AMD says goodbye to Catalyst: the new software platform Radeon Software Crimson has been launched. Test and review: AMD Radeon Software Crimson Edition – new generation of drivers

AMD Radeon Software Crimson - driver performance tuning Reviews Vladimir Enlighten the dark soul, are we setting the settings in this video for maximum performance? Or are we pursuing a goal so that it doesn’t brain us? Is there a video with a good computer for example i5 4 core and 16 gigs of RAM for R9? Alexey The tessellation mode does not need to be disabled, as it will affect the worse image quality. The geometry method is the simplest and is capable of displaying more textures and dark colors on the screen without losing performance.

Date: 2018-10-23 Teplo TV

Rating: 4 out of 5
Votes: 2

Comments and reviews: 16

1. Igor
Please tell me, if I don’t have the Crossfire feature, will I just need to add the application that I want to use with a discrete graphics card and select high performance?
or is there something else that needs to be done?
I have an AMD A6-7310 APU with AMD RAdeon R4 Graphics, discrete Radeon R5 M355.

2. Ilya
People, tell me where to download working drivers for the Radeon HD 5850?
There are two builds on the official AMD website, both with bugs.
Does Photoshop freeze on one? on the second YouTube there are friezes ((
And also tell me how to put a curse on AMD driver developers...

3. Diman
Cool channel) helped)))
I have a question, I have 2 video cards on my laptop and I would like to know how to switch the built-in video card to another one, since the laptop seems to be fine, but the toys are barely moving, please tell me what should I do?

4.doc
damn, I don’t have such settings, I only have 1) Settings and 2) My digital flat panels are not expanded, but reduced, how can I fix this, the firewood is all the latest, I haven’t done anything with it, it just doesn’t appear ((((

5. Prepodobnuy
Thank you for the video, please tell me how to change the language. The installation of Crimson is in Russian, but in the end the entire menu is in English, please write - I really can’t figure it out. Thanks in advance..

6.Mond1S-
Guys, help. What should I do if I have only 3 items in the additional Radeon settings. Settings, My Digital Flat Panels and Sound. What to do, anyone knows, please help me, I will be very very glad

7. Vladimir
The shader memory cache is on or off, it’s not clear and open GEL is on here, you say, and another smart guy says it’s off and teleseletion is off, but is there somewhere they set it to 16 x? Damn, why did you decide to blow my brain up?)

8. Reaper
In the settings tab, when I try to open additional settings, it says: it is impossible to open additional settings for Radeon, there are no parameters that can be configured right now. what does this have to do with? new version of crimson?

9.tpY
I don’t have a second section in the settings, global settings...vidyukha AMD Radeon HD Graphics 7310 driver of some kind of “raspberry edition” downloaded from the office. Site amd.. sorry for the mistakes, help who knows

10. Pavel
I advise you to use these settings if you don’t particularly understand your hands, don’t stick them in like I clicked, which gave me Warface at low 50 frames. RX460-4gb is the cheapest version and it works, it makes a lot of noise

11. SNOWM❶N
Guys, tell me AMD Radeon (TM) R7 370 series is a good video card? I have FOR HONOR at the maximum, cs go 250 FPS, and games such as ARK Survival Evolved and PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS run at minimum settings. What should I do?

12. Adam
What should you do if, after upgrading, the video card is idle at 99 degrees and 100% GPU load and there is no cooling adjustment? MSI does not work anymore and in Whatman paper there is no speed control for the GPU cooler.

13. MECHANIC
I transferred the game to this video card, I go into the game and I receive a notification that this offer uses 3D graphics and so on, what should I do?

14. Dead
The 3rd OpenGl buffering is only needed when vertical synchronization is turned on who you are listening to, and it would be a good idea to like this IGNORANT, complete nonsense, not a guide...

15. Nyple
Why enable triple buffering?
Usually everyone turns it off + on the catalyst it must be turned off anyway if you want to achieve performance.

16. Sergey
What version of Crimson Reliv is this? I updated the driver to 17.9 and the video card is bent, there is an overdrive setting that keeps the GP at 150 MHz, and the scribe...

AMD not only produces a wide range of video cards for different price categories, but also provides a full set of software that allows you to configure their equipment for various purposes. This list includes drivers, control panels, gaming applications and more. In this article you will learn how to configure a video card for AMD Radeon games using various utilities and programs.

Setting methods

Let's look at each of the methods for tuning and improving video card performance in the form of step-by-step guides. The following are the instructions:

for updating drivers;
configuration via the proprietary control panel;
setting in ;
optimization within the game.

Each method allows you to achieve performance gains in various computer games.

Drivers

The first reason why modern games will slow down even on a powerful video card is outdated drivers. You can update them and speed up your video card in this way through:

AMD official website.
Standard Windows application.

You can download the package from the official website. To do this, open the resource http://www.amd.com/ru and go to the “Drivers and Support” section. In the “Manual driver selection” column, select your video card model, operating system version and download the archive.

Before installing a new driver, you must remove the old one. To do this, open Device Manager. You can do it like this:

Right-click on the “Computer” icon and select “Properties”.
Next, go to the “Device Manager” section.
In the “Video adapters” branch, find your video card and right-click on it. In properties you can find the characteristics of the AMD Radeon video card and driver settings.
Click on the “Remove driver” button. After removal, the screen resolution may be reduced.

Now let's start installing the new driver version. Unpack the downloaded archive into any folder on your hard drive and run the installer. During the installation process, the display may flicker and disappear for a few seconds. Once the process is complete, be sure to restart your computer.

This way you can speed up your video card in modern games, since with the release of almost every major project, AMD releases new driver versions with optimizations and corrections of previous errors.

You can also install the driver using standard operating system tools:

Go to Device Manager.
Right-click on your video card and select “Properties” from the menu.
In the second properties tab, click on “Update Driver”.
Next, select the automatic method of searching for updates and wait until the procedure is completed.
The system itself will find new versions of the software and offer to install it.

AMD Catalyst Control Center

This utility is an analogue of the Nvidia control panel. It is automatically installed with a driver package from the official website, so we recommend that you use the first method to update the software. Through a standard driver search, Windows will not install the control panel for you.

Standard setting

To open the application and configure your AMD Radeon video card for gaming, you need to right-click on the desktop and go to AMD Catalyst Control Center. In the window that opens, click on the “Options” button. Here you can select advanced or standard view. If you are an experienced user, you can configure each parameter and characteristic of the video card separately using advanced options. However, we do not recommend that you experiment in this section without knowing what settings this or that parameter is responsible for.

Select “Standard View” and open the “Games” section. Next, go to the “Game Performance” subsection. Setting up an AMD Radeon video card for games is presented in the form of visual sliders with a choice of graphics quality. The installed parameters will change the picture in the game regardless of the internal settings. This way you can achieve high performance on weak video cards or, conversely, improve the picture on more powerful systems.

In the first tab you select anti-aliasing options between disabled, 2X, 4X and so on. The picture will show the changes in graphics quality. Next comes setting up the smoothing method. To get more FPS in the game, move the slider towards the “Performance” position.

The third point is anisotropic filtering. Here you need to uncheck the box next to “Use application settings”. After this, the video card will be ignored in the game and set its own settings. This is where the options in the standard view end.

Detailed setting

Click on Options again and now select Advanced View. The program for setting up an AMD Radeon video card allows you to set parameters that will be used in all launched games.

Now you need to open the “Games” subsection on the left side of the window. Here you can choose different modes and options. You also have the opportunity to set anti-aliasing, filtering and frame rate settings for each game separately. This feature allows you to achieve maximum performance in different applications. This utility allows you to configure AMD Radeon on Windows 7, 8 and 10 without any problems.

Using Gaming Evolved

AMD also has a separate application, which is similar to Nvidia GeForce Experience. Its main task is to collect information about installed games and optimize them for the power of your personal computer.

In the list of all found games you will see everything installed on your PC. If a game has not been added, you can add it manually. The application also collects statistics on hours played and so on.

In the table you will see the current graphics settings that are set by the game itself, and in the adjacent column a list of optimal picture quality parameters at which you will achieve the maximum balance between performance and a beautiful image.

Using a separate slider, you can select settings aimed at performance, quality, or a compromise between the two extremes. The principle of operation of the application is the same as in the case of AMD Catalyst Control Center.

Do not change video card parameters in advanced settings without proper knowledge. Otherwise, you will have to restore all default values or reinstall the driver again.

Always keep an eye on the release of new driver versions. All new projects suffer from poor optimization after release, so graphics accelerator manufacturer software can help in this matter.

Conclusion

Now you know how to configure your AMD Radeon graphics card for gaming so that your computer produces the maximum number of frames per second without greatly reducing the quality of graphics. The methods described in the article will be relevant for weak computers, where every frame counts.

AMD Radeon Software Crimson Edition– a comprehensive package of drivers for Windows designed to improve the graphics capabilities of video cards from the well-known company AMD. By installing them, you can significantly improve the performance of your video card, provide expanded control over its functions, and at the same time make video and game playback softer and smoother. In addition, AMD Radeon drivers contain useful utilities that provide convenient control of your computer's multimedia capabilities. Versions are available for 32-bit and 64-bit Windows 7, as well as Windows 10 64 Bit.

Purpose of the program:

Improving the performance characteristics of AMD video cards.
Improved quality of 2D and 3D graphics.
Flexible adjustment of screen parameters: changing resolution, color, refresh rate, orientation, etc.
Possibility to change the configuration of up to nine desktops.
Saving individual settings for each screen.
Support for VSR technology - rendering images in a higher resolution than that set in the display settings.
Support for AMD CrossFire - combining two or more video cards to increase overall performance.
Smoothes video streams in games using AMD FreeSync technology.
Manage different applications via a specific desktop.

Among other features, AMD Radeon utilities can assign hot keys for easier work and provide settings for some parameters of 3D applications and viewing the characteristics of the hardware responsible for video.

Installing AMD Radeon Drivers

The package is installed as a regular program and does not require any fine tuning. The hardware (video card) on the computer is detected automatically using the Autodetect utility. Download AMD Radeon Software Crimson Edition for free in Russian is available on this page, all popular versions of Windows are supported.

In December 2014, AMD released a major update to the Catalyst Omega drivers, and almost a year later decided to permanently abandon the previous brand, which it had used for thirteen years. Released today, Radeon Software Crimson Edition includes the latest driver as well as the first edition of the new Radeon Software platform. A more modern, faster and more convenient analogue, Catalyst Control Center (CCC), was developed by the Radeon Technologies Group (RTG) division formed last month and is designed not only to improve software quality, but also to increase energy savings and performance in games, as well as improve video playback quality, support for DirectX 12 and virtual reality technologies.

The Radeon Settings panel is opened by double-clicking on the icon on the taskbar or selecting the appropriate option in the menu that opens by right-clicking on the desktop. The new interface, designed in a strict style, is written in QT and is distinguished by a more convenient arrangement of elements and generally higher responsiveness: the software is installed in three clicks (instead of seven in the case of CCC), and its launch is much faster than before.

Radeon Software offers the following key innovations:

faster, more intuitive interface built from the ground up;
game manager;
support for LiquidVR virtual reality technology;
quality profiles and new features related to video playback;
integration with social networks;
simplified setup of AMD Eyefinity technology for systems with multiple displays;
system notification panel;
shader caching;
Frame Pacing technology version 3.0;
the ability to configure various display parameters (Custom Resolutions);
improved AMD Low Framerate Compensation (LFC) technology on AMD FreeSync-enabled displays;
additional features of OpenCL 2.0.

One of the features of Radeon Software is increased energy savings. Compared to AMD Catalyst 15.7.1, the new version of the software makes it much more efficient to use the resources of the graphics accelerator and the entire system as a whole when watching HD videos on YouTube.

Frame rate control in DX9, DX10 and DX11 applications

Frame Rate Target Control (FRTC), first introduced in AMD Catalyst 15.7, now allows you to manually set the frame rate for full-screen DirectX 9-based applications. The user can set any value ranging from 30 to 200 fps. This feature helps reduce the load on the GPU and, as a result, reduce noise and heat. Frame rate control is especially useful in game menus and loading screens - in such cases, the image is often refreshed several hundred times per second.

AMD's internal testing has shown that when the frame rate is limited to 90 fps in Rocket League running on DirectX 9, on the Radeon R9 Fury X at 1080p resolution, it saves up to 114 W of graphics card power and up to 125 W of system power as a whole.

As for games based on DirectX 10 and DirectX 11, in BioShock Infinite on the same video card in 4K resolution, with the frequency limited to 60 frames/s, you can achieve savings of 105 W and 107 W for the video accelerator and the entire system, respectively. The corresponding function in Catalyst 15.7.1 saves no more than 50 W. In Sniper Elite 3, when setting the limit to 55 fps, savings can reach 189 W for the graphics adapter and 190 W for the entire computer.

Improved gaming performance

On the Radeon R9 Fury X at 1080p, you can get some performance gains in games compared to Catalyst 15.7.1: in Fable Legends it is 20%, in Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 - 8.22%. The performance of some games on Linux has also been optimized (BioShock Infinite, Total War, Portal 2 and Dota 2 - performance increases range from 112 to 155%).

Thanks to the shader caching function, in many games, especially those with an open world, it is possible to reduce loading times, eliminate image stuttering due to CPU overload and short-term freezes. Thus, when this option is enabled, the loading of the BioShock Infinite benchmark is accelerated by 12%, and the Endor map in Survival mode in Star Wars: Battlefront is accelerated by 34.5% (Radeon R9 380X, AMD FX 8370, 8 GB RAM, Windows 10 ).

The update also introduced support for the Frame Pacing function introduced in Catalyst 13.12 for games on DirectX 9 (the graph below shows the results of its work using The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim as an example) and improved the performance of FreeSync dynamic vertical synchronization technology with frequent crashes frame rate. Low Framerate Compensation (LFC) technology on FreeSync-enabled displays smooths out frame rate spikes and eliminates image judder.

In addition, Radeon Software offers six video viewing profiles that automatically enable specific features based on the current screen resolution, content being played, and the player being used. Users can adjust sharpness, brightness, color saturation, and also activate AMD Fluid Motion Video and AMD Steady Video modes.

There are also two new features: Directional Scaling, which smoothes out the effects that occur when displaying a 1080p image on a 4K display "staircase effect", and adaptive dynamic contrast control, which allows you to increase the overall contrast of the image without affecting dark areas.

Finally, now users have the opportunity to manually set various display parameters: horizontal and vertical resolution, refresh rate, pixelation frequency, scan type, etc.

The package includes AMD Unistall Clean Utility, which will remove previously installed Catalyst graphics and audio drivers, unused files and registry entries.

Along with the release of Radeon Software Crimson Edition, the company shared some interesting statistics and some plans for the future. It turned out that since the release of AMD Catalyst Omega, drivers for its video cards have been downloaded over 60 million times. Next year, the company, as noted in the past, will release driver updates more often: in 2016, up to six WHQL driver editions will appear, while in 2015 there were three. Along with the main releases, AMD, as before, intends to release beta drivers.

You can download the package from the manufacturer's official website. It is designed for 64-bit and 32-bit versions of Windows 10, Windows 8.1 and Windows 7, as well as Linux. The list of supported video cards for desktop systems starts with the AMD Radeon HD 7700 series and ends with the AMD Radeon R9 Fury (for laptops - from AMD Radeon HD 7700M to AMD Radeon R9 M300).

In recent days, we have been able to test the Crimson Edition in detail. We were able to do the same work as with other drivers previously. We ran several tests and also checked a number of settings. Here I would like to note that AMD developed Crimson Edition from scratch based on Qt. The driver shell now launches faster, and submenus also work more smoothly. However, AMD delays the launch of the shell up to five minutes under Windows so that it does not block other startup procedures. In any case, the program starts much faster than before. The driver removal procedure has also been improved, which removes all components without leaving “ballast” in the system.

The first two screenshots clearly show the external interface changes. AMD has completely said goodbye to the old design, now the menus look flat, the structure has also been changed so that you can get to the necessary functions faster. For gamers, the most important settings will likely be the various filters and effects. They can be set globally or individually for each game. To do this, the Crimson Edition driver shell scans hard drives for games. By the way, games can be launched directly by selecting them in the shell.

In addition to quality settings, you can also save overclocking settings in profiles. You can also create several profiles for one game, then you can select the one you need.

In addition to the usual image quality and filtering settings, you can adjust the Frame Rate Target Control (FRTC) function. With FRTC you can set the maximum frame rate for the game. Of course, the function is only interesting if the game provides more fps than required. The purpose of the technology lies in energy saving. FRTC works not only in the game itself, but also in menus and loading screens when the video card can produce several hundred frames per second. The same applies to watching movies, since more than 60 fps is not required here. We have already provided test results and assessed potential energy savings.

Support for overclocking via OverDrive has also changed significantly. Here you can set the GPU clock speed, as well as configure limits on power consumption, temperature and fan speed. You can either adjust the sliders directly or move the point on the graph at the top right. Overclocking can also be set both globally and separately for specific games.

Depending on the gamer's habits, the difference between global and individual profiles may or may not matter. We think selective application is important for features like Frame Rate Target Control. For less demanding games, FRTC can be enabled, but for everything else we would disable it. The same goes for overclocking. For demanding games, overclocking can be enabled to get the most out of the graphics card. For less demanding games, overclocking is not needed at all.

Most users won't find the Crimson Edition's video and display settings all that interesting. You can customize color profiles and rendering profiles or filters for videos. Demonstrations are available to help you evaluate the impact of the settings on your footage. Display options are important for those users who plan to take advantage of Virtual Super Resolution. The user now has full access to and can change resolution settings, timings, and refresh rates (regardless of system default modes). Previously, this could only be done on FirePro graphics cards.

In the display settings, we found here and there a legacy of the AMD Catalyst driver, which included an old interface design and stuttering. As AMD points out, these options are being gradually redesigned for the Crimson Edition, so that parts of the old Catalyst will disappear over time. So far, we haven't been able to test the Eyefinity settings, which are important for a multi-monitor setup.

The last important tab in Crimson Edition is system information. All basic information about the installed software and hardware is displayed here. The tab will be especially useful in the case of FreeSync monitors, as it allows you to find out whether the technology is working. Previously, this information had to be found in the monitor documentation.

Detailed information about the video card is displayed. Individual tile values can be copied to the clipboard. They can be easily transferred, for example, to messenger. All this clears up the situation in the case of confusing driver versions.

In the driver settings, additional options are available regarding displaying the driver shell window or adding advertising. You can also cancel any settings you have made.

Through notifications, the user can be informed about any problems or incorrect options. Radeon Software Crimson Edition keeps itself up to date and updates are installed automatically.

Finally, we note the new icon that appears on the taskbar or appears when you right-click on the desktop. Through the taskbar, you can not only launch the Crimson Edition shell, but also activate global profiles without launching the shell.