Latest AMD Catalyst Video Driver for Windows 7

event3horizon said:

I updated to the 12.4 catalyst driver from 12.3 but the catalyst control center says I have 12.1 now?? I already uninstalled from progs/features and removed and deleted driver from dev manger. Y U NO UPDATE CORRECTLY??

Likely a typo in the INF or that particular registry entry didn't get updated on your system for whatever reason. Look at the packaging version as well as the Direct 3D version instead, as the Catalyst version number will show whatever the last version installed was. Other than convenience, it doesn't mean or affect how the drivers work.

The beta/leaked drivers don't have anything in that line and will show whatever was last installed. It can also show whatever you want it to just by making a change to the line responsible for it before installing,



That is actually the 8.97 beta (which will likely end up being the 12.5). I made the change from the previous beta when there were some questioned asked as to what version they really were. The line responsible for it isn't present in the INF so it didn't get updated when I installed the 8.97, and the CCC just shows whatever was there from before.

Just to talk about AMD's installer, and Driver Sweeper again...

Happened that I've been pestered with a Windows Update reminder lately, that my Catalyst 12.3 could use an update to 12.4. So I decided to just go ahead and do it. Take the requisite "system image" backup for protection, and then I went at it.

Decided to give the much-hyped "install it right over your existing installed setup" approach another try (although I was naturally skeptical it would succeed). My setup is relatively complex, with two 1920x1200 24" LCD monitors, two ATI TV Wonder 650 PCI/PCIe cards, one 4-tuner cablecard-enabled Ceton card, and lots of Windows Media Center going on.

Anyway, I ran the 12.4 installer and it seemed to finish. Interestingly, no errors. Then I re-booted, and all looked good. Then I tried to open CCC and it did not open. That familiar symptom of the spinning blue circle as CCC attempts to start and initialize, and then it disappears as CCC fails to complete. This can of course happen if you have a significant mismatch between versions of CCC and the driver, but in this case both should have been 12.4. Of course there's no way to really know, since CCC itself can't open!

Ok, run Driver Sweeper to analyse/cleanse everything AMD, and reboot. Once back to generic MS VGA support, I then ran the 12.4 ATI installer again. Interestingly, completed with some type of warning/error message but when the log was examined everything was shown as SUCCESSFUL. There were no warnings, and no errors.

Re-boot again, and everything looks good. Obviously now running ATI driver instead of MS generic.

Try to start CCC by right-click on desktop, and CCC does not appear on the context menu so that I cannot select it!!! I guess it was probably the victim of the install process which claimed something had not run properly in that warning/error message at the end of the install, even though on the log CCC showed as "SUCCESSFUL".

Oh well. Run the ATI installer again, and this time uncheck everything available except for CCC (which IS checked for install, with the description at the bottom of the dialog showing "current version not installed"). This custom install for CCC only seems to complete successfully (no errors or warnings).

And magically, sure enough when I right-click on the desktop there is CCC in the context menu. And when I select it and INFORMATION/SOFTWARE, sure enough there is the 12.4 version of both driver and CCC shown.

Mission FINALLY accomplished... but again, it really just never runs smoothly for me. It's always some kind of a battle. But I would not give up Driver Sweeper, as for me it is reliable whereas as the ATI Install Manager -> UNINSTALL is not.

I hope I'm not posting in the wrong area but, a box popped up on my screen about the new update so I took it. My question is, is there a place in windows/sys.32 that I could find an install exe. etc. that I could transfer to a usb flash drive so I could also update my backup tower without having to use more of my limited internet bandwidth? I usually, go to the website and save, my download so I can transfer it to the second tower but, forgot this time. It's now installed on Win. 7 64 bit pro. Thanks for all help! :)

Unconfirmed yet but,

AMD to halt monthly driver releases

There should be a public announcement today, but I have been allowed to share this info right now.

• AMD will end monthly Catalyst driver releases starting with Catalyst 12.5 (which won't exist). They have decided to focus harder on quality and improvements vs regular updates which may not bring many new things. This way there will be no need for two separate driver development paths every month: one to get the official WHQL driver and another that keeps doing the regular driver development.
• We should expect more "hot fixes" and "preview drivers" when new games are released or urgent fixes are required.
• There is a beta driver we are testing right now that fixes the Eyefinity tearing on the third monitor when mixing outputs. I have verified that it works with Southern Islands based cards, so I don't know if it will work with previous cards. Anyway, if no major issues are found, this driver should be publicly available next week.