AMD rilascia i catalyst 14.9 WHQL

Salvatore L.30 Settembre 2014

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AMD Catalyst

AMD rilascia un nuovo set di driver Catalyst per schede grafiche della Radeon, la nuova release di driver è la 14.9 WHQL. Il produttore introduce diverse ottimizzazioni aumentando di fatto le prestazioni con i titoli recenti come Batman Arkham Origins, Battlefield 4 (Mantle mode), BioShock Infinite, Company of Heroes 2, Crysis 3, Murdered Soul Suspect, Plants vs. Zombies, StarCraft II, Star Swarm (Mantle mode), Thief (Mantle mode), Tomb Raider, Watch Dogs e Wildstar.

I nuovi driver abilitano anche il supporto CrossFire con Thief, e ne migliora la gestione con i titoli come Assassin’s Creed IV, Batman Arkham Origins, Lichdom, Murdered: Soul Suspect, Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare e Watch Dogs.

Ecco le note di rilascio:

Highlights of AMD Catalyst™ 14.9 Windows Driver

Support for the AMD Radeon R9 28
Performance improvements (comparing AMD Catalyst 14.9 vs. AMD Catalyst 14.4)
- 3DMark Sky Diver improvements
  - AMD A4 6300 – improves up to 4%
  - Enables AMD Dual Graphics / AMD CrossFire support
- 3DMark Fire Strike
  - AMD Radeon R9 290 Series – improves up to 5% in Performance Preset
- 3DMark11
  - AMD Radeon R9 290 Series / R9 270 Series – improves up to 4% in Entry and Performance Preset
- BioShock Infinite
  - AMD Radeon R9 290 Series – 1920×1080 – improves up to 5%
- Company of Heroes 2
  - AMD Radeon R9 290 Series – improves up to 8%
- Crysis 3
  - AMD Radeon R9 290 Series / R9 270 Series – improves up to 10%
- Grid Auto Sport
  - AMD CrossFire profile
- Murdered Soul Suspect
  - AMD Radeon R9 290X (2560×1440, 4x MSAA, 16x AF) – improves up to 50%
  - AMD Radeon R9 290 Series / R9 270 Series – improves up to 6%
  - CrossFire configurations improve scaling up to 75%
- Plants vs. Zombies (Direct3D performance improvements)
  - AMD Radeon R9 290X – 1920×1080 Ultra – improves up to 11%
  - AMD Radeon R9290X – 2560×1600 Ultra – improves up to 15%
  - AMD Radeon R9290X CrossFire configuration (3840×2160 Ultra) – 92% scaling
- Batman Arkham Origins:
  - AMD Radeon R9 290X (4x MSAA) – improves up to 20%
  - CrossFire configurations see up to a 70% gain in scaling
- Wildstar
  - Power Xpress profile
  - Performance improvements to improve smoothness of application
  - Performance improves up to 30% on the AMD Radeon R9 and R7 Series of products for both single GPU and Multi-GPU configurations
- Tomb Raider
  - AMD Radeon R9 290 Series – improves up to 5%
- Watch Dogs
  - AMD Radeon R9 290 Series / R9 270 Series – improves up to 9%
  - AMD CrossFire – Frame pacing improvement
  - Improved CrossFire performance – up to 20%
- Assassin’s Creed IV
  - Improves CrossFire scaling (3840×2160 High Settings) up to 93% (CrossFire scaling improvement of 25% compared to AMD Catalyst 14.4)
- Lichdom
  - Improves performance for single GPU and Multi-GPU configurations
- Star Craft II
  - AMD Radeon R9 290X (2560×1440, AA, 16x AF) – improves up to 20%
AMD Eyefinity enhancements
- Mixed Resolution Support
  - A new architecture providing brand new capabilities
  - Display groups can be created with monitors of different resolution (including difference sizes and shapes)
  - Users have a choice of how surface is created over the display group
    1. Fill – legacy mode, best for identical monitors
    2. Fit – create the Eyefinity surface using best available rectangular area with attached displays
    3. Expand – create a virtual Eyefinity surface using desktops as viewports onto the surface
- Eyefinity Display Alignment
  - Enables control over alignment between adjacent monitors
- One-Click Setup
  - Driver detects layout of extended desktop
    - Can create Eyefinity display group using this layout in one click!

New user controls for video color and display settings
- Greater control over Video Color Management:
  - Controls have been expanded from a single slider for controlling Boost and Hue to per color axis
- Color depth control for Digital Flat Panels (available on supported HDMI and DP displays)
  - Allows users to select different color depths per resolution and display

AMD Mantle enhancements
- Mantle now supports AMD Mobile products with Enduro technology
  - Battlefield 4: AMD Radeon HD 8970M (1366×768; high settings) – 21% gain
  - Thief: AMD Radeon HD 8970M (1920×1080; high settings) – 14% gain
  - Star Swarm: AMD Radeon HD 8970M (1920×1080; medium settings) – 274% gain
- Enables support for Multi-GPU configurations with Thief (requires the latest Thief update)
AMD AM1 JPEG decoding acceleration
- JPEG decoding acceleration was first enabled on the A10 APU Series in AMD Catalyst 14.1 beta, and has now been extended to the AMD AM1 Platform
- Provides fast JPEG decompression
- Provides Power Efficiency for JPEG decompression