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AMD Catalyst 14.9 WHQL Drivers Released

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AMD has released a new set of drivers for its graphics cards. According to the release notes, AMD’s Catalyst 14.9 WHQL comes with official support AMD’s Radeon R9 28 series, and offers performance improvements in lots of titles. You can find the full release notes and a download link below. Kudos to our reader ‘Sean’ for informing us!

Download AMD’s Catalyst 14.9 WHQL from here.

And here are the full release notes:

    • 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

Resolved Issues

    • 60Hz SST flickering has been identified as an issue with non-standard display timings exhibited by the AOC  U2868PQU panel on certain AMD Radeon™ graphics cards. A software workaround has been implemented in the AMD Catalyst 14.9 driver to resolve the display timing issues with this display

      • Users seeing flickering issues in 60Hz SST mode are further encouraged to obtain newer display firmware from their monitor vendor that will resolve flickering at its origin.

      • Users are additionally advised to utilize DisplayPort-certified cables to ensure the integrity of the DisplayPort data connection.

    • 4K panel flickering issues found on the AMD Radeon R9 290 Series and AMD Radeon HD 7800 Series

    • Screen tearing observed on AMD CrossFire systems with Eyefinity portrait display configurations

    • Instability issues for Grid Autosport when running in 2×1 or 1×2 Eyefinity configurations

    • Geometry corruption in State of Decay