AMD Introduces Radeon Software ‘Crimson Edition’

AMD has completely overhauled its driver software for Radeon video cards and GPUs. The software is based on a new platform and should above all be much faster than predecessor Catalyst. In addition, AMD would like to release driver updates more often.

The first version of the new driver platform has been given the name Crimson. That should refer to the traditional suit of ATI Radeon cards. The red color would also appear in future driver versions, as other shades of red. The turnaround for the driver software is said to have been prompted by the community of Radeon owners. In the new Radeon Software, the biggest complaints would have been addressed. The Crimson software would therefore boot up to ten times faster, be more stable and offer more features and performance than the old Catalyst Control Center.

Crimson and subsequent versions are no longer written in .Net, but in another framework called Qt. This would theoretically allow the software to run on various platforms, including iOS or Android. Completely removing the driver, for example to install a new version or to change a video card, would also be much more complete than with CCC. To completely remove that software, software like Ccleaner was needed, but Crimson could be completely removed with the built-in uninstaller. New versions should be released at least six times a year, while CCC had to make do with three new versions.

Crimson has many new features, including faster initialization of newly connected displays, support for LiquidVR technology and improved Freesync support. Also, frame pacing, low frame rate compensation and the use of custom resolutions and virtual super resolution have been improved. For apus, the new driver improves the video display. Finally, the loading time of games has been improved and GPUs use less energy. The first version of the Crimson software can be downloaded from AMD.