Home Gaming Goodbye Catalyst, Hello AMD Radeon Software

Goodbye Catalyst, Hello AMD Radeon Software

2 min read
9

Crimson

I’ve never really been too fond of AMD’s driver suite. Named Catalyst since the company was still called ATi, the underlying software that powers your AMD video cards has had a functional, but ugly user interface that’s been stuck in the past for too long.

But no more. AMD has rebranded its software suite. Now called AMD Radeon Software, the new driver and its related software has been built from the ground up, and brings with it an infinitely better looking, possibly more functional and definitely more modern interface.

The first release – available soon ­– has been branded “Crimson” is coming this month, with AMD promising major releases at least once a year, with minor, monthly updates keeping your games running at their best. AMD Radeon Software dispenses with the .NET framework that Catalyst relied so heavily on, replacing it with the much faster QT framework.

Like so many modern applications and websites, it’s got a flat design, featuring five tabs at the top, neatly separating it in to Gaming, Video, Display, Eyefinity, and System. At the bottom, you’ll find buttons for Updates, Preferences, and Notifications.

In truth, it offers much the same feature set as Catalyst, with the promise that things are now easier to find. Under the Gaming tab you will find the new Game Manager, which allows you to tweak graphics settings globally or on a per-game basis.

What’s new, and what sets it apart from Nvidia’s software is the ability to enable Overdrive (software overclocking) settings on a per-game basis. Other per-game settings are gone though, and like Nvidia’s separation of its driver suite and the GeForce experience, will live on in the Gaming Evolved application.

“For this version we haven’t done the optimised recommended settings yet, but it’s on my roadmap,” AMD’s senior manager of software strategy Terry Makedon told Ars Technica. “We have their expertise and we’re letting them run with it. At some point I would like to bring that functionality into Crimson somehow and find what the recommended settings are. The problem that I have with that app right now is that the recommended settings are based on crowd-sourcing, and that assumes that majority is always right, and that’s not always the case.”

Right now, there are no major performance updates inherent in the drivers or their framework, but we expect that to change with the continued adoption and refinement of Direct X 12.

Last Updated: November 3, 2015

9 Comments

  1. Grand Admiral Chief SpaceNinja

    November 3, 2015 at 08:33

    #TeamRedFTW

    Reply

  2. Ottokie

    November 3, 2015 at 08:40

    I am still waiting for Micro$oft to announce that Dx 12 will not just be on Win 10

    http://img.memecdn.com/i-don-amp-039-t-care-if-it-amp-039-s-free-windows-7-is-my-baby_o_5792447.jpg

    Reply

    • Alien Emperor Trevor

      November 3, 2015 at 08:45

      Just do it!

      Reply

    • Geoffrey Tim

      November 3, 2015 at 08:45

      Not happening.

      Reply

      • Ottokie

        November 3, 2015 at 08:48

        What if I sacrifice Windows 8 to Valhalla ?

        Reply

  3. ZA Ludomusicologist

    November 3, 2015 at 08:50

    Ooh!

    Reply

  4. Mossel

    November 3, 2015 at 09:37

    Pretty cool for AMD, I guess.

    Reply

  5. Kromas untamed

    November 3, 2015 at 09:49

    CCC was the only real gripe I had with AMD. Thing always crashed spectacularly at the start of a new OS release.

    Reply

  6. Deceased

    November 3, 2015 at 11:04

    I still don’t really get what issues people have/had with AMD drivers?

    Can’t really say that since the ATi Radeon 9520 ( have mercy – I was a broke ass kid when I built my first PC ) I’ve had any issues 🙁

    Reply

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