AMD releases Catalyst 15.7 WHQL with support for DirectX 12 and Crossfire for Freesync

In early December last year, or more precisely 212 days ago, AMD released driver Catalyst Omega, which was the latest with WHQL certification from Microsoft. Since then, all updates have had the stamp “Beta”, something that will change today with the launch of Catalyst 15.7 WHQL.

In addition to Microsoft’s quality assurance, there are mainly two long-awaited news. The first is that AMD’s dynamic refresh rate technology, Freesync, can now be used in combination with Crossfire. The second is official support for DirectX 12 and Windows 10, just in time for the launch on July 29.

Attentive users have probably noticed that the Radeon 300 series, despite the same graphics processors as the 200 series, in many cases has better performance. This is due to the fact that the improved drivers were locked to the new old series, something that was fixed with Catalyst 15.7 WHQL.

Another novelty is the finesse Frame Rate Target Control (FRTC) is now supported on all graphics cards from Radeon R7 260 and up. This is a function to directly lock the frame rate in the drivers to between 55 and 95 frames per second (fps), in order to reduce heat generation and power consumption.

Finally, it is now supported Virtual Super Resolution (VSR) of all graphics cards and APUs from Radeon R7 260 and A4-7400K or better. In short, it is about games being rendered in a higher resolution than the screen and then scaling it down via various algorithms. The result is a form of supersampling, with softer edges and as a disadvantage a real performance impact.

The new driver is available for download via AMD’s official website.