Monday, November 2, 2015

Farewell to the AMD Catalyst driver, off the mini OS Radeon Software – Tom’s Hardware

The first child of the new Radeon Technologies Group led by industry veteran Raja Koduri not simply a new driver as was rumored in recent days but a radical innovation for the ecosystem of software that accompanies the Radeon video cards.

 
 

“In the past we called drivers that set of user interface, libraries, tools and applications, today we are witnessing an evolution that has made this set of software a real operating system in small, all the graphics. And AMD has decided to call this mini-OS Radeon Software “, says AMD.

 
 
 
 

AMD Catalyst drivers will retire , marking the end of an era and the beginning of the whole new era that starts today, November 2, with the presentation of Radeon Software Crimson Edition.

 
 

What was hitherto known as AMD Catalyst Control Center (CCC) has been completely re-designed and now called Radeon / FirePro Settings and contains new functions (Game Manager, Video Quality presets, Social Media integration , EF Simplified setup and system notifications tab) in a modern, easy to use . The Radeon Software Crimson Edition will be available for download by the end of the year – more details will come in the coming weeks.


 
                                   
 
 

In the presentation that you can see by browsing the gallery above AMD said that “the software is as important as the hardware.” Nothing is more true and in fact the company has development centers in the world, in the United States in Sunnyvale, Austin, Boston and Orlando, in Canada in Toronto, in Israel in Tel-Aviv, in India and in China that deal even this fundamental aspect.

 
 

In 13 years, the Catalyst drivers have been downloaded over a billion times and the Catalyst Controller has changed constantly, but there are at least three major releases: the first in 2002, second in 2006 and the last, in 2011. With Radeon Software Crimson opens a new era.

 
 
 
 

In a slide AMD says that “Radeon Software” is the name, Crimson Edition is the “major version” and the number 15.11 indicates the year and month (November 2015). From now on it will be good to keep in mind this new nomenclature.


 
 

To develop Radeon Software – redesigned based on QT – AMD has followed several guidelines: create modern user interface that was navigable in an intuitive and, above all, very fast. The design for a new style reminiscent of brushed metal and access settings is up to 10 times faster than the Catalyst Control Center. AMD claims that Radeon Settings starts in 0.6 seconds compared to 8 seconds needed before.


 
 
 
 

The interface is completely renovated but offers features AMD Radeon users well know, from global or for individual games, in Overdrive – with overclocking customized for each game – and the ability to create different profiles to manage video and each display available. Many operations you can do from the “system tray”.


 
 
 
 

In short, AMD has changed everything – interface, infrastructure – in order to offer a better product to its users. If these are the premises of the work of the Radeon Technologies Group, then we will see some good. An opinion on concrete Radeon Software will have to wait a field trial, but we hope that this is the sign of a renewed commitment to AMD on the software front, and not just another flare followed by a few facts.


 

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