AMD abandons Monthly Catalyst release program; debuts new Issue Reporting form

[caveman-jim]

With the release of the Catalyst 12.6 Beta driver, AMD would also like to announce that we are moving away from our Monthly Catalyst release plan. Our goal is to ensure that every Catalyst release delivers a substantial benefit to our end users; as we have today with the release of the Catalyst 12.6a Beta. We will still continue with the Catalyst naming convention; Catalyst: Year.Month., You just won’t see a new driver every single month. We are confident that this will only benefit the end user; you’ll only need to upgrade to a new Catalyst driver, when it makes sense.

We would also like announce the introduction of our new AMD Issue Reporting Form. We made a number of improvements to the older Catalyst Crew Feedback form, making it more comprehensive, ensuring we get the best feedback possible. Feedback is very important in every product company’s life, especially in our fast paced environment. This is not just a check-box for us – we take these reports very seriously. We will review every report posted here and investigate every issue encountered. Please use this form whenever you encounter something worth mentioning.

Grab the new 12.6 Preview drivers here and read a description of the new driver here.

Originally Posted by LordJuanlo

There should be a public announcement today [5/31], 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 Souther 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.

[Sazar]

I am assuming I will have to stick to some hodgepodge contraption of a driver for Windows 8 for my 4870 since there is no mention of it in this driver set?

[caveman-jim]

Originally Posted by Sazar

I am assuming I will have to stick to some hodgepodge contraption of a driver for Windows 8 for my 4870 since there is no mention of it in this driver set?

You mean the Windows 8 preview driver? http://support.amd.com/us/kbarticles...ewDrivers.aspx

Yes, no support for anything earlier than 5000 series it appears.

[Sazar]

Originally Posted by caveman-jim

You mean the Windows 8 previre driver? http://support.amd.com/us/kbarticles...ewDrivers.aspx

Yes, no support for anything earlier than 5000 series it appears.

I guess I'll have to piece meal it like I have been doing.

[Dayblade]

I understand wanting to go to a hotfix approach to be me more reactive to the gaming masses - but what concerns me here is how will this affect driver "versioning"? If hotfix 1 comes out that fixes game A lets say - and I dont play that at all - but hotfix 2 comes out that fixes game B - will I have to have hotfix 1 installed first to get hotfix 2? Sounds like a confusing mess incoming.

[seanR3D]

I love the reactive approach. And the last bunch of releases haven't been significant anyway. Good news.

I'm surprised they didn't decide to integrate the report system into the new driver. Maybe in a future release?

[caveman-jim]

Originally Posted by Dayblade

I understand wanting to go to a hotfix approach to be me more reactive to the gaming masses - but what concerns me here is how will this affect driver "versioning"? If hotfix 1 comes out that fixes game A lets say - and I dont play that at all - but hotfix 2 comes out that fixes game B - will I have to have hotfix 1 installed first to get hotfix 2? Sounds like a confusing mess incoming.

That's a good question and a problem we've seen recently (Rage, I think - the fix driver for that wasn't in subsequent other drivers for a few weeks). Typically we've seen that each hotfix will be standalone and the fixes that are in it will be the ones that apply, they don't 'stack'.

That being said, with Catalyst Application Profiles, only games who's engine isn't profiled properly will need a hotfix driver; games that need a CAP to tweak it will be supported by CAP's.

[Evolver]

Someone should should have told Falcon1 that AMD uses a <Year>.<Month> naming strategy so he doesn't go around spreading misinformation

It's not <Year>.<Month> release, it's <Year>.<ReleaseNumber>.

It has been that way how long? 6 years? And still we have to explain this in every god-damn thread...

Dumbass.

[Qamly]

Originally Posted by Sazar

I am assuming I will have to stick to some hodgepodge contraption of a driver for Windows 8 for my 4870 since there is no mention of it in this driver set?

Forget the drivers, why in the world would you install win 8 in the first place?

[caveman-jim]

Originally Posted by Evolver

Someone should should have told Falcon1 that AMD uses a <Year>.<Month> naming strategy so he doesn't go around spreading misinformation

Dumbass.

The year.month wording in the release threw me as well. I've been hearing, direct from AMD, it was never year.month but year.rel#, they just happened to hit each month. Then there was the 10.13 driver the supported that, they had 13 full releases. so it wasn't year.month at all! and now it is.

[Evolver]

I guess even AMD doesn't know

[noko]

Well Nvidia releases a stream of endless beta's leaked (intentional) and official beta's which keeps up with new games while their WhQL releases are rather infrequent. Is AMD going to start releasing more beta's? To cover newer games that profiles won't work with?

Funny, one reason I like AMD is the frequent WHQL driver releases that for the most part are strong for my setups. I guess we will wait and see if this move pays off.