Abstract: Based on the variability of the southwest Australian circulation (SWAC), the simulation capabilities of 12 atmospheric general circulation models (AGCMs) provided by IPCC AR4 have been evaluated and compared. The seasonal features, annual cycle, associated circulation anomalies pattern, and interannual variability of the SWAC, as well as the seasonal march of the southwest Western Australia (SWWA) rainfall are analyzed by using the IPCC AMIP models data. Result shows that except the NCAR_CAM3, the else models can capture the basic seasonal features and corresponding circulation anomalous characteristics of the SWAC, but not for the seasonal march of the subtropical high ridge within the SWAC domain and interannual variability of the SWAC. Thus the relevant part of the models should be improved to well simulate the SWWA climate. In a word, the GISS_MODEL_E_R exhibits a little better performance among the 12 different models, which could generally capture the features of SWAC and shows similar significant impact on the SWWA winter rainfall as in the observation.