AMD announced the latest addition to its Never Settle rewards program, which rewards gamers with free games for purchasing new AMD Radeon graphics cards. Never Settle Space Edition, as its name might suggest, adds four space-themed games to choose from, including Alien: Isolation, Star Citizen (an in-game AMD Radeon themed ship), Space Run, and Habitat. The four add to the 27 games you can choose from as your Radeon Rewards, depending on the card you buy.

AMD rolled out version 14.7 RC (beta) of its Catalyst software suite. With this version, AMD discontinues support for Windows 8 (WDDM 1.2), and expects you to upgrade to Windows 8.1 (WDDM 1.3) for free, to continue receiving driver support. Older versions of Windows, namely Windows Vista and Windows 7, are unaffected. Catalyst 14.7 RC adds all the improvements of 14.6 RC, with added CrossFire performance for Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare, improved CrossFire scaling at Ultra HD resolution for Assassins Creed IV. The driver also comes with a workaround for an issue faced by users of AOC U2868PQU display, who notice flickering on Radeon GPUs. In addition to the workaround, AMD recommends that you apply the latest firmware for your displays.

DOWNLOAD: AMD Catalyst 14.7 RC (beta)

AMD has today rolled out a Release Candidate (RC) build of its Catalyst 14.6 graphics driver. This version features support for the Radeon HD 5000, HD 6000, HD 7000, HD 8000, R5 200, R7 200 and R9 200 Series cards (and the Mobility Radeon HD 5000/6000/6000M/7000M/8000M mobile GPUs) and brings performance improvements for Plants vs. Zombies and 3DMark Sky Diver, CrossFire profiles for the Battlefield Hardline Beta and Grid Auto Sport, and more.

The Catalyst 14.6 RC is available for Windows 7 and 8.1.

AMD's big score for this Summer, Sniper Elite III has been added to the list of "Silver" and "Gold" rewards, which new AMD Radeon buyers can choose from, as part of their Never Settle Forever offer. Sniper Elite III builds on the success of the popular recon shooter game Sniper Elite V2, by providing bigger maps, more detailed environments, with even more ways to approach your objectives. In addition to DirectX 11, the game can take advantage of AMD's Mantle API, and should be playable on even entry-level AMD Radeon-based solutions, such as A-series "Kaveri" APUs. The game's Mantle renderer makes it take advantage of as many as 8 CPU cores. The game ships with 64-bit binaries, and should take advantage of large amounts of system and video memory. Up for pre-order on Steam for $39.99, Sniper Elite III releases on the 27th of June, 2014.

AMD (NYSE: AMD) today announced its new AMD PRO A-Series APUs, delivering rich computing experiences to commercial PCs. The innovative processor technology from AMD will enable a new class of powerful, sleek and sophisticated commercial Windows PCs that integrate seamlessly into an existing IT environment. With impressive performance, the latest AMD PRO A-Series APUs with HSA features unlock true business computing performance and deliver outstanding reliability and manageability. The AMD PRO A-Series APU is one of the processors being offered in new HP Elite 700-Series notebooks.

"With the new AMD PRO A-Series APUs, AMD is looking to revolutionize commercial computing. Built around a solid offering of increased performance over our consumer products, increased product longevity and software image stability, AMD PRO processors give customers choice and affordability to meet their specific business needs," said Bernd Lienhard, corporate vice president and general manager, Client Products. "And since every AMD PRO processor packs the latest Radeon Graphics, we are raising the bar for visual performance in business PCs."

AMD today announced the 2nd generation AMD Embedded R-series accelerated processing unit (APU) and CPU family (previously codenamed "Bald Eagle") for embedded applications. The new solutions are targeted at gaming machines, medical imaging, digital signage, industrial control and automation (IC&A), communications and networking infrastructure that require industry-leading compute and graphics processing technology.

"When it comes to compute performance, graphics performance and performance-per-watt, the 2nd generation AMD Embedded R-series family is unique in the embedded market," said Scott Aylor, corporate vice president and general manager, AMD Embedded Solutions. "The addition of HSA, GCN and power management features enables our customers to create a new world of intelligent, interactive and immersive embedded devices."

Designed to enable the best user experience on today's most popular and innovative PCs, AMD (NYSE: AMD) today announced its 3rd-generation Mainstream and Low-Power Mobile Accelerated Processing Units (APUs). Combining category-leading compute performance with unique features and rich user interactions, the 2014 AMD Mainstream and Low-Power Mobile APUs (formerly codenamed "Beema" and "Mullins," respectively) are the ideal choice for consumer and commercial client devices alike.

These new mobile APUs feature up to four newly-designed x86 CPU cores with updated, industry-leading AMD Radeon graphics and a hardware-level data security solution based on the ARM Cortex-A5, all on a single, power-sipping system-on-chip (SoC). Products based on these new APUs are already announced by Lenovo and Samsung, with many more expected on-shelf in time for the 2014 back-to-school shopping season.

Toshiba's Digital Products Division (DPD), a division of Toshiba America Information Systems, Inc., today unveiled its new Satellite P55t, featuring one of the world's first 4K Ultra HD display in a laptop and the world's first to earn Technicolor Color Certification. Ideal for visual creative professionals and multimedia enthusiasts, the Satellite P55t is designed to take on the most intensive computing demands and display unprecedented imagery.

"Creative professionals are embracing 4K Ultra HD as it enables a whole new level of media creation that draws viewers in with amazing detail and clarity," said Carl Pinto, vice president of marketing, Toshiba America Information Systems, Inc., Digital Products Division. "Until now, media creators have been unable to have this combination of performance and display capabilities in a mobile solution and we applied years of experience and engineering resources to make it a reality."

AMD has now made available the first beta build of the Catalyst 14.3 graphics driver bringing Mantle and True Audio support for Eidos Montreal's Thief. This release also enables faster loading times in Call of Duty Ghosts (for systems with QUAD CrossFire setups), as well as some bug fixes.

The Catalyst 14.3 v1.0 Beta has support for Radeon HD 5000, HD 6000, HD 7000, HD 8000, R7 200 and R9 200 Series desktop cards (plus Mobility Radeon HD 5000, HD 6000, HD 6000M HD 7000M, HD 8000M mobile GPUs) and is available for Windows 7, 8, 8,1. More details can be found on this page.

DOWNLOAD: AMD Catalyst 14.3 Beta 1.0

At its CES press-meet, AMD detailed the upcoming versions of Catalyst Software Suite, which will be unified to include graphics and system drivers for both discrete AMD Radeon GPUs, and integrated AMD A-Series APUs; and AMD core-logic (chipsets). The biggest takeaway from the presentation, by AMD's Terry "CatalystMaker" Makedon, is that the company will release the first Mantle and TrueAudio runtime environments with the upcoming Catalyst 14.1 Beta, due for later this month. Mantle is AMD's ambitious attempt at a 3D graphics API to rival Direct3D and OpenGL, that's optimized for its Graphics CoreNext micro-architecture; while TrueAudio is a positional audio DSP that promises to make games and movies sound more realistic.

Mantle promises "great" performance improvements in Battlefield 4, the only AAA game that we know of, to make use of the API. Mantle support was expected to be added to the game as an update around this time, but DICE' plans fell off the track with publisher EA coming down hard on the studio for shipping a game that's riddled with bugs. DICE will most likely have to fix most of its bugs for the retail DirectX 11.1 game, before EA allows it to toy with updates that add support for new and experimental APIs, let alone expansion packs. In related news, Catalyst 14.1 Beta will introduce additions to its frame-pacing fix, that will soon support Ultra HD displays, and Eyefinity setups on non-XDMA (pre R9 290 series) GPUs.

AMD is reportedly releasing a fix for frame-pacing issues for Radeon-based systems with Eyefinity setups in January, 2014, according to an AnandTech report. This September, AMD rolled out the first fix into the frame-pacing issues that affected Radeon GPUs based on the Graphics CoreNext architecture, in which raw-framerate didn't come with the right pacing between each frame, resulting in display output that isn't fluid, which even caused accusations to fly from some quarters about how honest AMD really is with performance numbers of its GPUs.

The Catalyst update that rolled out in September 2013 resolved the problem for a majority of users - with single displays connected to single GPUs, but left out cases in which people use Eyefinity (single display head spanning across multiple physical displays), on CrossFireX (multi-GPU) setups. It was originally expected that AMD would release the so-called "phase 2" Catalyst driver update looking into frame-pacing issues this November, but since the month has passed, AMD has obviously hit a delay. AnandTech reports that delay could last as long as two months, and one should expect "phase 2" to come out only towards the later half of January, since in the first half, AMD, along with the rest of the industry, will be busy with the 2014 International CES, where it will launch its next-generation A-Series APUs, codenamed "Kaveri."

Battlefield 4, one of this year's hottest PC titles is now bundled free with MSI Radeon R9 Battlefield 4 editions. With no less than 5 models to choose from anyone who has been waiting out now has no excuse to get the best of PC Gaming in their PC. With Battlefield 4 available on all MSI Radeon R9 Limited Edition graphics cards, gamers can enjoyed an optimized Battlefield 4 experience thanks to the integration of Mantle technology.

MSI's Radeon R9 GAMING models are equipped with the award winning Twin Frozr IV thermal design which efficiently reduce temperatures and noise provide the most pleasant gaming experience. Likewise, MSI's Gaming App allows you to simply overclock with the single push of a button to get even more performance out of your card.

AMD's share of the global GPU market is rising after the company launched its new Radeon R9 and Radeon R7 lines of discrete GPUs, and is expected to reach 40 percent over the next six months, according to sources associated with graphics card manufacturers based in Taiwan. In its recently announced Q3-2013 quarterly results, AMD announced net profits of $48 million, despite drops in revenues from notebook-related shipments, but revenues from customized products (custom-design graphics cards, etc,) and stable desktop (OEM) shipments helped the company turn a profit. Market analysts expect shipments of graphics cards to help sustain the company's growth in Q4, although some of them are conservative with their estimates.

It's not a secret that AMD has had the performance lead at any important price point over the past few years. Graphics cards like the Radeon HD 7850, 7790, 7770 and 7750 have proved to be impressive performers while being very affordable. Compared to other offerings in the market they still are great products. Graphics Core Next architecture, DisplayPort 1.2 outputs, DirectX 11 support and Clock Speeds of over 1 GHz, the HD 77XX and 78XX series delivered High End specs at a Mid Range price point.

With the launch of the new Radeon R7 range this development will be continued further. The different segments will be clearly distinguishable by the new label they carry. R9 stands for the enthusiast, High End segment, while the R7 label contains capable performers in the Mid Range segment.

ASUS today announced the launch of R7 250 and R7 240, two new graphics cards powered by the latest AMD Radeon R7 series graphics-processing units (GPUs).

The new R7 250 and R7 240 cards benefit from many exclusive ASUS technologies and tools including Super Alloy Power components for superior stability, dust-proof fans for improved card lifespan and GPU Tweak, an easy-to-use tuning software that allows users to squeeze every last drop of performance out of their graphics card.

ASUS today announced the launch of its R9 200 and R7 200 Series DirectCU II graphics cards, powered by the latest AMD Radeon R9 and R7 series graphics-processing units (GPUs). The new R9 280X, R9 270X and R7 260X graphics cards are brimming with exclusive ASUS technologies and tools including DirectCU II cooling technology for cooler and quieter gaming performance, DIGI+ voltage-regulator modules (VRMs) for smooth and stable power supply and GPU Tweak, an easy-to-use software for tuning the graphics card. The R9 280X, R9 270X and R7 260X are all ASUS TOP-rated graphics cards, meaning they are overclocked to perform faster than reference - respectively turning in core speeds of 1070MHz, 1120MHz and 1188MHz.

Eurocom, (www.eurocom.com) uses modular MXM 3.0b VGA technology in its notebooks and laptops so they can be easily upgraded with newer or higher performing cards of the same standard. This allows users who have purchased an upgradeable system to improve the performance and increase the lifespan of their system with an easy graphics upgrade

Eurocom integrates MXM 3.0b technology into its high performance notebooks and gaming laptops because it allows Eurocom notebooks to support the most powerful graphics technology on the market while allowing for continuous upgrade options.

AMD has now let loose the second beta version of the Catalyst 13.10 graphics driver. The Beta2 features support for Radeon HD 5000, HD 6000, and HD 7000 Series desktop cards and HD 5000M, HD 6000M, HD 7000M and 8000M Series mobile GPUs, and is available for Windows 7, 8 and 8.1 systems. Download links are just below.

• AMD Catalyst 13.10 Beta2 for Windows
• AMD Mobility Catalyst 13.10 Beta2 for Windows (64-bit)
• AMD Mobility Catalyst 13.10 Beta2 for Windows (32-bit)

At its press meet called to unveil its next-generation graphics lineup, which lasted for about 3 hours and 45 minutes, a full one hour was spent detailing TrueAudio, an audio DSP that AMD co-developed with GenAudio, makers of AstoundSound technology; both of which are brand names we'd heard for the first time, and that's coming from someone who's been an audiophile and follower of PC audio technology for 15 years now. Here are a few reasons why the concept of TrueAudio, or at least the way AMD and its newfound GenAudio pals explained it, is unconvincing to the extant of flagging "snake oil." While we did not attend GPU'14, experiencing TrueAudio is irrelevant to our analysis. It focuses on what "yet another" positional audio DSP has to do with GPU, and how AMD is getting ahead of itself with non-graphics features in exactly the same way it criticized NVIDIA of doing, not too long ago.

AMD revealed that EA's highly-anticipated online shooter, Battlefield 4, is an AMD Gaming Evolved title, in the run up to its GPU'14 event, slated for later today. It also hints at the possibility of Battlefield 4 being part of an upcoming "Never Settle" bundle that's exclusive to buyers of the Radeon R 200 series. What does this translate to in the real world? Radeon HD 7700 series and above, and the upcoming Radeon R 200 series, feature 100% support for DirectX 11.1, which Battlefield 4 is rumored to take advantage of, on PCs running Windows 8 (and above). It could translate to better performance or visual effects.

Since the very first DirectX 10-ready graphics cards by AMD, we've been used to the "Radeon HD xyz0" nomenclature, in which "x" denoted generation, "y" market segment, and "z" variant. That all is about to change with the company's Volcanic Islands GPU family, which will be unveiled (at least to the press), later this month. Using the same "x, y, z" variables as mentioned before, the new nomenclature could look like "Radeon Ry xz i" (where the new variable "i" could denote special features).

An example of this new nomenclature could be, say, Radeon R9 280 X, where "9" denotes the high-end market segment, currently held by Radeon HD 7900 series, "2" indicating generation, and "80" denoting variant. "XT" (full-spec) chips could get the "80" marking, and "Pro" (partial-spec) chips could get the "60" or "70" marking, but it isn't fixed, and could even be "50" and "40" for lower-end parts. At this point, we can't even speculate what the "i" (special feature) could denote. For mobile parts, the letter "M" could be prefixed to the "xz" component of the model number (example: Radeon R9 M380 X). Validations for graphics cards running early drivers with this naming scheme, have been showing up on our GPU-Z Validation database for days now, and our analysis is our best understanding of their naming strings. Capiche? Can't blame you.

AMD has now made available a new Catalyst driver, the 13.10 version for Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 8.1. This driver comes with a beta tag and supports the Radeon HD 7000, HD 6000 and HD 5000 Series cards. There's also a mobile version of 13.10 which supports the Mobility Radeon HD 8000M, HD 7000M, HD 6000M and HD 5000M cards. Download links are just below.

• AMD Catalyst 13.10 Beta
• AMD Mobility Catalyst 13.10 Beta

ASUS today announced the X102BA, a compact and lightweight ultraportable laptop with a 10.1-inch 1366 x 768 display with 10-point multi-touch for responsive fingertip control with Windows 8. The X102BA also features the latest AMD A Series APU and comes bundled with Microsoft Office Home & Student 2013 for high-performance productivity, straight from the box.

The ASUS X102BA features cutting-edge multi-touch technology that surpasses the standards set by Microsoft for Windows 8. With a multi-touch digitizer that recognizes a contact point with a mere 5mm diameter, rather than the Microsoft recommendation of 9mm, the XB102BA offers much more sensitive touch input for precise applications, such as drawing and painting. The X102BA also features a large multi-touch touchpad with gesture support and a keyboard with keys perfectly calibrated for comfortable typing.

MSI is excited to announce that it has just launched the all-new AE220 21.5" touch control entertainment system equipped with AMD's latest Kabini APU platform. The design seeks to use the MSI 21.5" All-in-One PC as the spearhead of a new classic in AIO PC design that retains the best traditional features while continuing to set the trend in high-tech innovation. The MSI AE220 has a transparent bezel that helps the computer's appearance aside the conventional cold and sterile feeling about high-tech. The compact design blends seamlessly into designer interiors and enhances the overall look of style and sophistication.

The MSI AE220 is the first to feature the E2-3000/A4-5000 APU of AMD's Kabini platform. Based on a 28nm producing process, the new APU delivers high performance with a low power consumption of just 15W. AMD Kabini does more than just integrate the GPU and CPU into the same chip; the chipset functions are also integrated to create the industry's first System-on-Chip (SOC) APU processor. The AMD Kabini platform delivers exceptional rendering performance and packs massive power into a 15W processor. The MSI AE220 features the E2-3000/A4-5000 integrated with AMD Radeon HD 8280/8330 Graphics for a big boost in multimedia and 3D performance compared to previous generation. Users can now enjoy the performance and quality of a discrete graphics card without having to purchase one.

With Microsoft readying a Release Preview of its upcoming Windows 8.1 operating system; AMD jumped in with a specialized Catalyst driver. Windows 8.1 features an upgraded display driver model, WDDM 1.3, which lets users take advantage of a few new features. GPUs based on AMD's Graphics CoreNext architecture will be supported by Windows 8.1 over WDDM 1.3, while older VLIW4 and VLIW5-based GPUs (Radeon HD 6000 series and older), will be supported over older WDDM 1.2 based drivers.

Windows 8.1 brings some enhancements to PC graphics, with support for Microsoft's own standardized wireless display technology; 48 Hz dynamic refresh rates for video playback, V-sync interrupt optimization, video conferencing acceleration, and a new instruction to the DirectX 11.1 API, named "tiled resources." Like the operating system itself, AMD's Windows 8.1 Preview Catalyst driver is a beta, and its use comes with no warranties. Microsoft expects to launch Windows 8.1 later this year, reportedly available as a free upgrade for current Windows 8 users.

DOWNLOAD: AMD Catalyst Windows 8.1 Preview Driver

Lists of AMD GPUs supported by WDDM 1.3 and WDDM 1.2 follow.