14 DAY TRIAL // Advanced Micro Devices has finished its latest, full and stable version of the software suite meant to enable support for its AMD GPUs, APUs and chipset integrated graphics.
Interestingly enough, this Catalyst 12.2 is the first WHQL driver to add official support for the Radeon HD 7900 and HD 7700 series.
That only goes for Windows 7 and Windows Vista though. Windows XP will only get full support when the Catalyst 12.4 driver shows up.
That said, in addition to adding new things, the package also improves on some existing features.
For one, Super Sampling Anti-Aliasing is now available for DirectX 10 and DirectX 11 applications, complete with the possibility to enable it, and Adaptive Anti-Aliasing, through the Control Center, as long as games actually support such a thing.
Forced on Anti-Aliasing through the Catalyst Control Center is not supported for these DirectX versions yet.
A second improved feature is the Eyefinity 2.1 technology: custom resolutions can be employed and switching between different display configurations can be done automatically upon loading appropriate profiles (Dynamic Configuration Changes).
HydraVision got some enhancements as well (Windows Task bar can be moved and resized) and so did the Profile Manager (multiple display profiles can be created).
The rest of the entries in the release notes document revolve around product support and whatever issues were resolved or will persist.
Some games, like Skyrim, Alan Wake and Dirt3, still have some problems in certain scenarios (Eyefinity, Crossfire), but the list of resolved problems is quite a bit longer than the “Known Issues” one, so things are looking good.
We're not going to fill pages and pages and pages with all the details, since the download section has the lists all set and ready to be perused. Just make sure you get the appropriate version of the driver.
AMD Catalyst Display Driver 12.2 for XP
AMD Catalyst Display Driver 12.2 for XP64
AMD Catalyst Display Driver 12.2 for Vista/Windows 7 x32
AMD Catalyst Display Driver 12.2 for Vista/Windows 7 x64
AMD Catalyst Mobility Display Driver 12.2 for Vista/Windows 7
AMD Catalyst Mobility Display Driver 12.2 for Vista/Windows 7 x64