AMD Catalyst Control Center running on Windows 7 |
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| Original author(s) | Advanced Micro Devices |
| Developer(s) | ATI Technologies |
| Initial release | June 13, 2002 (v. 2.1) |
| Stable release | 11.12 (December 13, 2011) [±] |
| Preview release | [±] |
| Operating system | Microsoft Windows Linux |
| Platform | IA-32 and x64 .NET Framework |
| Size | 51.75 MB ~ 93.93 MB |
| Type | Device driver and system monitor |
| License | Freeware |
| Website | sites.amd.com/us/game/downloads/Pages/downloads.aspx |
AMD Catalyst (formerly named ATI Catalyst) is a device driver and utility software package for ATI line of video cards. It runs on Microsoft Windows and Linux, on 32- and 64-bit x86 processors.
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Catalyst was instituted on 13 June 2002[1] with version 02.1 after the release of the Radeon 8500, as "a software suite that includes unified driver and software applications to enable [ATI's] Radeon family of graphics products" for Windows XP, Windows 2000 and Windows Me, with support for Windows 98 via the Windows Me driver. The first number in a release version denotes the year, the second the release within that year, starting at x.1 for all years other than 2003 when there was a 3.0 release.
The original Catalyst consisted of these elements:
Key features promised by ATI include frequent driver updates with performance enhancements, bug fixes, and new features.
| Windows support | From version | To version | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Windows 9x | 4.4 | There were some later releases for these operating systems, including and up to a Windows Me build of Catalyst 6.2 released on Feb 9, 2006. | |
| Windows 2000 | 6.5[2] | ||
| Windows XP | |||
| Windows Vista | 7.2[3] | ||
| Windows XP x64 | 7.11[4] | ||
| Windows 7 | 9.7[5] |
Starting with version 4.9 released on 4 September 2004, the Catalyst driver package included the ATI Catalyst Control Center,[6] a new software application for manipulating many of the hardware's functions, such as 3D settings, monitor controls and video options. It shows a small 3D preview and allows the user to see how changes to the graphics settings affects the quality of the rendered image. It also shows information about the card itself and the software data. This application requires Microsoft .NET Framework.
fglrx is the name of the Linux display driver used for ATI Radeon and ATI FireGL family of video adapters and stands for "FireGL and Radeon for X". It contains both free and open-source and proprietary parts. Starting from Catalyst 11.7, the ATI Proprietary Linux driver was renamed ATI Catalyst Linux, and was moved to the same release dates and version numbering as the versions for Microsoft Windows.[7]
Linux version has been criticized for its stability and performance issues as well as lack of options.[8][9][10][11] The state of the driver has improved over time with AMD trying to work in concert with application developers,[12] although in most instances the drivers are considered to be solid enough for most tasks and functional for most users.[13]
HydraVision is a desktop/screen management software mostly providing multi-monitor and virtual-screen management. Besides screen management, it includes hardware-accelerated eyefinity and has extensive hot-key support.[14]
HydraVision was originally developed in late 90s by Appian Graphics[15] for their multi-head display solutions. ATI acquired HydraVision in July 2001 along with Appian's HydraVision team to join its then-new dual-head Radeon 7500 and 8500 series.
Currently it is an optional component of the Catalyst software suite.[16]
Not all platforms have an equal level of support. For example, recent versions do not support cards older than R600 on GNU/Linux.
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