AMD Radeon Software Crimson Edition is a free utility tool that enables you to experience better graphics performance when playing video games. Developed by Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), this graphics driver offers a new user interface design and upgraded features. It’s best known as a graphics driver optimized for PC gaming so if you’re looking to improve your system, this is a good option to try out from AMD’s impressive line-up.

A new benchmark version

AMD Radeon Software—formerly named ATI Catalyst and AMD Catalyst—is a device driver and utility software package for Advanced Micro Devices's graphics cards and APUs. It is built using the Qt toolkit and primarily runs on Microsoft Windows and Linux for their 32-bit and 64-bit x86 processors. This program released updates frequently each year—however, in 2015, it eventually came out with a revamped version that focused on the users’ feedback. 

Crimson Edition, compared to the standard Catalyst Edition, provides made new improvements that are geared towards video gaming graphic enhancements. The old Catalyst Control Center is now known as Radeon Settings and uses a sleeker interface that makes it easier for anyone to navigate and locate the settings they’d like to toggle. All settings are now grouped properly with a simple tab name so you won’t get lost—and there’s a dedicated tab for gaming.

The program automatically detects the games in your system and allows you to customize their performance settings and save those in their own unique profiles. The Shader Cache feature loads your games up faster. There are frame-pacing enhancements that will let your games run smoother. The Frame Rate Target Control (FRTC), in particular, allows more power-saving benefits. Aside from that, the whole utility program installs and launches pretty quickly.

Optimized for beginners

Overall, AMD Radeon Software Crimson Edition is definitely a step-up compared to the old Catalyst version. It’s much more user-friendly, especially for beginners not used to customizing their graphics. The advanced settings must be accessed via another button, however, and aren’t easily available in the drop-down menus. Despite this, it has tons of great improvements that loyal fans have been waiting for and is a highly-recommended tool to have.