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AMD Drivers for Windows 8.0


greenhillmaniac

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Starting with Catalyst 14.4, AMD officially dropped Windows 8.0 support, and nobody really cared to make a proper guide on how to mod the drivers to work on NT 6.2. Well, I'm here to show you how you can install the full AMD package, complete with the Crimson Control Panel, HDMI audio, Vulkan, Mantle, ACP Audio (that thing AMD advertised way back when they announced GCN, TrueAudio)... you get the jist.

1. Download the drivers you need from the AMD website, Windows 7 version. Extract the exe files into a folder (I use 7-Zip)

2. The video drivers will install without any modification, because the INF file only specifies NT 6.1 (although that does not mean you will be restricted to WDDM 1.1. More on that later), but the HDMI INF file has to be modded, because it has lines in there that block the install on anything that's not NT 6.1.
Assuming you are already on the folder with the extracted drivers, go to Packages\Drivers\WDM\HDMI\W764A and open the INF file. In there delete the line that says:
[AMD.NTamd64.6.2]
and modify the line that has all the hardware IDs below it:
[AMD.NTamd64.6.1] > [AMD.NTamd64.6.2]
Save the INF file.

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3. Now the drivers are ready for install. If you're running a 64 bit system you will need to follow the following steps:

     3a. Go to the Charms bar, go to the cogwheel symbol and click on the power button, now keep pressing the Shift key and click Restart. This will bring up the Troubleshoot menu. Click Troubleshoot and go to Advanced Options. In there click Startup Settings, and let the system restart. Upon restart you will be greeted by a menu with a bunch of options. We want the Disable Driver signature enforcement. Press 7 or F7 on your keyboard, and you'll be able to install the modded drivers.

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4. Right click on the exe on the main driver directory, click compatibility and choose Windows 7. This will fool the installer and prevent it from saying "Unsuported OS". Next install the driver as you normally would. The only difference is this little popup, where you will allow it to install

(Yes, I was using Windows 10 for some screenshots)

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5. After the install is done, reboot the system, and you should have the full suite of AMD drivers working on your NT 6.2 OS of choice.

A few things to note:
- If you try to uninstall the drivers normally, it will say "Unsuported OS" and quit. One workaround is keeping that window open, go to Task Manager, find the location of the exe and put it in compatibility mode for "Windows 7", and run the uninstaller again (the same thing we did for the setup file, basically)
- The Video Tab of Crimson does not appear to be working... It appears as a blank page. I've seen it working, so I'm not sure if it appears after a few restarts, or if it depends on the way you install the drivers. I'll try to look into this.
- Despite the drivers having NT 6.1 on the Card INF file, it fully works on WDDM 1.2 and not Windows 7's WDDM 1.1, which means all the advantages of NT 6.2's WDDM are present.

Hope this helps anybody on Windows 8.0 with an AMD card, such as myself :thumbup

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  • 7 months later...

An update on the situation: AMD drivers are no longer Windows 8.0 compatible. Tested on 17.2.1. Everytime I tried installing them, it gave a BSOD. Tried different driver versions, all with the same error.

RIP AMD cards on NT 6.2: 2012-2016
RIP AMD cards on NT 6.0: 2006-2015
RIP AMD cards on NT 5.1: 2001-2015

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