AMD Catalyst

AMD Catalyst (formerly ATI Radeon Linux Display Drivers) is a free project that tries to distribute proprietary drivers for all ATI and AMD Radeon graphics cards on Linux-based operating systems.

Features at a glance

It provides support for TV output on AMD graphics cards that support TV-out functionality. In addition, it allows for the following monitor arrangements: Laptop Mode, Clone Mode, Big Desktop, and Dual Head. While the Laptop mode lets users to toggle between internal or external screen of a laptop, the Clone mode will display the same content on both monitors. Furthermore, the Big Desktop option will stretch a single desktop across two screens, and Dual Head separates instances of X running on each screen.

Supports 32-bit and 64-bit distributions

The drivers suite provides native graphical installers for both 32-bit and 64-bit architectures, and it is known to work well with the major Linux operating systems, including Red Hat Enterprise Linux, SUSE Linux Enterprise, openSUSE and Ubuntu.

Supported GPUs

For years, users of AMD GPUs struggled to make their graphics cards work on Linux-based operating systems. Some graphics cards work well, but many are quite buggy with major open source projects, such as the GNOME desktop environment.

Almost all desktop AMD Radeon graphics cards series are supported by this driver, including R9 290/280X/270X/260X/, R7 250/240, and HD 8000/7000/6000/5000. Also, it supports the AMD Radeon HD 7600A/7450A/6600A/6350A all-in-one desktop products, AMD Radeon E6760 and E6460 embedded product family, as well as the AMD Radeon R7, HD 8000D/7000D/6000D/8000G/7000G/6000G APU product family.

In addition, AMD Catalyst is compatible with the following AMD mobility product family GPUs: AMD Radeon HD 8000M, 7000M, 6000M and 5000. X.Org 7.4 and above, X.Org Server up to 1.15 and Linux kernel 2.6 or above (up to 3.13) are also supported.

What is new in this release:

• This one should improve performance in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Dota 2 by a lot!
• Fixes:
• [425910] Driver installation sometimes fails on Ubuntu 14.04.3
• [424450] Company of Heroes0 2 - Game crashes while running the performance test
• [424794] Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor - Corruption observed in game
• [424882] DIRT0 Showdown - Corruption observed in game
• [425234] DIRT0 Showdown - Game crashes after the loading screen
• [424802] DOTA 2 - Application hang observed while exiting the game
• [424255] AMD Catalyst Installer removing EGL links resulting in Xserver/Xorg load failure
• [423471] Unable to switch desktop mode after installing AMD Catalyst driver
• [423735] Renaming Counter-Strike: GO and other Steam game binary improves performance
• Issues:
• [419960]: Vari-Bright on some configurations is not decreasing brightness as expected
• [425912] Alien: Isolation - Blank screen or corruption observed on the main menu in game

What is new in version 15.7:

• [421317] Segmentation fault observed while launching some OpenGL games in RHEL7.1
• [419365] Error message observed during installation through rpm package in RHEL 6.5, 7.0
• [419162] System hangs while running Dying Light
• [421858] clinfo could not recognize up to four GPU devices
• Known Issues:
• [419960]: Vari-Bright on some configurations is not decreasing brightness as expected

What is new in version 14.12:

• New Features:
• OpenCL 2.0 support (requires 64-bit OS and compatible AMD Radeon R Series GPU)
• VAAPI decoding support (H264, VC1, MPEG2, MPEG4)
• Distribution specific package support for Ubuntu and Red Hat
• Resolved Issues:
• [402835]: Unexpected pixmap's time stamp change on Ubuntu with composite enabled causes Linux Khronos CTS to randomly fail
• [403420]: Driver install can sometimes have an error in Ubuntu 14.10 using GPL symbol before Kernel 3.16
• [405011]: Driver installation may intermittently fail on Kernel 3.9.0
• [409856]: Generate Distribution Specific Package' mode of Catalyst install does not create symbolic links for libGL
• [407550]: Driver upgrade failed in Ubuntu with specific drivers

What is new in version 14.9:

• New Features:
• AMD Radeon R9 285
• Ubuntu 14.04 support
• RHEL 7.0 support
• Install improvements
• Package and distribution generation options; recommend options set by default
• Help user install generated distribution package once created
• Pop-up messages to help guide users through the install process
• Identifying and installation of pre-requisites
• Resolved Issues:
• Witcher 2 random lock-up seen when launching the application
• Screen corruption when connecting an external monitor to some PowerXpress AMD GPU + Intel CPU platforms
• Intermittent X crash when the user does a rotation with Tear Free Desktop enabled
• Failure on exit of OpenGL programs
• Error message being displayed when a user does run clinfo in console mode
• Blank screen when hot plugging an HDMI monitor from a MST hub
• System hang after resume from S3/S4 in High Performance mode on PowerXpress AMD GPU + Intel CPU platforms
• Corruption or artifacting on the bottom right corner of the screen before booting into login UI during restart
• Occasional segmentation fault when running ETQW
• xscreensavers test failing with multi-GPU Crossfire configurations
• Motion Builder severe flickering while toggling full screen
• Intermittent crashing and corruption observed while running X-Plane
• Some piglit and Khronos OpenGL conformance test failures
• Displays occasionally going black when startx is run on Ubuntu 14.04 after switching to integrated GPU on PowerXpress AMD GPU + Intel Haswell CPU system platforms
• A connected external display getting disabled when unplugging AC power from laptop platforms
• An auto log out when double clicking the picture under desktop server times on PowerXpress AMD GPU + Intel CPU platforms

What is new in version 14.30:

• Supported Linux distributions:
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Suite 6.4 and 6.5
• SUSE0 Linux Enterprise 11 SP3
• openSUSE 13.1
• Ubuntu 12.04.3, 12.04.4 and 13.10

What is new in version 14.6 Beta:

• Features:
• Ubuntu 14.04 support
• Install improvements
• Package and distribution generation options; recommend options set by default
• Help user install generated distribution package once created
• Pop-up messages to help guide users through the install process
• Identifying and installation of pre-requisites
• Resolved Issues:
• [399454] : Witcher 2 - Resolves random lock-up seen when launching the application
• [398826] : Screen corruption when connect external monitor to some PowerXpress A+I platform
• [396719] : X crash when do rotation with Tear Free Desktop enabled
• [397810] : Failure on exit of OpenGL programs
• [398424] : Error message when run clinfo in console mode
• [396098] : Blank screen when hotplug HDMI monitor from MST hub
• [396795] : System hang after resume from S3/S4 in High Performance mode on PowerXpress A+I platform
• [396870] : Garbage on the bottom right corner of screen before boot into login UI during restart
• [394504] : Segmentation fault when run ETQW

What is new in version 14.4:

• New Features:
• Support for the AMD Radeon R9 295X
• Ubuntu 12.04.4 support
• Full support for OpenGL 4.4
• OpenGL 4.4 supports the following extensions:
• ARB_buffer_storage
• ARB_enhanced_layouts
• ARB_query_buffer_object
• ARB_clear_texture
• ARB_texture_mirror_clamp_to_edge
• ARB_texture_stencil8
• ARB_vertex_type_10f_11f_11f_rev
• ARB_multi_bind
• ARB_bindless_texture
• ARB_spare_texture
• ARB_seamless_cubemap_per_texture
• ARB_indirect_parameters
• ARB_shader_group_vote
• Resolved Issues:
• Corruption and system hang observed while running Sanctuary BM with Tear Free Desktop enabled
• Memory leak about hardware context
• EGL create context error for glesx
• GPU hand in CrossFire Mode
• [Piglit] Test "spec/arb_vertex_array_object" failed
• [Piglit] Test "glx/GLX_EXT_import_context/free context" failed
• [Piglit] Test "spec/ARB_seamless_cube_map" failed
• Piglit] Test "texture swizzle with border color" failed
• Glxtest failures observed in log file
• Blank screen observed while running steam games with Big picture
• 4ms delay observed in the glxSwapBuffers when vsync is enabled
• RBDoom3BFG the game auto quit when use the security camera terminal
• ETQW segmentation fault

What is new in version 14.4 RC:

• Products:
• Support for the AMD Radeon R9 295X
• Features:
• Ubuntu 12.04.4 support
• Full support for OpenGL 4.4
• OpenGL 4.4 supports the following extensions:
• ARB_buffer_storage
• ARB_enhanced_layouts
• ARB_query_buffer_object
• ARB_clear_texture
• ARB_texture_mirror_clamp_to_edge
• ARB_texture_stencil8
• ARB_vertex_type_10f_11f_11f_rev
• ARB_multi_bind
• ARB_bindless_texture
• ARB_spare_texture
• ARB_seamless_cubemap_per_texture
• ARB_indirect_parameters
• ARB_compute_variable_group_size
• ARB_shader_draw_parameters
• ARB_shader_group_vote
• Resolved Issues:
• [388835] : Corruption and system hang observed while running Sanctuary BM with Tear Free Desktop enabled
• [391994] : Memory leak about hardware context
• [392921] : EGL create context error for glesx
• [393622] : GPU hand in CrossFire Mode
• [392271] : [Piglit] Test "spec/arb_vertex_array_object" failed
• [393283]: Glxtest failures observed in log file
• [392666] : [Piglit] Test "glx/GLX_EXT_import_context/free context" failed
• [389496] : [Piglit] Test "spec/ARB_seamless_cube_map" failed
• [388194] : [Piglit] Test "texture swizzle with border color" failed
• [391231] : Blank screen observed while running steam games with Big picture
• [394935] : 4ms delay observed in the glxSwapBuffers when vsync is enabled
• [375710] : RBDoom3BFG the game auto quit when use the security camera terminal
• [394504] : ETQW segmentation fault

What is new in version 14.3 Beta:

• [394848] - Xorg crashed playing AVI video file in VLC player or Parole player
• [394705] - "Nexuiz - Demo3" Ubuntu performance lower than Redhat
• [394704] - "Nexuiz - Demo3" Linux performance lower than Windows

What is new in version 14.2 Beta:

• Minecraft: missing textures have been resolved
• Resolves corruption issues seen in X-plane

What is new in version 14.1 Beta:

• Products:
• AMD A10-7850K
• AMD A10-7700K
• Features:
• RHEL 6.5 production support
• openSUSE 13.1 production support
• Ubuntu 13.10 production support
• Xserver 1.15 support
• Kernel 3.13 support
• Resolved Issues:
• [386897] : System hang on resume from S4 with OpenGL screen saver running
• [387678] : Backtrace occurs when kill X
• [387664] : Failed to start X without kernel module loaded
• [378620] : OpenCL test failure in CrossFire Mode
• [386945] : piglit test "spec/ARB_copy_buffer/overlap" failed
• [386710] : piglit test "spec/ARB_draw_buffers_blend" failed
• [386818] : piglit test "spec/OpenGL 2.0/depth-tex-modes-glsl" failed
• [386941] : piglit test "spec/ARB_blend_func_extended" failed
• [386903] : piglit test "spec/OpenGL 3.0/gl-3.0-required-sized-texture-formats" failed
• [386840] : Viewport goes blank when mouse cursor leaves when run Houdini on Ubuntu
• [387596] : piglit test "spec/ARB_framebuffer_object (fbo-scissor-blit)" failed
• [389174] : Failed to get fan speed on Bonaire card
• [388110] : Intermittent flashing problem when running at 2560x1600
• [372656] : Crash when resizing Konsole
• [388325] : Brightness cannot be adjusted on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS
• [388330] : piglit test "spec/ARB_framebuffer_object (fbo-blit-stretch)" failed
• [385457] : Blue/white screen after using Google-chrome to run fishietank
• [388500] : piglit test "spec/EXT_texture_integer" failed
• [388802] : piglit test "spec/ARB_map_buffer_alignment" failed
• [386396] : piglit test "spec/ARB_depth_buffer_float/fbo-depthstencil-drawpixels" failed
• [389431] : Screens are distorted when connecting an external monitor on some Haswell platforms
• [389530] : Blank screen/crash observed while running unigine heaven benchmark in windowed mode
• [387124] : OpenCL performance drop observed on Hawaii compared to Tahiti XT
• [386940] : piglit test "spec/EXT_texture_sRGB" failed
• [392137] : [SteamOS] Failed to return to desktop from steam.
• [392015] : [SteamOS] Screen is locked when changing user.
• [392014] : [SteamOS] Failed to login Steam sometimes
• [391231] : Blank screen observed while running steam games with Big picture

Requirements:

• POSIX Shared Memory (/dev/shm) support is required for 3D apps
• glibc version 2.2 or 2.3
• Linux kernel 2.4 or higher
• XFree86 version 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, or X.org 6.8