Today marks the North American release of Thief, the second AAA game title touted to support Mantle, AMD's ambitious Direct3D alternative. We have also seen some heavy marketing for how TrueAudio will make the game more awesome. Unfortunately it isn't launching with out of the box support for either technology. Eidos has Mantle and TrueAudio support "scheduled for March".

Thief is part of AMD's Gaming Evolved ecosystem, which puts it in AMD's inner circle of developer support. The only other studio and game that boasts of the same, which is in the market, are DICE and Battlefield 4. Based on a heavily modified Unreal Engine 3, Thief will run DirectX 11 out of the box.

AMD launched Catalyst 14.2 Beta v1.3, the second major public release of its software suite this year. The driver brings stability and performance improvements to Mantle, and comes in time for Thief, the second AAA game title that supports Mantle and AMD TrueAudio. The driver also corrects frame-pacing for dual-graphics in non-XDMA (classic CrossFire) setups, at resolutions above 2560 x 1600 pixels. The installer now re-integrates AMD Gaming Evolved app by Raptr, which optimizes games for your hardware at the click of a button.

DOWNLOAD: AMD Catalyst 14.2 Beta v1.3

The change-log follows.

AMD today at Mobile World Congress announced the retail availability of a new BlueStacks dual-OS Android solution, optimized for AMD APUs, with expected consumer availability in the second half of 2014. The AMD and BlueStacks joint solution brings the complete Google Android OS experience to select Microsoft Windows-based AMD-based tablets, 2-in-1s, notebooks and desktops in select retail stores. The availability in retail stores of the virtualized Android solution, unveiled at CES earlier this year, will allow consumers to easily access both Windows and Android environments, side-by-side, on select AMD-based PCs. The BlueStacks solution will first be made available with several key retail partners across EMEA later this year, including Elkjop Group.

"The ability to span two OS ecosystems gives end-users access to both Windows and Android apps, but the key is providing for the seamless integration of entertainment and productivity across those ecosystems," said Steve Belt, corporate vice president, Product Management, at AMD. "Introducing our solution in retail puts AMD and BlueStacks in a unique position to offer in-store customers the option to include access to this great experience at the time of purchase of their new systems."

Gigabyte unveiled a pair of socket AM1 (FS1b) motherboards for AMD A-Series and E-Series "Kabini" APUs, and upcoming Athlon and Sempron-branded CPUs based on the same silicon. The lineup begins with the AM1M-S2H, which offers a basic mix of modern and legacy connectivity; including a combination of HDMI and D-Sub display outputs. The AM1M-S2P is based on a similar board design, but offers a lot more legacy connectivity options, including LPT and COM. Both boards offer a PCI-Express 2.0 x16, PCIe x1, and legacy PCI expansion slots, a pair of DDR3 DIMM slots, each; and are built in the narrow micro-ATX form-factor. Prices are expected to be around the $50 mark.

Eurocom is adding MXM 3.0b and MXM 3.0a graphics modules to its line of available Graphics Processing products. The addition of the VGA cards in single and dual (SLI, CrossFire) configurations gives Eurocom customers a complete choice of video processor options to fit any requirement and configure into their new Eurocom system. Eurocom has been a leader in integrating MXM technology into systems since its creation, in fact, Eurocom introduced upgradeable / modular VGA in 1990, predating MXM specifications - in the 3300A and 3500 models.

Modular graphics solutions are ideal for high performance desktop replacement laptops and mobile workstations, embedded systems, SFF (Small Form Factor) PC and CUDA developers that require high performance GPUs. Eurocom offers a complete line of fully configurable Notebooks, Mobile Workstations and Mobile Servers; from VGA to storage, from RAM to Processor, nearly everything can be configured to the application and performance requirements of the individual user.

Jon Peddie Research (JPR), the industry's research and consulting firm for graphics and multimedia, announced estimated graphics add-in-board (AIB) shipments and suppliers' market share for 2013 4Q.

JPR's AIB Report tracks computer add-in graphics boards, which carry discrete graphics chips. AIBs are used in desktop PCs, workstations, servers, and other devices such as scientific instruments. They are sold directly to customers as aftermarket products, or are factory installed. In all cases, AIBs represent the higher end of the graphics industry using discrete chips and private high-speed memory, as compared to the integrated GPUs in CPUs that share slower system memory.

MSI, a world leader in motherboards, debuts its first AMD FM2+ socket based Mini-ITX motherboard, the MSI A88XI AC. The MSI A88XI AC supports the new AMD Kaveri APU and is FM2 backwards compatible (Richland and Trinity). Equipped with a rich feature set including Intel Dual Band Wireless AC WiFi/Bluetooth and PCIe Gen 3.0 support, the MSI AX88XI AC is the ideal small form factor multimedia, office or gaming solution without compromising on features.

The MSI A88XI AC motherboard features a wide variety of multimedia solutions such as H.264 hardware decoding, support for 4K UHD video, Blu-ray playback and 8-channel HD Audio through HDMI. When combined with today's processors featuring advanced integrated graphics, MSI motherboards support triple display configurations for more efficiency and flexibility of the desktop layout. The MSI A88XI AC motherboard is ready for 4K UHD resolution with support up to 4096 x 2160. 4K UHD and triple display support deliver an amazing experience when watching movies and playing games.

Jon Peddie Research (JPR), the industry's research and consulting firm for graphics and multimedia, announced estimated graphics chip shipments and suppliers' market share for 2013 4Q. The quarter was the second quarter in a row to show a gain in shipments, up 1.6% quarter-to-quarter, and up 2% compared to the same quarter last year.

Quick highlights:

• AMD's overall unit shipments decreased 10.4%, quarter-to-quarter, Intel's total shipments increased 5.1% from last quarter, and Nvidia's increased 3.4%.
• The attach rate of GPUs to PCs for the quarter was 137% and 34% of PCs had discrete GPUs that means 66% of the PCs are using embedded graphics.
• The overall PC market increased 1.8% quarter-to-quarter, but declined 8.5% year-to-year.

AMD today announced the AMD Rewards program powered by Raptr, giving AMD Radeon graphics and AMD APU-based PC gamers the chance to redeem points earned within the AMD Gaming Evolved application for prizes.

"We are thankful for the millions of gamers that support the AMD Radeon brand by using the AMD Gaming Evolved application Powered by Raptr," said Darren McPhee, director, Graphics Marketing, AMD. "The AMD Rewards program is our way of thanking our loyal customers and giving back to the community that has given so much to us."

AMD launched the Radeon R7 265, a mainstream graphics card designed to fill the price gap between the $139 Radeon R7 260X, and the $179 Radeon R9 270. Based on the 28 nm "Curacao" silicon, the card features a core configuration not too different from that of the previous generation Radeon HD 7850. On offer are 1024 stream processors, 64 TMUs, 32 ROPs, and a 256-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface, holding 2 GB of memory. The card supports DirectX 11.2, OpenGL 4.3, and Mantle. With it, AMD hopes to take on $150-ish NVIDIA GeForce products such as the GTX 650 Ti Boost, and probably the upcoming GTX 750. It starts at US $149.99.

In addition to the Radeon R7 265, AMD is also planning to launch its 6th Radeon R9 series desktop discrete graphics card running up to Computex 2014, the Radeon R9 280. The R9 280, as some of you might have guessed by now, is based on the 28 nm "Tahiti" silicon, with a core-configuration identical to that of the Radeon HD 7950 from the previous generation, according to a WCCFTech report. The chip could hence feature 1,792 stream processors, 112 TMUs, 32 ROPs, and a 384-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface, holding 3 GB of memory.

The Radeon R9 280 could be clocked above 800 MHz on the core, and 5.00 GHz (GDDR5-effective) on the memory, which works out to 224 GB/s of memory bandwidth. Given that the R9 280X is still on paper a $299 SKU, AMD may intend the R9 280 to be priced within the sub-$300 segment. Beneath the R9 280X, AMD's GPUs are unappealing to crypto-currency miners as the performance-Watt and price-performance equations turn unfavorable, and so the R9 280 has a fair chance of sticking to its intended price-point, away from being wrecked by shamelessly greedy retailers.

In a bid to ward off the GeForce GTX 750 threat, AMD is working on a new Radeon R7 series GPU, the R7 265. The SKU, interestingly, isn't based on the "Bonaire" silicon as the R7 260X, and is instead based on a cut down "Curacao" silicon, the same chip on which the R9 270 and R9 270X are based. While the R9 270 series chips share a common core configuration with 1,280 stream processors each, the R7 265 will feature one that's similar to that of the Radeon HD 7850 from the previous generation, which means 1,024 stream processors, 64 TMUs, 32 ROPs, and a 256-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface. Its core clock speed is expected to be around 900 MHz, and memory at 4.80 GHz (GDDR5-effective), which works out to a memory bandwidth of 153.6 GB/s. AMD could target the US $149 to $159 price range with the Radeon R7 265.

AMD is working on a new SKU to seal the price-performance gap between the Radeon R7 250 and the R7 260. Called the Radeon R7 250X, the chip is said to be based on the 28 nm "Oland" silicon, and could feature a stream processor count of 640, with 40 TMUs, 16 ROPs, and a 128-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface, holding 1 GB or 2 GB of memory. The GPU is said to be clocked around 1.00 GHz, and memory around 4.50 GHz (72 GB/s). VideoCardz scored pictures of two of the first R7 250X graphics cards, branded by Sapphire and ASUS. AMD will slip the R7 250X into the channel rather quietly. It's already showing up on European retailers for around €90 (incl. VAT).

AMD's upcoming low-power APU lineup, based on a common silicon code-named "Kabini," will launch with no less than five models. These could include chips built in both the socketed AM1 FCPGA and BGA packages, to cater to different target form-factors. The series starts off at the bottom with the dual-core E1-2100 and E1-2150. The two feature CPU clock speeds of 1.00 and 1.05 GHz, respectively, 1 MB of L2 cache, and Radeon HD 8210 graphics. The HD 8210 features 128 stream processors based on the Graphics CoreNext architecture. The CPU cores, on the other hand, are based on the "Jaguar" micro-architecture.

Moving on, there's the E2-3800. It tucks in a quad-core CPU clocked at 1.30 GHz, 2 MB of L2 cache, and Radeon HD 8280 graphics. The features the same stream processor count of 128 as the HD 8210, but higher clock speeds. Going beyond the E-Series, we enter AMD's more popularized A-Series, with the A4-5000, A4-5050, and the A6-5200. The three are built in the AM1 package, and are not compatible with platforms that drive the bigger A-Series "Kaveri" chips. The A4-5000 and A4-5500 feature CPU clock speeds of 1.50 GHz and 1.55 GHz, respectively, and Radeon HD 8330 graphics, featuring 128 stream processors, but 500 MHz GPU clock - the highest in its class. The list also points to an A6-5200. We're not sure which silicon it's based on, but it's outfitted with a quad-core CPU clocked at 2.00 GHz, and Radeon HD 8400 graphics.

Here it is, the first public beta of AMD Catalyst 14.1, featuring Mantle, AMD's 3D graphics API designed to rival Direct3D and OpenGL. The driver enables the Mantle renderer on Battlefield 4, which is known to enhance performance on certain GPUs based on AMD's Graphics CoreNext micro-architecture. The driver can't be installed as an upgrade to an existing driver, which must be cleanly uninstalled first. In addition to Mantle, Catalyst 14.1 beta resolves rendering issues on a boat-load of games.

If Battlefield 4 crashes as soon as you go to options, disable your integrated graphics in BIOS or device manager.DOWNLOAD: AMD Catalyst 14.1 beta 1.6

The change-log follows:

After last minute hiccups, AMD managed to release Catalyst 14.1 beta to the press. The driver brings along the first release of Mantle, AMD's ambitious 3D graphics API to rival Direct3D and OpenGL. Installing the driver was less than straightforward. We couldn't just install the driver over our Catalyst 13.12 WHQL installation like we normally do. A driver cleanup and reinstalling did the trick. Catalyst 14.1 beta enables the 3D renderer option in Battlefield 4, which lets you choose between DirectX 11.1 and Mantle.

Our first (subjective) impression, is that we couldn't tell the difference. Our Radeon R9 290 already offered frame-rates well above 60 FPS (1920 x 1080, Ultra, 4x MSAA), on Direct3D, and so we never really stood to gain anything that makes the game more playable than it already was. What could have been interesting, was to see how Mantle makes the lives of R9 270X owners better, who could see frame-rates drop below 60 FPS at our settings. According to a change-log of the driver posted by Guru3D, AMD hasn't optimized Mantle for any of the Graphics CoreNext (GCN) based GPUs other than Radeon R9 290 series, R9 260X, and A-Series "Kaveri" APUs.

As mentioned in our older article from Thursday, AMD discovered a major bug with its Catalyst 14.2 driver at the last minute, which threw a wrench in the works at the company. The driver was originally slated to come out in sync with DICE' update of Battlefield 4 on Thursday. AMD now tells us that their teams have been working overnight to fix the driver, and should have their next status update for us by mid-afternoon EST (New York time), later today. That update doesn't necessarily mean a driver release at that point in time, and so AMD might be forced to label it Catalyst 14.2 beta, keeping up with its calendar-based driver version naming. Catalyst 14.1 beta was expected to ship the first public distribution of Mantle, AMD's ambitious 3D graphics API to rival Direct3D and OpenGL.

AMD also mentioned a 24 hour exclusive period for press to evaluate the driver before public release, so it looks like your download will be at least 36 hours away.

Crushed your F5 key on AMD driver download page yet? Unless you have four very specific AMD Radeon GPUs, you can stop it right now. According to DICE, developers of the first game to take advantage of Mantle, the 3D graphics API AMD is introducing with its Catalyst 14.1 beta driver, will give tangible benefits to only four specific GPUs - Radeon R9 290X, R9 290 (non-X), R7 260X, and A-Series "Kaveri" APU-integrated R7 200 series.

Owners of all other Radeon GPUs, including those based on the Graphics CoreNext (GCN) architecture, such as the recently launched R9 280X and R9 270X, are out of luck, for now. AMD is still ironing out issues with Mantle on those other GCN GPUs. Interestingly, in the same press note, DICE posted performance numbers yielded on an HD 7970, which look promising. AMD is expected to release its Catalyst 14.1 beta driver a little later this week, as it's jousting with some last-minute bug-finds.

AMD today announced that it has delivered significant optimizations in the graphics processing pipeline to increase performance for powerful creative features and workflows in the newest version of Adobe Photoshop CC. Use of both OpenCL and OpenGL standards enables Adobe Photoshop CC to directly tap the compute and graphics processing capabilities of AMD FirePro Professional Graphics, AMD Radeon Graphics, and AMD A-Series APUs to unlock new levels of performance in the Smart Sharpen filter, and provide highly responsive, visually accurate experiences for the new 3D printing workflows, and transformations such as Perspective Warp.

"Compute performance is essential to effective creative workflows," said Steve Belt, corporate vice president, Strategic Alliances & Platform Enablement, AMD. "An efficient, speedy process is often the difference between successfully capturing inspiration and seeing flashes of brilliance ebb away. That is the real essence of what the AMD-Adobe collaboration achieves. Together we continually find ways to successfully tap open standards in order to deliver the highest levels of performance for the most sophisticated new tools like those unveiled today in Photoshop CC."

SAPPHIRE Technology has just introduced a passively cooled card in its new R7 series. The SAPPHIRE R7 250 ULTIMATE is the first totally silent card to embody all the features of this new generation of products based on the highly successful graphics GCN (Graphics Core Next) architecture from AMD.

The SAPPHIRE R7 250 ULTIMATE is the first card in this generation to use a passive heatpipe and heatsink cooler with no fan to deliver totally silent cooling, and increased reliability as it has no mechanical moving parts. It shares all the features of the R7 series and the highly acclaimed GCN graphics processing architecture making it ideal for HTPCs and any general purpose PC where operational noise needs to be kept to a minimum. Casual and online gamers will find its silent operation attractive, as the GCN architecture supports gaming at 1080p with moderate settings.

Along with its highly anticipated game patch that includes an AMD Mantle renderer for Battlefield 4, DICE posted numbers from its own testing, pointing out the performance difference between DirectX 11.1 and Mantle. DICE put Battlefield 4 through three test scenarios, entry-level gaming, mainstream gaming, and enthusiast gaming. The entry-level test-bed comprised of an AMD A10-7850K APU, with its integrated Radeon R7 200 series GPU (512 stream processors, 720 MHz GPU clock). This is a CPU and GPU limited scenario, in which the game was tested at 1280 x 720 pixels resolution. DICE notes that with Mantle, the game yielded about 14 percent higher frame-rates.

Next up, is mainstream gaming. The test-bed runs an AMD FX-8350, which offers roughly the same gaming CPU performance as a Core i5-3570K. A Radeon HD 7970 is in charge of graphics, and the game is run at 1920 x 1080 pixels resolution, with 1x MSAA and "Ultra" preset. DICE found that the setup yields about 26 percent higher frame-rates. Lastly, there's the enthusiast test-bed, running an Intel Core i7-3960X CPU, and dual Radeon R9 290X (CrossFire) graphics. The resolution stayed at 1920 x 1080, settings at "Ultra" preset, but the anti-aliasing was cranked up to 4x MSAA. The result? A stunning 58 percent higher frame-rates. It's important to note here that in addition to settings, the other thing that's not constant between the three setups is the test scene. Even if DICE' assessment is most generous towards AMD's claims, there really does seem to be a performance increment on offer, with Mantle. Can't wait to check it out for ourselves. For more details and notes from the developer, check out the source link.

DICE, developers of the smash-hit online multiplayer FPS of the season, Battlefield 4, rolled out its promised game update that lends it support for AMD Mantle API. The low-overhead 3D graphics API, according to leaked documents we've seen, is claimed to improve performance of the game by up to 45 percent in CPU-limited scenarios. By that token, we imagine the performance increment in GPU-limited scenarios to be different. The game patch is only half of the story. The other half is the API itself, which will be distributed by AMD, in its Catalyst software suite. The first public release of Mantle will be part of Catalyst 14.1 beta, which will be rolling out a little later this week. Stay tuned for our comprehensive DirectX 11.1 vs. Mantle testing, starring a Radeon R9 290.

AMD today added a major new milestone to its list of seminal developments in server technology. The company displayed a comprehensive development platform for its first 64-bit ARM-based server CPU, fabricated using 28 nanometer process technology, the first from an established server vendor. AMD also announced the imminent sampling of the ARM-based processor, named the AMD Opteron A1100 Series, and a development platform, which includes an evaluation board and a comprehensive software suite. In addition, AMD announced that it would be contributing to the Open Compute Project a new micro-server design using the AMD Opteron A-Series, as part of the common slot architecture specification for motherboards dubbed "Group Hug."

The AMD Opteron A-Series processor, codenamed "Seattle," will sample this quarter along with a development platform that will make software design on the industry's premier ARM-based server CPU quick and easy. AMD is collaborating with industry leaders to enable a robust 64-bit software ecosystem for ARM-based designs from compilers and simulators to hypervisors, operating systems and application software, in order to address key workloads in Web-tier and storage data center environments. The AMD Opteron A-Series development platform will be supported by a broad set of tools and software including a standard UEFI boot and Linux environment based on the Fedora Project, a Red Hat-sponsored, community-driven Linux distribution.

The next level of small form factor PC gaming has arrived when CyberPower Inc., a global manufacturer of custom gaming PCs, today unleashes its Zeus Mini desktop series. Each model, priced from $599-1479, is stuffed with enough AMD or Intel processing and graphics crunching power to rival any full-size desktop PC.

CYBERPOWERPC's new Zeus Mini is ready to tear into games that demand the most system resources. Customers can choose between three AMD's Kaveri A-series processor models (Zeus Mini-A), or five different 4th Generation Intel Core processor models (Zeus Mini-I) starting with a Core i5-4440 up to a screaming fast Core i7-4770K at 3.50GHz. All processors in the Zeus Mini series are mounted to a Mini ITX motherboard packed with the latest AMD and Intel chipset that deliver the latest technologies including 802.11ac wifi, PCI Express 3.0, and more. Both processor options include multi-core support and dual-channel DDR3 gaming performance with a minimum of 8 GBs memory that is expandable to 16 GBs.

Ahead of its scheduled release, AMD's first Catalyst driver to include its ambitious Mantle API and TrueAudio, was leaked to the web. Notebook maker Toshiba listed it on its support site. That's the good news, and here's the bad news. First, the driver is packaged by Toshiba support to work only on its notebooks. You could experiment with the driver information file, if you know what you're doing. Second, its installer probably checks out your motherboard ID to tell that you're not using the software on a Toshiba notebook. On the bright side, it does leave installation files in your temp folder, including an AMD installer. If you're up to it, download the 316-megabyte installer from here.