Monday, November 2nd 2015

AMD Radeon Software Crimson Edition Detailed

In the beginning, there were NVIDIA Detonator and ATI Catalyst. Detonator made way for GeForce Software, but Catalyst pulled through for another decade. These are the brand names GPU makers use to label their drivers, because GPUs are devices that warrant frequent driver updates to keep up with new software and performance improvements. AMD, after consolidating most of its visual computing divisions into the Radeon Technologies Group under technocrat Raja Koduri, made its first major announcement, re-branding AMD Catalyst as Radeon Software. Its first release gets a special name - Radeon Software Crimson Edition 15.11.

AMD's new nomenclature for its drivers involves firmly placing the Radeon brand name, replacing "Catalyst," followed by "software," indicating that these are not just drivers, but a suite of applications designed to give you control over your visual computing experience; with "Crimson Edition" being the major version for the year 2015-16, and 15.11 denoting November 2015, retaining the date-based version numbering scheme. These could come with extensions such as "WHQL" or "Beta." The first Crimson Edition drivers will be WHQL-signed.
At the center of Radeon Software Crimson Edition 15.11 is the doing away of Catalyst Control Center (CCC) and Raptr, and in their place, a slick new application built from the ground up, called Radeon Settings. This app no longer relies on .NET, unlike CCC. Its user interface is minimalist, and keeps up with the Windows 10 theme, but its variations could blend with OS X and Linux GUIs.
The application is designed for fast startup, and features a ribbon-tab UI design, with a top bar selecting main settings pages, and the bottom one with minor settings and social buttons. With Raptr gone, game-specific optical settings are care of the "Games" tab, in which you can make graphics and hardware overclocking settings specific to a game, besides global settings.
The "Video" tab lets you choose between eight presets specific to viewing situations and content. The "Display" tab gives you settings specific to your display (resolution, refresh rates, Virtual SuperResolution, scaling, etc. There's a tab specific to Eyefinity that shows up when there is more than one display. And finally, the "System" tab gives you information on your current hardware and software environment.


The most important settings from the Radeon Settings app are neatly integrated into the context menu of the tray icon.

AMD will release Radeon Software Crimson Edition later this month.
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70 Comments on AMD Radeon Software Crimson Edition Detailed

#26
Casecutter
See this is a little more than hype of a driver update! Honestly, I don't believe will be all that much about gaming driver updates, more about an introduction and consolidation of Radeon Technologies Group.

I think it will bring improvement and refinement overall, and might have things smooth in ways we don't quantify though feel in the seat-of-the-pants. It provides a new basis and beginning for the focus of Radeon Technologies Group, a clear cut from the past. A approach to finally cease the "mantra" that has ran unsubstantiated about their drivers for close to decade now.

I welcome the new focus and the changes. There's been one hand that chanted they aren’t doing enough, then when they have a new emergence to make a clear cut from the past there's still abhorrence... Sure as with most everything we can go in with skepticism, but here’s real invigoration... a new brand focus, and be that as it may "haters gonna hate".
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#27
SKL_H
I use AMD but honestly CCC sucked and don't get me started on that Raptr software I never install it, and they must stop using one icon for decades I mean that catalyst Icon looks bad on the desktop context menu and they used an image that has no transparent background, I hope they will start making better software's now come on AMD quality is what we looking for.
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#28
MilkyWay
I much prefer a simple, basic layout, lightweight setting control panel. This looks a little bloated compared to vanilla Catalyst. Also looks like they are copying Nvidia stuff, probably as a lot of people seem to love those and hate on Catalyst. I honestly hate Raptr or whatever the feck it is, it's nice that the current Catalyst installer lets you choose what you want to install.

The name change i honestly don't care either way in terms of it changing it from Catalyst to something else, although i find it stupid to use such a long name, convoluted comes to mind.

EDIT: I'm not saying that the current CCC is that good it's middling to crap imo but the answer is not some sleek bloatware.
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#29
bgunner
MusselsDayumn, big changes ahoy.

take me forever to remember where things are now.


per game OCing is awesome, underclocking for older games is a fantastic idea.
I'm willing to bet that they did not add a way to control the fan curve for when OCed. The slider Overdrive has only allows for a steady fan rate which can get loud when not pushing the card. If they add a way to adjust the fan curve like MSI Afterburner/EVGA Precision X/HIS iTurbo/Sapphire TriXX, basically all Riva Tuner based programs, Then I could see the OCing per game could be useful and reduce the use of a different programs to OC the AMD Radeon GPU's.
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#30
fullinfusion
Vanguard Beta Tester
This is going to be interesting and it's about time they do it right :fear:yes I said do it right!

Now where to find a leaked version to try this out hmm :rolleyes:
Posted on Reply
#31
NC37
The flashier it looks, the more bloaty it usually is. I don't mean to be a downer but CCC historically was a bloated crapshoot compared to nVidia. I know it eventually changed but I still remember using it on my 3870. Was so glad to switch back to nVidia when I did. Course now Geforce Experience is heading the same way. When will GPU makers realize that some folks don't want a flashy app loading up? They just want one straight and to the point that gets the job done without eating up loads of RAM or CPU.
Posted on Reply
#32
dyonoctis
NC37The flashier it looks, the more bloaty it usually is. I don't mean to be a downer but CCC historically was a bloated crapshoot compared to nVidia. I know it eventually changed but I still remember using it on my 3870. Was so glad to switch back to nVidia when I did. Course now Geforce Experience is heading the same way. When will GPU makers realize that some folks don't want a flashy app loading up? They just want one straight and to the point that gets the job done without eating up loads of RAM or CPU.
UI Design is just taking the same direction as webdesign does. As technologie is becoming closer to human, aesthetic is also becoming more important. Take a look to intel website, the homepage of the 6th gen is clearly made for mainstream ppl to whom in the choice of getting a pc with intel or amd, the impression the company give them will have a weight. Even hardware manufacturer are trying to give high-end product an expensive look. Nowadays, just by the look of the components a neophyte,can tell a high-end pc from a low-end one. The amount of ppl that want something that works well, and look good at the same time is huge. That's basically how design managed to become such a big deal,even though some "designer" are just forgeting about the working part...
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#34
Uplink10
Xajelthe word "Catalyst" is very good indeed
It always reminds me of Crysis 2 & 3.
OctopussUh, give me classic windows design. This is the Metro colouring book for 2 years olds from Windows 8 evolved into a version for 3 years olds.
I agree, Metro or should I says Modern look is suitable for touch-based devices like tablets and it pains me that Microsoft did not remove it from Windows 10 desktop mode and actually expanded it and that this new CCC will use it.

Menu on the left side with collapse and expand options and that is it. No need to use some fancy theme with tiles which take too much space and do not offer the tree view of option categories on the left side.

I hope this new software will allow me to overclock HD7650M because every application I tried screwed everything up with restart by losing settings and different profiles for different load (2D, 3D) did not work in any app properly.
Posted on Reply
#35
Octopuss
I mean, as long as the damn program doesn't feel like bloatware I don't care about its UI too much. I just hate CCC and always did: for what it does it's weirdly big, it takes fking ages to install, it takes quite long to start, and just feels like a mammoth.
Posted on Reply
#36
Mussels
Freshwater Moderator
bgunnerI'm willing to bet that they did not add a way to control the fan curve for when OCed. The slider Overdrive has only allows for a steady fan rate which can get loud when not pushing the card. If they add a way to adjust the fan curve like MSI Afterburner/EVGA Precision X/HIS iTurbo/Sapphire TriXX, basically all Riva Tuner based programs, Then I could see the OCing per game could be useful and reduce the use of a different programs to OC the AMD Radeon GPU's.
on my card that feature changed from a static % to a 'max fan speed' instead, which is close enough. i can say put a cap at 60%, and lock the noise that way (and the card downclocks to keep cool, i believe)

if i can do that per game, i'll be damned happy.
Posted on Reply
#37
xenocide
CCC really was terrible. I could barely even get it installed and working when I had my HD5870, and half the time I had to try installing it multiple times due to errors. Hopefully AMD improves the Driver Side of things because it's the one area where Nvidia has continuously trounced them for the better part of the last decade...
Posted on Reply
#38
Mussels
Freshwater Moderator
xenocideCCC really was terrible. I could barely even get it installed and working when I had my HD5870, and half the time I had to try installing it multiple times due to errors. Hopefully AMD improves the Driver Side of things because it's the one area where Nvidia has continuously trounced them for the better part of the last decade...
CCC has been easy to install and functional for a fairly long time (minus a few bugs, like the scaling tickbox disappearing).
It's just ugly and clumsy by todays standards.
Posted on Reply
#39
95Viper
It, sorta, looks like a UEFI interface to me.
Oh well, gotta go with it, until they change it down the road, sometime.
Posted on Reply
#40
Mussels
Freshwater Moderator
i wonder if they'll release it the day fallout 4 comes out.
Posted on Reply
#41
Solaris17
Super Dainty Moderator
Musselsi wonder if they'll release it the day fallout 4 comes out.
followed shortly there after with
Nov. 11th
Radeon Software Crimson Edition 15.12 Beta

* Fixed stability issue with Fallout 4
* Fixed Texture bug when using AA over 4x in some games
* General performance improvement (upto 10%) in
Batman Arkham something
Fallout 4
Some game no one cares about
Posted on Reply
#42
Kanan
Tech Enthusiast & Gamer
MusselsCCC has been easy to install and functional for a fairly long time (minus a few bugs, like the scaling tickbox disappearing).
It's just ugly and clumsy by todays standards.
True, I don't understand how someone could call it slow and bad - I switched after almost 6 years back to Geforce and miss CCC, because it was 10 times faster than NV control panel. When anything is outdated, that NV control panel is. They seem to ignore it since they got GeForce Experience running. CCC on the other side got better over the years, never was slow and did what it should do. This new software is just for the looks/marketing and unification of CCC + Raptr in one program, but its no revolution.
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#43
geon2k2
xenocideCCC really was terrible. I could barely even get it installed and working when I had my HD5870, and half the time I had to try installing it multiple times due to errors. Hopefully AMD improves the Driver Side of things because it's the one area where Nvidia has continuously trounced them for the better part of the last decade...
This is true. What I used to do is, uninstall all the .net, install Catalyst with the .net it was shipped with, and then upgrade back .net. Somehow the .net 2.0 from the AMD package was not the same as the .net 2.0 from Microsoft. (Some Classes were missing from the Microsoft version). Sometimes I was just upgrading the driver without touching Catalyst.

Anyway, I'm happy to report that this hasn't happen for the last 2, maybe 3 years, its all good now, so ... ITS TIME TO BREAK IT :)
Posted on Reply
#44
SonicZap
I'm happy to see this. While I have nothing against .NET -- I actually love it as a software developer myself, CCC has been simply bad for a long time. I've never had issues with installing it, but it takes long to open, opening all the various setting pages isn't fast either, and it's clear that the general UI design was made in early 2000s.

When Metro hit in Windows 8, I hated it, but lately I've grown to like the improved Metro / ModernUI style of Windows 10. So graphically this one looks nice to me as well, simple and smooth while having all the necessary options quickly available.

Overall, as long as the new UI isn't buggy, I think it's going to be a big improvement :)
Posted on Reply
#45
rooivalk
KananTrue, I don't understand how someone could call it slow and bad - I switched after almost 6 years back to Geforce and miss CCC, because it was 10 times faster than NV control panel. When anything is outdated, that NV control panel is. They seem to ignore it since they got GeForce Experience running. CCC on the other side got better over the years, never was slow and did what it should do. This new software is just for the looks/marketing and unification of CCC + Raptr in one program, but its no revolution.
In my PC right now, CCC is rather janky. Worse, when you open it right after boot, it crawls even for opening those friggin accordions. They need pre-loader at least.
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#46
RejZoR
NC37The flashier it looks, the more bloaty it usually is. I don't mean to be a downer but CCC historically was a bloated crapshoot compared to nVidia. I know it eventually changed but I still remember using it on my 3870. Was so glad to switch back to nVidia when I did. Course now Geforce Experience is heading the same way. When will GPU makers realize that some folks don't want a flashy app loading up? They just want one straight and to the point that gets the job done without eating up loads of RAM or CPU.
NVIDIA Experience is also a slow bloated pile of software. And same goes for NVIDIA Control Panel. It may look slim, but it's slow as hell with its moronic disk scrubbing every time you open it. I don't get it why it has to look up app list when you open the first panel. Second one with app profiles, fine, but not for the first one with basic general settings. And don't get me started with the settings selection and how the list scrolls itself to the start every time you change any setting and how laggy that is. Aaargh.
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#47
Basard
Uplink10It always reminds me of Crysis 2 & 3.
Hah! It always reminds me I'm getting old!

I like the catalyst name. "AMD Radeon Software Crimson Edition" Doesn't quite roll off the tongue as well.

"Quick! Before we're bankrupt! Get out the thesaurus and see what comes up for 'red'! CRIMSON! THAT'S IT! This will save us for sure!"
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#48
ZeDestructor
Ferrum MasterMaybe we should bring back Detonator too?
I prefer ForceWare, but Detonator will do fine as well...
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#49
BiggieShady
RejZoRNVIDIA Experience is also a slow bloated pile of software. And same goes for NVIDIA Control Panel. It may look slim, but it's slow as hell with its moronic disk scrubbing every time you open it. I don't get it why it has to look up app list when you open the first panel. Second one with app profiles, fine, but not for the first one with basic general settings. And don't get me started with the settings selection and how the list scrolls itself to the start every time you change any setting and how laggy that is. Aaargh.
I feel you pain ... especially knowing how nvidia inspector does the same applications profiles scanning faster even with all the extra data
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#50
Fx
I didn't mind Catalyst. I felt it looked alright and had decent organization. This new UI is easy on the eyes and appears to have a better backend to it. Time will tell.
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