AMD Catalyst™ 14.2 LINUX Beta driver

Sembra che AMD, forse spinta dalle piattaforme game come Steam, stia lavorando sodo per ottimizzare i propri prodotti per Linux; le performance e la stabilità dei driver rilasciati è sempre maggiore ed a conferma di queste ipotesi sono stati rilasciati i nuovi driver beta  14.2 per Linux da AMD( Driver packaging Version 13.35.1005-14’223a-168507E).

Oltre a risolvere diversi bugfix, questa versione introduce diverse nuove features:

• Video Compression Engine (VCE) enabled for compatible GPU and APU products (e.g. GCN-based SKUs). Hardware-accelerated encode of H.264 now possible for 1080p60 content.
• Video decode (UVD) performance and efficiency improvements for the AMD R9 290/290X, R9 260X, “Kaveri” and “Kabini”
• X-Video hardware video acceleration via the GLAMOR library now supported.
• 2D acceleration via the GLAMOR library now enabled by default.
• Substantial improvements to overall video transcode times for hardware-accelerated transcoding apps.
• Tiling support now enabled on all GCN-based products.
• Substantial OpenGL feature level upgrade to v4.3.
• Major contributions to the Linux kernel 3.14 to improve dynamic power management, DisplayPort robustness and power efficiency on all GCN-based hardware.
• New programming guides and register specifications released for HD 5000, 6000, 7000 and R9/R7 Series GPUs. This will enable volunteer and professional developers to contribute to the X.ORG OSS Radeon driver, and can facilitate porting to other non-Linux platforms.

Bugfix corretti in questa release:

• [394106] : Minecraft:  missing textures have been resolved
• [393609] : Resolves corruption issues seen in X-plane

Rimangono aperti invece i seguenti problemi:

• [390964] : Stuttering and poor performance after playing an OpenGL game for a several minutes on Ubuntu
• [393377] : Terminal panel stops refreshing until there is movement from mouse cursor
• [392546] : System hang observed while hotpluging the stereo display
• [388835] : Corruption and system hang observed while running Sanctuary BM with TFD enable
• [392552] : Enabling Overlay: StartX , the screen shows corruption

I driver sono compatibili con le nuove schede AMD R-Series (R9, R7)  e con le famiglie Radeon HD a partire dalla 5000 (e dunque 5000, 6000, 7000 e 8000).

Potete scaricare ed installare i driver da questo link.