AMD Introduces Radeon Software Crimson – Retires Catalyst

Since 2002, owners of graphics cards from AMD (ATI) have been in the habit of downloading the universal driver package Catalyst to get the latest optimizations and bug fixes. This will now change, and with the newly created division Radeon Technologies Group at the helm, the new software package Radeon Software is now presented, which replaces Catalyst straight off.

The new driver package comes with a new naming scheme, where the first major version goes by the code name Crimson Edition. Upcoming incremental updates retain this code name for the time being, but use the same version numbering as Catalyst, ie the first digits correspond to the year and the last month of release.

In focus is the completely redesigned control panel Radeon Settings, which replaces the current Catalyst Control Center. First and foremost, it is a drastic redesign, which together with up to ten times faster start-up time will give the user a significantly smoother experience than previous versions. The redesign includes the overclocking tool Overdrive, which has previously received some criticism for being extremely clumsy.

On top of this, AMD introduces a clear menu of all installed games, with the ability to make specific settings per game title. In addition, it is also possible to apply special overclocking settings via Overdrive for different games. It is currently unclear whether the company intends to go the same way as Nvidia’s Geforce Experience, with optimized game profiles based on the user’s hardware.

AMD’s new driver package does not currently have a fixed launch date, but according to the company will be rolled out before the end of the year.