AMD Launches Catalyst 15.7 With Windows 10 Support

News
By Kevin Carbotte
published

With Windows 10 set to launch at the end of the month, AMD is getting a head start by releasing version 15.7 of its Catalyst Software suite, which features support for AMD's latest technologies. Version 15.7 comes with full support for Microsoft's upcoming Windows 10 operating system, and it's the first WCCL-certified driver released this year. 

Catalyst 15.7 includes display driver version 15.20.1046, which AMD said is designed to support advanced features that the OS offers, such as streaming Xbox One content to Win10 devices, responsive resume, and of course Direct X 12. HEVC decoding is also supported on Caveri APUs which feature a hardware decoder.

Catalyst 15.7 doesn't just offer Windows 10 features; the new driver is supported by Window 7 and 8.1 as well, and a number of new features have been unlocked for all supported operating systems.

Frame Rate Target Control (FRTC) is now available on all R7 and R9 GPUs above the R7 260, including the latest Fury GPU. This technology first appeared in AMD's Kaveri APUs earlier this year and is mainly used to reduce power consumption. Gamers can set the frame rate target they wish to achieve, and the GPU will throttle once it hits that level so as not to waste unnecessary power.

Catalyst 15.7 also unlocks Virtual Super Resolution (VSR) for many other GPUs. This technology was also introduced with Kaveri and until now was only available on those APUs. The latest Catalyst driver supports R7 260 and up, and Desktop A-series 7400K and better APUs. VSR can be used to render your gameplay at a higher resolution than the monitor being used to display. AMD said this delivers a crisper image than the native resolution.

Catalyst 15.7 has improved CrossFire support, as well. AMD has made profile enhancements for each of following games, and each title now supports FreeSync displays while in Crossfire.

Battlefield: Hardline        
Evolve
Far Cry® 4
Lords of the Fallen
Project CARS
Total War: Attila
Alien: Isolation
Assassin's Creed® Unity
Civilization: Beyond Earth
FIFA 2015
GRID Autosport
Ryse: Son of Rome
Talos Principle
The Crew
​Grand Theft Auto V
Dying Light
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

AMD's Catalyst 15.7 package is 286 MB and can be downloaded from the company's website today.

Follow Kevin Carbotte @pumcypuhoy. Follow us @tomshardware, on Facebook and on Google+.

Kevin Carbotte

 Kevin Carbotte is a contributing writer for Tom's Hardware who primarily covers VR and AR hardware. He has been writing for us for more than four years. 

34 Comments Comment from the forums
  • ZENprime
    Features
    Windows® 10 Support
    This is a Technical Preview driver with full WDDM 2.0 support for Windows® 10 and DirectX® 12 on all Graphics Core Next (GCN) supported products, -AMD Radeon™ HD 7000 and newer graphics products. Official driver support for AMD products will be available when Microsoft launches Windows® 10 on July 29th, 2015.
    Virtual Super Resolution (VSR)
    AMD Radeon™ R9 Fury Series AMD Radeon™ R9 280 Series
    AMD Radeon™ R9 390 Series AMD Radeon™ R9 270 Series
    AMD Radeon™ R9 380 Series AMD Radeon™ R7 260 Series
    AMD Radeon™ R7 370 Series AMD Radeon™ HD 7900 Series
    AMD Radeon™ R7 360 Series AMD Radeon™ HD 7800 Series
    AMD Radeon™ R9 295X2 AMD Radeon™ HD 7790 Series
    AMD Radeon™ R9 290 Series Desktop A-Series 7400K APUs and above
    Below is a list of supported resolutions:
    Target Display Timing Supported VSR Modes
    1366 X 768 @ 60Hz 1600 X 900, 1920 X 1080
    1600 X 900 @ 60Hz 1920 X 1080
    1920 X 1080 @ 60Hz 2560 X 1440, 3200 X 1800, 3840 X 2160 (R9 285, R9 Fury Series)
    1920 X 1200 @ 60Hz 2048 X 1536, 2560 X 1600, 3840 X 2400 (R9 285, R9 Fury Series)
    2560 X 1440 @ 60Hz 3200 X 1800
    1920 X 1080 @ 120Hz 1920 X 1200 @ 120Hz, 2048 X 1536 @ 120Hz
    Frame Rate Target Control™ (FRTC)
    FRTC allows the user to set a maximum frame rate when playing an application in full screen exclusive mode. This feature provides the following benefits:
    Reduced GPU power consumption
    Reduced system heat
    Lower fan speeds and less noise
    This feature is supported on applications using DirectX® 10 or higher and on the following AMD graphics products:
    AMD Radeon™ R9 Fury Series AMD Radeon™ R9 280 Series
    AMD Radeon™ R9 390 Series AMD Radeon™ R9 270 Series
    AMD Radeon™ R9 380 Series AMD Radeon™ R7 260 Series
    AMD Radeon™ R7 370 Series AMD Radeon™ HD 7900 Series
    AMD Radeon™ R7 360 Series AMD Radeon™ HD 7800 Series
    AMD Radeon™ R9 295X2 AMD Radeon™ HD 7790 Series
    AMD Radeon™ R9 290 Series
    AMD FreeSync™ and AMD CrossFire™ Support
    AMD FreeSync™ and AMD CrossFire™ can now be used together in applications using DirectX® 10 or higher. This feature currently does not support systems configured in AMD Dual Graphics mode.
    AMD CrossFire™ Profile Enhancements
    AMD Catalyst™ 15.7 includes enhancement for the following games since AMD Catalyst™ Omega:
    Battlefield: Hardline
    Evolve
    Far Cry® 4
    Lords of the Fallen
    Project CARS
    Total War: Attila
    Alien: Isolation™
    Assassin's Creed® Unity
    Civilization®: Beyond Earth™
    FIFA 2015
    GRID Autosport
    Ryse: Son of Rome
    Talos Principle
    The Crew
    Grand Theft Auto V
    Dying Light
    The Witcher® 3: Wild Hunt
    Performance Optimizations versus AMD Catalyst™ Omega
    Single GPU performance on Windows 8.1 based system:
    Up to 7% in Far Cry® 4 on AMD Radeon™ R7 and AMD Radeon™ R9 200 series and up
    Up to 10% in Tomb Raider on AMD Radeon™ R7 and AMD Radeon™ R9 200 series and up
    Release Notes
    This driver is not intended for use on AMD products running in Apple Boot Camp platforms. Users of these platforms should contact their manufacturer for driver support.
    When installing the AMD Catalyst™ Driver for Windows® operating system, the user must be logged on as Administrator, or have Administrator rights to complete the installation of the AMD Catalyst™ Driver.
    The AMD Catalyst™ 15.7 Software Suite requires Windows® 7 Service Pack 1 to be installed.
    *The AMD Catalyst™ 15.7 Software Suite requires Microsoft® .NET Framework 4.5 to be installed. Microsoft .NET Framework 4.5 is included in all AMD Catalyst™ packages.
    Resolved Issues:
    Second Life - Avatar rendering is corrupted when hardware skinning is enabled
    Star Trek Online - Block corruption is observed if MSAA is enabled
    A black screen is observed when setting up a 3x1 SLS with 3 HDMI monitors
    Leadwerks : A crash is observed with a "Pure Virtual Call" error message
    System black hangs/BSOD upon resuming from S3/S4 sleep on AMD Radeon™ R9 285 configured in AMD CrossFire™ mode
    With AMD CrossFire™ enabled, Timeout Detection Recovery (TDR) occurs during actual gameplay when YouTube Mix moves to the next song in Firefox®
    Screen tearing on enabling VSync with Alien: Isolation game
    AMD Catalyst™ Control Center Video Quality settings may not be available or retained if the "Enforce Smooth Video Playback" option is not selected on some AMD Radeon™ HD Series graphics adapters.
    A black screen may be experienced when attempting to enable Eyefinity after changing the display mode (Portrait, Landscape)
    Primary display may not be retained after disabling AMD CrossFire™ while in AMD Eyefinity mode
    Enabling or disabling AMD CrossFire™ may lead to one side of the 4K MST display being shown as black
    Minor stuttering may be seen in Dragon Age Inquisition on Single and Multi GPU configurations
    Known Issues:
    The following known issues only apply to systems using Windows® 8.1 or Windows® 7 SP1 and later:
    Some systems may experience minor performance drop from 15.15 to 15.20 in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt with HairWorks enabled
    Some Kaveri APU based systems may experience minor performance drop on PCMark8 video_group_chat & Casual Gaming tests
    Display profiles are not retained after driver upgrade from 14.502 to 15.20
    Flickering corruption occurs in Dirty Rally with Advanced Blending enabled
    Fire in Total war Attila may experience corruption when in AMD CrossFire™ mode
    With quad AMD CrossFire™ mode enabled, TDR or blank display occurs when launching DirectX® 9 application in full screen
    BSOD observed when performing an express uninstall of the display driver in 4K resolution
    3DMark Farandole may crash when AMD Mantle is selected from the test suite
    Battlefield 4 triggers TDR and crash when running in AMD Mantle mode
    DLL missing popup message may be encountered when performing an express uninstall of the display driver. This will not impact the uninstall process
    Cyberlink PowerDVD plays 3D content in 2D mode
    Audio driver is banged out for non-primary ASIC after enabling CF and rebooting system
    Flickering and intermittent display blanking out with LG31MU97 if resolution is set above 1920x1080
    Intermittent BSOD occurs when launching a race in Dirt Rally
    Corruption may occur in Dirt Rally with CMAA enabled with Portrait SLS and AMD CrossFire™ mode enabled
    Flickering corruption may occur in Dirty Rally when changing settings during gameplay
    Flickering corruption may occur in Dirty Rally with Advanced Blending enabled
    AMD Radeon™ R9 390 Series may experience screen corruption in 3Dmark11 "Deep Sea" Demo
    Battlefield: Hardline crashes on pressing Ctrl+Alt+Del while running in AMD Mantle mode
    Rage: In game cinematic may stutter when quad AMD Crossfire™ mode is enabled
    The Witcher® 3: Wild Hunt - Corruption may be observed when AA is enabled in AMD Crossfire™ mode
    Reply
  • jimmysmitty
    I think we need to re-review the Fury X, 390X and 290X with this driver. I wonder if this includes the improvements made in the Fury X/300 series only 15.15 beta or not.....
    Reply
  • arestavo
    Too late AMD. I sold off my back up computer's R9 290's just a couple days ago due to their abysmal performance in all windows 10 releases.

    It's sad on AMD's part, but at least Nvidia gave enough of a damn to release several drivers for feedback (and they worked a LOT better than AMD's).
    Reply
  • redgarl
    Too late AMD. I sold off my back up computer's R9 290's just a couple days ago due to their abysmal performance in all windows 10 releases.

    It's sad on AMD's part, but at least Nvidia gave enough of a damn to release several drivers for feedback (and they worked a LOT better than AMD's).

    What are you talking about? I changed my drivers 3 times since the release of The Witcher 3. Also, W10 is not even released...

    Fanboy glasses sure are popular these days.
    Reply
  • arestavo
    Sad that you think that, but I actually have owned AMD (or ATI) just as long as I have owned Nvidia. However, my first personal 3D graphics card was the 3DFX Voodoo 5 5500 (with the original SLI!).

    For the past couple of years I have tended to run two cards to slow down the need to buy new cards. Currently two 780 Ti's, but at the same time had two R9 290's. I have more problems with the AMD cards solely due to weaker AMD crossfire support. Single card operation was typically rock solid with the R9 290.

    If you think I'm a fanboi because of my experiences then you must also think water is dry.
    Reply
  • tomfreak
    Frame Rate Target Control (FRTC) is now available on all R7 and R9 GPUs above the R7 260, including the latest Fury GPU.
    This is sooo wtf. isnt 7000 series GPU the same as all 200 series GPU? Infact the 7790 is even more advance than some of the 300 series GPU
    Reply
  • alextheblue
    Too late AMD. I sold off my back up computer's R9 290's just a couple days ago due to their abysmal performance in all windows 10 releases.

    It's sad on AMD's part, but at least Nvidia gave enough of a damn to release several drivers for feedback (and they worked a LOT better than AMD's).

    Windows 10 isn't even out yet - you shouldn't be running it as your primary gaming system OS yet anyway. Let alone expect everything to be perfect, drivers included. Using THAT as your reasoning is just silly. If someone sold a pair of 780s or whatever for that same reason I'd tell them the same thing. Wait a month or two, then fresh install the new OS and install latest drivers.
    Reply
  • alextheblue
    Frame Rate Target Control (FRTC) is now available on all R7 and R9 GPUs above the R7 260, including the latest Fury GPU.
    This is sooo wtf. isnt 7000 series GPU the same as all 200 series GPU? Infact the 7790 is even more advance than some of the 300 series GPU

    Could just be marketing at work. Then again, just because the GCN cores themselves are the same in some cases doesn't mean there isn't some other minor difference that could affect which cards they're able to apply this to - pulling this off requires extremely fast and highly granular clock adjustments, for example.

    Anyway this feature is neat but not essential. It's mainly useful in older games where you're rendering waay too many frames unnecessarily, and yet you don't want v-sync for various reasons. Heck many games allow you to cap the framerate in software, it's not quite as good as FRTC in terms of power savings but it otherwise does pretty much the same thing. Frankly most people won't even use this, even amongst those that know it exists.
    Reply
  • redgarl
    Sad that you think that, but I actually have owned AMD (or ATI) just as long as I have owned Nvidia. However, my first personal 3D graphics card was the 3DFX Voodoo 5 5500 (with the original SLI!).

    For the past couple of years I have tended to run two cards to slow down the need to buy new cards. Currently two 780 Ti's, but at the same time had two R9 290's. I have more problems with the AMD cards solely due to weaker AMD crossfire support. Single card operation was typically rock solid with the R9 290.

    If you think I'm a fanboi because of my experiences then you must also think water is dry.

    I have double 290x in CF. Honestly, it took 6 days to AMD to release the CF profile for The Witcher 3, thanks to the mess created by Gamework.

    The game never crashed on my system... however crash heavily on Nvidia hardware. AMD released 3 driver updates fr the game in 2 months... not Nvidia... so yeah, your rant is a simple AMD bashing.
    Reply
  • thor220
    Sad that you think that, but I actually have owned AMD (or ATI) just as long as I have owned Nvidia. However, my first personal 3D graphics card was the 3DFX Voodoo 5 5500 (with the original SLI!).

    For the past couple of years I have tended to run two cards to slow down the need to buy new cards. Currently two 780 Ti's, but at the same time had two R9 290's. I have more problems with the AMD cards solely due to weaker AMD crossfire support. Single card operation was typically rock solid with the R9 290.

    If you think I'm a fanboi because of my experiences then you must also think water is dry.

    The only problem here is that your experiences are based off an experimental operating system. It seems you skipped the disclaimer so I'll put it in layman terms - Issues occurring in beta software, especially Operating Systems, aren't representative of the final product.

    Someone who would brazenly come out against AMD cards for having issues on beta software is either an idiot, fanboy, or just plain ignorant.

    We don't need anymore people spreading their false entitled opinions about AMD because frankly AMD's drivers are on par or better then Nvidia's nowadays.
    Reply