Ati catalyst control center is not installed. Unable to start AMD Catalyst Control Center at the moment how to fix

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, acquaintances, readers and other personalities! Let's try today configure video card .

You and I have already talked a lot about drivers, ranging from that, and ending with all sorts, and all sorts of other differences. Today we will continue this topic and talk about more detailed settings.

It's about tweaking driver settings. For example graphics cards AMD Radeon (ATI) using the built-in utility. we are here not we will talk about temperatures (because they talked in), overclocking the video card (because they said) and fan speed (because they also said), but consider the functionality ON, which comes in the kit and a bunch of all sorts of settings (which, among other things, are also found in application games).

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, the key is to start, let's move.

Introductory verbiage

Attention! Hereinafter, a 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 had a different text. Keep this in mind. Otherwise, the content will help you (it is clickable).

I think I’m not lying if I assume that many who read the site "" of the project , no, no, and they sin in their free time to sit down at their favorite toy in order to plunge into the colorful world of virtual reality.

But this is not a task, our Wishlist (hardware under the hood of a PC) does not always coincide with the system requirements of newly released toys. But you still want to gamble, and not just anyhow, but so that something even moves and says on the screen, and does not slow down and lag. What to do in this situation?

Not to buy with each release of a modern toy a new stuffing 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 per week.

At first glance, it may seem that there is no way out, other than throwing money into hardware, but there is one, and it is very free and quite effective for itself, and it is called - setting video card drivers for maximum performance. From you, as a user, only direct hands are required :) and this note.

So, good gentlemen, let's get down to squeezing all the juice out of your vidyahi by setting up its hardware. First of all, I would like to say that this particular article will be dedicated to users who have their PC the video card from the company is glimmering AMD, i.e. radeonshchik. However, those readers who voted for the piggy bank NVIDIA, also do not worry for you, we will prepare an even more delicious article.

Actually, let's get to the point.

Introductory topic and article

Due to the fact that the article is periodically updated and kept up to date (as far as possible), but not completely rewritten, here you can find two versions of the described drivers and settings for .

One of them is talking about "old" drivers for the corresponding cards and software, as well as for the internal layer and interface (sometimes you can get it on certain systems, types of drivers, etc.), i.e. we are talking about which you can see on above.

The second version (under a different subheading) describes the visual and logical appearance of the newer version, namely AMD Radeon Software(he, in different periods of time, - Crimson, Crimson Relive etc). You can see it below (clickable):

One way or another, regardless of the type of software used (and both the first and second, this is just the environment of the driver), the settings (they mean the very samples, the shader cache memory, anisotropic filtering, and much more), in their semantic content are similar and they play a key role.

Therefore, the latter are placed 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

• If you cannot tell the difference by eye, then you not you need to set the maximum value for something or look for which one is better, etc., etc., because these will be letters for the sake of letters, numbers for the sake of numbers, and so on;
• If everything works quickly and you do not meet corners and bumps, then you simply do not need any higher values;
• If everything works slowly, then even then and only then it is worth picking the settings, ways, degrees and methods;
• What is slow and fast, corners and roughness, everyone decides for himself, because it depends on the resolution of the monitor, its response speed, application and subjective sensations (for some, "ladders" seem to be the norm, for others, on the contrary 16X MSAA).

Now about the settings themselves.

Anti-aliasing mode

determines the levels, degree and method of smoothing surfaces in 3D applications:

• Eliminates ladders (corners) on the screens of various models;
• At the driver ( not in the application) usually It has three global values: use application settings, improve them, or override them;
• When overridden and enhanced, allows you to select the degree of smoothing ( 2X, 4X, 8X and so on and so forth, in particular values ​​like 2xEQ and so on) on which quality and performance directly depend (stronger smoothing -> requires more resources ->
• In the applications themselves (not the driver), often (for some time now) you can choose a method (type, variant, method, call it what you want), - SSAA, MSAA, CSAA, NFAA, FXAA, DLAA, MLAA, SMAA, TXAA etc;
• The difference in degrees and methods can be quickly and easily found in search engines (it is better to immediately search by pictures) or determined by you by eye in a particular application.

Smoothing method

Specifies the method (technology, type, variant, method, whatever you want to call it) that is applied when smoothing:

• Conventionally, it has three gradations (in the driver settings), - multiple sampling, adaptive sampling, redundant sampling (about the application settings described above);
• The quality and performance directly depend on the method (stronger smoothing -> requires more resources -> if they are not enough, then less performance);
• It is recommended to use the adaptive option, but change 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 negatively affects performance at the cost of a dubious improvement in anti-aliasing;
• 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 (not sure if you need it), you can try to read (eng.);
• For the above reasons, as well as in connection with often, rather, negative consequences (loss, brakes, etc.), it is worth leaving it 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, strongly ( and not very) tilted relative to the camera:

• At the driver ( not in the application) usually It has two global values: use application settings or override;
• As in the case of smoothing, we can have 2X, 4X, 8X and so on, which determines the quality of filtration;
• Principle is based on using several copies of the same texture with different detail and building the number of texels (the minimum texture unit of a three-dimensional object, if you like, is a texture pixel) along the viewing direction and averaging their color. It heavily loads the video memory (requires its high bandwidth, which in turn is determined);
• From certain years (approx. 2007 th) has almost no effect on performance in the negative, but it has a positive effect on image quality, so it is used everywhere X16 and older.

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, it usually affects performance doubtfully, but it can affect stability. It is recommended to avoid redundant use of this setting.

Wait for a vertical update (aka vertical sync, aka V-Sync)

Synchronizes the frame rate ( FPS) with monitor refresh rate:

• At the driver ( not in the application) usually It has four global values: always off, off (if not specified by the application), enabled (if not specified by the application), always on;
• AT rare cases, it allows you to avoid rare, fast, visually inconspicuous "bands" that seem to tear the image into two components, which proceed quickly and are even familiar to someone (some do not meet them at all or do not notice them);
• Marketers sold as a miracle of miracles, increasing the smoothness of the image and everything else;
• In fact, due to the restriction FPS (especially, if it is lower than the frame rate of the monitor as such) usually negatively affects performance with extremely dubious benefits;
• Statements about reducing noise, power consumption, etc., by limiting performance to this value, are sucked from the finger, because in the 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 now we are not talking about that;
• In view of the foregoing, it is recommended to keep always Keep off. If you really, by eye, in this particular game-situation-configuration see a visual benefit after turning it on and off, then it is turned on.

Triple buffering OpenGL (and more)

Exaggerated, it is an I / O buffer that speeds up the speed of access to the generated data:

• Frames are drawn at a frequency lower or higher than the refresh rate of the screen, ready (formed by the hardware earlier than they were requested back by the program that sent them for formation) are placed in the buffer (storage, so to speak), and the next frame is given for calculation, thus reducing the delay + the program does not need to poll the hardware to receive screen update events and the algorithm can freely run as quickly as possible;
• Accordingly, there is double buffering (it is usually used), there is triple buffering (exactly what we are describing now), double buffering uses two buffers, triple three (maybe more, but this no longer makes a noticeable difference);
• Double: if there are two buffers in the system, BUT and B, it can display a buffer B, while simultaneously forming a new image in the buffer BUT, but it is required to wait for the change of buffers due to the delay in the formation of the image;
• Triple: if the system has three buffers: A, B and AT, it doesn't have to wait for the buffers to change. It can display buffer B, forming an image in the buffer BUT, a little more.
• What to do: costs turn on despite the restrictions.

Shader cache

Allows you to store compiled shaders in the cache, which can sometimes significantly speed up processing, reduce the load on CPU and GPU, operating immediately with ready-made data without unnecessary compilation and taking them from the storage.

• There is a meaning turned off" or " AMD optimized" (in other maps, the setting may not be, called differently or enabled by default), - turn off often not recommended as it allows you to achieve smoother footage without unnecessary rendering delays, i.e. leave the optimized or enabled position. .

Tessellation mode and tessellation as such

This is the thing responsible for the global improvement of the picture. At a basic level, it is a method of breaking up polygons into smaller pieces.

Applying tessellation to a rough model (left) allows for a smoother model (in the same image but in the middle), using displacement maps (in the same image but on the right) gives the characters cinematic level realism.

• Within the driver has three parameter: optimized AMD, use app settings and override app settings;
• Most of the time it's worth leaving as it is, but more often, if for some reason FPS in a game with requirements lower (with a more powerful card) it is small, and there are also strange slowdowns, freezes (freezes) and drawdowns where they should not be, it makes sense to use the application settings and / or even manual override mode;
• Override allows you to set levels from 2x before 64x and older, or disable altogether. The level sets the very crushing and directly affects the performance and image quality. 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 performance loss:

• Turn off if you need performance. Perhaps this is all that is 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 sync, to add smoothness to the video sequence.

• In fact, few people need it and why, except in cases of the opposite - when the frame rate is artificially (by settings that cannot be changed) limited in the application, here you can try to override this value with a slider, which allows, in rare cases, to remove this restriction and work on full (or the value that you specified).

Perhaps, from the general settings, this is all that is worth knowing. Let's go through the interfaces of specific software, as well as overdrive and Wattman.

How to configure the video card through the "old" software - Catalyst Control Center

In the process of installing / updating drivers (or, if you have already bought a ready-made PC preinstalled OS), in addition to the module itself, which is responsible for displaying pictures on the monitor screen, an additional module is installed called Catalyst Control Center (ACCC).

This is a software shell that is a control center for working with video adapters and allows you to perform any manipulations both with the settings of the card itself and the connected monitor.

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 to start working with ACCC You need to update your drivers for the video card.

This can be done in different ways, but I prefer to do this with a special free utility from AMD entitled amddriverdownloader(old name).

For those not in the know, this is a technology for automatic detection (search and discovery) of the latest driver versions from the manufacturer. Its advantages are in clarity, convenience, free of charge and automation of 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, now you do not need to go to the manufacturer's website, look for the desired model of the video adapter, drive in your OS and bit depth. You simply download the utility, run it at any time and it determines whether there is anything new for your firewood and downloads the necessary distribution kit to your PC. So to get started with ACCC, update the drivers through the utility by going to the official website in the section Download and clicking on " Download”.

After downloading, you start the standard installation of firewood, along with which you will be supplied with our today's hero of the occasion - the control center. To enter it, you need to click on the icon (red-gray AMD) the desktop tray with the right mouse button and click on the corresponding inscription.

In fact ACCC there is nothing more than a user interface for installing, configuring and accessing the functions of video cards AMD Radeon and hybrid processors AMD. This application provides video settings to adjust display settings, display profiles and image quality.

ACCC plays a very important role in the functioning of your video card and allows you to add the necessary fps "s (parrots) in games. That is, with it you can run a game or an application at a quite decent flying level, which is initially more demanding on the characteristics of your PC and, in in particular video cards.

Note:
ATI Technologies, known for the production of computer processors, has developed Catalyst Control Center (CCC) in addition to the line Radeon video cards. The utility first became available for video cards of the series R. After acquisition AMD companies ATI, the utility became (in the old version) called .

Immediately after starting the center, click on the button “ Options” (above the question mark) and select the item - “ Extended View” (see image). Thus, we switch to a more advanced mode with a large number of settings and a more convenient interaction interface.

In the settings 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” – a rollback to pure settings, in case you over-chemized 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 utility settings 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 video card AMD. Launching ACCC, users get access to various functions:

• Desktop management;
• Customization of digital panels / display;
• Setting video picture parameters;
• Setting 3D-applications;
• performance management, AMD OverDrive– overclocking CPU and GPU.

Let's break down the main points of the settings and go through the most important tabs of the control center AMD Catalyst.

The first thing I would like to draw attention to is the point “ Desktop properties" in the dropdown menu “ Desktop management". It allows you to change the screen size, refresh rate, color quality, and desktop rotation.

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 the values ​​\u200b\u200bof the first and third characteristics there in the section “ Technical parameters of the monitor”.

The next important menu “ My digital flat panels” and items:

• Properties (digital flat panel);
• Zoom settings;

Let's go through each separately.

In the properties of the digital panel, we are interested in the tab “ Image scaling". It can be done by GPU GPU 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 resolution in full screen and at the highest possible resolution.

If the checkbox is unchecked, then such scaling is performed using Windows, however, is not always correct. Whether or not to check the 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 :)

Another setting here is " Enable ITC processing". It provides video quality using the GPU, not the graphics driver for displays HDMI that support processing ITC. Well, it’s clear what I rewarded here? ;)

In a nutshell, this is such a feature that allows your monitor to use its own full-screen image processing algorithms. Those. if the monitor supports HDMI, then we tick the box and enjoy all the delights of the picture that the manufacturer put into the hardware of the monitor. Otherwise, for tree monitors, it will not be available.

The next item in the tab “ My digital panels” – “Zoom settings". The setting is responsible for removing the “mourning frame” around the edges of the desktop. It often happens that reinstalling OS or drivers, black bars appear on the sides of the monitor. So, to avoid this, it is better to check the box - “ Use scaling factor”.

Note:
After each change of the parameters, so that they take effect, click on the button “ Apply (A)" or " Default (E)” (if you want to return everything as it was).

The last important setting in the Numeric Panels tab is LCD Overdrive. If you chose your own monitor, then you know that - the response of the monitor 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 "loop" when watching dynamic scenes of movies or games. This option is active only if the technology is supported by the graphics card itself.

There are a lot of settings here, and all of them are responsible for the beauty of the image, to one degree or another. brightness, chroma, contrast and other parameters. I must say that in most cases the standard settings of the center are quite satisfactory and do not require any special user tweaking.

Therefore, it is better not to change them, because changing one will lead to a violation of the overall balance and a change in a bunch of related parameters. In other words, even small improvements can lead to image “floating away”. Useful settings for us here will be the tab “ Quality”: Video quality and deinterlacing.

We need to set the following checkboxes (see image):

• "Dynamic Contrast"- this is an automatic adjustment of brightness depending on the picture on the monitor. Responsible for the best display of rapidly changing scenes, for example, when watching movies or in dynamic games.
• "Deinterlacing"is the elimination of interlacing or the “comb effect” when watching a video. To exaggerate, the comb effect is the moving object moving around, i.e. when there are two fields of the frame shifted relative to each other on the monitor screen at once. Deinterlacing allows you to eliminate this effect .

Also, for a smoother video playback process, you need to check the “frame change detection” in the video stream when using deinterlacing.

In the tab " Video” There are still settings that deserve our attention, and these are:

• AMD Steady Video– stabilization of trembling images;
• Global video quality;
• Faster video conversion.

If your home video is shaking (as if after a big day :)), then you need to check the box next to AMD Steady Video. Setting “ Global video quality” –> “Force anti-aliased video” allows you to ensure smooth playback of the video stream without dropping frames. We put a tick there.

Setting “ Fast Video Conversion” allows you to connect the resources of your graphics equipment to the video conversion process. Put a check mark " Enable hardware acceleration”, if you often encode video using various players and want to speed up this process.

So, now let's jump over two points " Games" and " performance” and stop on the tab “ Information". Actually, there is nothing unusual here, standard information from the manufacturer.

On the home page tab AMD we are interested in the item Check for driver updates”, which allows you to download the latest firewood to your computer, i.e. update their version and the control center core itself Catalyst.

In order for the “woodpile of firewood” to start loading, 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 hardware devices of the system, the graphics adapter, and in general to obtain information about the system (button “ System Information”).

Understood the basic setup. Let's now take a look at the performance and overclocking options that reside in the over drive.

OverDrive in "old" AMD driver software

If you are an avid gamer and own a video card from AMD, then you have the right to count on a slight increase in its power for free. The optimal and correct setting will help squeeze out the cherished fps in games and add speed in various 3D-applications. Two settings are responsible for this in the control center: “ Performance" and " Games”.

Consider them in more detail and start in order.

Technology AMD OverDrive- company development AMD, designed to overclock the video card and GPU at the driver level. To start using it, you must read and accept the terms of the license agreement (see image).

I think you have a question on your lips: What does AMD OverDrive do and how does it benefit me as a user?". I answer she:

• Has sets of preset parameters for beginners and fans of overclocking. You can easily select a preconfigured memory profile for optimal memory performance DDR3. You can also manually control performance settings from BIOS and create your own profiles for specific applications;
• Through automatic frequency adjustment makes overclocking even faster and easier;
• Allows you to control the fan speed to improve performance;
• Allows you to control all your performance settings, including memory clock speed, voltage and timings.

After accepting the terms of the license and warning that if you have crooked hands, it’s better not to overclock (:)), 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 to 3D-app, run FPS-measurement 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 a stable-increased combination of settings is found.

Note:
In order for the wound changes to take effect and affect the system performance, you must check the “ Enable Graphics Drive”.

Here are the results (in terms of performance increase) I managed to achieve just by playing with the settings of the video card and (to a lesser extent) the frequencies of the processor.

The default settings were the following:

...and the number of fps in the game Metro Last Light Redux(permission 1080p, the settings are very high) with them was:

And here is what they were changed to (at the map):

…and quantity FPS in Game Metro Last Light Redux with the same graphics settings is:

Total we have 41 against 44 - quite a decent result for a couple of gestures with the settings of the card and (to a lesser extent) the processor. If you sit in detail and twist the processor as it should, then 5-7 extra parrots can be knocked out for sure.

We see the attachment System Options”, and in it a table with two columns: “ Capabilities" and " Settings". At the bottom you can add a game application (button “ Add”) format .exe and set the graphics settings for a specific game (application), i.e., the so-called profile.

The local settings (smoothing, filtering, sampling and everything else) you set based on the written below above, i.e. in the first half of the article under the corresponding subheading.

How to set up a Radeon graphics card through "new" software - AMD (ATI) Software (Crimson onwards)

If you have a brand new card, the latest system and drivers, then most likely you already have the latest version of the software for working with driver settings. It is much more visual, concise and contains very few tabs ( Games, Video, Relive, Display and System), each of which very clearly allows you to control the video card.

Chapter " Games" is responsible for managing the main performance settings that are listed above, i.e. in the first half of the article under the appropriate subheading.

Tab " Video"responsible for the color, brightness and contrast settings for the 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 poke the mouse into the profile).

Relive, if installed, allows you to capture video and manage the settings associated with it. We will not comment on anything here, since this is not about that.

Chapter " Display" allows you to control 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 tabs " Review", "Software" and " Equipment", will help you find out the current driver version, frequencies, name of the video card, its detailed characteristics and some of the parameters of the computer.

As you can see, everything here is much more concise and convenient.

Setting up Wattman in the "new" driver software from AMD (ATI)

There are two subsections in the games section, one of which is responsible for global settings, the second for deeper ones (overclocking), which, the section, is called (at the time the article was updated) Wattman, which has replaced overdrive.

If you decide to overclock and change frequencies, then go to this section and agree with the warning that tells you that everything you do - you do at your own peril and risk, you can lose your warranty and so on (in general, read the text ).

Next, you will see such a large sheet (you can stretch the window with the mouse), the first section in 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 it affects different states and voltages. The voltage can also be set manually, but it is imperative to do this not recommended. Interest should be increased slowly (better 1% ), after each of which, test the video card for stability for a long time, trying to achieve maximum growth with maximum stability.

The third section similarly adjusts the values ​​for the memory frequency and memory voltage (which also should not be changed manually if you are not an experienced overclocker), thereby overclocking it too. It is worth overclocking the parameters in turn (separate frequency and separately 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 coolers of the cooling system, depending on the temperature (right side) and in a given speed range ( RPM) (minimum to maximum + acoustic limit).

On this, perhaps, everything that is worth knowing here and can be known. We still recommend controlling speed and acceleration through Afterburner, a detailed article on the subject .

Well, that’s probably all the settings that can be twisted to improve “flyability” and better “indicativeness” 3D-applications.

In order for you to have a clearer picture of all of the above in your head, I will give a general memo, a memo 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;

As always, if you have any questions, additions, thoughts, etc., then welcome to comment on this post.

PS: For the original existence of this article, thanks to a member of the team 25 FRAME

Installing Catalyst drivers without CCC

When updating drivers for Radeon HD video cards, each user is faced with the fact that they cannot be downloaded separately from the official website of the program. They only come bundled with the monstrous Catalyst Control Center application. If you only want to install AMD graphics card drivers, please read our instructions.

The first step is to download the latest Catalyst 13.1 drivers. Direct links to download drivers for all current versions of Windows (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.

The size of the installation file for 32-bit Windows is 94.8 MB. Owners of 64-bit Windows 7 and Windows 8 will have to download a 146.5 MB file. AMD servers serve the file at ~3.800 KB/sec.

Custom installation of Catalyst 13.1

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 choose any other location by clicking the Browse button.

After unpacking the files required to install the Catalyst Driver, the installer dialog will automatically start. After selecting the language, a dialog box will open in which you must select "Install". In the next window, in the section "Quick or custom installation" be sure to select "Custom" and click Next.

The installer will analyze the system and the video card, after which it will prompt you to select the components to be installed. It is here that you can prevent installation of Catalyst Control Center. Just uncheck Catalyst Control Center. We also recommend disabling the installation AMD APP SDK Runtime- This component is required only by application developers. In other cases, it only clutters up the system. But the “AMD Display Driver” and “HDMI Audio Driver” are just what we need.

After clicking on 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 is reset to 800x600. After the installation is complete, all image settings will return to normal.

Catalyst 13.1 and CCC drivers for 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 HD 2000, 3000 and 4000 series video cards (such as: HD 4870 X2, HD 4890, HD 4870, HD 4850, HD 4830, HD 4770, HD 3800, HD 3600, HD 3400, etc. .).

Any video card, even the most productive and modern, requires a suitable driver or a special utility for additional settings to work. Radeon video adapters, whether discrete or integrated, perform much better and provide higher frame rates when installed on a computer with the AMD Catalyst Control Center (CCC), first released in 2007. This tool is designed to fine-tune the characteristics of graphic cards of the American brand Advanced Micro Devices.

The CCC utility, which has been bundled with Radeon video card drivers for more than 10 years, may in the future be replaced by the Software Crimson software package from the same manufacturer. However, today it still needs to be installed on a desktop PC or laptop with AMD graphics.

Every year, the functionality of the utility increases, increasing the possibility of proper resource allocation and performance of graphics cards that continue to successfully compete with Nvidia models.

The list of Catalyst Control Center features includes:

• 3D graphics optimization to increase image quality in most games;
• integration with social networks, which improves the work of widgets and game applications built into these resources;
• frame smoothing required for use in games;
• laptop power management, which reduces the power consumption of mobile computers when running on battery power;
• setting the optimal level of contrast and detailing of the picture is a function that is useful not only for games, but also when working with graphic editors and watching movies in high resolution;
• simultaneous configuration of several screens connected to the video card (computer displays or TVs);
• software updates for video adapters, in most cases automatic.

The advantages of using AMD CCC include small requirements for computer resources, a built-in manager for games, and the possibility of hardware acceleration of video cards.

The Control Center works on both today's high-end PCs and legacy devices, allowing you to speed up graphics and add a few frames per second to your gameplay. Using the same utility, you can manually adjust the frame rate.

AMD Catalyst Control Center: Setting up for gaming

Playing with the help of the CCC control center is more convenient and easier, and the process of setting up games takes no more than a few minutes. And the only problem that is typical for laptops with integrated and discrete graphics installed at the same time occurs when there are no video card settings in the utility menu, and there is no way to optimize the image.

The issue is resolved by switching from one graphics adapter to another - through the BIOS, using the Catalyst Control Center, or by selecting the appropriate GPU, which is offered to the laptop user when changing the power source.

When solving the issue with the video card settings for the game, you should decide on the need to make changes. If the frame rate during gameplay is high enough and there are no graphics problems, it is recommended to leave the control center set to default. If you need to increase the fps level, you should do the following:

1. Open AMD Catalyst Control Center.
2. Select the game tab in the left column.
3. Click on the "Add" button located in the application settings section.
4. Find the executable file of the game in the list (it has the extension .exe and is designated as "Application" in Windows) and click "OK".

The utility automatically analyzes game settings and optimizes integrated or discrete graphics. Thanks to this, the video card not only works faster, but also wears out less during operation.

With manual graphics settings, the user gets the opportunity to independently choose the maximum image quality, high game speed, or standard settings that involve a compromise between fps and resolution.

How to launch AMD Catalyst Control Center

The control center requires special attention at the first start. Before opening the AMD Catalyst Control Center, the user selects the configuration mode:

• basic, which sets the default video card settings and allows you to further configure the resolution, quality, and number of connected image output devices;
• advanced, providing manual adjustment of most graphics characteristics.

If there is no need to change the graphics card settings, it is recommended to select the normal mode. An experienced user who is going to optimize the performance of games should give preference to the second option.

If there is a problem that the AMD Catalyst Control Center does not open, it is enough to update the drivers by first deleting the old ones.

How to Update AMD Catalyst Control Center

To update the control center, the user will need almost the same steps as when installing new drivers for any other computer component. You can get a new version of the utility along with control programs for the graphics adapter on the official website of the company.

Where to download AMD Catalyst Control Center

The only correct option when downloading the CCC control center is the official website of the AMD graphics card manufacturer. After navigating to the main page, the computer owner should open the "Download AMD Drivers & Software" software tab.

After that, on the right half of the page, you can see the menu for manually selecting an AMD video card and find the appropriate series and model. The last item "Select the supported operating system that you have" allows you to select one of the operating systems supported by the card:

• for older video adapters, these will be Windows XP and Unix platforms;
• for video cards of later release years - Windows 7 and 8;
• for the latest desktop models, only Windows 10.

After choosing the appropriate option, you should download this version and run the installation on your computer. It is undesirable to use third-party sites for downloading. The result can be not only the installation of outdated software, but also an increased risk of viruses infecting the system.

How to Install AMD Catalyst Control Center

There are three ways to install the control center:

1. Go to the manufacturer's official website and select the appropriate video card model. After downloading the installation file, it is installed on the computer.
2. By choosing to automatically detect the model of the video adapter on the same site.
3. Using utilities to automatically update drivers such as Drivers Pack Solution.

AMD Catalyst does not start: what to do?

Problems that arise when installing and running a software package are often associated with an incorrectly selected system bit depth. Correct operation of the program is possible only if the version downloaded from the manufacturer's resource matches the bitness of Windows. For example, for 32-bit Windows, an AMD Catalyst package installation error occurs when trying to install the control center for a 64-bit platform.

The utility does not start even if there are problems with version compatibility. Therefore, if you are unable to launch the AMD Catalyst Control Center, it is worth uninstalling the already installed software for the video adapter.

How to Completely Uninstall AMD Catalyst Control Center

One way to solve the problem with starting the control center is to completely remove AMD CCC from the computer. To do this, the user must do the following:

1. Open control panel.
2. Select Programs and Features (or Add/Remove Programs for Windows XP).
3. Find the utility to be removed in the list that opens and select its removal.

When the program is completely removed from the computer, you should restart the system. Now the PC (or laptop) is ready to install the new version of the control center.

Best Setting for Gaming: Video

In contact with

In order for the computer user to configure how the image generated by the system and applications, video card developers supply special programs along with drivers for their equipment. In the case of AMD ATI graphics cards, the corresponding software is called . However, despite the fact that the company makes significant efforts to ensure that the user does not experience problems with their software, failures can still be observed in its operation. So at one point, the user, when trying to open the CCC, may see the following message: "Cannot start AMD Catalyst Control Center at the moment." What to do in this case, let's see.

Reasons why AMD Catalyst Control Center may not start

There may be several reasons why AMD Catalyst Control Center is currently not starting. Most often, the problem is due to outdated drivers. In this case, the conflict can be caused not only by the video card driver, but also by other equipment (for example, a motherboard), since AMD by and large focuses on the latest hardware and software.

The second most common reason for the AMD Catalyst Control Center startup issue at the moment is blocking of some program components by antivirus. Many anti-spyware programs do not work perfectly, and therefore they can quarantine files that are completely harmless, but important for the operation of the system.

The third reason is software incompatibility with the operating system. Some users, after reinstalling Windows, do not download the latest drivers, but install them, for example, from the CD that came with the video card. If the corresponding software was developed, for example, for Windows 7, and the user's computer already has Windows 10, then there is a possibility that it will not work correctly on it.

And the last reason: corrupted program files. It is possible that some of the components were accidentally removed or the corresponding sector of the hard disk was damaged.

How to troubleshoot Catalyst Control Center failure to start

To fix the message "AMD Catalyst Control Center cannot be launched at the moment", you should try reinstalling the driver by downloading its new version from the official AMD website. This will require:

1. Go to the SUPPORT.AMD.COM website;
2. In the "Drivers and Support" section, select your version of the operating system;
3. Download the software by clicking on the "Download" button;
4. Start the installation process.

In most cases, you do not need to uninstall old drivers first. The installer will do this by itself, replacing the old software with the new one. However, if you still want to clean the system from the corresponding programs in advance, then do the following:

1. Go to the "SYSTEM_DISK:\Program Files\ ATI\CIM\Bin" folder and open the "Setup.exe" file;
2. In the window that opens, select "Delete";
3. Click "Next", and then - "Finish";
4. Restart your computer;
5. Then install new drivers.

If the corresponding steps did not help to fix the error “The AMD Catalyst Control Center cannot be started at the moment”, then try updating the drivers for all devices. Also, it will not be superfluous to look into the antivirus and see what files it quarantines. If AMD CCC components are present, they will need to be removed from there.

In contact with

One of our readers asked for advice, and the editors of Tom's Hardware discovered a very unusual problem. At first glance, it is unlikely to seem serious, but the frequency of its occurrence is still somewhat annoying. After browsing several forums on the Internet about this problem, we came to conclusion that it is not private to our reader. This fueled interest in the issue, especially since we did not find any reasonable explanation for the problem. The problem itself is that the Device Manager / Device Manager and the Catalyst Installation Manager cannot agree whether the northbridge driver is installed or not.

The reader has already contacted AMD support, but since the computer worked without any obvious problems, he received the answer that everything should be in order. But such an answer did not satisfy the reader - and us too. We deliberately went through the process of installing the Catalyst drivers on three different Windows 7 systems, and were able to replicate the issue in all cases. In the end, it turned out that our reader was right.

The problem manifests itself under the following circumstances.

• Windows 7 (x64, x86);
• motherboard based on AMD chipset;
• drivers from Catalyst 10.2 to 10.5 (latest version at the time of testing);
• installation in Custom mode (not in Express/Quick mode).

We hope this article is helpful, as an old but very effective trick, which we'll talk about a little later, turned out to be the solution to the problem. In addition, it has the potential to eliminate other pitfalls that may arise when installing AMD/ATI drivers. We'll also take a quick look at a hidden option in the Catalyst installer that can also be useful.

To eliminate all possible sources of errors, we used a "clean" installation of Windows 7 with no drivers or updates installed, with the exception of updates to Windows 7 itself.

In the Device Manager / Device Manager in the System / System Devices section, we selected the "AMD PCI Express (3GIO) Driver" item, in which we found the atipcie.sys (x86) or atipcie64.sys (x64) files. These drivers are installed by default. We recorded the version of the installed drivers before further installation.

We then unpacked the current version of the Catalyst drivers (at the time of testing) to the directory we specified, and then launched the installation, leaving it at the initial stage, where the choice is made to install or remove the drivers.

We chose "Uninstall" followed by "Custom Uninstall" to get a list of the components that the installer recognizes. And the result confirmed the problem we identified earlier: the Catalyst installer did not recognize any installed components, although the driver was already installed with Windows 7 and updated via Windows Update.

After restarting the installation, we selected "Installation" followed by "Custom Installation".

In addition to USB drivers, we now have the option to install northbridge drivers. Interestingly, the proposed version was the same as the one already installed. We chose to install the drivers anyway to avoid confusion. Installation completed successfully.

After a mandatory reboot, we reopened the Catalyst installer to see what options would appear in the uninstall drivers section. With the exception of the USB drivers, we did not find any other options. Then we launched the installer again to install the drivers, after which we found that the driver was offered to be installed again, that is, it says nothing about the fact that it has already been installed!

Even though this problem can only be detected in the Custom installation mode (in Express / Quick mode, there is very little information about the installation process), we were puzzled. Well, let's identify the cause and present a possible solution.

Possible reasons

After some experimentation and brute-force removal (with the Cleaner utility and manual deletion of registry entries), we came to the conclusion that the AMD Catalyst installer and drivers obtained via Windows installation and/or Windows Update do not interact with each other. While manually installing and uninstalling the driver through the Device Manager/Device Manager works fine, the Catalyst installer "forgets" about the installed driver, offering to re-install already installed drivers that are not exclusively supplied by AMD (that is, they are already offered by Microsoft).

At the same time, the reverse scenario is not possible, because the drivers are not detected by the installer during installation or removal. In principle, only AMD can answer whether this is due to a protection mechanism or an installer error in detecting drivers.

But we would like to note once again that the identified problem does not lead to any computer failures. It can be called an annoying oversight that causes confusion for those users who regularly monitor driver versions so that the computer always works with the latest drivers. But our little research showed that this situation has existed for quite a long time, and so far there has been no explanation or fix from AMD.

The Catalyst installer starts by extracting the files to the specified directory. We need it to perform the trick.

We moved to the directory with the unpacked files, after which we selected the "Config" subdirectory. It contains the "InstallManager.cfg" file. We opened it with the appropriate text editor Notepad/Notepad. The contents of the file are shown below.

Pay attention to the item "WorkaroundInstall". It is set to "false" by default. We activated the item by setting the value to "true", after which we saved the file.

We then launched the installation from the directory by executing the Setup.exe file. Pay attention to the installation options that we have agreed to.

The situation, as we can see, has changed: now only exclusive AMD driver packages are saved after the Catalyst installer is executed.

Additional Benefits

This trick also helps in situations where the Catalyst installer for some reason refuses to install the driver, despite the hardware being connected and the old driver working perfectly. So the next time you run into a strange installation problem, remember that modifying the installation file can work wonders. We used a similar trick when the current version of Catalyst 10.5 refused to install on systems with 10.2 or 10.3 already installed.

As we have already described just above, we moved to the directory with the unpacked files. Then to the "Config" directory, after which we opened "InstallManager.cfg" in Notepad / Notepad. However, in this file we also found a "Show Update" item at the bottom. It is set to "false" by default. We activated this item by setting the value to "true", after which we saved the file.

Then after running the installer, a new option appears.

If you select the "Update" option, previously hidden, a new wizard will start.

Here you can update individual components without having to remove them. As far as we understand, the Installation option performs only limited or no removal procedures, while the Update option combines a complete removal and installation of selected components in the same reboot cycle. This saves on one reboot cycle, which is required when completely uninstalling the drivers. This step is also useful after uninstalling the drivers and rebooting, because Windows can automatically replace the removed drivers against your will.

If you are a user of Catalyst drivers, then take the identified problem calmly. At first, it may seem strange, but this problem will not lead to serious crashes. In addition, if you know some tricks, you can solve many similar problems more easily and simply than you might think at first.

Manually editing the Catalyst configuration file can help solve similar problems to the one we described. In the article, we have described in detail the steps that will help inexperienced users. Perhaps AMD will somehow react. The more features a software package contains, the more complex it becomes. And mistakes will inevitably occur. In fact, the question is how timely errors will be detected and eliminated. All this should be taken into account when filing complaints.