AMD Mobility Radeon HD 7000 Series Reality by Q4-2011

Shortly after finishing off the top-order of its Radeon HD 6000 series desktop discrete graphics processors (GPUs), AMD is letting out information about its first line of GPUs built on the 28 nanometer fabrication process. The first products carrying the Mobility Radeon HD 7000 series brand identifiers are notebook GPUs in the MXM 3.0 form-factor. AMD is planning an entire lineup top-to-bottom to address almost all mobile computing market segments. At the very low end of course would be its Fusion accelerated processing units with GPUs embedded. On top of that is what follows.

The lineup begins with "Wimbledon", an ultra high-end mGPU. It has a 256-bit wide high-speed GDDR5 memory interface, 2-4 GB of dedicated memory, and 65W TDP. The DirectX 11 GPU will be about 25% faster than "Blackcomb", the Mobility HD 6000 series flagship. This is slated for Q2-2012. Next up is the high-end "Heathrow" mGPU, which has a 192-bit or 128-bit (selectable between variants) GDDR5 memory interface, 1-3 GB of dedicated memory, up to 45W TDP, and 30% higher performance compared to "Chelsea". This is slated for Q4-2011 (this should tell you that Radeon HD 7000 series will be in existence towards the end of 2011).

Going down, there's "Chelsea" itself, with its 128-bit GDDR5 memory interface, 1-2 GB memory, 20-30W TDP, performance 30% higher than "Whistler", production starting in Q4-2011. Lastly, there's "Thames". This mainstream mGPU will have 128-bit GDDR5 with option of GDDR3, 1 GB memory, 15-20W TDP, and 100% higher performance than "Seymour", Radeon HD 6000 series' mainstream mGPU. Production for this starts in Q4-2011, as well.

Radeon HD 6950 to HD 6970 Flashing Tools

On this page you can download Radeon HD 6950 to HD 6970 Flashing Tools.

Version: 1.0 Publisher: AMD ATI Date added: 2010-12-28 05:59:10 File Size: 1.5 MB OS Support: Windows XP | 7 | Vista License: Freeware Downloads: 610 downloads Software type: Videocards - Overclocking & Tweaking

Before you download: Click here to check your PC for errors

You are here: Guru3D.com » downloads » category selection » Radeon HD 6950 to HD 6970 Flashing Tools
Software Description
This file contains all the tools required to flash your AMD Radeon HD 6950 to a HD 6970 (and back in case of problems).

Recently it became apparent that the Radeon HD 6950 in fact is a 6970 with shader processor clusters disabled. You'll need to re-flash your card though. You can perform the flashing process from within Windows and het, thanks to AMD's new Dual-BIOS feature if something would go wrong, you can switch back. We successfully tested an unlock on a HD 6950 cards. Other have tried one AMD engineering sample, one HIS media sample and one ASUS retail card. All of them unlocked perfectly and run at HD 6970 speeds now. Your graphics card needs to be a reference design sample.
 The Download & instructions are courtesy of TechPowerup!

1. Grab ATI Winflash from here (32 & 64-bit).
2. Download HD 6970 BIOS. The Sapphire one I linked to will work on all reference design cards from any vendor.
3. Make sure the BIOS switch on the card is set to the 1 position (pictured further down if you don't know where it is).
4. Run ATI Winflash, click Save to save your BIOS, so you have a backup in case something goes wrong.
5. Load the HD 6970 BIOS into Winflash by clicking Load Image, followed by Program.
6. Let the flashing process complete and reboot your system.
7. Check the shader count using GPU-Z, it should show 1536. Make sure you use the linked version of GPU-Z, the official 0.4.9 version does not support HD 6900 Series properly. If you see a shader count of 1600, your GPU-Z version is outdated and you should get the one from the link here.
8. To ensure maximized performance open Catalyst Control Center, go to the Overdrive tab and set the PowerTune slider to the +20% setting. The "Testing" section of this article has more data on that.
9. Check stability in Windows desktop applications and games.

If you get an error like ID mismatch or Could not erase ROM, then you'll have to do some extra work in a Windows command prompt (or DOS): Run atiwinflash -unlockrom 0 followed by atiwinflash -f -p 0 bios.bin where bios.bin is the path and filename of the HD 6970 BIOS you downloaded.
More info discussion  Click here. Mind you that flashing a BIOS can always be tricky, you do so at your own risk.

Please choose a download location: Download (Europe) Download (Sweden)

AMD Fusion – Based Acer Aspire One 522 Pictures Leaked

While CES 2011 approaches at light speed, we're starting to see more and more interesting products that will be officially unveiled on that occasion make their way online via the usual leaks, the latest we've come across being an Acer Aspire One 522 portable computing system that's powered by AMD's Fusion Brazos platform.According to macles, who's also providing some very interesting photos of this future product, differentiating the AMD Brazos – based Aspire one from its predecessors might be a pretty difficult task, since the only major difference seems to be the textured touchpad (the color combination is also a new one, but not particularly impressive, if you ask us).

However, what really sets the Acer machine apart from all of its other counterparts can actually be found within the portable computing system, since the new Acer Aspire One 522 is built around an AMD C-50 "Ontario" APU, with two cores, clocked at 1GHz each, and a total TDP of 9W.

As expected, the APU solution also sports Radeon 6250 graphics, with support DX11 as well as UVD3 for accelerated video decoding.


What's really curious, though, is that, despite of the fact that the APU supports HD playback, Acer has decided to go for a 10.1 inch panel with 1280x720 screen resolution, which is not exactly fantastic, according to today's standards (however, a HDMI port will let you play HD content on a HDTV, if you really want to).

Another disappointment seems to be the battery, rated at just 6 hours of non-stop functioning, a lot less than we'd normally expect from a Brazos-based machine.

Naturally, talking about pricing and availability is a bit early, but we're pretty sure that we'll find out more on these topics once the new Brazos-based Acer Aspire One makes its official debut, probably during CES 2011. 

Jetway AMD Brazos Motherboard Pictured, Detailed

While Jetway is not exactly one of the best-known hardware components' manufacturers out there, the company did manage to come up with some pretty interesting products over time, and now, it seems keen to join the growing group of motherboard manufacturers supporting AMD's forthcoming Brazos platform.So, as PC Perspective reports, it seems that Jetway prepared their own mini-ITX, Brazos-compatible mobo, called NF81-LF, which, similar to some of the other products of this type already announced/leaked, is designed specifically for the industrial/commercial segments, targeting, more precisely, embedded systems.

The mobo from Jetway offers quite a few interesting features, albeit not exactly anything we haven't seen before in some of the previous mobos that made their way online.

For example, the mobo includes LVDS, mSATA ports, a COM port and even a GPIO header, some of these components being designed specifically in order to cater for the needs of the industrial segment.

The board is powered by a 9w AMD Ontario single-core Fusion APU and the Hudson E1 chipset complete the Brazos platform, accompanied by two SODIMM sockets for DDR3-1066/1333 memory.

It's also interesting to mention that the mini-ITX AMD Brazos motherboard from Jetway also provides plenty of connectivity options, including here HDMI, DVI and VGA, dual Gigabit Ethernet ports, plenty of USB connectors (no USB 3.0, though), as well as a legacy PS/2 interface.

Unfortunately, for the time being, Jetway has refrained from providing any pricing or availability details regarding their future Brazos motherboard, but it's quite likely that it will become officially available roughly in the same timeframe as the other similar products out there, namely Q1 or Q2, 2011.

Of course, it remains to be seen just how the Brazos will manage to fare in terms of market success, but given the fact that initial reviews paint a pretty good picture as to what we should expect from the low-power APU platform in terms of performance, it's quite likely that it might become a serious contender for Intel's Atom.

3DMark 11 Update 1.01

3DMark 11 version 1.01 release notes

All Editions

Fixed an issue with SystemInfo that prevented the Physics and Combined tests from running.

Fixed an issue that could cause a crash if the DirectX 11 API or .NET was not available.

Fixed an issue that could cause a crash if the number of system GPUs was unknown.

Letterboxing and scaling now works with wide displays.

The benchmark UI is now minimized during the benchmark run.

Improved result security when submitting to 3dmark.com.

Added automatic update notification.

Updated SystemInfo component to version 3.54.1.1.

Advanced and Professional Edition only

Added option for manual GPU Count selection to the Advanced tab.

Added Scaling Mode selection to the Advanced tab, choose from centred or stretched.

Results tab now shows the individual scores for each of the six tests.

Professional Edition only

Demo audio now works when running from the command line.

Image Quality tool now handles unexpected parameters correctly.

Image Quality tool now works correctly with the reference rasterizer option.

New Acer Aspire AS4820TG BIOS File (V1.22)

They didnt write changes...?
12.13.2010

Link

Apple, AMD; secrets leaked by inside traders

Four U.S. men have been arrested in connection with corporate corruption and insider trading. Walter Shimoon (Flextronics), Mark Longoria (supply chain manager at AMD), Manosha Karunatilaka (Taiwan Semiconductor) and James Fleishman, have all been arrested on suspicion of leaking non-public corporate secrets to two unnamed hedge-funds in advance of their actual release date.
Of note, in a tapped phone call, Walter Shimoon was recorded speaking of "K48" to an unknown associate. This "K48" is the project that developed into the iPad.

 "At Apple you can get fired for saying K48 ... outside of a, you know, outside of a meeting that doesn't have K48 people in it. That's how crazy they are about it," - Shimoon to associate.

Manhattan US attorney Preet Bharara explains:

“Today’s charges allege that a corrupt network of insiders at some of the world’s leading technology companies served as so-called ‘consultants’ who sold out their employers by stealing and then peddling their valuable inside information, over the next many months and beyond, we will continue to enforce the law, police the market, and protect honest businesses and their shareholders by working methodically with the FBI and SEC to root out corporate corruption and insider trading.”

The other individuals from AMD and Taiwan Semiconductor have also been charged with leaking secrets related to AMD and Dell, respectively. These unknown hedge funds pay in excess of $1,000,000 USD for these so called "consultant" services in order to get an advanced view of the market; sometimes the money is more appealing then the morality.

Download AMD Catalyst Driver 10.12a Hotfix for Radeon HD 69xx Support

Since AMD just yesterday released its two newest graphics cards, it was a given that it would have to update its drivers to support them, and it appears that the outfit decided to add said support by means of a hotfix.The AMD Catalyst 10.12 driver software suite was released just two to three days ago and promised a variety of benefits, especially fixes to previous issues to performance, though some issues still remain.

It was also in need of mention that the suite did not have actual support for the AMD Radeon HD 6970 and HD 6950.
For those that need a reminder, these two cards are the newest DirectX 11 graphics adapters from the Sunnyvale, California-based company and the most powerful HD 6000 cards so far, aimed for the high-end market.

The reason behind the lack of support was that the video controllers in question were only launched after the software itself became available.

As such, it became necessary to either bring out a new version of the driver or make a hotfix available for public download.

Apparently, the latter has occurred, as AMD's has released what it calls AMD Catalyst driver 10.12a Hotfix.

There are two things that this package does, and they do not include fixes for the issues that the driver itself left to be taken care of.

What the hotfix accomplishes is provide support for 5 x 1 AMD Eyefinity display configurations, in addition to the already mentioned HD 69xx support.

Those that have already downloaded the 10.12 driver need only visit the following link in order to download the hotfix, which is designed for Windows Vista and Windows 7 (AMD Catalyst Hotfix 10.12a for Vista/Win7)

Of course, to get a general idea of what the driver release itself does, and to download it if required, one need only go here.

TuneUp Utilities 2011 Build 10.0.3000.101

TuneUp Utilities can make your Windows operating system faster, more comfortable and more secure with just a few mouse clicks. And all operations performed on the operating system are completely safe, because all changes are monitored by TuneUp Rescue Center and can be undone at any time. All TuneUp Utilities modules can be accessed through a common interface that is divided into six categories.
The software helps both beginners and experts to make Windows meet their needs in a way that is better, easier and safer. All important system options are explained in an easy way and can be turned on or off at the click of your mouse. TuneUp Utilities will then make the necessary changes in the registry or boot files automatically. We place a high value on system stability, so that Windows won't stop working reliably. And most changes that you make can be undone in TuneUp Rescue Center - easily and safely.

TuneUp Utilities automatically runs important maintenance tasks for you, makes you aware of any problems and offers simple solutions. This ensures performance is always at its best. A slow and untidy computer is now a thing of the past for you. You can also use TuneUp Utilities to customize the appearance of your Windows system - to make working on your computer more enjoyable.
With TuneUp Utilities you will quickly make your Windows system faster and more convenient to use- and ensure that it stays like this for the long term. This makes TuneUp Utilities the perfect program for everyone: for those who would rather leave the computer maintenance to a reliable partner as well as for those who would rather do everything themselves.
The TuneUp Turbo Mode provides an immediate performance boost whenever you need it. When you use your computer in the TuneUp Turbo Mode, an analysis is performed to see which tasks, programs and functions are currently running in the background that are not strictly necessary. These programs are stopped or slowed down, allowing the additional processing power gained to be used exclusively by the programs you are actually running.
Maintain System
Regular maintenance increases the stability of your PC, but is complicated and takes a lot of time when doing it manually. Spare yourself the stress! With TuneUp Utilities, you can clean up your computer and delete unnecessary files with only one click. Neat!
• 1-Click Maintenance and Automatic Maintenance
• Optimize system startup and shutdown
• Defragment hard disks
• Remove broken shortcuts
• Defragment registry
• Clean registry
Increase performance
Whether you are working or gaming: TuneUp Utilities increases the performance of your PC. Programs that are used rarely or never are tracked down, startup processes are shortened and unwanted garbage files are eliminated. For trouble-free working on your PC.
• Turbo Mode
• Configure Live Optimization
• Free up disk space
• Configure system startup
• Display and uninstall programs
Fix problems
With only a few clicks, you can fix typical Windows problems as easy as pie — without being a PC expert yourself. TuneUp Utilities finds errors on data carriers and fixes them automatically — about 60 of the most frequent problems under XP™, Vista™, and Windows 7™. TuneUp Utilities can even restore files deleted by accident — quickly, easily, and reliably.
• Fix typical problems
• Restore deleted data
• Check hard drive for errors
• Manage running programs
Customize Windows
Give your Windows a new look with TuneUp Utilities and customize programs and system settings to meet your needs: cool new boot screens, icons, and animations provide that personalized look for your Desktop. You can easily customize the appearance of Windows and settings of many programs to your liking.
• Personalize Windows appearance
• Change Windows settings
Additional functions
TuneUp Utilities offers you transparency and safety and keeps you up to date. Stay informed with the System information and Optimization Report, undo changes made accidentally, or check for available updates. From fast and safe editing of the registry to deleting data — even computer experts will find applications to meet their needs.You can find all the features that provide you with an overview of your PC and more security in this area.
• Display TuneUp Optimization Report
• Undo changes
• Check for updates
• Show system information
• Permanently erase data
• Editing the registry
Homepage - http://www.tune-up.com
Size: 19.5 MB
Download TuneUp Utilities 2011 Final [en]
Download TuneUp Utilities 2011 Final [de]

Download TuneUp Utilities 2010 9.0.4700.25 [en]
Download TuneUp Utilities 2009 8.0.3300.1 [en]
Download TuneUp Utilities 2008 7.0.8007 [en]

QT Lite 4.1.0

QT Lite is a trimmed down version of QuickTime that contains only the essential components needed for playing QuickTime content that is embedded in webpages. It will allow you to play QuickTime (.mov .qt) files. This way there is no need to install the offical QuickTime Player.
Media Player Classic and ZoomPlayer are capable of playing QuickTime files by using the QuickTime framework that gets installed by QT Lite. Other players will require DirectShow filters to be able to play QuickTime files. If you want to play QuickTime files in Windows Media Player or another DirectShow based Player, then it is recommended to install the K-Lite Codec Pack. That contains all the DirectShow filters that are required to play QuickTime files. The QuickTime Browser plugin supports Internet Explorer, Opera, Mozilla and Netscape. The QuickTime plugins include iPIX and QuickTimeVR.

As a bonus, Internet Explorer will play all QuickTime movies that are embedded in a webpage. You do need a media player that is capable of playing QuickTime files. QT Lite contains exactly the same components as QuickTime Alternative. The ONLY difference between the two packs is that QT Lite does not contain Media Player Classic.
Advantages of QT Lite are:
• Quick and easy install
• Ability to make an unattended installation
• No background processes
• No unwanted stuff and other nonsense
• Smaller size
QT Lite will allow you to :
• Play QuickTime movies that are embedded in webpages.
• Download HD QuickTime trailers.
• Play QuickTime files in Media Player Classic or ZoomPlayer.
Features of QT Lite:
• QuickTime base components
• QuickTime ActiveX plugin
• QuickTime plugin for Opera/Firefox/Mozilla/Netscape
Works on Windows XP, 2003, Vista, Windows 7.

Changes in QT Lite 3.2.2 | (2010-04-16):
    * Now shows a warning when the option to install "Apple Application Support" is unchecked
Homepage - http://www.codecguide.com
Size: 17.2 MB
Download

Microsoft Security Essentials 2.0.657.0 - Final

Microsoft Security Essentials (codenamed Morro) is a free antivirus software created by Microsoft that provides protection against viruses, spyware, rootkits, and trojans for Windows XP, Vista, and 7. Microsoft has always recommended that its users use real-time antimalware protection, but the release by the end of this year will mark the company's first free solution. MSE replaces windows Live OneCare — a subscription antivirus service — and Windows Defender, which only protects users from adware and spyware.
MSE is a small-footprint program ideal for computers that lack processing power or broadband Internet connections, such as netbooks. MSE is available as standalone 32-bit and 64-bit downloads for Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7. It's very easy to install Security Essentials using it is even easier than one might expect.

Updates and upgrades are automatic, so there's no need to worry about having the latest protection. It's easy to tell if you're protected – when the Security Essentials icon is green, your status is good. It's as simple as that.

Microsoft announced Morro on November 18, 2008. It marked a change in Microsoft's consumer antivirus marketing strategy. Instead of offering a subscription antivirus with a host of other tools — parental controls, photo backup, and a firewall, Morro would be free for all genuine installations of Windows and simply offer protection against malware. Microsoft Forefront will be offered alongside Morro, with central management tools not present in Morro.

While OneCare offered a Managed Firewall, PC Performance Tuning, Data Backup and Restore, Multi-PC Management, and Printer Sharing, MSE is really closer to Forefront Client Security, Microsoft's antivirus product for the enterprise.

MSE is a basic security suite designed for consumers but based on the Forefront Client Security desktop agent, solely providing malware detection and removal, but lacking Forefront Client Security's centralized management features. It includes the same antimalware engine (dubbed "Microsoft Malware Protection Engine", or MSMPENG for short), and virus definitions that all other Microsoft desktop antimalware products share, including Forefront Client Security, Windows Live OneCare, and Windows Defender (Defender excludes the antivirus definitions[citation needed] which are separate from the antispyware definitions). Before installation, MSE checks for a validated copy of Windows. No registration or personal information is required. The program will disable Windows Defender, as it provides protection against malware, not limited to spyware and adware.

Updates are published 3 times a day to Microsoft Update. Using default settings, archived files are decompressed, and then scanned. File downloads and e-mail attachments are also scanned. Its Dynamic Signature Service attempts to better identify malicious files by checking for updates if an application exhibits suspicious behavior. Before taking action against a suspect file, MSE prompts for user input. If no response is received in 10 minutes, then the suspected malware is handled according to its default action, letting MSE determine what to do with the malware. System Restore points are created before removing found malware.

Microsoft touts five features of Microsoft Security Essentials:
• Remove most-prevalent malware
• Remove known viruses
• Real-time anti-virus protection
• Remove known spyware
• Real-time anti-spyware protection
Homepage - http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/
Size: 7.50 MB
Download for Windows XP/ Vista/ W7 32-bit
Download for Windows XP/ Vista/ W7 64-bit

Download Latest Definitions 32-bit
Download Latest Definitions 64-bit

Microsoft Silverlight 4.0.51204.0

Silverlight is a powerful development platform for creating engaging, interactive user experiences for Web, desktop, and mobile applications when online or offline. Silverlight is a free plug-in powered by the .NET framework that is compatible across multiple browsers, devices and operating systems to bring a new level of interactivity wherever the Web works. With support for advanced data integration, multithreading, HD video using IIS Smooth Streaming, and built in content protection, Silverlight enables online and offline applications for a broad range of business and consumer scenarios. All Silverlight runtimes support rich media capabilities and enable fast, cost-effective delivery of high-quality audio and video to all major browsers including Firefox, Safari, Internet Explorer (and new in Silverlight 4) Google Chrome running on the Mac or on Windows. The designer experience remains largely the same for all runtimes as well. The main difference resides in the developer experience.

Compelling Experiences
Engage users longer and make the most of your content with interactive features and high-definition streaming video delivered through live and on-demand IIS Smooth Streaming.
Build user “buzz” and differentiate yourself with innovative capabilities, such as Deep Zoom and Pivot, which push the boundaries of interactivity and data visualization, and provide new ways to present your brand.
Silverlight enables Web-based applications to deliver the business functionality users demand with a modern, efficient UI while securely interacting with desktop files, devices, data and applications such as Microsoft Office.

Powerful Technology
Build on Microsoft’s industrial-strength application development tools and a platform that promotes stability, scalability, reliability, and performance.
Deliver engaging experiences through all major browsers on Mac, Windows, and Linux client operating systems, mobile devices such as Windows Phone 7, Nokia Series 60 and set top boxes.
Extend browser experiences to the desktop and devices with innovative tools, servers and frameworks.

Enhanced Results
Grow your business, your productivity, and your profitability with technology and tools that deliver exceptional value and accommodate the business model that fits your company best.
Call on millions of existing developers and thousands of businesses already familiar with .NET development to help create and deploy Silverlight applications.
Create rich Web-based applications that quickly integrate with your existing back-end systems. Easily enhance existing Web and SharePoint sites by incrementally adding Silverlight components.

Operating System: Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows XP SP2, SP3, Windows 2000 SP4 + KB 891861, Macintosh OS 10.4.11+ (Intel-based)
Browsers: Internet Explorer 8/ 7/ 6, Firefox 3, Safari 3/ 4, Chrome 4

Homepage - http://www.silverlight.net
Size: 5.98 MB
Download

AMD Radeon Video Card Drivers 10.12/ AMD Catalyst Software Suite

AMD’s award-winning ATI Catalyst graphics and HD video configuration software delivers unprecedented control of performance and visual quality with ATI Radeon™ graphics processors. Certified by Microsoft® Windows® Hardware Quality Labs (WHQL), ATI Catalyst drivers for Windows 7®, Vista® and Windows® XP operating systems deliver stable performance and push the limits of innovation with advanced user-oriented features.

This is the latest AMD’s industry leading software suite, Catalyst™. This particular software suite updates both the AMD Display Driver, and the Catalyst™ Control Center. This unified Driver has been further enhanced to provide the highest level of power, performance, and reliability. The AMD Catalyst™ software suite is the ultimate in performance and stability.

Precision controls for power users. Tweaks for gamers and video enthusiasts. Simple wizard-assisted setup, easy multi-monitor configuration, and ultra reliable operation for working professionals. New user or seasoned expert, AMD Catalyst puts you in charge of The Ultimate Visual Experience™.

• Industry-leading performance. ATI Catalyst boosts graphics performance with every new monthly release, including enhancements for popular Direct3D and OpenGL game titles.
• Innovative and exciting features. ATI Catalyst includes the ATI Catalyst Control Center™, delivering innovative features and unprecedented control of performance and visual quality with ATI Radeon graphics.
• Robust stability. ATI Catalyst drivers for Windows Vista and Windows XP are Microsoft WHQL-certified, and include rigorously tested Linux drivers to deliver the industry’s most stable and reliable graphics performance.
The AMD Catalyst™ software suite 10.11 contains the following:  
• AMD display driver version 8.791
• HydraVision™ for Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7
• Southbridge/IXP Driver
• AMD Catalyst™ Control Center version 8.79
Caution: The Catalyst™ software driver and the Catalyst™ Control Center can be downloaded independently of each other. However, for maximum stability and performance AMD recommends that both components be updated from the same Catalyst™ release
Caution: The Catalyst™ Control Center requires that the Microsoft .NET Framework version 2.0 be installed. Without .NET version 2.0 installed, the Catalyst™ Control Center will not launch properly and the user will see an error message.
The latest version of the Catalyst™ software suite is designed to support the following Microsoft Windows platforms:
• Windows 7 32-bit version
• Windows 7 64-bit version
• Windows Vista 32-bit version
• Windows Vista 64-bit version
• Windows XP Professional
• Windows XP Home Edition
• Windows XP Media Center Edition
• Windows XP Professional x64 Edition
Release Notes
Download your selected driver from AMD website
Download Selected AMD Graphics Drivers & Software

Introducing Catalyst Control Center 2011

Introducing Catalyst Control Center 2011

AMD Catalyst Software

Today AMD previews the new Catalyst driver Control Center application. The Catalyst driver suite has progressed a long way since its inception in 2002, where it extended the Windows display properties information with new tabs and controls for all video card features and functions.

Catalyst Driver Control, c.2002

In 2004, ATI created the first real-time GUI for previewing settings - it showed you the effect your settings have on your image in real time, with a period style interface that matched the Windows XP tellytubby theme.

Catalyst Driver Control, c.2004

The Catalyst Control Center (CCC) evolved over time with newer versions using Microsoft's .NET Framework. In February, Rage3D was pleased to partner with AMD and their redesign of the Catalyst driver architecture to bring you exclusive Catalyst Application Profiles (CAP) before anyone else, a feature that delivers performance and compatibility updates without requiring a whole new driver set.

Catalyst Driver Control, c.2010

Now, as we move into the second year of the second decade of the third millennium, we have AMD's revamped and reworked driver and hardware interface. Support for Windows XP is dropped, and the new Catalyst Control Center targets Windows 7 users - Vista platforms will need to upgrade to .NET 3.5.1 and Windows Presentation Foundation.

The New Catalyst Driver Control

AMD and Nvidia Image Quality and Performance Investigation

Along with taking a look at the new Catalyst Control Center, which will become the single control center for all AMD software including CPUs and APUs, this article includes an investigation into AMD and Nvidia image quality and performance. We'll start with a look at the new features and highlights of the new CCC User Interface (UI), and then delve into the blurry waters of image filtering and quality, hopefully emerging a short time later with a look at the performance and quality of AMD and Nvidia's best image quality options. 

AMD Radeon HD 6970 Benchmarking Results Leaked

AMD's Radeon HD 6900 series is set to go public at some point in the near future, and for this reason, it should come as no surprise that we're starting to see all sorts of interesting leaks available online, starting from photos of the various implementations of the reference design and going as far as full-fledged benchmarks.

In fact, benchmarking is exactly the topic we'll tackle as follows, since it seems that the first (unofficial) test results of the Radeon HD 6970 graphics card have alredy made their way online, courtesy of ChipHell, painting a fairly interesting picture of what we should expect from AMD's soon-to-be-released GPU.

So, apparently, when running the 3DMark 2011 Performance test, the Radeon HD 6970 managed to get 4939 points (1776 points in Extreme mode), while the 3DMark Vantage Performance benchmark provided a score of 20346 points, the High mode test leading to 15386 points.

In the Unigine Heaven Benchmark, on the other hand, the Radeon card got 639 points, maximum FPS being rated at 61.8, minimum at 3.8 and average at 25.4.

The same source mentioned above provides some interesting tech details regarding the next-gen Radeon card obtained with the help of the GPUz application, which seem to point out the fact that the Radeon HD 6970 will come equipped with 1600 Unified Shaders, 2GB of GDDR5 memory, 256-bit bus width and 176 GB/s bandwidth, as well as a GPU clock of 880 Mhz and a memory clock rated at 1375 Mhz.

The conclusion of these leaked benchmarks seem to be that, while the HD 6970 is certainly a powerful graphics board, it's not exactly a competitor for the GTX 580 from NVIDIA, but rather for the GTX 570/480.

Of course, since we're talking about leaked materials for the time being, we prefer to wait until the card is officially outed and more official results are in before deciding what exact market segment the Radeon HD 6970 targets and what NVIDIA GPU it takes on

Services Explorer

In most of our machines, there are few things running in background called as services. We can view the services running on our machine by typing services.msc in Run of Start command. Windows provides a built-in explorer for viewing the services of our machine. But, it won't provide easy navigation. So, I thought of doing an application that makes our services exploration easy and fast. I will explain the features of this application.
Features provided by this Explorer:

• Easy to navigate among the services.
• Easy to filter services based on search criteria.
• Start/Stop services.
• Uninstall a service.
• Remote Machine services Viewing.
• Show services dependent on a particular service
• Show Dependencies.
• Better User Experience and lot more.

The output looks like below:

EnhancedServiceExplorer.zip

Windows Event Viewer Plus v 1.0 released

We are pleased to release Windows Event Viewer Plus, a portable freeware app that lets you view Event Logs faster than the default in-built Windows Event Viewer and do more with them!

Simply download and run this portable app, select the Log you want to view and you will see the list almost immediately.

Double-click an entry to view detailed information about the entry. You can also export the Entry to a text file, select the Web Search Button to look up the entry online to find out more information or troubleshoot errors.

Features:

• You can view logs from Local Computer or you have the option to connect to Remote PC to view logs.
• The Tools Menu includes easy access to some built-in functions to solve PC problems as well as resource links to help you research. You can search Microsoft Support, Bing, Google or Yahoo for further help. Clicking on the buttons will launch your browser and search the internet for the Event Type and Event ID.
• Eliminated the sorting order that default Windows Event Viewer uses, thus allowing logs to load much faster than using the Windows Event Viewer.
• You can export each entry to a text file.

Windows Event Viewer Plus v 1.0 has been developed by Lee Whittington for The Windows Club.

Source: http://www.thewindowsclub.com/windows-event-viewer-plus-v-1-0-released#ixzz17pPmDGxR

Source: http://www.thewindowsclub.com/windows-event-viewer-plus-v-1-0-released#ixzz17pPhQB21

AMD Display Driver - Catalyst 10.12 Better than Catalyst 10.11

A week past, according to the regularity of AMD Catalyst display driver, this is December, so the latest AMD Catalyst 10.12 would be upcoming soon - which is also expected by almost AMD fans. In fact, many end-users are waiting for the new AMD Catalyst 10.12 because that the last AMD Catalyst 10.11 was so disappointed.
AMD Catalyst 10.11 Issues Firstly, the Catalyst 10.11 did not support the latest AMD Radeon HD 6000 series graphics cards. Therefore, many people chose to use the AMD Catalyst 10.10 or AMD Catalyst 10.10e Hotfix.
Then, as the Catalyst 10.11 is announced to support the Radeon HD 2000, HD 3000, HD 4000, and HD 5000 series graphics cards, however, when end-users installed this driver, especially for Radeon HD 5770 starting Windows after 5 seconds the screen changed to black and stopped working so that they had to go to safe mode and restore old drivers Catalyst 10.10.
In addition, some end-users also mentioned when they updated the Catalyst 10.11, there were some problems with their HDTV, based Radeon HD 5850 or Radeon HD 5870.
Therefore, end-users expect a Catalyst 10.11 hotfix or the upcoming AMD Catalyst 10.12 can be better than version 10.11 and fix these mentioned issues.

Confusion Abounds over new AMD Radeon HD 6500M Mobility Graphics

AMD's has published details of their new mobility 6000 series part, the HD 6500M. The part is available in shipping products today... except we're not sure what it is. The specifications read like the Redwood based Mobility HD5650, apart from some key differentiators.

• TeraScale 2 Unified Processing Architecture
  • 400 Stream Processing Units
  • 20 Texture Units
  • 32 Z/Stencil ROP Units
  • 8 Color ROP Units
• Engine clock speed: 500-650 MHz
• GDDR5/DDR3 memory interface
• Memory clock speed: 900 MHz GDDR5 or DDR3
• Memory data rate: 3.6 Gbps (GDDR5) or 1.8 Gbps (DDR3)
• Memory bandwidth: 57.6 GB/sec (GDDR5) or 28.8 GB/sec (DDR3)

Here's the interesting part:

• UVD 2 dedicated video playback accelerator
  • Support for H.264, VC-1, MPEG-2, Multi-View Codec (MVC)6, and Adobe Flash7

The problem is the UVD 2.2 found in the HD 5000 series doesn't have MVC hardware accelerated - required for BluRay 3D if your CPU isn't up to it. So that's UVD 3, as found in the Radeon HD 6800 codenamed Barts, right? Well, no - the UVD 3 has some extra special sauce for DiVX and MPEG hardware acelleration. So lets call this UVD 2.3

Next up is the DisplayPort support - this part features DP 1.2 and native Eyefinity 6 display support, with the requisite connectors. That's improved over HD 5000 series, and just like the HD 6800 cards.

HDMI 1.4a is driver level, so it, and 3D Stereoscopic support, is the same across the HD 5000 and HD 6000 series.

There are another couple of interesting tid-bits in the specifications to ponder:

• AMD CrossFireX™ multi-GPU technology
  • Dual GPU scaling
• Ultra-low power state support for multi-GPU configurations

New AMD Catalyst Application Profile 10.11

Catalyst Application Profile 10.11 v3 has been released, with the following updates:

December 8 2010 – Catalyst 10.11 CAP 4

• 3DMark 2011 – Improves CrossFire performance
• Dead Space 2 – Forced on Anti-Aliasing through the Catalyst Control Center has been disabled

Download Now here!

AMD Phenom II X2 565 Black Edition Processor

Back in the mid-1940s, a visionary by the name of Bugsy had what can only be described as a spiritual experience. It was an experience that at the time many deemed worthy of consideration only by those handing out flowers on street corners in preparation for their mass wedding ceremony, but as time progressed it was clear that Bugsy truly was a prophet with an ability to see into the future. For it was Bugsy who announced that a figure would arrive in the world that would change everything, basically turning the world on its ear, leading mankind to greater heights. However, Bugsy was also aware that once this God-like creature had completed his task he would need a castle befitting his stature. So Bugsy strode into the Nevada desert to build the paradise that would await the coming. But….what would people do in the middle of the desert awaiting the arrival of the post-pubescent Wayne Newton? Well, gamble, of course.

Personally, I’m not much of a gambler. Sitting down at a casino table registers about the same on my enjoyment scale as taking a great aunt grocery shopping, and tends to have the same end result as simply burning my money. I prefer to stick with things where I at least have some control over the outcome. However, all that seems to go out the window when it comes to AMD Phenom II X2 and X3s, especially if they are Black Edition. Why? Well, the explanation to that is simple. It’s a matter of enjoyment from the possibility of getting an extra core or two unlocked and stable, as well as finding out just how high I can push the OC and keep the system stable. Unlocking and overclocking are always a gamble and the results are never a sure thing, but this is a gamble that is never a loss and always fun all the way. AMD Phenom II CPUs aren’t just a great price/performance item, they are simply made to tinker with.

The new flagship of the AMD Phenom II X2 line is the 565 Black Edition. Out of the box, the Phenom II X2 565 Black Edition is a dual core CPU clocking in at 3.4Ghz. With 1MB of L2 and 6MB of L3 cache, the AMD Phenom II X2 565 Black Edition is no lightweight budget chip, despite its aggressive $113.00 price point. Add to this the unlocked multiplier that the Black Edition is renowned for, as well as the possibility of possibly unlocking an extra core or two, and you have a potent gaming and enthusiast chip ready to be pushed well beyond its stock limits. Thanks to the flexibility of AMD’s AM2+/AM3 platform, the Phenom II X2 565BE is ready to drop into a multitude of applications. Whether you are looking to upgrade your existing AM2+ or go into a new AM3 build, the Phenom II X2 565BE can fit right in. At $113.00, the Phenom II X2 565BE can fit into a budget system, but also has enough power to capably drive a higher end enthusiast/gaming build

Gigabyte GA-E350V-USB3 Zacate E-350 Based Mini Overclocking Motherboard

AMD Brazos Fusion APU low-power platform is upcoming, Gigabyte has exposed a specially prepared mini motherboard - Gigabyte GA-E350V-USB3 Zacate E-350 Based Mini Overclocking Motherboard, still providing a lot of overclocking features.

This Gigabyte GA-E350V-USB3 motherboard comes with the highest-end platform of Brazos - Zacate E-350 - which has two Zacate core, clocks at 1.6GHz, integrated DX11 Radeon HD 6310 graphics card and UVD 3.0 video decoder engine, 80 stream processors, frequency of 500MHz and TDP 18W.

The board is supplemented by small aluminum heat sink and small fan, as well as single-chip integration control center Hudson D1.

The Gigabyte GA-E350V-USB3 motherboard features Mini-ITX specification, size 17 x 7 cm, two DDR3 DIMM memory slots, one PCI- E x16 expansion slots, four SATA 6Gbps interface, two NEC USB 3.0 controller interface, in addition, VGA, DVI and other video interfaces, but can not see whether there is HDMI.

Without much more details about the Gigabyte GA-E350V-USB3 overclocking motherboard, but at least the memory frequency can be increased all the way to 1800MHz from 1333MHz or even higher, which can be rare in the mini-board.

3DMark 11 Build 1.0.0.0

3DMark 11 is the latest version of the world’s most popular benchmark. Designed to measure your PC’s gaming performance 3DMark 11 makes extensive use of all the new features in DirectX 11 including tessellation, compute shaders and multi-threading. Trusted by gamers worldwide to give accurate and unbiased results, 3DMark 11 is the best way to consistently and reliably test DirectX 11 under game-like loads. Designed for testing DirectX 11 hardware running on Windows 7 and Windows Vista the benchmark includes six all new benchmark tests. The Basic Edition is free to use and allows an unlimited number of benchmark runs without registration or expiry. Upgrading your BASIC Edition to the Advanced Edition unlocks all presets, benchmark looping, custom settings, unlimited online results storage, offline results management and much more. Professional use unlocks all features including custom testing options, unlimited test runs, automation and priority customer support.

3DMark 11 Professional Edition is the only edition licensed for commercial use.

On the BASIC tab you can select which preset to run and choose whether to run just the tests, just the demo or the complete experience. Running the complete experience will take 10–15 minutes depending on the system.
The ADVANCED tab lets you create custom benchmark settings. Note that benchmarking with custom settings will not produce a 3DMark 11 score. Nevertheless, there are many times when using custom settings can be useful for measuring your system’s performance.

The SELECTION panel lets you choose which parts of the benchmark you want to run. The SETTINGS panel lets you choose settings for various factors that influence the quality and weight of the benchmark loads. For all settings with a slider, moving the slider to the left lowers the quality and lessens the load while moving the slider to the right increases the quality and processing required.

• Resolution. Changes the rendering resolution. When using a resolution with an aspect ratio other than 16:9, the benchmark runs in a 16:9 letterbox.
• MSAA Sample Count. Changes the sample count used in multi-sample anti-aliasing. A sample count of 1 means that no anti-aliasing is performed.
• Texture Filtering Mode. Changes the filtering mode used when sampling textures. Anisotropic filtering provides better quality but requires more processing.
• Max Anisotropy. When anisotropic texture filtering mode is selected, this control sets the maximum filtering anisotropy. Larger values give better quality but requires more processing.
• Tessellation Detail. Adjusts the tessellation factors in all tessellated content. Higher values increase the amount of geometry detail generated with tessellation and the amount of rasterization work performed.
• Max Tessellation Factor. Sets the limit where all tessellation factors are clamped. Higher values increase the level of detail especially in objects near the camera.
• Shadow Map Size. Adjusts the size of shadow maps. Higher values increase the quality of shadows but require more processing for shadow map generation and shadow map sampling.
• Shadow Cascade Count. Sets the number of shadow cascades used in directional lights. Higher values increase the quality of shadows from directional lights but require more processing for shadow map generation and shadow map sampling.
• Surface Shadow Sample Count. Sets the number of shadow map samples used when rendering surface shadows. Higher values increase the quality of surface shadows but require more processing.
• Volumetric Illumination Quality. Adjusts the ray marching step count used when computing volumetric illumination. Higher values increase the quality but require more processing.
• Ambient Occlusion Quality. Adjusts the number of depth samples taken per pixel when computing screen space ambient occlusion. Higher values increase the quality but require more processing.
• Depth of Field Quality. Adjusts the resolution of the bokeh texture splatted on out of focus areas of the rendered image. It also adjusts the circle of confusion radius threshold for splatting bokehs based on half or quarter resolution source image. Higher values increase the quality but require more processing.
• Color Saturation. Adjusts the color saturation of rendered images. It does not affect the rendering workload.
• Loop. Runs selected content in loop. It does not affect the rendering workload.
• Demo Audio. Enables sound and music in the demo. It does not affect the rendering workload.
• Window Mode. Runs selected content in window mode.
• Vertical Sync. Enables synchronization of the frame buffer with the monitor’s vertical refresh rate. This eliminates screen tearing but can also decrease the frame rate.
• Triple Buffering. Enables triple buffering of rendered frames. This can improve the frame rate when vertical sync is enabled.
• Wireframe. Renders the selected content using lit wireframe models.

What's new in 3DMark 2011 1.0.0:
- Native DirectX 11 engine making extensive use of advanced real-time graphical effects including tessellation, volumetric lighting, depth of field and post processing.
- 3DMark 11 uses the open source Bullet Physics library, running rigid body simulation on the CPU and soft body simulation on the GPU.
- Demo mode returns in 3DMark 11 pairing stunning graphics with an evocative soundtrack by Pedro Macedo Camacho
- 3DMark 11 uses an improved online service allowing users to validate, store, share and compare their benchmark results with those from other users.
- For the first time in the 3DMark series, users can choose languages other than English including German, Simplified and Traditional Chinese and Finnish.

3DMark 11 requires DirectX 11, a DirectX 11 compatible video card, and Windows Vista or Windows 7.

Homepage - http://www.3dmark.com
Size: 282 MB
Download

Windows Live Messenger 2011 15.4.3508.1109

Windows Live Messenger is the next-generation MSN Messenger. It has everything you already love about Messenger - your contact list, emoticons, and instant access to your friends via text, voice, and video - plus new ways to connect and share photos and documents effortlessly. It's faster than e-mail and is a great choice for conversations and the perfect alternative when you can't be there in person. As always, it's free to download Messenger and use most of its features.

Windows Live Messenger (WLM), still commonly referred to by the previous name of MSN Messenger (MSN for short), is an instant messaging client for Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, and Windows Mobile, first released on December 13, 2005 by Microsoft. It is part of Microsoft's Windows Live set of online services.

Windows Live Messenger Features:
• Sharing folders
The Sharing Folder feature of Windows Live Messenger is an alternative to the "direct transfer" method of file distribution. When a user wants to deliver a file to another person on his or her contact list, the "sharing folder" window appears, which is an individualized representation of all previously shared items.
• PC-to-phone calls
In addition to PC-to-PC calls that have been supported in previous versions, Windows Live Messenger now supports PC-to-phone calls with Windows Live Call. In the US, this feature is supported by Verizon, branded as "Verizon Web Calling". Orange France also has a similar service. This feature is only available in selected countries, including the US, the UK, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, Ireland, Finland, Belgium, Spain, and Italy.
• Windows Live Messenger to Yahoo!
This allows Yahoo! and Windows Live Messenger users to chat (using text or voice) to each other without the need to create an account on the other service, provided both contacts use the latest versions of the clients. However, if a user uses an older or third-party client, they will appear offline to the users on the other network.
• Offline messaging
Unlike previous versions, one can start conversations even when his or her status is set to Appear Offline, similar to behaviour in Yahoo! Messenger. If talking to someone who has an older MSN Messenger client, they will lose the ability to talk to you after a short period of no activity, due to their client thinking you are offline. As Windows Live Messenger has now been made available on several phones, a new trend has appeared where people send messages over Windows Live Messenger to each other as a way to have free SMS text messages.
• Games and applications
There are various games and applications available in Windows Live Messenger that can be accessed via the conversation window by clicking the games icon and challenging your "buddy".
• i’m initiative
The i’m initiative is a new program Microsoft launched in March 2007, that connects the user with nine organizations dedicated to social causes through Windows Live Messenger. Every time someone has a conversation using i’m, Microsoft Corp. shares a portion of the program's advertising revenue with the organization of the user's choice. There is no set cap on the amount donated to each organization. The more i’m conversations the user has; the more money goes to one of the nine causes. Each participating organization is guaranteed a minimum donation of $100,000 during the first year of the program. There is currently no end date for the program. The i’m initiative only works with the most recent WLM version 8.1 and 8.5 beta. The i’m initiative is currently only available to those in the United States.
• Xbox 360
Windows Live Messenger support was included in the Xbox 360 Spring 2007 dashboard update released on May 9, 2007. Unofficially, it is known as Windows Live Messenger 360.
Those using Windows Live Messenger are able to see the Gamertags of friends logged into Xbox Live, including the game they are playing. Xbox 360 users can chat in-game (or while watching a movie). Although only text chat is supported, Microsoft has suggested that voice and video chatting may come in a future update.
Supported Operating Systems:    * Windows Vista (32-bit or 64-bit editions)
    * Windows XP with Service Pack 2 (32-bit edition only)
    * Windows 7 (32-bit or 64-bit editions)
    * Windows Server 2008
Homepage - http://explore.live.com/windows-live-messenger
Size: 155 MB
Download Windows Live Messenger 2011 Online Setup
Download Windows Live Messenger 2011 Full Installation Package

Download Windows Live Messenger 2009 Build 14.0.8117.416 Online Setup
Download Windows Live Messenger 2009 Build 14.0.8117.416 Full Installation Package
Download Windows Live Messenger 8.5 Final setup