AMD Catalyst 13.8 Beta V2 Drivers Released

AMD have released the second version of their Catalyst 13.8 beta driver to fix a tonne of issues generated with the first version of the beta drivers. The main changes in terms of boosted performance come with new titles like Saints Row 4 and Splinter Cell Blacklist. The new driver also adds to the CrossFire frame pacing issues generated in a handful of games like Tomb Raider and World of Warcraft. Below you can see the full release details. You can download the drivers below:

Downloads

• AMD Catalyst™ 13.8 Beta2 for Windows®
• AMD Mobility Catalyst™ 13.8 Beta2 for Windows®

Feature Highlights of The AMD Catalyst 13.8 Beta2 Driver for Windows:

• Saints Row 4: Performance improves up to 25% at 1920×1280 with Ultra settings enabled
• Splinter Cell Blacklist: Performance improves up to 9% at 2560×1600 with Ultra settings enabled
• Final Fantasy XIV:  Improves single GPU and CrossFire performance
• Van Helsing:  Fixes  image quality issues when enabling Anti-Aliasing through the AMD Catalyst Control Center
• Far Cry 3 / Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon:  Resolve corruption when enabling Anti-Aliasing through the Catalyst Control Center
• RIPD:  Improves single GPU performance
• Minimum:  Improves CrossFire performance
• Castlevania Lords of Shadow:  Improves CrossFire performance
• CrossFire:  Frame Pacing feature – includes improved performance in World of Warcraft, Sniper Elite, Watch Dogs, and Tomb Raider
• Doom 3 BFG:  Corruption issues have been resolved

Known Issues of The AMD Catalyst 13.8 Beta2 Driver for Windows:

• CrossFire configurations (when used in combination with Overdrive) can result in the secondary GPU usage running at 99%
• Enabling CrossFire can result in the PCI-e bus speed for the secondary GPU being reported as x1
• Bioshock Infinite: New DLC can cause system hangs with Frame Pacing enabled – disable frame pacing for this title to resolve

Feature Highlights of The AMD Catalyst 13.8 Beta Driver for Windows:

• Support for AMD CrossFire™ Frame Pacing
  • Frame Pacing ensures that frames rendered across multiple GPUs in a CrossFire configuration will be displayed at an even and regular pace.
  • Enabled through the AMD Catalyst Control Center; Globally or on a per application basis.
  • Frame Pacing is enabled by default.
  • Supported for DirectX 10 and DirectX 11 applications, and resolutions up to and including 2560×1600 (single display).
• OpenGL 4.3 support – full support for the OpenGL 4.3 feature set
• Performance improvements found in AMD Catalyst 13.8 Beta for Windows:
  • Metro: Last Light – improves performance up to 7% on the AMD Radeon™ HD 7000 Series
• OpenGL support for User Profiles and Catalyst Application Profiles:
  • Users can now create per application 3D setting profiles for OpenGL applications.
  • OpenGL applications are now supported through Catalyst Application Profile updates (for single GPU and AMD CrossFire configurations).
• AMD Enduro Technology enhancement – Catalyst Control Center will now show which applications are active on the Performance GPU, and the Power-Saving GPU
• Resolved issues:
  • Resolved crash when enabling AMD CrossFireX™ on some AMD 970 platforms
  • Improved stability for AMD Radeon HD 7790
  • Resolved intermittent mouse cursor corruption when rapidly moving the cursor across window borders

Image courtesy of AMD