AMD Radeon Software is a

device driver In computing, a device driver is a computer program that operates or controls a particular type of device that is attached to a computer or automaton. A driver provides a software interface to hardware devices, enabling operating systems and o ...

and

utility software Utility software is software designed to help analyze, configure, optimize or maintain a computer. It is used to support the computer infrastructure - in contrast to application software, which is aimed at directly performing tasks that benefit or ...

package for AMD's

graphics cards A graphics card (also called a video card, display card, graphics adapter, VGA card/VGA, video adapter, display adapter, or mistakenly GPU) is an expansion card which generates a feed of output images to a display device, such as a computer moni ...

and

APUs Apus is a small constellation in the southern sky. It represents a bird-of-paradise, and its name means "without feet" in Greek because the bird-of-paradise was once wrongly believed to lack feet. First depicted on a celestial globe by Pet ...

. Its

graphical user interface The GUI ( "UI" by itself is still usually pronounced . or ), graphical user interface, is a form of user interface that allows users to interact with electronic devices through graphical icons and audio indicator such as primary notation, ins ...

is built with

Electron The electron ( or ) is a subatomic particle with a negative one elementary electric charge. Electrons belong to the first generation of the lepton particle family, and are generally thought to be elementary particles because they have n ...

and is compatible with

64-bit In computer architecture, 64-bit integers, memory addresses, or other data units are those that are 64 bits wide. Also, 64-bit CPUs and ALUs are those that are based on processor registers, address buses, or data buses of that size. A ...

Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for se ...

and

Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, whi ...

distributions.

Software bundle

Functionality

Radeon Software includes the following feature set: * Game profile management * Overclocking and undervolting * Performance monitoring * Recording and streaming * Captured video and screenshot management * Software update notifications * Upgrade advisor

History

The software was previously known as AMD Radeon Settings, AMD Catalyst, and ATI Catalyst. AMD ceased providing 32-bit versions in October 2018.

Supported hardware

AMD Radeon Software is targeted to support all function blocks present on a GPU's or an APU's

die Die, as a verb, refers to death, the cessation of life. Die may also refer to: Games * Die, singular of dice, small throwable objects used for producing random numbers Manufacturing * Die (integrated circuit), a rectangular piece of a semicondu ...

. Besides instruction code targeted at rendering, this includes display controllers as well as their SIP blocks for

video decoding A video decoder is an electronic circuit, often contained within a single integrated circuit chip, that converts base-band analog video signals to digital video. Video decoders commonly allow programmable control over video characteristics such as ...

(

Unified Video Decoder Unified Video Decoder (UVD, previously called Universal Video Decoder) is the name given to AMD's dedicated video decoding ASIC. There are multiple versions implementing a multitude of video codecs, such as H.264 and VC-1. UVD was introduced wit ...

(UVD)) and video encoding (

Video Coding Engine Video Code Engine (VCE, was earlier referred to as Video Coding Engine, Video Compression Engine or Video Codec Engine in official AMD documentation) is AMD's video encoding application-specific integrated circuit implementing the video codec H. ...

(VCE)). The device driver also supports

AMD TrueAudio TrueAudio is the name given to AMD's ASIC intended to serve as dedicated co-processor for the calculations of computationally expensive advanced audio signal processing, like e.g. convolution reverberation effects and 3D audio effects. TrueAudi ...

, a SIP block to perform sound-related calculations.

Supported products

AMD Radeon Software supports the following AMD (and ATI-tradition) product lines targeted at rendering: * Graphics processing units (GPUs) * Accelerated processing units (APUs) The following product lines are probably ''not'' supported by the AMD Radeon Software, but instead by some other software, which (for example) is

OpenGL OpenGL (Open Graphics Library) is a cross-language, cross-platform application programming interface (API) for rendering 2D and 3D vector graphics. The API is typically used to interact with a graphics processing unit (GPU), to achieve hardwa ...

-certified: *

AMD FireStream AMD FireStream was AMD's brand name for their Radeon-based product line targeting stream processing and/or GPGPU in supercomputers. Originally developed by ATI Technologies around the Radeon X1900 XTX in 2006, the product line was previously ...

product line for

GPGPU General-purpose computing on graphics processing units (GPGPU, or less often GPGP) is the use of a graphics processing unit (GPU), which typically handles computation only for computer graphics, to perform computation in applications traditiona ...

in supercomputers and such * AMD FireMV product line for multi-monitor setups (''deprecated by AMD Eyefinity being available on all consumer product''s) * AMD FirePro product line for professionals who require certified OpenGL support

Multi-monitor support

Starting in Catalyst 14.6 AMD has enabled mixed-resolution support, allowing for a single

Eyefinity AMD Eyefinity is a brand name for AMD video card products that support multi-monitor setups by integrating multiple (up to six) display controllers on one GPU. AMD Eyefinity was introduced with the Radeon HD 5000 Series "Evergreen" in September 2 ...

display group to be created where each monitor runs at a different resolution. The current version may, however, disable any additional display mode and change to a resolution in the one mode available. This feature is made possible through the addition of two new Eyefinity display modes, Fit and Expand, which join the traditional Fill mode. In both Fit and Expand modes, AMD is compensating for the mismatched resolutions by creating a virtual desktop that is of a different resolution from those of the monitors, and then either padding it out or cropping it as necessary. Before Eyefinity, there was the Windows-only software "HydraVision" (originally acquired from Appian Graphics complete with its development team), a desktop/screen management software mostly providing

multi-monitor Multi-monitor, also called multi-display and multi-head, is the use of multiple physical display devices, such as monitors, televisions, and projectors, in order to increase the area available for computer programs running on a single computer sy ...

and virtual-screen management. It has extensive hot-key support.

Video acceleration

Both of AMD's SIP cores for video acceleration,

as well as

, are supported by AMD Radeon Software.

Audio acceleration

Some AMD products contain SIP cores for audio acceleration branded AMD TrueAudio. Support for this audio acceleration DSP co-processor is part of AMD Radeon Software. Under Microsoft Windows the support for AMD TrueAudio is codenamed "ACP" (for audio co-processor) and implemented via ''"ACP user service" (amdacpusrsvc.exe)'', a background service that helps manage audio tasks in games. Under Linux, AMD TrueAudio is codenamed "acp" as well: some code regarding this can be found in the /drivers/gpu/drm/radeon directory of the Linux kernel sources.

Power saving

AMD Radeon Software includes support for

AMD PowerPlay AMD PowerPlay is the brand name for a set of technologies for the reduction of the energy consumption implemented in several of AMD's graphics processing units and APUs supported by their proprietary graphics device driver "Catalyst". AMD PowerP ...

AMD PowerTune AMD PowerTune is a series of dynamic frequency scaling technologies built into some AMD GPUs and APUs that allow the clock speed of the processor to be dynamically changed (to different ''P-states'') by software. This allows the processor to me ...

and

AMD ZeroCore Power Graphics Core Next (GCN) is the codename for a series of microarchitectures and an instruction set architecture that were developed by AMD for its GPUs as the successor to its TeraScale microarchitecture. The first product featuring GCN was lau ...

, AMD's set of technologies to reduce energy consumption in their graphics products.

Supported interfaces

Rendering

The AMD Radeon Software device driver supports multiple rendering interfaces, all designed to give the user-space programs, such as

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This feedba ...

s or

CAD Computer-aided design (CAD) is the use of computers (or ) to aid in the creation, modification, analysis, or optimization of a design. This software is used to increase the productivity of the designer, improve the quality of design, improve c ...

software, access to the corresponding SIP blocks.

Direct3D

Direct3D 12 is available for GCN with version 15.7.1 or higher.

Mantle

Only the Radeon Software targeting

Microsoft Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for ...

included support for

Mantle A mantle is a piece of clothing, a type of cloak. Several other meanings are derived from that. Mantle may refer to: *Mantle (clothing), a cloak-like garment worn mainly by women as fashionable outerwear **Mantle (vesture), an Eastern Orthodox ve ...

. In 2019 starting with version 19.5.1 it was officially discontinued, in favor of DirectX 12 and Vulkan (built upon Mantle) raise in popularity. Windows users who still wish to use Mantle would have to use older version of drivers (prior to 19.5.1).

OpenGL

OpenGL 4.5 is possible for TeraScale 2 and 3 with AMD Radeon Software Crimson Edition Beta (driver version 15.30 or higher like Crimson Beta 16.2.1). OpenCL support will be lost, but it can be recovered by copying the relevant files from a previous package like Radeon Software 15.11.1 Beta. Beta drivers do not support

HDCP High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP) is a form of digital copy protection developed by Intel Corporation to prevent copying of digital audio and video content as it travels across connections. Types of connections include DisplayPor ...

. OpenGL 4.5 is available for GCN with version 16.3 or higher. OpenGL 4.x compliance requires supporting FP64 shaders. These are implemented by emulation on some TeraScale GPUs. OpenGL 4.6 is supported in AMD Adrenalin 18.4.1 Graphics Driver on

7 SP1, 10 version 1803 (April 2018 update) for AMD Radeon HD 7700+, HD 8500+ and newer. Released April 2018.

Vulkan

Vulkan 1.0 is available with AMD Radeon Software Crimson Edition 16.3.2 or higher for GCN. Vulkan 1.1 with AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin Edition 18.3.3 or higher. Vulkan 1.2 with Adrenalin 20.1.2 or higher. Vulkan 1.3 with Adrenalin 22.1.2 or higher.

Video acceleration

The AMD Radeon Software device driver supports multiple interfaces, all designed to give user-space programs, such as

GStreamer GStreamer is a pipeline-based multimedia framework that links together a wide variety of media processing systems to complete complex workflows. For instance, GStreamer can be used to build a system that reads files in one format, processes the ...

or HandBrake software, access to the corresponding SIP blocks.

GPGPU

ROCm

OpenCL

With Catalyst 9.12 support of OpenCL 1.0 was available. In Catalyst 10.10 OpenCL 1.1 was available. Catalyst 12.4 Supports OpenCL 1.2. OpenCL 2.0 driver works since 14.41 for GCN-based Models. This also supports previous OpenCL versions. TeraScale 2 and 3 chips can use Level 1.2.

Close to Metal

Close to Metal was a low-level API by AMD which was abandoned in favor of OpenCL.

Other

AMD HD3D HD3D is AMD's stereoscopic 3D API. HD3D exposes a quad buffer for game and software developers, allowing native 3D. An open HD3D SDK is available, although, for now, only DirectX 9, 10 and 11 are supported. Support for HDMI-3D-, DisplayPort ...

stereoscopic 3D Stereoscopy (also called stereoscopics, or stereo imaging) is a technique for creating or enhancing the illusion of depth in an image by means of stereopsis for binocular vision. The word ''stereoscopy'' derives . Any stereoscopic image is ...

API by AMD.

Heterogeneous System Architecture (HSA)

With Catalyst 14.1 HSA is possible. AMD main Processor graphic Units and Radeon graphic Card Units work combined.

AMD GPU Services (AGS)

* GPUOpen
AMD GPU Services (AGS) Library

AMD Display Library (ADL) SDK

* GPUOpen
AMD Display (ADL) Library

AMD Display Library (ADL) SDK

Operating systems support

Linux

The main AMD GPU software stacks are fully supported on Linux: GPUOpen for graphics, and

ROCm ROCm is an Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) software stack for graphics processing unit (GPU) programming. ROCm spans several domains: general-purpose computing on graphics processing units (GPGPU), high performance computing (HPC), heterogeneous ...

for compute. GPUOpen is most often merely a supplement, for software utilities, to the free

Mesa A mesa is an isolated, flat-topped elevation, ridge or hill, which is bounded from all sides by steep escarpments and stands distinctly above a surrounding plain. Mesas characteristically consist of flat-lying soft sedimentary rocks capped by a ...

software stack that is widely distributed and available by default on most

Linux distribution A Linux distribution (often abbreviated as distro) is an operating system made from a software collection that includes the Linux kernel and, often, a package management system. Linux users usually obtain their operating system by downloading one ...

s. AMD strives at packaging its software for Linux on its own, not relying solely on Linux distributions. They do so by using the ''amdgpu'' and ''amdgpu-pro''

shell script A shell script is a computer program designed to be run by a Unix shell, a command-line interpreter. The various dialects of shell scripts are considered to be scripting languages. Typical operations performed by shell scripts include file man ...

s, and provide package archives for e.g. ''apt'' and ''rpm''.

Microsoft Windows and Linux

Starting with version 4.9 (released on 4 September 2004) the Catalyst driver package included the ATI Catalyst Control Center, a new software application for manipulating many hardware 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 affect the quality of the rendered image. It also shows information about the card itself and the software data. This application requires Microsoft

.NET Framework The .NET Framework (pronounced as "''dot net"'') is a proprietary software framework developed by Microsoft that runs primarily on Microsoft Windows. It was the predominant implementation of the Common Language Infrastructure (CLI) until bein ...

. Radeon Software 16.x and higher only for GCN-based Models. With 16.3.2 Vulkan 1.0 support. Radeon Software 17.7.1 is the final driver for Windows 8.1 Radeon Software 18.9.3 is the final driver for 32-bit Windows 7/10 Radeon Software 22.6.1 is the final driver for Windows 7 (and Windows 8.1 unofficially); 22.6.1 is also the final driver for GCN 1, GCN 2 and GCN 3 based GPUs

Issues

On Windows Platforms

* Quantity of rendered ahead frames cannot be adjusted * Triple buffering in D3D cannot be forced * V-sync in many games under Windows 7 cannot be forced disabled

On Linux Platforms

* No support for 3D HDTVs.

Official website
*
AMD Graphics Drivers & Software
{{DEFAULTSORT:Radeon Software AMD software ATI Technologies Device drivers Linux drivers Proprietary freeware for Linux Rendering APIs available on Linux Proprietary software that uses Qt Software that uses Qt Third-party Linux kernel modules X Window System

Software bundle

Functionality

History

Supported hardware

Supported products

Multi-monitor support

Video acceleration

Audio acceleration

Power saving

Supported interfaces

Rendering

Direct3D

Mantle

OpenGL

Vulkan

Video acceleration

GPGPU

ROCm

OpenCL

Close to Metal

Other

Heterogeneous System Architecture (HSA)

AMD GPU Services (AGS)

AMD Display Library (ADL) SDK

Operating systems support

Linux

Microsoft Windows and Linux

Issues

On Windows Platforms

On Linux Platforms

See also

Related technologies

Related topics

References

External links