AMD Catalyst 11.6 WHQL Driver Suite Released

[btarunr]

AMD Catalyst received its monthly major update with version 11.6 WHQL. The driver isn't posted on AMD Game website, but leaked to the media. The new drivers bring support for AMD's new Fusion "Llano" A-series accelerated processing units (APUs), which embed AMD Radeon HD 6000 series GPU components. The new drivers also introduce the new AMD Steady Video Technology, which is an AMD APP-based software that works on AMD Radeon HD 6000 series graphics cards (only on systems that also run AMD processors), AMD E450, AMD E300 APUs, and AMD A8, A6, and A4 series APUs. The technology processes videos for image-stabilization of each frame, giving out a "steady" video output. Videos processed by Steady Video are compatible with any of the popular video players, including Adobe Flash player, Windows Media player, Cyberlink PowerDVD, Corel Win DVD, ArcSoft TotalMedia Theater.

With the new driver, AMD enabled decode acceleration of MPEG-4 part-2 content in Microsoft's video player applications (through MFT support) for all AMD Radeon 6000 Series GPUs. The new driver also packs a number of game-specific performance enhancements, for applications such as Dirt 2, F1 2010, Tom Clancy's HAWX, Crysis Warhead, and Unigine Heaven (OpenGL). For more information, refer to the Release Notes article.




DOWNLOAD: AMD Catalyst 11.6 WHQL for Windows 7 and Vista 64-bit, Windows 7 and Vista 32-bit, Windows XP 32-bit, Windows XP 64-bit

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[fullinfusion]

yeah more info would be nice

but like usual the driver is shit imo!

ever sense 11.3 the drivers went for crap but hey, maybe this is the one that rocks hard!!!
But I really doubt it!!

Slackers!

 

[buggalugs]

but like usual the driver is shit imo!

ever sense 11.3 the drivers went for crap but hey, !

The 11.4/11.5 have been the best received drivers in a long time. 11.6 works fine for me too.

 

[fullinfusion]

The 11.4/11.5 have been the best received drivers in a long time. 11.6 works fine for me too.

Have you seen the thread of 11.3? anything above that are shitty in cross-fire mode!

But hey! As long as it plays games smooth as silk who am i to say?

what have you gained? any marks?

 

[gumpty]

10.3 or 11.3?

 

[fullinfusion]

10.3 or 11.3?

Sorry, I ment 11.3!

Miss type on my end mate!

 

[theubersmurf]

hmmm, package I downloaded from tpu didn't actually include driver...

 

[buggalugs]

Have you seen the thread of 11.3? anything above that are shitty in cross-fire mode!

But hey! As long as it plays games smooth as silk who am i to say?

what have you gained? any marks?

Havent seen the thread but usually its the same 10-20 people that whinge after every driver.

Anyway seems about the same, ill run some benchmarks later.

 

[MilkyWay]

1.5 and 1.5b gave good improvements in certain games like brink and the witcher 2.
I think the drivers get better and better.

I was always forever trying beta drivers with nvidia which i never do now with ati.

 

[Zubasa]

Have you seen the thread of 11.3? anything above that are shitty in cross-fire mode!

But hey! As long as it plays games smooth as silk who am i to say?

what have you gained? any marks?

Performance is not the whole story, the newer drivers do fix problems like cards being stuck in certain clock states in CF and thing like video playback problems for most people.
The Cat 11.3 is faster yes, but it is also buggy for many users including myself.

 

[reverze]

i never had problems with any driver since i had my 9800pro. it simply works flawlessly.

granted i stay away from crossfire, but you know what you get yourself into.

 

[Steevo]

I have had the issue with the prior driver causing my cards GPU to show corruption in windows and games after opening the CCC application as it forced the clocks down on the core.


Perhaps this fixes that one small issue, and if not, I can always reinstall a previous driver.


To everyone else, please remember that you can just NOT install these drivers, and use what has been working.

 

[Over_Lord]

witcher 2 performance increase/stability

 

[CrackerJack]

Upgrade Install
11.5

11.6

 

[LifeOnMars]

These drivers still didn't fix the really bad Mafia 2 stutter I had, in fact, they have made it worse. This is on a freshly installed, updated Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit

EDIT - How do I submit feedback to ATI's driver team? Anybody have a link please?

 

[Imsochobo]

i never had problems with any driver since i had my 9800pro. it simply works flawlessly.

granted i stay away from crossfire, but you know what you get yourself into.

I've never had issues until 11.3
I swapped positions of my 5850's and it worked (almost)
I cannot play games with HDMI sound so I've made a macro on my keyboard to switch over to optical sound. (multidisplay)
havent filed any reports so it's my own fault I guess

It's better than nvidia, nothing works in my setup, Sooo, it's not horrible I guess, but even intel WORKS!

 

[erocker]

These drivers still didn't fix the really bad Mafia 2 stutter I had, in fact, they have made it worse. This is on a freshly installed, updated Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit

EDIT - How do I submit feedback to ATI's driver team? Anybody have a link please?

http://www.amdsurveys.com/se.ashx?s=5A1E27D27E29B0E3

 

[mastrdrver]

Anyone with W7 having 3D clocks stick when coming out of a game?

I just noticed it mentioned as a known problem in the release notes and would rather not go through that mess if possible.

 

[RejZoR]

They are now officially available on the AMD page.

 

[repman244]

Here's the changelog a rather long one this time

Highlights of the AMD Catalyst 11.6 Windows release includes:

New Features:

AMD Steady Video

• Steady Video is currently an AMD exclusive feature based on AMD APP Technology
• By applying advanced algorithms behind the scenes, users do not have to deal with shaky or unstable video ever again!
• Capabilities scale with hardware and are end user controlled

Image Stabilization brought to YouTube!
Decode Acceleration of MPEG-4 part 2 content

• AMD has enabled decode acceleration of MPEG-4 part 2 content in Microsoft video player applications (through MFT support) for all AMD Radeon 6000 Series

Performance Enhancements
Performance highlights of the AMD Catalyst 11.6 release includes:

• Performance gains in Crysis of up to 7% on AMD Radeon HD 6000 series single card configurations.
• Performance gains in F1 2010 of up to 8% in DirectX 11 mode on AMD Radeon HD 6000 series products in single and Crossfire configurations.
• Performance gains in Far Cry 2 of up to 5% on AMD Radeon HD 6000 series products in single and Crossfire configurations.
• Performance gains in HAWX of up to 8% on AMD Radeon HD 6000 series products in single and Crossfire configurations.
• Performance gains in the Unigine OpenGL tests of up to 10% on AMD Radeon HD 6000 series single card configurations.

Resolved Issues for the Windows 7 Operating System
This section provides information on resolved known issues in this release of the AMD Catalyst 11.6 software suite for Windows 7. These include:

• Flashing titles are no longer displayed when playing F1 2010 in a Crossfire environment.
• Video playback no longer intermittently displays a black screen when using Windows Media Player.
• Graphics and Gaming scores are now correctly computed in the Windows Performance Index.
• A BSOD error is no longer generated randomly when Crossfire is enabled/disabled after video/LCD overdrive settings are changed on HD 6900 series products.
• Crossfire is now correctly enabled when playing The Witcher 2 on HD 6800 series products. (when used with AMD Catalyst 11.5 CAP 5 release)
• Screen tearing is no longer randomly seen when playing Riddick 2 at high performance settings and with Crossfire enabled.
• The game Kings Bounty now renders correctly.
• The game Empire Total War now no longer displays random flickering and in-game buttons display correctly.
• Google Earth now performs smoothly in OpenGL mode.
• Crossfire is now correctly enabled when playing Cars 2 on HD 6900 series products.
• Sid Meyers Civilization V no longer displays intermittent graphical corruption when played in DirectX 10 mode in a Crossfire environment.
• Heaven 2.1 running in DirectX 11 mode no longer displays intermittent graphical corruption in a Crossfire environment.
• Crossfire is correctly enabled when playing LEGO : Pirates of the Caribbean on HD6800 and HD 6900 series products.
• Poor performance is no longer experienced while Playing Heroes of Newerth and when the cursor is moved to the top right or bottom right corner of the screen.
• Mouse cursor corruption (in the upper right portion of the screen) should be resolved

Resolved Issues for the Windows Vista Operating System
This section provides information on resolved known issues in this release of the AMD Catalyst 11.6 software suite for Windows Vista. These include:

• The screen no longer briefly flashes green while changing screen resolution and playing a BluRay title using PowerDVD 10.

Resolved Issues for the Windows XP Operating System
This section provides information on resolved known issues in this release of the AMD Catalyst 11.6 software suite for Windows XP. These include:

• World of Warcraft no longer randomly crashes or fails to launch when using an A-Series APU.
• Random graphics corruption is no longer observed while playing World of Warcraft.
• Playing Dead Rising 2 no longer causes the system to hang.

 

[Montalva]

right corner lagg fixed finaly!

 

[Batou1986]

right corner lagg fixed finaly!

Im glad i didnt have to deal with this for an extender period of time it was driving me nuts

 

[RejZoR]

The 3D clocks bug on Win7 is a bit retarded. How the hell can that remain a known problem?!

 

[erocker]

The 3D clocks bug on Win7 is a bit retarded. How the hell can that remain a known problem?!

Did you submit driver feedback to AMD? This is the first I've heard of this problem.

 

[dlpatague]

I've never really had any major problems with AMD drivers. Been running 5850's in CFX for over a year now no problems. Drivers keep getting better and better. Love the new features too.