Download: AMD Catalyst 13.1 WHQL driver

Good news for Radeon owners: AMD's latest WHQL-certified Catalyst driver (13.1) has finally materialized. After an unusually long wait -- no doubt thanks in part to AMD's recent "dynamic release" policy -- 13.1 contains all the improvements 12.11 beta made in October, but adds further bug fixes, enhancements and refinements.

Download AMD's Catalyst 13.1 (WHQL)
Note:All packages work with both desktop and mobile GPUs

• Windows XP (32-bit) (64-bit)
• Windows Vista (32-bit) (64-bit)
• Windows 7 (32-bit) (64-bit)
• Windows 8 (32-bit) (64-bit)
• Catalyst 13.1 release notes

AMD is touting some definite performance gains with Catalyst 13.1, at least when compared to 12.10 (the last official WHQL release). Noteworthy improvements for HD 7000-series desktop GPUs include a supposed 10-15 percent boost in Battlefield (up to 20 percent for certain maps) and an "up to 25" percent bump in Far Cry 3 with 8xMSAA and SSAO enabled @ 1600p.

Here are some other highlights:

• Up to 7% more performance in Metro 2033
• Up to 10% more performance in DiRT Showdown
• Up to 8% more performance in Sleeping Dogs
• Up to 12% more performance in Civilization V
• Up to 10% more performance in StarCraft II
• Up to 8% more performance in Sniper Elite: V2
• Up to 5% more performance in Max Payne 3

Catalyst 13.1 also delivers fantastic news for owners of gaming laptop stuffed with Radeon HD 7970M GPUs and Enduro-based switchable graphics (e.g. some Alienware M17, MSI GX60 owners). After resolving issues discovered in previous drivers, gamers may see gains as big as 40, 50 -- even 90 percent -- for some titles. Examples include: AvP (11%), Battlefield 3 (25%), Call of Duty (13%), DiRT Showdown (62%), Just Cause 2 (90%), StarCraft 2 (25%) and Skyrim (45%). 

In addition to performance improvements, 13.1 brings various bug fixes and tweaks to Windows 7, Windows 8 and certain desktop software. 

• A sporadic system hang encountered with a single AMD Radeon HD 7000 Series GPU seen on X58 and X79 chipsets.
• An intermittent hang encountered with AMD Radeon HD 7000 Series GPUs in an AMD CrossFire + Eyefinity setup.
• Missing fonts in XBMC
• No video found in Media Player Classic Home Cinema when using full or half floating point processing
• Skyrim lighting (missing a lighting pass) for the AMD Radeon HD 7900 Series
• Skyrim cloud corruption experience in various in game locations
• A hang playing Dishonored on the AMD Radeon HD 6000 and AMD Radeon HD 5000 Series
• Engine and memory clocks running too high when the GPU is idle.
• GPU activity runs at lower values than expected seen on the AMD Radeon HD 7870.
• Corruption seen in Darkness 2 and Carrier Command when using AMD CrossFire configurations
• Adobe Premier Pro CS6 may fail to launch
• Hang experienced with AMD Crossfire and Eyefinity enabled on X58 and X78 chipsets
• Corel PaintShop Pro X3 – Hangs at the "Initializing Command Manager" window
• Company of Heroes 2 – display corruption experienced when AA is enabled in the AMD Catalyst Control Center
• Cyberlink Powerdirector 10 crashes intermittently.
• Company of Heroes : Tales of Valor – Flickering experienced when AA is disabled
• Max Payne 3 – Flickering experienced in DirectX 9 mode with forced AA enabled
• Cyberlink PoweDVD 10 – crashes intermittently
• VLC - Green texture corruption seen in 720p MPEG2 video clips
• Black screen encountered when "Alternate DVI mode" is enabled in the AMD Catalyst Control Center
• Green display corruption seen in Skype webcam video

The list of known issues is a short one, indicating Sleeping Dogs may fail to launch under certain configurations. The second notice is for Shogun 2: Total War owners, who may experience flickering while playing the game with "medium quality" settings. Happy gaming.