AMD released the latest version of Radeon Software Adrenalin drivers. Version 22.1.2 beta comes with optimization for "Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Extraction," and support for new graphics cards launching today, including the Radeon RX 6500 XT, RX 6400, RX 6500M, and RX 6300M. The only issue fixed with this release addresses longer-than-expected load times for "Borderlands 3" in DirectX 12 mode with Radeon Boost enabled, on certain RDNA2-series GPUs. Grab the drivers from the link below.

DOWNLOAD: AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 22.1.2

AMD released the year's first Radeon Software Adrenalin software update. Version 22.1.1 comes with optimization for "Monster Hunter Rise," and "God of War," with up to 7% performance increase measured at 4K Ultra settings with the RX 6900 XT, compared to the previous 21.12.1 drivers. A handful issues were also fixed. To begin with, high idle memory clocks noticed on machines with multiple high-resolution monitors, has been fixed. Power Tuning components of a saved tuning profile not correctly loading following a Radeon Software update, has been fixed. Visual corruption noticed with "Halo Infinite" when zoomed-in, on machines with products such as the RX 5600 XT, has been fixed. Flickering noticed in "Fortnite" with RX 6000 series graphics cards in DirectX 12 mode with Radeon Boost enabled, as been fixed. Grab the drivers from the link below.

DOWNLOAD: AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 22.1.1

AMD is preparing to wrap up its Radeon RX 6000 series desktop discrete graphics card family with two new SKUs, the RX 6500 XT and the RX 6400. The two debut the company's smallest piece of silicon based on the RDNA2 graphics architecture, codenamed "Navi 24," to the desktop space. The RX 6500 XT maxes out this silicon, enabling all 16 compute units physically present, working out to 1,024 stream processors. The RX 6400 is significantly cut down, featuring 12 out of 16 CUs, which means 768 stream processors.

The Navi 24 silicon features a 64-bit wide GDDR6 memory interface, which is paired with 4 GB of discrete memory on both SKUs. This memory operates at 14 Gbps data-rate, which works out to 112 GB/s memory bandwidth. Interestingly, the Infinity Cache makes a comeback, in the form of a tiny 16 MB on-die cache that cushions the memory sub-system. The RX 6500 XT could have just enough muscle for e-sports gaming at 1080p, while the RX 6400 seems more like a card you'd buy just because your processor lacks integrated graphics (eg: if you're using a Ryzen 5000X processor and just need a graphics solution that meets the latest display I/O and media-acceleration standards). At this point we don't know if the Navi 24 is DirectX 12 Ultimate compliant, i.e., featuring Ray Accelerators on its compute units. Both cards are expected to launch in Q1, 2022.

Intel's fourth-generation Core processors, codenamed Haswell, are subject to new security exploits. According to the company, a vulnerability exists inside the graphics controller of 4th generation Haswell processors, happening once the DirectX 12 API loading occurs. To fix the problem, Intel has found that disabling this API results in a fix. Starting with Intel graphics driver 15.40.44.5107 applications that run exclusively on DirectX 12 API no longer work with the following Intel Graphics Controllers: Intel Iris Pro Graphics 5200/5100, HD Graphics 5000/4600/4400/4200, and Intel Pentium and Celeron Processors with Intel HD Graphics based on 4th Generation Intel Core.

"A potential security vulnerability in Intel Graphics may allow escalation of privilege on 4th Generation Intel Core processors. Intel has released a software update to mitigate this potential vulnerability. In order to mitigate the vulnerability, DirectX 12 capabilities were deprecated." says the Intel page. If a user with a Haswell processor has a specific need to run the DirectX 12 application, they can downgrade their graphics driver to version 15.40.42.5063 or older.

Today marks an exciting milestone in the history of Windows. As the day becomes October 5 in each time zone around the world, availability of Windows 11 begins through a free upgrade on eligible Windows 10 PCs and on new PCs pre-installed with Windows 11 that can be purchased beginning today. Windows is a driving force for innovation. It's an enduring platform for each one of us to create. And its home for over a billion people to do their jobs, live their dreams and connect with the people they love.

We're pumped to be launching Windows 11; the entire user experience brings you closer to what you love, empowers you to produce and inspires you to create. Windows 11 provides a sense of calm and openness. It gives you a place that feels like home. It's secure and everything is designed to be centered around you. To fully understand the magic of Windows 11 you must get it in your hands. The gorgeous graphics, sounds and animations of Windows 11 along with the innovative and beautiful hardware from our partners and Surface provides an experience like none other.

AMD on Monday released the latest version of the Radeon Software Adrenalin drivers. Version 20.10.1 beta comes with optimization for the Windows 11 operating system. Game-specific optimizations include "Far Cry 6," where it posts 10% performance gains over the previous driver; "Battlefield 2042 Open Beta," "Naraka: Bladepoint," and a 12% performance uplift for "Player Unknown's Battlegrounds" with DirectX 12 at 4K with Ultra settings.

Among the issues fixed include rare driver timeouts noticed on "Horizon Zero Dawn" and "The Medium" on RX 6000 series graphics cards such as the RX 6700 XT, and when gaming+streaming on RX 500 series cards. An issue with high idle memory clocks on multi-monitor setups has been fixed. Incorrect power reporting by Radeon Software at full load, has been fixed. Foliage artifacting in "Arma 3" and "Wreckfest" have been fixed.DOWNLOAD: AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 21.10.1 beta

DirectX 12 Ultimate is the next generation for gaming graphics. It adds powerful new capabilities to DirectX 12, including DirectX Raytracing Tier 1.1, Mesh Shaders, Sampler Feedback, and Variable Rate Shading (VRS). These features help game developers improve visual quality, boost frame rates, reduce loading times, and create vast, detailed worlds.

3DMark already has dedicated tests for DirectX Raytracing, Mesh Shaders, and Variable Rate Shading. Today, we're adding a Sampler Feedback feature test, making 3DMark the first publicly available application to include all four major DirectX 12 Ultimate features. Experience DirectX 12 Ultimate today, only with 3DMark! Measure performance and compare image quality on your PC with our DirectX 12 Ultimate feature tests. Each test also has an interactive mode that lets you change settings and visualizations in real time.

Intel Vice President and General Manager of Client Graphics Products and Solutions Roger Chandler has recently announced that the companies upcoming Arc gaming graphics cards will include overclocking support at launch through the official driver UI. This offering may resemble that of AMD's with their Radeon Software that offers various overclocking tools including clock speeds, power settings, and fan curves. Intel has also been working on various other driver improvements in the lead-up to release including enhancing shader compiling and improving throughput. The post also confirmed the implementation of complete DirectX 12 Ultimate compliance which will enable variable-rate shading tier 2 and mesh shading. Intel is expected to release the first Arc gaming graphics cards for desktops and notebooks in Q1 2022.

IntelWe're even integrating overclocking controls into the driver UI to give enthusiasts the tools they need to push the hardware to the limit.

AMD today released the latest version of Radeon Software Adrenalin. Version 21.8.1 Beta comes with support for the Radeon RX 6600 XT graphics card (which we reviewed here). It also fixes an issue with "The Medium" that caused the game to crash while running FrameView. The company also identified a handful issues, some even specific to the RX 6600 XT, such as inaccurate point-lights in "Control," and driver timeouts observed in "Horizon Zero Dawn" with RX 6700 XT, and less specifically on RX 500 series products with simultaneous gaming+streaming. Grab the driver from the link below.

DOWNLOAD: AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 21.8.1 Beta

UL Benchmarks is expanding 3DMark today by adding a set of dedicated CPU benchmarks. The 3DMark CPU Profile introduces a new approach to CPU benchmarking that shows how CPU performance scales with the number of cores and threads used. The new CPU Profile benchmark tests are available now in 3DMark Advanced Edition and 3DMark Professional Edition.

The 3DMark CPU Profile introduces a new approach to CPU benchmarking. Instead of producing a single number, the 3DMark CPU Profile shows how CPU performance scales and changes with the number of cores and threads used. The CPU Profile has six tests, each of which uses a different number of threads. The benchmark starts by using all available threads. It then repeats using 16 threads, 8 threads, 4 threads, 2 threads, and ends with a single-threaded test. These six tests help you benchmark and compare CPU performance for a range of threading levels. They also provide a better way to compare different CPU models by looking at the results from thread levels they have in common.

AMD today released the Radeon RX 6000M series mobile graphics lineup, based on the RDNA2 graphics architecture. These GPUs offer full DirectX 12 Ultimate readiness, including real-time raytracing capability. The lineup is led by the Radeon RX 6800M, followed by the RX 6700M, and the RX 6600M. The RX 6800M and RX 6700M are based on the 7 nm "Navi 22" silicon, while the RX 6600M debuts the "Navi 23" silicon. The RX 6800M appears to be maxing out the "Navi 22" silicon, much like the desktop RX 6700 XT. It features 40 RDNA2 compute units, amounting to 2,560 stream processors; game clocks of up to 2.30 GHz, 12 GB of GDDR6 memory across a 192-bit wide memory interface, and 96 MB of Infinity Cache. The RX 6700M is slightly cut down, with 36 compute units (2,304 stream processors), the same 2.30 GHz game clocks, 10 GB of video memory possibly across a 160-bit wide memory bus, and 80 MB of Infinity Cache.

The new RX 6600M debuts the 7 nm "Navi 23" silicon, with 28 RDNA2 compute units, game clocks of 2177 MHz, 8 GB of GDDR6 memory across a 128-bit wide memory bus, and 32 MB of Infinity Cache. All three chips feature Smart Access Memory (resizable BAR), and support for AMD SmartShift, a feature that load-balances the discrete GPU with an AMD iGPU. AMD claims that the RX 6800M and RX 6700M are fit for 1440p gaming, with the RX 6800M beating the RTX 2070 Notebook by anywhere between 40-70%, and 120 FPS in a large selection of e-sports titles. The company also claims that the RX 6800M beats the GeForce RTX 3080 8 GB by 14-39%. The RX 6600M, meanwhile is shown matching the RTX 3060 6 GB, in AMD's tests. Notebooks powered by AMD Radeon RX 6000M discrete graphics are shipping now.The graphics press-deck follows.

A senior game developer relations engineer at Intel, Pete Brubaker, Tweeted late Wednesday that the company's DG2 discrete graphics card is "right around the corner," and that "it's about to get exciting." Brubaker's Tweet comes as the company is looking to recruit more engineers to work with its developer relations, the team that interfaces with game devs to optimize their engines and games for Intel's graphics architectures.

While the DG1, which was productized as the Iris Xe MAX graphics card, was essentially an iGPU-on-a-stick, the DG2 should spark a lot more interest. Based on a third-party foundry process, the DG2 is the first client graphics product based on the Xe HPG (high performance gaming) graphics architecture, and allegedly crams up to 512 execution units or 4,096 unified shaders—a 4.3x gain over the Iris Xe MAX. It's also rumored to ship with up to 16 GB of GDDR6 memory across a 256-bit wide memory bus. Whether it features DirectX 12 Ultimate features or not, remains to be seen, but it's becoming clear that Intel wants a crack at the high-volume e-sports market, with a product that's fast enough for competitive e-sports gaming, and capable of AAA.

NVIDIA today released the latest version of its GeForce Game Ready drivers. Version 466.27 WHQL adds optimization for Metro Exodus PC Enhanced Edition. This includes additional raytraced effects, and support for DLSS 2.1. Optimization is also added for Mass Effect Legendary Edition and Resident Evil Village. The drivers also add support for the DirectX 12 Agility SDK, and Shader Model 6.6.

The drivers also confirm the existence of a new hardware revision of the GeForce RTX 3060 12 GB graphics card, which will be generally available from mid-May, 2021. These cards will require at least GeForce 466.24. The revision will likely come with a different device ID from the original RTX 3060 12 GB, and will re-engage the hash-rate limiter. Read more about this card in our article from earlier this week, here. A handful bugs were also fixed. These include performance issues related to NVIDIA Reflex and Rainbow Six Siege; an artificial FPS cap when V-Sync is off on displays connected via HDMI 2.1; and an application crash with RigidGems Prepar3D. Grab the drivers from the link below.

DOWNLOAD: NVIDIA GeForce 466.27 WHQL

Microsoft on Tuesday, in a developer presentation, confirmed that the DirectStorage API, designed to speed up the storage sub-system, is compatible even with NVMe SSDs that use the PCI-Express Gen 3 host interface. It also confirmed that all GPUs compatible with DirectX 12 support the feature. A feature making its way to the PC from consoles, DirectStorage enables the GPU to directly access an NVMe storage device, paving the way for GPU-accelerated decompression of game assets.

This works to reduce latencies at the storage sub-system level, and offload the CPU. Any DirectX 12-compatible GPU technically supports DirectStorage, according to Microsoft. The company however recommends DirectX 12 Ultimate GPUs "for the best experience." The GPU-accelerated game asset decompression is handled via compute shaders. In addition to reducing latencies; DirectStorage is said to accelerate the Sampler Feedback feature in DirectX 12 Ultimate.More slides from the presentation follow.

Intel Graphics tweeted a marketing splash screen of its upcoming Xe HPG gaming discrete graphics architecture. There's not much to the video, except announcing the Xe HPG logo. It starts off with a depiction of the Xe LP architecture, on which the company's Gen12 iGPUs and Iris Xe MAX entry-level discrete GPUs are based; and swells into a larger silicon that grows in all directions. The animation could be a hint that Xe HPG chips will be an order of magnitude faster than the Iris Xe MAX, target serious gaming, and take the fight to both NVIDIA and AMD.

Intel is designing the Xe HPG graphics architecture for third-party silicon fabrication nodes, such as TSMC and Samsung, and could leverage a sub-10 nm node to significantly scale up from the Xe LP. A recent report pointed to the likelihood of 512 execution units on a certain Xe HPG variant (4,096 unified shaders) and contemporary GDDR6 memory, while Intel has the necessary IP to pull off DirectX 12 Ultimate logo readiness, including raytracing. Intel is likely eyeing a slice of the e-sports hardware segment, although a high-end GPU cannot be completely ruled out. Watch the video from the source link below.

AMD today released the latest version of Radeon Software Adrenalin 2021 drivers. Version 21.3.1 beta comes with support for the new Radeon RX 6700 series. It's interesting that they didn't specify the RX 6700 XT, which means other SKUs such as the RX 6700, could be right around the corner. Next up, the drivers come with optimization for "DOOM Eternal: The Ancient Gods, Part Two." The drivers also introduce many new feature updates. Radeon Anti-Lag technology now supports DirectX 12 games. The Radeon Boost performance enhancement has been updated with support for DirectX 12 and Variable Rate Shading on select titles. The Performance Tuning section of Radeon Software now comes with an internal stress-test. The drivers also introduce support for new Vulkan API extensions, including VK_KHR_synchronization, VK_EXT_4444_formats, VK_EXT_conditional_rendering, and VK_KHR_sampler_ycbcr_conversion.

Among the issues fixed with Radeon Software Adrenalin 21.3.1 include high CPU utilization for Radeon Software, even when idling; Oculus VR headset causing system crashes when connected to GCN (pre-Polaris) GPUs; corrupted or missing textures for "Minecraft DXR," a crash with "Call of Duty : Modern Warfare" with raytracing enabled on RX 6000 series GPUs, improper lighting with "Star Citizen" on RX 6800 series; Enhanced Sync + V-sync causing black screens on Vulkan games; and a black screen on Hybrid Graphics systems; a crash with Bethesda Launcher, color corruption with Epic Games Social Overlay; display flicker or corruption on high refresh-rate multi-monitor configs using RX Vega series GPUs, and audio loss on TV displays connected to the video card's audio output.

DOWNLOAD: AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 21.3.1 beta

High dynamic range (HDR) offers the most impressive improvement to the visual experience in recent history. HDR unlocks an entirely new range of colors with more intensity than standard monitors, making games come to life like never before. In November 2020, the Xbox Series X/S consoles launched with the Auto HDR feature which automatically upgrades your backwards compatible games from SDR to HDR to take advantage of this amazing display innovation and provide a richer visual experience even on already-released games. Today we're excited to bring you a preview of Auto HDR for your PC gaming experience and we're looking for your help to test it out. When enabled on your HDR capable gaming PC, you will automatically get awesome HDR visuals on an additional 1000+ DirectX 11 and DirectX 12 games!

DirectX 12 Ultimate adds powerful new features and capabilities to DirectX 12 including DirectX Raytracing Tier 1.1, Mesh Shaders, Sampler Feedback, and Variable Rate Shading (VRS). After DirectX 12 Ultimate was announced, we started adding new tests to 3DMark to show how games can benefit from these new features. Our latest addition is the 3DMark Mesh Shader feature test, a new test that shows how game developers can boost frame rates by using mesh shaders in the graphics pipeline.

Benchmarks have a natural lifespan that ends when they no longer provide meaningful results on modern hardware. When old benchmarks are used with new hardware, the results can be skewed or limited in ways that reduce their accuracy and relevance.

After reviewing our product line, we've decided to end support for 3DMark Sky Diver, the 3DMark API Overhead feature test, PCMark 8, Servermark Media Transcode, and VRMark for Android. After January 14, 2021, these unsupported benchmarks will: No longer be sold by UL, Steam, or other app stores; no longer be guaranteed to work with UL's online services; no longer receive updates; no longer be eligible for customer support.

Today, Khronos has released the final versions of the set of Vulkan, GLSL and SPIR-V extension specifications that seamlessly integrate raytracing into the existing Vulkan framework. This is a significant milestone as it is the industry's first open, cross-vendor, cross-platform standard for raytracing acceleration - and can be deployed either using existing GPU compute or dedicated raytracing cores. Vulkan Ray Tracing will be familiar to anyone who has used DirectX Raytracing (DXR) in DirectX 12, but also introduces advanced functionality such as the ability to load balance raytracing setup operations onto the host CPU. Although raytracing will be first deployed on desktop systems, these Vulkan extensions have been designed to enable and encourage raytracing to also be deployed on mobile.

These extensions were initially released as provisional versions in March 2020. Since that time, we have received and incorporated feedback from hardware vendors and software developers, both inside Khronos and from the wider industry, but the overall shape of the API and the functionality provided are fundamentally unchanged. Thank you to all who reviewed and used the provisional extensions and especially those who provided feedback.

AMD is launching their next-generation RX 6800 series of graphics cards on November 18th, these will be the first cards from AMD featuring the new RDNA 2 architecture. To coincide with the launch of RDNA 2 in consumer graphics cards AMD is launching a new tech demo titled "Hangar 21", the new demonstration will highlight the power of RDNA 2 with real-time raytracing effects enabled by AMD FidelityFX and Microsoft DirectX 12 Ultimate. The "Hangar 21" tech demo will be launching on November 19th and you can view a short trailer of the tech demo down below.

AMDComing November 19, the "Hangar 21" Technology Demo Video will let you see the breakthrough AMD RDNA 2 gaming architecture in action, the foundation of the AMD Radeon RX 6000 Series graphics cards that power the next generation of gaming with mind-blowing visuals featuring realistic lighting, shadows, and reflections enabled by AMD FidelityFX and Microsoft DirectX 12 Ultimate.

The launch of AMD Radeon RX 6000 Series graphics cards on November 18 will end NVIDIA's monopoly on real-time raytracing. For the first time, gamers will have a choice of GPU vendors when buying a raytracing-capable graphics card. Today, we're releasing a new 3DMark feature test that measures pure raytracing performance. You can use the 3DMark DirectX Raytracing feature test to compare the performance of the dedicated raytracing hardware in the latest graphics cards from AMD and NVIDIA.

Real-time raytracing is incredibly demanding. The latest graphics cards have dedicated hardware that's optimized for raytracing operations. Despite the advances in GPU performance, the demands are still too high for a game to rely on raytracing alone. That's why games use raytracing to complement traditional rendering techniques. The 3DMark DirectX Raytracing feature test is designed to make raytracing performance the limiting factor. Instead of relying on traditional rendering, the whole scene is ray-traced and drawn in one pass.DOWNLOAD: 3DMark v2.15.7078

Intel today launched its Iris Xe MAX discrete graphics processor for thin-and-light notebooks powered by 11th Gen Core "Tiger Lake" processors. Dell, Acer, and ASUS are launch partners, debuting the chip on their Inspiron 15 7000, Swift 3x, and VivoBook TP470, respectively. The Iris Xe MAX is based on the Xe LP graphics architecture, targeted at compact scale implementations of the Xe SIMD for mainstream consumer graphics. Its most interesting feature is Intel DeepLink, and a powerful media acceleration engine that includes hardware encode acceleration for popular video formats, including HEVC, which should make the Iris Xe MAX a formidable video content production solution on the move.

The Iris Xe MAX is a fully discrete GPU built on Intel's 10 nm SuperFin silicon fabrication process. It features an LPDDR4X dedicated memory interface with 4 GB of memory at 68 GB/s of bandwidth, and uses PCI-Express 4.0 x4 to talk to the processor, but those are just the physical layers. On top of these are what Intel calls Deep Link, an all encompassing hardware abstraction layer that not only enables explicit multi-GPU with the Xe LP iGPU of "Tiger Lake" processors, but also certain implicit multi-GPU functions such as fine-grained division of labor between the dGPU and iGPU to ensure that the right kind of workload is split between the two. Intel referred to this as GameDev Boost, and we detailed it in an older article.

AMD's Radeon RX 6000 series graphics cards, based on the RDNA2 graphics architecture, will see the introduction of the company's first DirectX 12 Ultimate graphics cards (featuring features such as real-time raytracing). A VideoCardz report sheds light on the specifications. The 7 nm "Navi 21" and "Navi 22" chips will power the top-end of the lineup. The flagship part is the Radeon RX 6900 XT, followed by the RX 6800 XT and RX 6800; which are all based on the "Navi 21." These are followed by the RX 6700 XT and RX 6700, which are based on the "Navi 22" silicon.

The "Navi 21" silicon physically features 80 RDNA2 compute units, working out to 5,120 stream processors. The RX 6900 XT maxes the chip out, enabling all 80 CUs, and is internally referred to as the "Navi 21 XTX." Besides these, the RX 6900 XT features 16 GB of GDDR6 memory across a 256-bit wide memory interface, and engine clocks boosting beyond 2.30 GHz. The next SKU in AMD's product stack is the RX 6800 XT (Navi 21 XT), featuring 72 out of 80 CUs, working out to 4,608 stream processors, the same 16 GB 256-bit GDDR6 memory configuration as the flagship, while its engine clocks go up to 2.25 GHz.

Basemark is pioneer in GPU benchmarking. Our current product Basemark GPU has been improving the 3D graphics industry since 2016. After releasing GPU 1.2 in March Basemark development team has been really busy developing brand new benchmark - GPUScore. GPUScore benchmark will introduce hyper realistic, true gaming type of content in three different workloads: Relic of Life, Sacret Path and Expedition.

GPUScore Relic of Life is targeted to benchmark high end graphics cards. It is completely new benchmark with many new features. The key new feature is real-time ray traced reflections and reflections of reflections. The benchmark will not only support Windows & DirectX 12, but also Linux & Vulkan raytracing.