It’s always a happy day when AMD releases new driver sets. The latest sets to appear from AMD are of the Catalyst Drivers sort. The newly released 13.1 drivers are heavy on performance and reliability improvements.

While no driver sets are completely flawless, AMD does do a great job at fixing problems, adding features, and making drivers better than they were before. AMD also stands behind its products and the company is great at coming out with fixes to problems quickly. Here’s what you’ll find inside the new AMD Catalyst Drivers.

Inside The Package: Plenty Of Goodies

AMD has included a number of features inside the Catalyst package. Those features include HydraVision available for Windows 7 and Windows Vista; AMD Catalyst Control Center (version 9.012) and AMD Vision Engine Control Center (version 9.012); AMD display driver version 9.012; and Southbridge/IXP driver. All of this looks and performs nicely, but there are a few things to remember when considering the purchase of this driver set.

Compatibility: Slightly Limited

AMD’s new Catalyst drivers will not work with any notebook launched after the release of this new driver set. Notebooks that will work smoothly with the new drivers include Panasonic notebooks, Toshiba notebooks, and Sony VAIO notebooks (as long as they were released prior to the release of this new driver set!). As far as Microsoft Windows suites go, the AMD Catalyst set will work with Windows Vista 32-bit, 64-bit; Windows 8 64-bit and 32-bit; Windows 7 64-bit and 32-bit.

New 3D Settings Are Worth Looking At

One of the most talked about features of this new driver set is the 3D feature settings. The 3D application settings page allows users to control and adjust 3D settings according to application preferences. When tested, Catalyst performed significantly better than past AMD versions. AMD has also fixed a number of problems and bugs including problems with Adobe Premier Pro and Corel PaintShop Pro X3. These fixes are welcomed, but these aren’t the only problems that AMD has been working on. For a complete list of fixed bugs and issues, make sure to check out AMD’s main Catalyst site.

Installation Woes

When tested, Catalyst installed without any major issues. In fact, this product installed directly as advertised, and proved to be a simple installation. AMD released the Catalyst drivers a few days ago, and the drivers are ready to be downloaded and installed from the company’s main site. While there are, undoubtedly, going to be some installation problems reported from some users, Catalyst has really been developed quite nicely.

As with most AMD products, complete specs and details can be found on the AMD website. When installing, keep in mind the compatibility limitations listed above. The biggest compatibility issue being that these drivers will not work on any notebook released after the launch date of this product (January 2013), so you’ll have to look elsewhere when searching for drivers for a recently released notebook. AMD’s Catalyst drivers are free to download and compatible with Windows operating systems.