AMD Catalyst 12.6 BETA (8.97.100.3 July 3) AMD Legacy Driver

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Downloads:
Win 7/Vista 32BiT
Win 7/Vista 64BiT
Win XP 32BiT
Win XP 64BiT
Linux 32-64BiT

AMD has moved to the AMD Radeon™ HD 2000, AMD Radeon HD 3000, and AMD Radeon HD 4000 Series new driver support model. These updates will focus on resolving application specific issues and critical updates. The reason for the shift in support policy is largely due to the fact that the AMD Radeon HD 2000, AMD Radeon HD 3000, and AMD Radeon HD 4000 Series have been optimized to their maximum potential from a performance and feature perspective.

CERT recently approached AMD with information pertaining to what they believed to be a possible video driver vulnerability exposed by non-default settings of the Microsoft® Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit (EMET). EMET is a security test tool that allows system administrators to create test conditions to validate correct behavior of system components or indicate potential weak points. The presence of an issue does not necessarily mean that this issue can be exploited in regular operation of a system. The default safety settings of the EMET do not cause the issue in question to occur.

The AMD Catalyst 12.6 beta driver for the AMD Radeon HD 2000, AMD Radeon HD 3000, and AMD Radeon HD 4000 Series is designed to resolve a possible video driver vulnerability issue and to minimize the occurrence of system crashes.

Build Info:
DriverVer=07/03/2012, 8.970.100.3000
8.97.100.3-120703a-142008E-ATI

Supported Cards:

Click to show spoiler

SamuelMaki · 07-06-2012, 00:40 | posts: 29 | Location: Espoo, Finland

No windows 8 support?

Espionage724 · 07-06-2012, 03:36 | posts: 619 | Location: Charleroi, PA

Quote:

Originally Posted by SamuelMaki

No windows 8 support?

Try installing it, and then check your WDDM level. If it's 1.2, then there is Win8 support...

Grabber · 07-06-2012, 08:37 | posts: 196 | Location: The Netherlands

Getting a Virus alert when installing the video drivers, from my Norton Internet Security 2012.

atiumdag.dll (Suspicious.Cloud.7.F)

mR Yellow · 07-06-2012, 08:40 | posts: 495 | Location: South Africa

When can we get another leaked version of the 9.00 strain?

vejn · 07-06-2012, 09:31 | posts: 524

Thank you!!!
Going to report back if Witcher EE opengl component and Hitman Blood money shaders are fixed.

ipredator · 07-06-2012, 09:38 | posts: 494

Quote:

Originally Posted by Grabber

Getting a Virus alert when installing the video drivers, from my Norton Internet Security 2012.

atiumdag.dll (Suspicious.Cloud.7.F)

Uninstall Norton and get MSE, its free and does a far better job without all the ridiculous false positives.

On a side note, I'd love to see a a new 9.00 driver too

Benik3 · 07-06-2012, 10:55 | posts: 362

Mobility mod?

vejn · 07-06-2012, 11:35 | posts: 524

So, next legacy release will be 12.9 ?

kevsamiga1974 · 07-06-2012, 12:07 | posts: 705 | Location: England

And still the existing 4870x2 3d clock on 2nd ASIC at idle desktop bootup bug since 12.3. Except it's now worse, clocks can't be reset to video card bios defaults with amd gpu clock tool -i=* -restore anymore from the command line.

The amdclocktool -i=* -restore trick used to reset all the adapters in the system to bios default values of 507/500 1.050V with Catalyst 12.3-12.4 now using 12.6 the same trick to fix the still borked clocks actually puts both clocks to 750/900/1.250V permanently eeek!.

I've had to code a tiny app myself that opens and closes a 3D screen instead in order to fix it since ATI can't be bothered. Available here :

http://www.mediafire.com/?mx7b6d7w3lq2984 35K

Drop in startup folder. All it does is wait 12 seconds after bootup and then opens and immediately closes a low res 3D screen fixing the second clock bug on 4870x2 at least. Only x64 fix.

ARGGGHHHHHH !!!! how long have they had to fix this stupidly obvious bug since february 12.2...yes i know I can open and close a 3d app, but I shouldn't have to everytime I reboot. Not for bloody months on end.

Where is the avivo and hydravision hiding ?

AVT startup popup window needs manually disabling on bootup in registry still.

CCC is crashing...

WEI score has gone down to 7.3 from 7.5 with these no amount of re-runs bring the score back up from 7.3.

What's the point of newer drivers if nothing ever gets fixed despite being told the clock "problem" was supposed to be cured in 8.97, I think it's back to the last decent set where the clocks aint busted wasting electricity and slow cooking the card and where gpu transcoding still works in A's video converter and media espresso....That would be let's see 11.9 WHQL.

This was the highlight funny part from the release notes :

Quote:

The reason for the shift in support policy is largely due to the fact that the AMD Radeon HD 4000, AMD Radeon HD 3000, and AMD Radeon HD 2000 Series have been optimized to their maximum potential from a performance and feature perspective.

Would be nice if these features *actually* worked as they're supposed to instead of half the time being buggy/incomplete/broken/half-assed rolling from one driver to the next letting us play russian roulette across releases.

I won't argue with the performance standpoint, it peaked around 10.5a and then was all downhill from there since Terry Makedon left.

Mikedogg · 07-06-2012, 13:24 | posts: 2,872 | Location: The Freak Show - Earth.

What. No fixes info?

vejn · 07-06-2012, 13:45 | posts: 524

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mikedogg

What. No fixes info?

This is still beta.
Try out then report any issuses and problems so they can fix it in final release.

Miroglu · 07-06-2012, 14:25 | posts: 51 | Location: TURKEY

Thanks asder

pakoo · 07-06-2012, 14:48 | posts: 73 | Location: SPAIN

Fix crossfire in Bad company 2 on 69xx users?.

Thanks.

kevsamiga1974 · 07-06-2012, 15:08 | posts: 705 | Location: England

Read what the title says man...

There's nothing contained in the .inf for above 4xxx series anymore as starting with this driver support has now been sectioned into legacy (I hate that word) and separate >=5xxx branches.

These probably won't install on 69xx series anyhow without modding the .inf file which should in theory still be possible. The question is why would you want to use it as a 69xx series owner, there are already drivers for 5xxx and above with far higher versions than these.

Mikedogg · 07-06-2012, 15:49 | posts: 2,872 | Location: The Freak Show - Earth.

Can't install media codecs, or hydravision.

What a jib!.

GhostXL · 07-06-2012, 19:19 | posts: 4,923 | Location: PA, USA

Quote:

Originally Posted by Grabber

Getting a Virus alert when installing the video drivers, from my Norton Internet Security 2012.

atiumdag.dll (Suspicious.Cloud.7.F)

Curious as to why you are trying to install these when you have a 5 series card. This is for HD 4 series and below.

SamuelMaki · 07-06-2012, 23:27 | posts: 29 | Location: Espoo, Finland

Quote:

Originally Posted by GhostXL

Curious as to why you are trying to install these when you have a 5 series card. This is for HD 4 series and below.

I have both, 4200 integrated and 5650m. I cannot run the new drivers (I keep getting weird issues, everything works fine if I use some drivers that support both cards...) and I cannot run these drivers because the lack of 5650m driver... Well, I am not sure if I have been just installing "wrong" or having other issues with my windows 8, but with this driver policy, I cannot update my drivers anymore... But I am looking if the coming DNA-drivers supports both my cards...

Anonizer · 07-07-2012, 02:08 | posts: 4

So is this the best drivers for 4xxx series? Anyone tested?

kevsamiga1974 · 07-07-2012, 08:21 | posts: 705 | Location: England

Best if you like stuck clocks and CCC crashes. Since 12.x they just screwed everything up. Still on 11.9 and I can see me being on them for a long time.

arranos · 07-07-2012, 13:00 | posts: 1

The LInks are not working

ipredator · 07-07-2012, 13:14 | posts: 494

Yeah seems like their download-server is down

Yxskaft · 07-07-2012, 14:42 | posts: 482

Boring release notes

May try it when I'm back home again, want to see more reactions about them first though

On a sidenote, I really think it would be interesting to see a driver comparison to see how much these cards gained over the years, and when it "stopped".
For example the initial release driver, and then 1 driver from each year up until now. I like seeing how older cards held up during the years

So many sites always only test the newest series and the previous when it comes to new drivers

kevsamiga1974 · 07-07-2012, 22:45 | posts: 705 | Location: England

Older drivers can turn out to be faster, but the image quality might not be as good in some cases.

I think in all fairness this driver has very little to offer over 8.97 18th April beta, it appears just a re-pack with a version bump and post 4xxx series install support hoovered out and maybe a security vulnerability fixed.

Infact the 2D, 3D and OpenGL components are all the same as the 18th april beta.

All the old bugs are still there. It appears some knuckledragger has been very busy scratching their arse for the last few months, meticulously fixing nothing but a big fat red balloon with no skin on it hence the extensive release notes.

I can't wait for what 12.9 brings...I'll still probably be on 11.9 tho when and if that happens broken games or not.

GhostXL · 07-08-2012, 00:31 | posts: 4,923 | Location: PA, USA

Quote:

Originally Posted by SamuelMaki

I have both, 4200 integrated and 5650m. I cannot run the new drivers (I keep getting weird issues, everything works fine if I use some drivers that support both cards...) and I cannot run these drivers because the lack of 5650m driver... Well, I am not sure if I have been just installing "wrong" or having other issues with my windows 8, but with this driver policy, I cannot update my drivers anymore... But I am looking if the coming DNA-drivers supports both my cards...

Ahh I see, strange dilemma you have going on there. Sorry you seem to be having issues.