Unable to start AMD Catalyst Control Center at the moment how to fix. AMD Catalyst Control Center: installation and configuration Setting up for viewing video and photos

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 Most often, the problem is due to outdated drivers.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:

Go to the SUPPORT.AMD.COM website;
In the "Drivers and Support" section, select your version of the operating system;
Download the software by clicking on the "Download" button;
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:

Go to the "SYSTEM_DISK:\Program Files\ATI\CIM\Bin" folder and open the "Setup.exe" file;
In the window that opens, select "Delete";
Click "Next", and then - "Finish";
Restart your computer;
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.

Catalyst Control Center is a software released by AMD for managing and configuring graphics cards (AMD brands only). This software is a single control center, which does not require additional work programs, and includes all the necessary tools.
The Catalyst Control Center program allows you to fine-tune the video card settings, monitors driver updates, which it downloads and installs automatically from the official AMD website. If you are the owner of an AMD graphics card, then you just need to download this program to properly configure and increase the performance of your graphics card for comfortable work.

Unfortunately, this software has been discontinued and no longer 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 thirteen-year brand name. Thus, the Catalyst Control Center program is no longer supported since 2015, in its replacement, the new Radeon Software Crimson Edition software was released, which is up to date and has a set of the latest drivers with more advanced functionality.

Many people continue to use the Catalyst Control Center to configure their video cards, as this program has a very simple and intuitive interface with all the necessary tools.

Main functionality:

Performance tuning.
Desktop management.
Performance tuning for working and watching videos.
Setting to switch between two GPUs.
Performance tuning in games.
Video card power management.
Driver update.
Notification about innovations in updated drivers.
General information about the video card.
CPU frequency control.
Manage and configure the operation of more than one monitor.

Due to the constant updating of drivers for their video cards by AMD, it was necessary to adjust the parameters of your video card for optimal and maximum performance with different programs and games, which is exactly what you will need the Catalyst Control Center program for.

This software can help you even if you have a rather old video card, the program will help you properly configure the video card and achieve optimal work with programs and slightly increase FPS in games.

This application independently tracks all changes in updated video card drivers and notifies the user about it.

The Catalyst Control Center will also help you connect and configure 2 or more monitors to one or more graphics cards.

You may have encountered the fact that the monitor is dull and does not convey colors and contrast very well, with the help of this program you can adjust these parameters yourself bypassing the standard monitor settings.

Having understood the whole 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 just 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 we 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 Windows 7/8/8.1/10 operating systems with X64 and x32 bits.

After you have downloaded the Catalyst Control Center, we launch the installer and go through all the installation steps, when choosing the installation type, select "Quick installation", with this option the installer will check if 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 run the program.

When you first start the program, it can take a long time to launch, so be patient and wait.

This completes the installation of the Catalyst Control Center software.

Check for updated video card drivers

Catalyst Control Center keeps track of 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 updated drivers are found, a window will appear prompting you to download from, click the "Download Now" button and the program will automatically download and install them.

Customizing performance for your needs

The first thing to do when you first start is to change the standard view of the window to extended. This can be done in the "Options" menu, which is located in the upper right corner. In the drop-down menu, select the "Advanced View" option.

Thus, all the tuning tools in this program will become available to us.

It is worth remembering that if you are using a computer that is completely based on the AMD platform, then you must have 2 graphics cores, integrated (integrated video core in the processor) and discrete (video card). In this case, when configuring the system through the Catalyst Control Center program, the settings marked "Energy saving" will refer to the video core built into the processor, and all the settings marked "High performance" will be applied to a discrete video card that is connected to the PCI express slot.

Setting for viewing video and photos

In order to adjust 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 box on 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 graphic adapters)". In this window, we remove all the checkboxes from all items except "Deinterlacing", so as not to load the graphics processor once again 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 videos that were shot with movement. This option will reduce the degree of video shaking for comfortable viewing, but also once again load the graphics adapter, so I advise you to deactivate this option if your video card is low-powered.

As for the sections “Color (High-Performance Graphics Adapters)” and “Quality (High-Performance Graphics Adapters)”, we set the parameters by analogy.
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 offload the graphics processor when playing high-format videos, or when editing and creating videos through special programs.

Game setup

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 “Settings for 3D applications (Energy-saving graphics adapters)” and “Settings for 3D applications (High-performance graphics adapters)”, in fact, in these sections, the graphics in games are configured for different models of 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 GPUs to work together in order to improve the quality and performance of graphics. I advise you to enable this feature, 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 the "CPU Power" item. If you are using a computer, then set the processor frequency to the maximum value. In the event that you are the owner of an AMD-based laptop, then you should approach this setting more subtly, since we will have 2 processor frequency settings available.

From the battery. This parameter should be configured taking into account that when the maximum parameter is set, 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 the maximum value.
Connected. This parameter can be set to the maximum value to increase the performance of the central processor, in the event that your laptop is connected to the network and does not use battery resources.

Switching between these modes occurs automatically. Please note that the temperature of the processor may increase with these settings.

As for the “AMD OverDrive” item, this option allows the Catalyst Control Center program to independently study all the overclocking options for your CPU and take the most suitable ones to increase performance. Also, in some versions of AMD OverDrive drivers, it allows you to control the rotation speed of the coolers of a video card or laptop. I advise you to disable this option and manually configure these parameters in the above section "CPU Power".

Power settings

In this section, you can fine-tune the power settings for laptops, namely power consumption when using the laptop from the mains or from the battery. If you are the owner of a computer, then I advise such parameters as "PowerPlay", "Global Switchable Graphics Settings" to set the value to "Maximum Performance". If you select these options, the system will not save energy.

If you have the same brand of AMD discrete and integrated graphics, then when using the Maximum performance setting, the system will always play graphics from a discrete graphics card. If you select another option, then the system will switch between the two graphics cards to save power, which may have a bad effect on game performance, but increase battery life.

Let's take a closer look at the "Switchable Graphics Options" item. In this section, you can configure specific performance settings and use the desired graphics core separately for each installed application on your computer. Thus, for games or applications that play high-definition video, you can set the "high-performance" settings, and for applications that do not require good graphics processing, and in order not to overload the system once again, you can set the "Power saving" option, which will tell the system to use for these applications built-in video chip.

When using the "Application Monitor" function, which is located in the "Application Monitor for Switchable Graphics Adapters", you can set the automatic switching of graphics adapters between applications.

We have considered the parameters in which it is possible to adjust the performance of your video card to the maximum value. As for the remaining sections, this will be briefly described below, since their settings will not affect system performance.

Causes and Solutions for Catalyst Control Center Not Starting

There can be several reasons why the Catalyst Control Center stopped starting. Consider the most common causes and methods for their solutions.

Outdated drivers. One of the reasons that the program has stopped running may be outdated drivers, as a result of which there is a conflict between the Catalyst Control Center and the video card drivers and it cannot be launched. The solution to this problem can be updating the drivers, to do this, go to the official AMD website and install the latest version drivers for your video card.

Incompatibility. The same reason that the launch does not occur may be an incorrectly installed version of the 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 bit depth and version of your Windows OS, then go to the official website and download the version that suits you.

Antivirus programs. The reason may also be the blocking of the Catalyst Control Center by antivirus programs.
The solution to this problem may be to temporarily disable the antivirus program or to add the Catalyst Control Center to the exclusion list.

Damage to program files. Perhaps you deleted some files in the Catalyst Control Center program directory by mistake, or an antivirus program did it for you. Also, do not discard the option that the hard disk sectors have been damaged.

The solution for this reason could be a complete uninstall and reinstall of the software.

If the startup problem persists and the “AMD Catalyst Control Center Cannot Start at the moment” error persists, then you should update all drivers in your Windows OS.

How to uninstall this software

To remove AMD Catalyst Control Center, you should use the standard Windows tool.
To do this, open the control panel. To open the control panel, press the key combination Win + R and in the opened line "Run" enter the command "control".

In the control panel window that opens, click on the "Uninstall a program" item.

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 "Quickly remove ALL AMD software components" and click next.

We are waiting for the removal to finish, and then restart the computer.

Conclusion

After reading this article, you have become familiar with AMD's software, the AMD Catalyst Control Center. With this program, you can make the most efficient adjustments to your graphics card to improve performance in games or when watching high-quality videos and movies. The big plus 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 due to the release of the new Radeon Software Crimson Edition with new features and customization tools. But even after that, many continue to use it, as it has a very convenient and intuitive interface with a set of all the necessary tools.

If you have an old AMD brand graphics card and want to run applications that require high graphics processing, then you should resort to tweaking the graphics card's paromers through the AMD Catalyst Control Center to improve performance.

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.

We will talk about picking driver settings using the example of AMD Radeon (ATI) video cards using the utility built into them. Here we will not talk about temperatures (because they spoke in), overclocking of the video card (because they spoke) and fan speed (because they also spoke), but we will consider exactly the functionality of the software that comes with the kit and a bunch of all sorts of settings (which , including those 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 sin in their spare time to sit down at their favorite game 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 want 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. radeonshchik. However, those readers who voted for NVIDIA don't need to worry either, we will prepare an even more delicious article for you.

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 subtitle) describes the visual and logical look of a newer version, namely AMD Radeon Software (aka, at various times, Crimson, Crimson Relive, etc., 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

What you need to understand here (and further) before setting up:

If you cannot determine 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 these will be letters for letters, numbers for 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 is not enough).

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;
The driver (not in the application) usually has three global values: use application settings, improve them, or override them;
When overridden and improved, 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), 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 that are strongly (and not very) 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, there can be 2X , 4X , 8X , etc., which determines the quality of the filtering;
The principle is based on using several copies of the same texture with different detail and building the number of texels (the minimum unit of the texture of a three-dimensional object, if you want - a texture pixel) along the direction of view and averaging their color. It heavily loads the video memory (requires its high bandwidth, which in turn is determined);
From certain years (approximately since 2007), it has almost no effect on performance in the negative, but it has a positive effect on image quality, so 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, 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 the monitor's refresh rate:

The driver (not in the application) usually has four global values: always off, off (if not specified by the application), enabled (if not specified by the application), always on;
In 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 FPS limit (especially if it is lower than the monitor's frame rate as such), it 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 connection with the above, 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 the system has two buffers, A and B, it can display buffer B while simultaneously forming a new image in buffer A, but it is required to wait for the buffers to change due to the image delay;
Triple: if the system has three buffers: A, B and C, it does not need to wait for buffers to change. It can display buffer B , forming an image in buffer A , a little more .
What to do: it is worth including, 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 the CPU and GPU, operating immediately with ready-made data without unnecessary compilation and taking them from storage.

Is there a value of "off" or " AMD optimized" (in other maps, the settings may not be there, named differently or enabled by default) - turning it off is often not recommended, because this allows you to achieve a smoother video sequence 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.

The driver framework has three options: AMD optimized, use application settings and override application settings;
Most often it is worth leaving it as it is, but more often, if for some reason the FPS in a game with requirements lower (with a more powerful card) is small, and there are also strange slowdowns, friezes (fading) and drawdowns where they should not be, here it makes sense to use application settings and/or even manual override mode;
Override allows you to set levels from 2x to 64x and higher, or disable them 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 with a pre-installed OS), in addition to the module itself, which is responsible for displaying the picture 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.

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 video card drivers.

There are many ways to do this, but I prefer to do it with a special free utility from AMD called 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 don’t need to go to the manufacturer’s website, look for the right video adapter model, 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 start working with ACCC, update the drivers through the utility by going to the official website in the Download section 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 color AMD) of the desktop tray with the right mouse button 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 graphics cards and AMD hybrid 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 "s (parrots) in games. That is, with it you can run a game or an application at a quite decent flight level, which is initially more demanding on the characteristics of your PC and, in particular video cards.

Note :
ATI Technologies, known for manufacturing computer processors, developed the Catalyst Control Center (CCC) to complement its line of Radeon graphics cards. The utility first became available on R-series video cards. After AMD acquired 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 are switching 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 the options and functions associated with the AMD graphics card. By launching ACCC, users get access to various functions:

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

Let's break down the highlights 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 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”.

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 “Quality” tab: 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 "comb effect" when watching a video. To exaggerate, the comb effect is the driving of a moving object, i.e. when there are two fields of the frame on the monitor screen at once, shifted relative to each other. Deinterlacing eliminates 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 more settings that deserve our attention and these are:

AMD Steady Video - shaky image stabilization;
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 the two items "Games" and " performance” and stop on the tab “ Information". Actually, there is nothing unusual here, standard information from the manufacturer.

On the AMD home page tab, we are interested in the “Check for driver updates”, 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 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 make it possible 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 OverDrive section.

OverDrive in "old" AMD driver software

If you are an avid gamer and own an AMD video card, then you have the right to count on some increase in its power for free. The optimal and correct setting will help you squeeze out the coveted 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.

AMD OverDrive Technology is an AMD development designed to overclock a graphics 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 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 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 into the 3D application, launch the FPS measurer, 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 :
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 (1080p resolution, very high settings) with them was:

And here is what they were changed to (at 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 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.

Note :
In addition to the graphics card, you can also overclock the processor using AMD OverDrive. However, it must be from AMD.

As you hope to remember, there is one more item on the agenda, this is setting up 3D applications. To start working with them, go to the corresponding menu ACCC:

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

Local settings (smoothing, filtering, sampling and everything else) you set based on what is written below above, i.e. in the first half of the article under the appropriate 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.

The "Games" section 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.

The "Video" tab is responsible for the color, brightness and contrast settings for the video and everything that accompanies it. There are several preset profiles here, 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 that go with it. We will not comment on anything here, since this is not about that.

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, the 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" 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 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 this is strongly discouraged. Interest should be increased slowly (preferably by 1%), after each of which you should 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 separate 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) (from minimum to maximum + acoustic limit).

On this, perhaps, everything that is worth knowing here and can be known. We still recommend controlling 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 "indicativeness" of 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?”:

Today we have fully dealt with the topic of setting up video card drivers. I am sure that now each of you will be able to do it correctly and, if necessary, squeeze extra parrots out of your graphic babies :)

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 team member 25 FRAME

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:

Open AMD Catalyst Control Center.
Select the game tab in the left column.
Click on the "Add" button located in the application settings section.
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:

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.
By choosing to automatically detect the model of the video adapter on the same site.
Using utilities to automatically update drivers such as Drivers Pack Solution.

AMD Catalyst won't 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:

Open control panel.
Select Programs and Features (or Add/Remove Programs for Windows XP).
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

A clean installation of Windows, as well as the installation of new hardware components in a PC, almost inevitably ends for the user with the need to search for and add drivers for various devices to the system. A video card, as one of the most important components of modern computers and laptops, requires the installation of components in order to be able to function properly almost in the first place. Owners of Radeon graphics adapters can practically not worry about this issue, because a powerful and functional tool has been created for them - AMD Catalyst Control Center.

Download and update AMD drivers through the Catalyst Control Center

We can say that the AMD Catalyst Control Center (CCC) is designed mainly to maintain the performance of video cards based on the AMD GPU at the proper level, which means that installing and maintaining drivers up to date should be done using this software. without too much trouble. In fact, it is.

The CCC installer is now called the Catalyst Software Suite. It cannot be downloaded from the official website for modern powerful video card models - the developers have created a new application for them: AMD Radeon Software. Use it to install and update the graphics card software.

Automatic installation

The Advanced Micro Devices Graphics Driver Pack is included in the Catalyst Control Center and all necessary components are added to the system when the application is installed. In order to install the video adapter driver, just follow a few simple steps.

Download the AMD Catalyst Control Center installer from the official website of the manufacturer in the technical support section. To obtain the correct driver version, you must determine the type, series, and model of the graphics processor on which the video card is built.

After that, you will need to specify the version and bit depth of the operating system used.

The final step is to expand the tab and select the Catalyst Software Suite.

After the Catalyst installer is downloaded, run the installation.

The initial stage is unpacking the components necessary for the installer to work along the path specified by the user.
After unpacking, the welcome window of the Catalyst Installation Manager will automatically start, in which you can select the language for the installer interface, as well as the Control Center components that will be installed along with the drivers.

The CCC installer "can" not only install the necessary components, but also remove them from the system. Therefore, a request for further operations appears. We press the button "Install",

which will bring up the following window.
To start the automatic installation of the graphics adapter drivers and the Catalyst Control Center software package, set the installation type switch to the position "Fast" and press the button "Further".

If you are installing AMD drivers and software for the first time, you will need to create a folder where the components will be copied. The catalog will be created automatically after clicking the button "Yes" in the corresponding prompt window. In addition, you will need to accept the terms of the License Agreement by clicking the appropriate button.

Before starting the file copying procedure, the system will be analyzed for the presence of a graphics adapter and its parameters for installing the latest driver version.

The further process is fully automated,

you just need to wait for the installation to complete and click the button "Ready" in the final installer window.

The final stage is a system reboot, which will begin immediately after pressing the button "Yes" in the window-request for the operation.

After the reboot, you can check if the driver is present on the system by opening "Device Manager".

Driver update

Software is evolving at a fairly serious pace, and AMD video card drivers are no exception. The manufacturer is constantly improving the software and therefore do not neglect updates. In addition, Catalyst Control Center provides all the possibilities for this.

As you can see, despite the importance of drivers in the functioning of Advanced Micro Devices video cards, installing and updating them using the Catalyst Control Center turns into a simple procedure, which usually does not cause any difficulties even for novice users.