With Microsoft releasing their Windows 8.1 Preview just a few days ago it is a great opportunity for all Windows users to test drive the latest operating system from Microsoft for free. Of course without the latest drivers you won’t really be able to do much in the way of 3D applications and gaming so both AMD and Nvidia have been working hard to get preview drivers ready.
AMD have announced that their Preview drivers are ready and you can get them here. They will support FirePro and Radeon series GPUs back as far as the HD 5000(M) series and the FirePro M3900 Series. These drivers feature all the support you’ll need for the Windows 8.1 Preview.
- Support for new Windows 8.1 features, including:
- Wireless Display – Microsoft’s support for Wireless Display Technology
- 48 Hz Dynamic Refresh rates for Video Playback
- Aggressive V-sync interrupt optimization
- Skype/Lync video conferencing acceleration
- New DX11.1 feature – Tiled Resources
- Support for AMD Features, including:
- AMD Eyefinity
- OpenCL
- OpenGL
- UVD
- AMD Dual Graphics/AMD CrossFire™ Technology
- AMD Overdrive
- AMD Catalyst Control Center/Vision Engine Control Center
Interestingly we can see support for the new “Tiled Resources” feature that was said to be a Direct X 11.2 exclusive, though we can see that it is apparently part of the Direct X 11.1 package meaning it might arrive on Windows 7, though today Windows 7 still doesn’t have “all” the features of Direct X 11.1 like Windows 8 does.
For more details, download links and compatibility then please see the AMD announcement here.
Image courtesy of AMD
Another timely release. Cool.