the free and open-source radeon driver easing the use and implementation of HSA under Linux. At then X.Org Developer's Conference in October, 2014 AMD's Alex Deucher officially introduced amdgpu and amdkfd.[13]

Microsoft Windows

Windows support From version To version Notes
Windows 9x 02.1 4.4 There were some later releases for these operating systems, including and up to a Windows Me build of Catalyst 6.2 released on Feb 9, 2006.[19]
Windows 2000 02.1 6.5[20]
Windows XP 02.1 14.4[21] Driver updates and support stopped at AMD Catalyst 14.4 for video cards with support up to DirectX 11 on Hardware, but up to only DirectX 9.0c on Windows XP.
Windows XP x64 4.4 14.4[22]
Windows Vista 7.2 13.12 Driver updates and support stopped at AMD Catalyst 13.12 for video cards with support up to DirectX 11.[23]
Windows 7 9.3 16.9.2 actual AMD Support Download for Windows 7 64bit,[24] actual AMD Support Download for Windows 7 32bit[25]
Windows 8 12.8[26] 16.9.2 actual AMD Support Download for Windows 8.1 64bit,[27] actual AMD Support Download for Windows 8.1 32bit[28]
Windows 10 15.7[29] 16.9.2 actual AMD Support Download for Windows 10 64bit,[30] actual AMD Support Download for Windows 10 32bit[31]

Starting with version 4.9 (released on 4 September 2004) the Catalyst driver package included the ATI Catalyst Control Center,[32] a new software application for manipulating many hardware functions, such as 3D settings, monitor controls and video options. It shows a small 3D preview and allows the user to see how changes to the graphics settings affect the quality of the rendered image. It also shows information about the card itself and the software data. This application requires Microsoft .NET Framework.

Crimson 16.x and higher only for GCN-based Models. With 16.3.2 Vulkan 1.0 support.

Issues

On Windows Platforms

On Linux Platforms

History

Catalyst originated on 13 June 2002[33] with version 02.1 - after ATI Technologies released the Radeon 8500 GPU in October 2001 - as "a software suite that includes unified driver and software applications to enable [ATI's] Radeon family of graphics products" for Windows XP, Windows 2000 and Windows Me, with support for Windows 98 via the Windows Me driver. The first number in a release version denotes the year, the second the release within that year, starting at x.1 for all years other than 2003 (which had a 3.0 release).

In June 2012 AMD announced that they would stop monthly driver-updates and release new drivers "when it makes sense".[34]

The original Catalyst consisted of these elements:

  1. a new, unified driver for ATI Radeon graphics-cards
  2. Hydravision, ATI's proprietary desktop-management software
  3. an ATI "Multimedia Center"
  4. ATI's Remote Wonder software
  5. a new AGP diagnostic and stability tool
  6. a redesigned control-panel

Key features promised by ATI include frequent driver-updates with performance enhancements, bug fixes, and new features.

In mid-2004, however, ATI started to support Linux (XFree86, X.Org), hiring a new Linux driver team to produce fglrx. Their new proprietary Linux drivers, instead of being a port of the Windows Catalyst drivers, were based on the Linux drivers for the FireGL (the FireGL drivers worked with Radeons before, but didn't officially support them), a card geared toward graphics producers, not gamers (although the display driver part is now based on the same sources as the ones from Windows Catalyst since version 4.x in late 2004). The proprietary Linux drivers could support R200 (Radeon 8500-9200, 9250) chips.[35] For a better display driver, the drivers from a distribution's official repositories are recommended.

Initially, ATI did not produce Radeon drivers for Linux, instead giving hardware specifications and documentation to Direct Rendering Infrastructure (DRI) developers under various non-disclosure agreements.

The frequency of driver updates increased in late 2004, releasing Linux drivers every two months, half as often as their Windows counterparts. Then since late 2005 this has been increased to monthly releases, inline with the Windows Catalyst releases.

In 2008, ATI changed its release cycles and driver versions; now referred to as Catalyst <year>.<month>, the driver package still includes an internal 8.xx.x driver revision, but it is now monthly, having a common code base with the Windows driver (starting with internal release 8.43). In 2009, the Catalyst driver officially dropped support for R500 and older chips, the FOSS driver being deemed stable and complete enough. The last driver release supporting older architectures is Catalyst 9.3.

See also

Related technologies

Related topics

References

  1. "AMD Radeon Software Crimson Edition 16.9.2 Release Notes". 2016-09-21. Retrieved 2016-09-23.
  2. "AMD Radeon Software Crimson Edition Linux 15.12 Proprietary Graphics Driver Release Notes". 2015-12-17. Retrieved 2015-12-17.
  3. "AMD Catalyst™ 15.11.1 Beta Driver for Windows® Release Notes". 2015-11-16. Retrieved 2015-11-17.
  4. "AMD Catalyst 14.6 beta adds new Eyefinity functionality". AnandTech. 2014-05-27. Retrieved 2014-07-02.
  5. "HydraVision". 2008-04-18.
  6. "PowerPlay™ support in Catalyst for Linux version 8.19.10". 2005-11-12.
  7. http://www.geeks3d.com/20091221/how-to-enable-opencl-support-on-nvidia-and-amd-platforms/
  8. http://www.gpu-tech.org/content.php/140-Industry-s-first-Open-CL-1-1-Driver-is-public-AMD-Catalyst-10-10
  9. https://www.khronos.org/news/permalink/opencl-1.2-supported-in-amd-opencl-app-sdk-2.7-and-catalyst-12.4-drivers
  10. http://support.amd.com/en-us/kb-articles/Pages/OpenCL2-Driver.aspx
  11. http://wccftech.com/amd-catalyst-13-35-beta-drive-mantle-hsa-support-scheduled-january-kaveri-coprocess/
  12. "Initial amdgpu driver release". 2015-04-20.
  13. 1 2 "Alex Deucher - AMD's New Unified Open Source Driver". 2014-10-08.
  14. http://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Talk:Fglrx
  15. ATI Catalyst Linux 7.11 release notes
  16. AMD Linux 2008 Year in Review on Phoronix.
  17. WineD3D developer statement concerning fglrx (2008-12)
  18. http://richg42.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/completed-another-round-of-testing-on.html
  19. "Catalyst™ 6.2 Drivers and ATI Multimedia Software for Windows 98/Windows 98 SE/Windows ME". Официальный сайт. Retrieved 19 November 2009.
  20. ATI Catalyst 6.6 release notes
  21. http://support.amd.com/en-us/download/desktop?os=Windows%20XP%20-%20Professional/Home&RenderOnServer=true
  22. http://support.amd.com/en-us/download/desktop?os=Windows%20XP%20-%2064&RenderOnServer=true
  23. http://support.amd.com/en-us/download/desktop?os=Windows%20Vista%20-%2032
  24. http://support.amd.com/en-us/download/desktop?os=Windows+7+-+64 actual AMD Support Download for Windows 7 64bit
  25. http://support.amd.com/en-us/download/desktop?os=Windows+7+-+32 actual AMD Support Download for Windows 7 32bit
  26. AMD Catalyst 12.8 release notes
  27. http://support.amd.com/en-us/download/desktop?os=Windows+8.1+-+64 actual AMD Support Download for Windows 8.1 64bit
  28. http://support.amd.com/en-us/download/desktop?os=Windows+8.1+-+32 actual AMD Support Download for Windows 8.1 32bit
  29. AMD Catalyst 15.7 Release Notes
  30. http://support.amd.com/en-us/download/desktop?os=Windows+10+-+64 actual AMD Support Download for Windows 10 64bit
  31. http://support.amd.com/en-us/download/desktop?os=Windows+10+-+32 actual AMD Support Download for Windows 10 32bit
  32. ATI Catalyst Control Center announcement Archived December 8, 2008, at the Wayback Machine.
  33. ATI Catalyst announcement Archived November 23, 2007, at the Wayback Machine.
  34. AMD Drops Monthly Driver Update Practice After Ten Years. "AMD Drops Monthly Driver Update Practice After Ten Years". X-bit labs. Retrieved 2012-12-30.
  35. "r2** support is completely broken with 8.25.18 - Rage3D Discussion Area". Rage3d.com. Retrieved 2012-12-30.

External links

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