Sometimes you need to reinstall the video driver for various reasons. First of all, this is due to the normal desire to get better performance from the video card used.
Despite the fact that we will talk about the example of AMD Catalyst (for ATI Radeon video cards), the algorithm of actions is also valid for NVidia.
The entire reinstallation process consists of 3 stages: removing the outdated video driver, downloading a new one from the manufacturer’s official website, installing a new driver.
Removing the old video driver. You cannot install a new driver over an old one. First you need to remove the old one. To do this, go to “Start” - “Control Panel” - “Programs and Features” and look for AMD Catalyst Install Manager there.
Programs and Features: Find AMD Catalyst Install Manager
Select with the mouse and double-click on this line. The InstallShield Wizard will open, click "Next" and select "Quickly remove all AMD software components." Delete.
But that's not all. After that, go to drive “C” in Program Files and in Program Files (x86) and delete all folders called “AMD” and “ATI Technologies”. If the same folders are in the root of the “C” drive, then we delete them too. After that, in “Start” - enter the search bar %AppData% and in the window that appears, delete, if any, the ATI folder.
After that, if desired, launch CCleaner, go to the “Registry” tab and click “Search for problems” and then “Fix”. It also doesn’t hurt to click “Analysis” in the “Cleaning” tab and, after checking, click the “Run Cleaner” button.
Despite the fact that removing a video driver seems difficult, in fact, it is all easy and only takes 3-5 minutes. After removing the driver, the computer must be restarted.
Attention. You need to remove the AMD Catalyst video driver using the standard Windows Programs and Features tools, because, oddly enough, the excellent Revo Uninstaller program simply does not see the AMD Catalyst Install Manager.
The next step is to download the required version of the video driver from the official website.
We go to the site amd.com, look for “Drivers and support” and download the required (usually the newest) video driver for the current version of Windows to your hard drive.
Attention. Always download drivers from the official websites of manufacturers and developers, otherwise you risk running into viruses and other crap.
Now let's install. Run the downloaded driver file from your hard drive. The file will be unpacked into a temporary folder where you specify (then you can delete it) and the installation will begin automatically. At the very beginning, you will be offered a choice of automatic or manual installation.
In manual installation it will be possible to select individual modules (for advanced users). If you don’t understand anything about this, then install the quick installation.
Attention. Do not turn off the computer while installing the video driver. Installing AMD Catalyst may take 10 minutes or more; you should wait. After installation, the computer will need to restart.
After installation and reboot, the driver is ready to use. If desired, you can customize it to suit your needs. If necessary, all factory settings can be restored by going to the AMD Catalyst Control Center interface (located in the tray) and selecting "Restore Factory Settings" in the "Options".
. How to configure, create, choose.
Good day, ladies and gentlemen, acquaintances, readers and other individuals! Let's try today configure video card.
You and I have already talked a lot about drivers, from this to all sorts of and all sorts of other differences. Today we will continue this topic and talk about more detailed settings.
We will talk about fiddling with driver settings using the example of AMD Radeon (ATI) video cards using the utility built into them. Here we won’t talk about temperatures (because we talked about it), overclocking a video card (because we talked about it) and fan speed (because we also talked about it), but we’ll look at the functionality of the software included in the kit and a bunch of different settings (which , including in games-applications).
By the way, even if you have a card not from this manufacturer, you should read the article in order to know and, by analogy, be able to configure all sorts of anisotropic filtering, anti-aliasing, morphological sampling and filtering, triple buffering and much more.
So, key to start, let's move.
Introductory verbiage
Attention ! Here and further, part of the meaningless (water) text, when updating the article, was saved insofar as there is a lot of it and there is no desire to completely rewrite (or delete) for various reasons, and the original author of the text was different. Keep this in mind. For the rest, the content will help you (it is clickable).
I think I’m not lying if I assume that many who read the project’s website, no, no, and even sin in their free minute to sit down with their favorite game in order to plunge into the colorful world of virtual reality.
But that’s not the problem, our wishes (hardware under the hood of a PC) do not always coincide with system requirements newly released toys. But you still want to play the game, and not just anyhow, but to even have something move and say on the screen, and not slow down and lag. What to do in this situation?
With every release of a modern toy, shouldn’t you buy a new hardware for your computer, and, in particular, as the most important component of modern video games? I don’t know about you, but I have no desire to give my hard-earned money for just 1-2 hours of virtual pleasure a week.
At first glance, it may seem that there is no way out other than throwing money into the hardware, but there is one, and it’s very free and quite effective, and it’s called setting up the video card drivers for maximum performance. From you, as a user, all that is required is straight hands :) and this note.
So, good gentlemen, let's start squeezing all the juices out of our video camera by setting up its hardware. First of all, I would like to say that this particular article will be dedicated to users who have a video card from AMD under the hood of their PC, i.e. Radeon workers. However, those readers who cast their votes for NVIDIA don’t have to worry either, we’ll prepare an even more delicious article for you.
Actually, let's get to the point.
Introduction to the topic and article
Due to the fact that the article is periodically updated and kept up to date (as far as possible), but is not completely rewritten, here you can find two versions of the described drivers and settings for.
One of them talks about “old” drivers for the corresponding cards and software, as well as for the internal layer and interface (sometimes you can get to it on certain systems, types of drivers, etc.), i.e. we are talking about, which you can see above.
The second version (under a different subtitle) describes the visual and logical appearance of more new version, namely AMD Radeon Software (aka, at different periods of time, Crimson, Crimson Relive, etc., etc.). You can see it below (clickable):
One way or another, regardless of the type of software used (both the first and the second are just the driver environment), the settings (by which we mean the same samples, shader cache, anisotropic filtering and much more), in their semantic content , are similar and they play a key role.
Therefore, the latter are included in a separate subheading, the content after which is the most general (including for all video cards) and relevant.
Video card driver settings separately from versions and interfaces
What you need to understand here (and further) before setting up:
- If you cannot tell the difference by eye, then you do not need to set the maximum value for anything or look for which one is better, etc., etc., because it will be letters for the sake of letters, numbers for the sake of numbers, and so on;
- If everything works quickly and you don’t encounter any corners or irregularities, then you simply don’t need any higher values;
- If everything works slowly, then and only then is it worth fiddling with the settings, methods, degrees and methods;
- What is slow and fast, angles and roughness, everyone decides for themselves, because it depends on the resolution of the monitor, its response speed, the application and subjective feelings (to some, “ladders” seem to be the norm, to others, on the contrary, 16X MSAA is not enough).
Now about the settings themselves.
Anti-aliasing mode
defines the levels, degree and method of smoothing surfaces in 3D applications:
- Eliminates ladders (corners) on screens of various models;
- A driver (not in an application) usually has three global values: use application settings, enhance them, or override them;
- When overriding and improving, it allows you to select the degree of anti-aliasing (2X, 4X, 8X, etc., etc., in particular values like 2xEQ, etc.) on which quality and performance directly depend (stronger anti-aliasing -> requires more resources ->
- In the applications themselves (not the driver), you can often (for some time now) choose a method (type, option, method, call it what you want) - SSAA, MSAA, CSAA, NFAA, FXAA, DLAA, MLAA, SMAA, TXAA and so on;
- The difference in degrees and methods can be quickly and easily found in search engines (preferably in an image search) or you can determine it by eye in one application or another.
Smoothing method
Defines the method (technology, type, option, method, call it what you want) that is used for smoothing:
- Conventionally, it has three gradations (in the driver settings): multiple sampling, adaptive sampling, redundant sampling (application settings are described above);
- The quality and performance directly depend on the method (stronger anti-aliasing -> requires more resources -> if there are not enough of them, then less performance);
- It is recommended to use the adaptive option, but change it if there are performance problems and/or insufficient anti-aliasing when using degrees smoothing.
Morphological (not to be confused with anisotropic) filtering
An additional method for smoothing and filtering an image. “Little known”, rarely used, redundant:
- Theoretically, it should improve image quality, but in practice it often has a negative impact on performance at the cost of questionable anti-aliasing improvements;
- Very crookedly speaking, it deals not so much with smoothing, but with blurring the final image and its additional filtering. After applying the methods described above, for a more complete understanding (I’m not sure that you need it), you can try reading (English);
- For the above reasons, as well as due to the often rather negative consequences (loss, brakes, etc.), it is worth leaving it turned off (in fact, it has two positions (on-off).
Anisotropic filtering mode
Improves the quality of textures and images in general by filtering texture images on surfaces that are very (and not so) tilted relative to the camera:
- The driver (not in the application) usually has two global values: use application settings or override;
- As in the case of anti-aliasing, we can have 2X, 4X, 8X, etc., which determines the quality of filtering;
- The principle is based on using several copies of the same texture with different details and constructing the number of texels (the minimum unit of texture of a three-dimensional object, if you like - a texture pixel) along the viewing direction and averaging their color. Places a heavy load on video memory (requires high bandwidth, which in turn is determined);
- Since certain years (from about 2007) it has almost no negative effect on performance, but has a positive effect on image quality, which is why X16 and older are used everywhere.
Surface format optimization
As in the case of morphological filtering, this is an additional filtering method, only in this case, not anti-aliasing, but textures.
- Theoretically, like anisotropic filtering, it should improve image quality by additionally filtering textures;
- Practically (and visually) it is noticeably small; the effect on performance is usually questionable, but it may affect stability. It is recommended to avoid using this setting again.
Wait for vertical update (aka vertical sync, aka V-Sync)
Synchronizes the frame rate (FPS) with the monitor refresh rate:
- The driver (not in the application) usually has four global values: always disabled, disabled (unless specified by the application), enabled (unless specified by the application), always enabled;
- In rare cases, it allows you to avoid rare, fast, visually unnoticeable “strips” that seem to break the image into two components that flow quickly and are even familiar to some (some do not encounter them at all or do not notice them);
- Sold by marketers as a miracle of miracles, increasing image smoothness and everything else;
- In fact, by limiting FPS (especially if it is lower than the frame rate of the monitor as such) it usually has a negative impact on performance with extremely dubious benefit;
- Statements about reducing noise, energy consumption, etc., by limiting performance to this value, are made up of nothing, because in modern world and under normal conditions, the video card itself changes frequencies, power consumption, rotation speed and much more, without artificial restrictions. Double V-Sync is generally nonsense, but that’s not what we’re talking about now;
- In connection with the above, it is recommended to always keep it switched off. If you really, by eye, in this particular game-situation-configuration see a visual benefit after turning it on and off, then turn it on.
OpenGL triple buffering (and more)
Exaggeratedly, it is an input/output buffer that speeds up the speed of access to generated data:
- Frames are drawn at a frequency lower or higher than the screen refresh rate, the finished ones (generated by the equipment before they were requested back by the program that sent them for generation) are placed in a buffer (storage, so to speak), and the next frame is sent for calculation, thus reducing the delay + the program does not need to poll the hardware to receive screen update events and the algorithm can be freely executed as quickly as possible;
- Accordingly, there is double buffering (this is usually used), there is triple (exactly what we are describing now), double uses two buffers, triple uses three (maybe more, but this no longer makes a noticeable difference);
- Dual: If the system has two buffers, A and B, it can display buffer B while simultaneously forming a new image in buffer A, but must wait for the buffers to change due to the delay in image generation;
- Triple: If the system has three buffers: A, B and C, it does not need to wait for the buffers to change. It can display buffer B, forming an image in buffer A, a little more detail.
- What to do: it’s worth turning it on, despite the restrictions.
Shader cache
Allows you to store compiled shaders in a cache, which can sometimes significantly speed up processing, reduce the load on the CPU and GPU, operating immediately with ready-made data without unnecessary compilation and taking it from storage.
- There is a value "off" or " optimized by AMD" (in other cards the setting may not exist, be called differently or enabled by default) - disabling it is often not recommended, as this allows you to achieve smoother video without unnecessary delays in rendering, i.e. leave the optimized or enabled position. .
Tessellation mode and tessellation itself
This is the thing responsible for the global improvement of the picture. At a basic level, it is a method of breaking polygons into smaller parts.
Applying tessellation to a rough model (on the left) allows you to create a smoother model (in the same picture, but in the middle), using displacement maps (in the same picture, but on the right) gives the characters cinematic level realism.
- Within the driver there are three options: AMD optimized, use application settings and override application settings;
- Most often it’s worth leaving as is, but more often, if for some reason the FPS in a game with lower requirements (with a more powerful card) is small, and there are also strange slowdowns, freezes (freezing) and drawdowns where they shouldn’t be, here it makes sense to use the application settings and/or even manual mode redefinitions;
- Override allows you to set levels from 2x to 64x and higher, or disable it altogether. The level sets the same crushing and directly affects the performance and quality of the picture. With this value, it makes sense to play with this parameter if something goes wrong. Yes and so too.
Energy efficiency
Allows you to chew an order of magnitude less energy at the cost of lost productivity:
- Turn it off if you need performance. Perhaps that's all that's worth saying here.
Frame rate control
Allows you to select and set a frame rate limit in the application, supposedly, as in the case of vertical synchronization, to add smoothness to the video sequence.
- In fact, few people need it and why, except in cases of the opposite - when the application artificially (by settings that cannot be changed) limits the frame rate, here you can try to override this value with a slider, which allows, in rare cases, to remove this limitation and work at full (or the value you specified).
Perhaps from general settings that's all there is to know. Let's go through the interfaces of specific software, as well as Overdrive and Wattman.
How to configure a video card using "old" software - Catalyst Control Center
During the process of installing/updating drivers (or, if you have already bought a ready-made PC with a pre-installed OS), in addition to the module itself, which is responsible for displaying pictures on the monitor screen, an additional module called Catalyst Control Center (ACCC).
This software shell is a control center for working with video adapters and allows you to perform any manipulations with both the settings of the card itself and the connected monitor.
By default, ACCC rests in the tray on the desktop as a small icon (see image).
However, for some reason you may not find the control center icon in the standard place, then in order to start working with ACCC you need to update your drivers for your video card.
This can be done in different ways, but I prefer to do this using a special free utility from AMD called amddriverdownloader (old name).
For those who don’t know, this is a technology for automatically detecting (searching and detecting) the latest versions of drivers from the manufacturer. Its advantages are that it is understandable, convenient, free, and automates the process of searching and downloading drivers. The disadvantages are that it does not always do it correctly, like any automated system.
Thanks to this, you no longer need to go to the manufacturer’s website, search for the desired video adapter model, and enter your OS and bit depth. You simply download the utility, run it at any time and it itself determines whether there is anything new based on your firewood and downloads the required distribution to your PC. So, to start working with ACCC, we update the drivers through the utility by going to the official website in the Download section and clicking on “Download”.
After downloading you run standard installation firewood, along with which you will be supplied with our hero of the occasion today - the control control center. To enter it you need to click on the desktop tray icon (red-gray AMD) right click mouse and click on the corresponding inscription. 
In essence, ACCC is nothing more than a user interface for installing, configuring and accessing the functions of AMD Radeon and hybrid video cards AMD processors. This application provides video settings to adjust display settings, display profiles and picture quality.
ACCC plays a very important role in the functioning of your video card and allows you to add the necessary fps (parrots) in games. That is, with it you can run a game or application that is initially more demanding on the characteristics of your PC at a quite decent flying level and, in particular, video cards.
Note:
ATI Technologies, known for producing computer processors, has developed the Catalyst Control Center (CCC) to complement the Radeon line of graphics cards. The utility became available for the first time on R series video cards. After AMD acquired ATI, the utility became (in old version) be called .
Immediately after launching the center, click on the “Options” button (above the question mark) and select the item – “ Expanded view” (see image). Thus, we move to a more advanced mode with big amount settings and a more convenient interaction interface.
In the parameters tab you may also be interested in the item “ Enable taskbar menu” – is responsible for whether or not to display the tray icon and “ Restore factory settings” – rollback to clean settings, in case you changed something in optimization :).
Also, by clicking on the question mark, you will call up extensive help on the control center, where you can study all the settings of the utility up and down.
So, as the name of the utility suggests, " Control center" - it acts as a hub for all options and functions related to the AMD graphics card. By launching ACCC, users have access to various functions:
- Desktop management;
- Setting up digital panels/display;
- Setting up video picture parameters;
- Setting up 3D applications;
- Performance management, AMD OverDrive - CPU and GPU overclocking.
Let's look at the main points of the settings and go through the most important tabs of the AMD Catalyst control center.
The first thing I would like to draw attention to is the point “ Desktop properties" in the drop-down menu “ Desktop management" It allows you to change the size, screen refresh rate, color quality and rotation of the desktop.
Here we are interested in the settings under the numbers (1, 2, 3). It is necessary to set (if they were automatically determined incorrectly) the correct resolution, bit depth (color quality), screen refresh rate, and also set the orientation (landscape or portrait).
To do this, you need to get the documentation (specification for the monitor) and find there the values of the first and third characteristics in the section “ Technical parameters of the monitor”.
Next important menu “ My digital flat panels” and points:
- Properties (Digital Flat Panel);
- Scaling settings;
Let's go through each one separately.
In the properties of the digital panel we are interested in the “ Scaling Images" It can be carried out using the GPU graphics processor, if you check the box there.
This function is responsible for correctly matching the monitor format to the video game format. Those. so that you play at the correct full screen resolution and at the highest possible resolution.
If the checkbox is unchecked, then such scaling is done using Windows, but it is not always correct. Whether or not to check this box is up to everyone, I don’t play much, so I don’t have it. Who likes to play games, it’s better to stick it in :)
Another setting here is “ Enable ITC processing" It provides video quality using the GPU rather than the graphics driver for HDMI displays that support ITC processing. Well, it’s clear, what have I piled up here? ;)
In a nutshell, this is a feature that allows your monitor to use its own full-screen image processing algorithms. Those. if the monitor supports HDMI, then check the box and enjoy all the delights of the picture that the manufacturer included in the hardware of the monitor. Otherwise, it will not be available for tree monitors.
The next item in the tab “ My digital panels” – “Scaling Settings" The setting is responsible for removing the “mourning frame” along the edges of the desktop. It often happens that after reinstalling the OS or drivers, black bars appear on the sides of the monitor. So, to avoid this, it’s better to check the box – “ Use scaling factor”.
Note:
After each change of parameters, for them to take effect, click on the “Apply (A)” or “Default (E)” button (if you want to return everything as it was).
Last important setting in the digital panels tab, this is LCD Overdrive. If you chose a monitor for yourself, then you know that the monitor’s response is and the smaller it is, the better (supposedly).
By enabling this option, you compensate for the response time (by accelerating color signals) and thus moving objects will not leave a “trail” when watching dynamic scenes in movies or games. This option is active only if the technology is supported by the graphics card itself. 
There are many settings here and all of them, to one degree or another, are responsible for the beauty of the image, i.e. brightness, color, contrast and similar parameters. It must be said that in most cases the standard center settings are quite satisfactory and do not require any special custom adjustments.
Therefore, it is better not to change them, because changing one will lead to a disruption of the overall balance and a change in a bunch of related parameters. In other words, even small modifications can lead to the image “floating away”. Useful settings for us here will be the “Quality” tab: video quality and deinterlacing.
We need to set the following checkboxes (see image):
- "Dynamic Contrast" is an automatic brightness adjustment depending on the picture on the monitor. Responsible for better display of rapidly changing scenes, for example, when watching movies or playing dynamic games.
- “Deinterlacing” is the removal of interlacing or the “comb effect” when watching a video. If we exaggerate, then the comb effect is the moving apart of a moving object, i.e. when on the monitor screen there are two frame fields at once, offset relative to each other. Deinterlacing eliminates this effect.
Also, for a smoother video playback process, you need to check the “frame change detection” box in the video stream when using deinterlacing.
In the “Video” tab there are other settings that deserve our attention and these are:
- AMD Steady Video – stabilization of shaky images;
- Global video quality;
- Accelerated video conversion.
If your home video shakes (as if after a big day :)), then you need to check the box next to AMD Steady Video. Setting “ Global video quality” –> “Force smooth video” allows you to ensure smooth playback of the video stream without dropping frames. Let's put a tick there.
Setting “ Accelerated video conversion” allows you to connect your resources to the video conversion process graphics hardware. Check the box “ Enable hardware acceleration”, if you often encode videos using various players and want to speed up this process.
So, now let’s jump over the two points “Games” and “ performance” and let’s look at the “Information” tab. Actually, there is nothing unusual here, standard information from the manufacturer.
On the tab Homepage AMD we are interested in the “Check for driver updates” item, which allows you to download the latest drivers to your computer, i.e. update their version and the Catalyst control center core itself.
In order for the “woodpile” to load, you need to click on the blue arrow and the driver update process will start. 
The next two tabs are “Programs” and “ Hardware devices" They provide an opportunity to learn in detail about the system’s hardware devices, graphics adapter, and generally obtain information about the system (the “ button System Information”).
WITH basic setup figured it out. Let's now take a look at the performance and overclocking options that live in the OverDrive section.
OverDrive in the "old" version of AMD driver software
If you are an avid gamer and own a video card from AMD, then you have the right to count on some increase in its power completely free of charge. Optimal and correct setting will help you squeeze out the treasured fps in games and add speed in various 3D applications. There are two settings responsible for this in the control center: “ Performance” and “Games”.
Let's look at them in more detail and start in order.
AMD OverDrive technology is a development by AMD, designed to overclock a video card and graphics processor at the driver level. To start using it, you must read and accept the terms of the license agreement (see image).
I think the question is frozen on your lips: “ What can AMD OverDrive do and how is it useful for me as a user?" I answer, she:
- It has sets of preset parameters for beginners and overclocking enthusiasts. You can easily select a pre-configured memory profile to achieve optimal DDR3 memory performance. You can also manually control performance settings from the BIOS and create custom profiles for specific applications;
- Through automatic frequency adjustment makes overclocking even faster and easier;
- Allows you to control fan speed to improve performance;
- Allows you to control all your performance settings, including clock frequency memory, voltage and timings.
After accepting the license terms and warnings that if you have crooked hands better overclocking do not engage (:)), the following window pops up.
Here you can play with the settings and add parrots to applications. This method works as follows. We change any of the parameters by several units, go into the 3D application, launch the FPS meter, and if there is an increase in parrots and everything works stably, then we leave these parameters. Otherwise, we roll back to the default parameters (key E) and change the parameters more carefully until we find a stable-increased combination of settings.
Note:
For the changes to take effect and affect system performance, you must check the “ Enable Graphics Drive”.
These are the results (in performance gains) I was able to achieve simply by playing with the video card settings and (to a lesser extent) processor frequencies.
The default settings were as follows:
...and the number of fps in the game Metro Last Light Redux (1080p resolution, very high settings) was: 
And here's what they were changed to (on the map):
...and the number of FPS in the game Metro Last Light Redux with the same graphics settings is:
In total, we have 41 versus 44 - quite a decent result for a couple of movements with the settings of the card and (to a lesser extent) the processor. If you sit carefully and also twist the processor properly, then you can definitely knock out 5-7 extra parrots.
Note:
In addition to the video card, you can also overclock the processor using AMD OverDrive. However, it must be from AMD.
As you hopefully remember, there is still one more item on the agenda: setting up 3D applications. To start working with them, go to the corresponding ACC menu:
We see the attachment “ System parameters”, and in it there is a table with two columns: “Features” and “Settings”. At the bottom you can add a gaming application (the “Add” button) in .exe format and set the graphics parameters for a specific game (application), i.e., the so-called profile.
You set the local settings (smoothing, filtering, sampling and everything else) based on what is written below, i.e. in the first half of the article under the appropriate subtitle.
How to configure a Radeon video card using the "new" software - AMD (ATI) Software (Crimson and beyond)
If you have a brand new card, the latest system and drivers, then most likely you already have the latest version of the software installed to work with driver settings. It is much more visual, concise and contains very few tabs ( Games, Video, Relive, Display and System), each of which allows you to control the video card in an extremely clear way.
The "Games" section is responsible for managing the basic performance settings that are listed above, that is, in the first half of the article under the appropriate subtitle.
The "Video" tab is responsible for setting color, brightness and contrast for video and everything that accompanies it. There are several preset profiles, the result of which is visible, as they say, on the fly (start the video and point the mouse at the profile).
Relive, if installed, allows you to capture video and manage the settings that go with it. We won’t comment on anything here, since that’s not what we’re talking about here.
The "Display" section allows you to manage resolution settings, change the color temperature of the monitor, so to speak, programmatically, set ultra-high resolution, scaling, etc.
The last section, which is called "System" and contains the tabs "Overview", " Software" and "Hardware", will help you find out the current driver version, frequencies, name of the video card, its detailed characteristics and some of the computer parameters.
As you can see, everything here is much more concise and convenient.
Setting up Wattman in the “new” version of driver software from AMD (ATI)
In the games section there are two subsections, one of which is responsible for global settings, the second for deeper (overclocking), which, the section, is called (at the time of updating the article) Wattman, which replaced Overdrive.
If you decide to overclock and change frequencies, then go to this section and agree with the warning, which tells you that everything you do is done at your own peril and risk, you may lose your warranty, etc. (in general, read the text ).
Next you will see a large sheet (you can stretch the window with the mouse), the first section of which is responsible for monitoring the state (frequency, temperature, cooler speed, etc.) over time (i.e., at the first start it may be empty, you should wait).
The second section allows you to change frequencies simply and quickly by pulling the slider to the desired percentage and, at the same time, seeing how this affects different states and voltages. The voltage can be set manually, but this is strongly not recommended. The percentages should be increased slowly (preferably 1% at a time), after each of which, test the video card for stability for a long time, trying to achieve the maximum increase with maximum stability.
The third section similarly adjusts the values for memory frequency and memory voltage (which should also not be changed manually if you are not an experienced overclocker), thereby overclocking it too. It is worth overclocking the parameters one by one (separately the frequency and separately the memory), and then try to link them together, because one depends on the other (see).
The last section allows you to control the rotation speed of the cooling system coolers, depending on the temperature (right side) and within a given speed range (RPM) (from minimum to maximum + acoustic limit).
This is probably all that is worth knowing and can be known here. We still recommend managing speed and overclocking through Afterburner, a detailed article on this topic.
Well, that’s probably all the settings that can be tweaked to improve the “flyability” and better “performance” of 3D applications.
So that you can get a clearer picture of all of the above in your head, I will give a general reminder, a reminder called “ How to improve graphics performance for games?”:
- Update drivers in a timely manner;
- Configure drivers globally (see above);
- Configure drivers locally for the application (profiles), depending on the needs and requirements;
- Use good cooling (), tuning (noisier is better than ) or use ;
- A little overclocking never hurt anyone. Within reasonable limits.
Captain-obviousness was with you (c) :)
Well, that’s probably all for today, let’s sum it up and say goodbye.
Afterword
Today we have fully understood the topic of setting up video card drivers. I am sure that now each of you will be able to do this correctly and, if necessary, squeeze extra parrots out of your graphic babies :)
As always, if you have any questions, additions, thoughts, etc., you are welcome to comment on this post.
PS: Thanks to team member 25 KADR for the original existence of this article
Catalyst Control Center is software released by AMD that is designed to manage and configure video cards (AMD brand only). This software is a single control center that does not require additional programs work, and includes all the necessary tools.
The Catalyst Control Center program allows you to fine-tune the video card's operating parameters and monitors driver updates, which it downloads and installs automatically from the official AMD website. If you own an AMD video card, then you just need to download this program to properly configure and increase the performance of your video card for comfortable work.
Unfortunately, this software is no longer released and supported. In December 2014, AMD released a major update to the Catalyst Omega drivers, and almost a year later decided to permanently abandon the previous brand, which it had used for thirteen years. Thus, the Catalyst Control Center program is no longer supported since 2015; in its place, a new software Radeon Software Crimson Edition was released, which is still relevant today and has a set of the most latest drivers with more advanced functionality.
Many people continue to use Catalyst Control Center to configure their video cards, as this program is very simple and clear interface with all the necessary tools.
Main functionality:
- Performance tuning.
- Desktop management.
- Performance settings for working and watching videos.
- Configuring switching between two GPUs.
- Gaming performance tuning.
- Video card power management.
- Driver update.
- Notification about innovations in updated drivers.
- General information about the video card.
- CPU frequency control.
- Control and configuration of more than one monitor.
Due to the constant updating of drivers for its video cards, AMD needed to adjust the parameters of its video card for optimal and maximum performance with different programs and games, this is exactly what you need the Catalyst Control Center program for.
This software can help you even if you have a fairly old video card; the program will help you properly configure the video card and achieve optimal performance with programs and slightly increase FPS in games.
This application independently monitors all changes in updated video card drivers and notifies the user about this.
Catalyst Control Center will also help you connect and configure 2 or more monitors to one or more video cards.
You may have encountered that the monitor is dim and does not convey colors and contrast very well, with the help of this program you can adjust these parameters yourself bypassing standard settings monitor.
Having understood the full meaning and functionality of the Catalyst Control Center program, you can clearly understand that if you own a computer or laptop built on the AMD platform, you simply need to install this application in order to use it to configure and control your computer or video card.
Installation
First, we need to download this software from the official website, for this follow the link:
https://support.amd.com/en-us/kb-articles/Pages/latest-catalyst-windows-beta.aspx#
In the window that opens, click on the link that corresponds to the version and bitness of your operating system, after which the installation package will be downloaded. This software is suitable for operating rooms Windows systems 7/8/8.1/10 with bit depth X64 and x32.
After you have downloaded Catalyst Control Center, launch the installer and go through all the installation steps. When selecting the installation type, select “Quick installation”. With this option, the installer will check whether the drivers for your video card are installed and install the Catalyst Control Center software itself.
After the installation is complete, restart the computer and launch the program.
When you first launch the program, it can take quite a long time to launch, so we must be patient and wait.
This completes the installation of the Catalyst Control Center software.
Checking for video card driver updates
Catalyst Control Center independently monitors driver updates for your video card. In order to check the update and driver version, go to the “Information” menu and select “Software Update”.
In the tab that opens, click “Check for updates.” In the event that they are discovered updated drivers, a window will appear asking you to download from, click the “Download Now” button and the program will automatically download and install them.
Tune performance to your requirements
The first thing you need to do when you first start it is change the standard window view to an expanded one. This can be done in the "Options" menu, which is located on the right top corner. In the drop-down menu, select the “Advanced View” option.
This way, all the configuration tools in this program will become available to us.
It is worth remembering that if you are using a computer that is completely built on the AMD platform, then you must have 2 graphics cores, built-in (built-in video core in the processor) and discrete (video card). In this case, when configuring the system through the Catalyst Control Center program, the parameters marked “Energy Saving” will apply to the video core built into the processor, and all parameters marked “High Performance” will apply to the discrete video card that is connected to the PCI express slot. 
Settings for viewing videos and photos
In order to configure the operation and color rendering of your video card when watching movies, you need to open the “Video” section and go to the “Color (energy-saving graphics adapters)” tab, check the settings in the “Custom” section.
After that, use the tools to adjust the picture to the parameters that you like best.
Next, in the “Video” menu, select the next tab “Quality (energy-saving graphics adapters).” In this window, we remove all checkboxes from all items except “Deinterlacing”, so as not to overload the GPU and increase the number of FPS when watching high-quality 2K and 4K video.
The next step in setting up video and photo viewing options is the “AMD Steady Video” section in the “Video” menu. This function allows you to stabilize shaky video that was filmed while moving. This option will reduce the degree of video jitter for comfortable viewing, but it will also put an extra load on the graphics adapter, so I advise you to deactivate this option if your video card is low-power.
As for the “Color (High-Performance Graphics Adapters)” and “Quality (High-Performance Graphics Adapters)” sections, we set the parameters in the same way.
And at the end of setting the parameters for viewing videos and photos, in the “Accelerated video conversion” section, check the “Enable hardware acceleration” checkbox. This option will allow you to relieve the graphics processor when playing high-format videos, or when editing and creating videos using special programs.
Setting up for games
In order to adjust the performance of your video card in games, you need to go to the “Games” menu and adjust the 3D graphics settings in applications one by one. To do this, we need to open the sections “3D Application Settings (Energy-Saving Graphics Adapters)” and “3D Application Settings (High-Performance Graphics Adapters)”, in fact, in these sections we configure the graphics in games for different models video cards
It is worth noting the “AMD Radeon Dual Graphics” section; this option was developed by AMD specialists and, provided that your computer is based on the AMD platform, allows you to enable multiple graphics processors to work together to improve graphics quality and performance. I advise you to enable this function, as it significantly increases the performance of the video card in games and applications that require accelerated graphics processing.
System Performance Tuning
In order to adjust the performance of the entire system, we need to open the “Performance” menu and select “CPU Power”. If you are using a computer, then set the processor frequency to the maximum value. If you are the owner of an AMD-based laptop, then you should approach this setting more subtly, since we will have 2 options for adjusting the processor frequency.
- From battery. This parameter should be configured taking into account that when setting the maximum parameter, the battery discharge rate will increase, since the processor will consume more electricity. Therefore, if you want to extend the battery life of your laptop, do not set it to the maximum value.
- Connected. This parameter can be set to its maximum value to increase performance central processor, if your laptop is connected to the network and does not use battery resources.
Switching between these modes occurs automatically. Please note that the processor temperature may increase with these settings.
As for the “AMD OverDrive” item, this parameter allows the Catalyst Control Center program to independently examine all overclocking options for your central processor and accept the most suitable ones to increase performance. Also, in some versions of AMD OverDrive drivers, you can control the rotation speed of video card or laptop coolers. I advise you to disable this option and manually configure these parameters in the “CPU Power” section described above.
Power Settings
In this section, you can fine-tune the power settings for laptops, namely power consumption when using the laptop from the network or from the battery. If you are the owner of a computer, then I advise you to set such parameters as “PowerPlay”, “Global parameters of switchable graphics” to “ Maximum performance" When choosing such parameters, the system will not save energy.
If you have discrete and integrated graphics from the same AMD brand, then when you use the “Maximum Performance” setting, the system will always play graphics from the discrete video card. If you select another option, then the system will switch between two video cards to save power, which can have a bad effect on gaming performance, but will increase battery life.
Let’s take a closer look at the “Switchable graphics settings” item. In this section, you can configure special performance parameters and the use of the desired graphics core separately for each installed application on your computer. Thus for games or applications that play videos high resolution, you can set “high-performance” parameters, and for applications that do not require good graphics processing, and in order not to unnecessarily load the system, you can set the “Energy Saving” parameter, which will tell the system to use the built-in video chip for these applications.
When using the Application Monitor function, which is located in the Switchable Application Monitor graphics adapters", you can set automatic switching of graphics adapters between applications.
We looked at the parameters in which it is possible to adjust the performance of your video card to maximum value. As for the remaining sections, this will be briefly described below, since their settings will not affect system performance.
Reasons and solution for Catalyst Control Center not starting
There may be several reasons why Catalyst Control Center stopped starting. Let's look at common causes and methods for solving them.
Outdated drivers. One of the reasons that the program stopped starting may be outdated drivers, as a result of which a conflict occurs between the Catalyst Control Center and the video card drivers and startup cannot be carried out. The solution to this problem may be to update the drivers; to do this, go to the official AMD website and install latest version drivers for your video card.
Incompatibility. The same reason that startup does not occur may be incorrect installed version Catalyst Control Center software.
The solution to this problem is to remove and install the correct software that suits your operating system. To do this, check the bitness and version of your Windows OS, then go to the official website and download the version that suits you.
Antivirus programs. The reason could also be that Catalyst Control Center is blocked by antivirus programs.
The solution to this problem may be to temporarily disable your antivirus program or add Catalyst Control Center to the exclusion list.
Damage to program files. Perhaps you mistakenly deleted some files in the Catalyst Control Center program directory, or perhaps it did it for you antivirus program. Also, do not reject the option that hard sector disks were damaged.
The solution for this reason could be complete removal and reinstalling software.
If the startup problem could not be resolved and the error “AMD Catalyst Control Center cannot start at this time” remains, then you should update all drivers in your Windows OS.
How to remove this software
To remove AMD Catalyst Control Center you should use standard means Windows.
To do this, open the control panel. To open the control panel, press the Win+R key combination and in the “Run” line that opens, enter the “control” command.
In the control panel window that opens, click on “Uninstall a program.” 
Find the Catalyst Control Center program, right-click on it and select “Change” from the drop-down menu. 
In the installation wizard that opens, select “Quick removal of ALL AMD software components” and click next.
We wait for the removal to complete, after which we restart the computer.
Conclusion
After reading this article, you have read software AMD company, a unified control center AMD Catalyst Control Center. With this program, you can make the most effective settings for your video card to improve performance in games or when watching high-format videos and films. The big advantage of this program is the ability to configure the system using more than one GPU.
As of today, AMD Catalyst Control Center is no longer supported by AMD since it was released new program Radeon Software Crimson Edition, which includes new features and customization tools. But even after this, many continue to use it, since it has a very convenient and intuitive interface with a set of all the necessary tools.
If you are the owner of an old AMD video card and want to run applications that require high graphics processing, then you should resort to adjusting the video card parameters through the AMD Catalyst Control Center to improve performance.
Installing Catalyst drivers without CCC
When updating Radeon HD video card drivers, each user is faced with the fact that they cannot be downloaded separately from the program’s official website. They only come bundled with the monstrous Catalyst Control Center app. If you only want to install drivers AMD video cards, read our instructions.
The first step is to download the latest Catalyst 13.1 drivers. Direct links to download drivers for all current Windows versions(32 and 64-bit) can be found. Please note that if you are a user of a video card from one of the following series: HD 2000, 3000 and 4000, you must install special Catalyst 13.1 Legacy drivers.
Size installation file for 32-bit Windows it is 94.8 MB. Owners of 64-bit Windows 7 and Windows 8 operating systems will have to download a 146.5 MB file. AMD servers serve the file at a speed of ~3,800 KB/sec.
Catalyst 13.1 custom installation
After launching the installation file, the program will offer to unpack the files. Not everyone knows, but after installing the drivers, the folder with the unpacked files can be safely deleted from the system. By default they are unpacked to the following address: C:\AMD\Support\13-1_vista_win7_win8_64_dd_ccc_whql, however, you are free to select any other location by clicking the Browse button.
After unpacking the files necessary for installing Catalyst Driver, the installer dialog will automatically launch. After selecting the language, a dialog box will open in which you must select “Install”. In the next window, in the “Quick or custom installation” section be sure to select “Custom” and click Next.
The installer will analyze the system and video card, and then offer to select the components to install. This is where you can prevent installation of Catalyst Control Center. Just uncheck the “Catalyst Control Center” checkbox. We also recommend disabling the installation AMD APP SDK Runtime— this component is necessary only for application developers. In other cases, it only clutters the system. But “AMD Display Driver” and “HDMI Audio Driver” are exactly what we need.
After clicking the “Next” button, the installation process of the selected drivers and components will begin. During the installation process, the computer screen may turn off several times, and sometimes the resolution resets to 800x600. After installation is complete, all image settings will return to normal.
Catalyst 13.1 and CCC drivers are for video cards: HD 7970, HD 7950, HD 7870, HD 7850, HD 7770 and HD 7750 | HD 6990, HD 6970, HD 6950, HD 6870 and HD 6850 | HD 5970, 5870 Eyefinity 6 Edition, HD 5870, HD 5850, HD 5830, HD 5770, HD 5750 and HD 5670.
Catalyst Legacy 13.1 and CCC drivers are designed for video cards of the HD 2000, 3000 and 4000 series (such as: HD 4870 X2, HD 4890, HD 4870, HD 4850, HD 4830, HD 4770, HD 3800, HD 3600, HD 3400, etc. .).