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Quick tip: updating laptop AMD hybrid graphics drivers

Got a laptop with AMD discrete graphics, and Intel integrated for saving battery? Vendor isn't providing updated drivers? AMD shrugging and pointing in another direction? Thank goodness for third party drivers.

Craig Simms Special to CNET News
Craig was sucked into the endless vortex of tech at an early age, only to be spat back out babbling things like "phase-locked-loop crystal oscillators!". Mostly this receives a pat on the head from the listener, followed closely by a question about what laptop they should buy.
Craig Simms

Got a laptop with AMD discrete graphics, and Intel integrated for saving battery? Vendor isn't providing updated drivers? AMD shrugging and pointing in another direction? Thank goodness for third party drivers.

This seems to be the usual response. (Credit: AMD/CBSi)

Quite often, after a laptop release, the thing is just forgotten about and drivers are left to languish. Despite AMD offering Mobility Radeon drivers, more often than not, they won't work, with AMD pointing people back to the vendor who stopped caring the moment you bought the laptop, as they apparently implemented a custom solution. Thus, games and other applications can have issues that never get fixed.

Thankfully, if you're running Windows 7 x64, we have Leshcat's drivers.

While the usual caveats apply about not using vendor authorised drivers, install at your own risk and so forth, but these may just get you out of a pickle.