AMD Catalyst 14.9 driver now available

Highlights of AMD Catalyst™ 14.9 Windows Driver:

Support for the AMD Radeon R9 28

Performance improvements (comparing AMD Catalyst 14.9 vs. AMD Catalyst 14.4):
3DMark Sky Diver improvements

AMD A4 6300 – improves up to 4%

Enables AMD Dual Graphics / AMD CrossFire support

3DMark Fire Strike

AMD Radeon R9 290 Series - improves up to 5% in Performance Preset

3DMark11

AMD Radeon R9 290 Series / R9 270 Series - improves up to 4% in Entry and Performance Preset

BioShock Infinite

AMD Radeon R9 290 Series – 1920x1080 - improves up to 5%

Company of Heroes 2

AMD Radeon R9 290 Series - improves up to 8%

Crysis 3

AMD Radeon R9 290 Series / R9 270 Series – improves up to 10%

Grid Auto Sport

AMD CrossFire profile

Murdered Soul Suspect

AMD Radeon R9 290X (2560x1440, 4x MSAA, 16x AF) – improves up to 50%

AMD Radeon R9 290 Series / R9 270 Series – improves up to 6%

CrossFire configurations improve scaling up to 75%

Plants vs. Zombies (Direct3D performance improvements)

AMD Radeon R9 290X - 1920x1080 Ultra – improves up to 11%

AMD Radeon R9290X - 2560x1600 Ultra – improves up to 15%

AMD Radeon R9290X CrossFire configuration (3840x2160 Ultra) - 92% scaling

Batman Arkham Origins:

AMD Radeon R9 290X (4x MSAA) – improves up to 20%

CrossFire configurations see up to a 70% gain in scaling

Wildstar

Power Xpress profile

Performance improvements to improve smoothness of application

Performance improves up to 30% on the AMD Radeon R9 and R7 Series of products for both single GPU and Multi-GPU configurations

Tomb Raider

AMD Radeon R9 290 Series – improves up to 5%

Watch Dogs

AMD Radeon R9 290 Series / R9 270 Series – improves up to 9%

AMD CrossFire – Frame pacing improvement

Improved CrossFire performance – up to 20%

Assassin's Creed IV

Improves CrossFire scaling (3840x2160 High Settings) up to 93% (CrossFire scaling improvement of 25% compared to AMD Catalyst 14.4)

Lichdom

Improves performance for single GPU and Multi-GPU configurations

Star Craft II

AMD Radeon R9 290X (2560x1440, AA, 16x AF) – improves up to 20%

AMD Eyefinity enhancements
Mixed Resolution Support

A new architecture providing brand new capabilities

Display groups can be created with monitors of different resolution (including difference sizes and shapes)

Users have a choice of how surface is created over the display group

Fill – legacy mode, best for identical monitors

Fit – create the Eyefinity surface using best available rectangular area with attached displays

Expand – create a virtual Eyefinity surface using desktops as viewports onto the surface

Eyefinity Display Alignment

Enables control over alignment between adjacent monitors

One-Click Setup

Driver detects layout of extended desktop

Can create Eyefinity display group using this layout in one click!

New user controls for video color and display settings
Greater control over Video Color Management:

Controls have been expanded from a single slider for controlling Boost and Hue to per color axis

Color depth control for Digital Flat Panels (available on supported HDMI and DP displays)

Allows users to select different color depths per resolution and display

AMD Mantle enhancements

Mantle now supports AMD Mobile products with Enduro technology

Battlefield 4: AMD Radeon HD 8970M (1366x768; high settings) – 21% gain

Thief: AMD Radeon HD 8970M (1920x1080; high settings) – 14% gain

Star Swarm: AMD Radeon HD 8970M (1920x1080; medium settings) – 274% gain

Enables support for Multi-GPU configurations with Thief (requires the latest Thief update)

AMD AM1 JPEG decoding acceleration

JPEG decoding acceleration was first enabled on the A10 APU Series in AMD Catalyst 14.1 beta, and has now been extended to the AMD AM1 Platform

Provides fast JPEG decompression

Provides Power Efficiency for JPEG decompression

Resolved Issues

60Hz SST flickering has been identified as an issue with non-standard display timings exhibited by the AOC U2868PQU panel on certain AMD Radeon™ graphics cards. A software workaround has been implemented in the AMD Catalyst 14.9 driver to resolve the display timing issues with this display

Users seeing flickering issues in 60Hz SST mode are further encouraged to obtain newer display firmware from their monitor vendor that will resolve flickering at its origin.

Users are additionally advised to utilize DisplayPort-certified cables to ensure the integrity of the DisplayPort data connection.

4K panel flickering issues found on the AMD Radeon R9 290 Series and AMD Radeon HD 7800 Series

Screen tearing observed on AMD CrossFire systems with Eyefinity portrait display configurations

Instability issues for Grid Autosport when running in 2x1 or 1x2 Eyefinity configurations

Geometry corruption in State of Decay

Known Issues

[404829]: Horizontal flashing lines on second screen in a clone mode with V-Sync on using AMD Mobility Graphics with Switchable Intel Graphics

[404508]: Display takes a long time to redraw the screen after an S4 cycle

[405432]: Mantle driver will TDR when running Star Swarm on the loading screen

[404660]: GPU gets stuck in a low power state after it was previously stressed to max power

[403032]: Severe flickering observed on default launch of SimCity 4

[403449]: Playing any media sample in full screen in the 2x1/1x2 Fill SLS configuration leads to TDR

[400573]: Intermittent application hang observed while launching Aliens vs. Predator

[400693]: While running performance test, crash is observed with fault module atidxx32.dll

[401386]: Severe corruption and flashing light observed with specific game settings in Grid 2

[401289]: Flashing lights in Batman Arkham Origins game main menu