Goodbye Catalyst Control Center – Hello Radeon Software Crimson Edition!

Between this and the AMDGPU kernel driver for Linux 2016 looks to be a good year for Catalyst Drivers finally. Not that I have anymore issues with AMD drivers than nVidia drivers over the years but hopefully this does a lot to improve the negative image they accumulated over the years.

Shit needs to be perfect or nothing will change as far as consumer reception / opinion of their software goes.
 
Nobody is ever going to be happy, took AMD way to long for game specific settings now finally got rid of the old CCC code i hope with this major change will be a good thing. That being said outside of CF profiles being so iffy and AMD being quite late a few times for new game releases i haven't had actually breaking driver issues from them in a long time well either company really.
 
So my predictions:

Crimson software releases, inevitably has a few minor bugs.

Minor bugs are blown out of proportion by people who don't own AMD hardware.

'Crimson' becomes a bad word, any thread mentioning it immediately devolves into 'AMD suxlololDriversSucklololol'

Radeon Graphics group eventually get dissolved back into AMD, because AMD's leadership is about as stable and consistent as carbonated jello in an earthquake.

Nvidia gains yet more market share

AMD posts even more bleak financial news, yet somehow survives.
 
KazeoHin said:
'Crimson' becomes a bad word, any thread mentioning it immediately devolves into 'AMD suxlololDriversSucklololol'
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On this forum, maybe.
Everywhere else, anyone who doesn't like the new GUI will be ignored and the entire discussion will be "Nvidia owners are just jealous that NVCP isn't 90% useless white space." It looks like they're burying features under even more layers of menus. I'm sure the flashy graphics will be fun for 5 minutes but when you find yourself having to click a dozen times just to reach the graphics settings it will become tedious.

And almost the entire main screen is reserved for advertisements.

Hmu7Ti6.jpg
 
You won't need to give your email address to get updates! :)
 
TaintedSquirrel said:
On this forum, maybe.
Everywhere else, anyone who doesn't like the new GUI will be ignored and the entire discussion will be "Nvidia owners are just jealous that NVCP isn't 90% useless white space." It looks like they're burying features under even more layers of menus. I'm sure the flashy graphics will be fun for 5 minutes but when you find yourself having to click a dozen times just to reach the graphics settings it will become tedious.

And almost the entire main screen is reserved for advertisements.

Hmu7Ti6.jpg
Click to expand...

And so it begins....
 
They don't need your email address because they feed you promo material directly through the main window of CCC now. Maybe GFE does the same thing, I've never used it.
AMD was actually smart enough to realize most people will use fake email addresses anyway.
 
Who cares, as long as it runs smooth. We all know the current control panels are shit and slow to respond.
 
NickJames said:
Who cares, as long as it runs smooth. We all know the current control panels are shit and slow to respond.
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Honestly, even on an SSD, the CCC took ages (up to 1.5 minutes) to open.

If this new software opens up in less than 5 seconds from initial click, I'll be a happy clam.
 
KazeoHin said:
Honestly, even on an SSD, the CCC took ages (up to 1.5 minutes) to open.

If this new software opens up in less than 5 seconds from initial click, I'll be a happy clam.
Click to expand...

God forbid you want to manage 3D settings. Creating game profiles is a chore and I only do it when absolutely necessary in the control panel otherwise I use nvidiaInspector.
 
I'll say it. No idea on driver quality/stability but the new GUI looks like crap. Really, I have no intention of setting my GPU options with an iphone so I'm not sure why it looks phone inspired. Big unnecessary buttons and short on detail that requires lots of flipping through pages. GUI wise the old CCC was fine.

kasakka said:
I just hope Nvidia tries to one-up them and upgrades their shitty control panel.
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Possible new features aside, the control panel is wonderful on Nvidia's side. Far better than the shitty bloatware program they are forcing, and far better than AMD's new attempt.
 
KazeoHin said:
.....aaaaand there goes your credibility.
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He's right.
A list of categories on the left, the settings on the right. Pretty standard.

I always had trouble navigating the display properties, felt like there were maybe 4+ menus for the same thing, and stuff was buried under multiple separate categories. They could have changed the layout of the menus/options themselves but the visuals were fine. Hell they could upgrade CCC's graphics if they want, but turning the layout into some smartphone-inspired mess is completely unnecessary.
 
TaintedSquirrel said:
He's right.
A list of categories on the left, the settings on the right. Pretty standard.

I always had trouble navigating the display properties, felt like there were maybe 4+ menus for the same thing, and stuff was buried under multiple separate categories. They could have changed the layout of the menus/options themselves but the visuals were fine. Hell they could upgrade CCC's graphics if they want, but turning the layout into some smartphone-inspired mess is completely unnecessary.
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Whilst I understand that the old CCC was workable, it was FAR too complicated and so many features were fragmented into different pages. Why was hardware scaling, resolution, and colour depth ALL on different pages? That is just one of the examples I can think of.

The 'look' of the UI is just following the trends of modern software. Is it mobile-inspired? not really, the buttons are all on a 'taskbar' of sorts and are not 'square' (finger-friendly) instead they are highly rectangular and labelled with text. The solid colours and presence of 'whitespace' is how ALL modern software is being developed: mostly because its been proven, time and time again that its much easier for the average person to comprehend and use. Having a piece of software look like the command deck of a 747 is great if you have decades of high-level computer experience and know exactly what you need and where to find it, but for the average person, readability and clarity are #1.
 
my CCC comes up in less than a second.

although, i do remember a couple years ago it did take a while.
 
I am curious how the update function will work. As it is now, we need to use a program like DDU for a good clean install of the drivers. Do they have something new, or possibly integrated a similar program in this driver.
 
Kwisatz Haderach said:
I am curious how the update function will work. As it is now, we need to use a program like DDU for a good clean install of the drivers. Do they have something new, or possibly integrated a similar program in this driver.
Click to expand...
I updated my drivers for 2 years straight without ever running DDU, you don't need to use it.
 
KazeoHin said:
Honestly, even on an SSD, the CCC took ages (up to 1.5 minutes) to open.

If this new software opens up in less than 5 seconds from initial click, I'll be a happy clam.
Click to expand...

you have a problem with your machine then or a very slow, old and damaged HDD. it open instantly for me not longer than 2 seconds in a WD Blue HDD so nothing fancy really in HDD terms..
 
Araxie said:
you have a problem with your machine then or a very slow, old and damaged HDD. it open instantly for me not longer than 2 seconds in a WD Blue HDD so nothing fancy really in HDD terms..
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Damn, what the heck.

on ALL my AMD machines CCC has historically taken AGES. Even on my SSD system.

This is with my 9600, my 4830, my 6970, my 6850 and my 7970. I just thought it was a thing.
 
KazeoHin said:
Damn, what the heck.

on ALL my AMD machines CCC has historically taken AGES. Even on my SSD system.

This is with my 9600, my 4830, my 6970, my 6850 and my 7970. I just thought it was a thing.
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nope about 2 seconds for me on ssd, to be honest nvidia control panel takes longer on my other system on same type ssd
 
bill_d said:
nope about 2 seconds for me on ssd, to be honest nvidia control panel takes longer on my other system on same type ssd
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Yeah, the NV panel takes a while as well, this is with my sig rig, so really no excuses there, Nvidia.
 
TaintedSquirrel said:
On this forum, maybe.
Everywhere else, anyone who doesn't like the new GUI will be ignored and the entire discussion will be "Nvidia owners are just jealous that NVCP isn't 90% useless white space." It looks like they're burying features under even more layers of menus. I'm sure the flashy graphics will be fun for 5 minutes but when you find yourself having to click a dozen times just to reach the graphics settings it will become tedious.

And almost the entire main screen is reserved for advertisements.

Hmu7Ti6.jpg
Click to expand...

LOL that's a lot worse than GFE. NVIDIA hasn't turned their software into billboards--at least not yet, thanks for giving them ideas AMD!. I personally like GFE quite a bit:

nvyBdkL.jpg
 
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All I can say is some of you are real experts at fucking up your PCs.

Maybe you should find another hobby?
 
CCC is fuckin ugly and I have never gotten deep in to settings on it. I can't believe someone would hate a clearly labeled design. One thing I hated about CCC was how painfully slow that thing is. I hated even with ssd it was slow and small tiny letters and seemed like everything was hidden.

This is a much needed design improvement that is needed. Anyone who hates is just hates amd period, lol. Damned if you do and damned if you dont.
 
CCC isn't the artful piece but does function well enough, well somewhat. How often does someone really need to go in there anyway? I open when I get new games and feel the need to override some in game settings, which isn't too often. So the looks never really bothered me.

The speed though was great with my W7 but noticeably slower in W10. Everything else seemed faster or same as far as opening, just CCC for some reason got slower.
 
I'll stay with my nvidia. After amd bought ATI I left radeon in the dirt.
 
KazeoHin said:
Damn, what the heck.

on ALL my AMD machines CCC has historically taken AGES. Even on my SSD system.

This is with my 9600, my 4830, my 6970, my 6850 and my 7970. I just thought it was a thing.
Click to expand...

Maybe your antivirus solution is making it open slow? My brother has the worst AMD notebook made by Toshiba in the world and his Catalyst takes a bit to open. Maybe 10 seconds or so.
 
Deathroned said:
Maybe you have a shitty system messing with your drivers or you incapable of properly installing drivers.
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https://community.amd.com/thread/170510

I and many others have this problem and to this day it not only hasn't been fixed but we don't even get an acknowledgement from AMD on the problem. They completely ignore us and the problem at this point.

I'm actually dumping my 290x cf system soon. In market for my first 980 TI right now. Screw team red, at least when it comes to crossfire. If you want 2 cards Nvidia is definitely the better choice.
 
Freiya said:
https://community.amd.com/thread/170510

I and many others have this problem and to this day it not only hasn't been fixed but we don't even get an acknowledgement from AMD on the problem. They completely ignore us and the problem at this point.

I'm actually dumping my 290x cf system soon. In market for my first 980 TI right now. Screw team red, at least when it comes to crossfire. If you want 2 cards Nvidia is definitely the better choice.
Click to expand...

I'm not going to try and tell you to keep those cards as I can certainly understand frustration with a product. But when I go read the NVidia section I see so many problems with SLi. Nagging annoying issues. Then I see some people post that their SLi setup works and so there has to be something wrong with the guy's system that is having problems.

If I were you, I'd wait for Pascal to come out and upgrade. I would say wait for AMD and NVidia to release their new lineup, but I understand your frustration with AMD products. The NVidia drivers don't seem like the champions of DX12 yet. For some people it seems that they are more akin to Alpha bug patches, than drivers. Of course NVidia has tons of money to toss at the problem. It does seem that they aren't having good results with DX12 so far. Maybe their eggs are in the Pascal basket?

Just something to think about before you upgrade. Now if money is no problem then certainly do it. The 980ti is a BEAST of a card. You will certainly be happy with a really strong single card solution. SLi? Jury's out on that one due to less than optimal scaling and other issues.

No I don't have CrossfireX or SLi. I value my single card solutions more as they simply work without many headaches.
 
Freiya said:
https://community.amd.com/thread/170510

I and many others have this problem and to this day it not only hasn't been fixed but we don't even get an acknowledgement from AMD on the problem. They completely ignore us and the problem at this point.

I'm actually dumping my 290x cf system soon. In market for my first 980 TI right now. Screw team red, at least when it comes to crossfire. If you want 2 cards Nvidia is definitely the better choice.
Click to expand...

Then don't whine and complain when you have to pony up dough for your game ready drivers.
 
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