Today, AMD is happy to release the Radeon™ PRO Software for Enterprise v21.Q4 update. This updated release is aimed at helping tune performance for professional workstation applications and enables new features.
Our latest software driver contains important optimizations that is intended to improve your performance with Radeon PRO workstation graphics cards and graphics-intensive applications. Our development team has designed and implemented improvements in our latest 21.Q4 driver that has resulted in year-over-year performance gains in professional applications of 45% in Catia, 22% in Creo and 8% geomean. Powering your workflows has never been easier.
(1) Radeon PRO Software for Enterprise 21.Q4 vs. 20.Q4 year-over-year SPECviewperf® 2020 benchmark Catia-06 viewset, creo-03 viewset and all viewset geomean performance gains using the AMD Radeon PRO W5700.
We are thrilled to announce that thanks to our close collaboration with Blender, select AMD graphics cards are supported in the recent release of version 3.0 of their incredibly popular 3D digital content creation software suite.
A complete refresh of the code and architecture of the Blender Cycles rendering engine is also part of the new Blender version. To support these changes, we’ve developed a new way to take standard code that Blender uses for GPU acceleration with the new “Cycles X” update and have compiled it for AMD devices, using the open-source AMD HIP API. Either our latest Radeon PRO Software for Enterprise 21.Q4 driver or AMD Radeon Adrenalin Software 21.21.1 driver is required to use Cycles in Blender 3.0, and support is currently validated on AMD Radeon PRO W6800 and AMD Radeon RX 6000 Series desktop GPUs and enabled on AMD RDNA and other AMD RDNA 2 architecture desktop graphics cards. AMD and Blender have a shared purpose of developing, maintaining, extending, and promoting open software solutions. We plan to continue contributing code to Blender development to help benefit users and improve their workflows and experiences. Learn more about our support for Blender 3.0 here.
In addition, we are excited to bring some of our latest software developments from our consumer business over to the enterprise space. AMD FidelityFX™ Super Resolution (FSR)(2) uses cutting-edge upscaling technologies to help boost framerates in select games(3). In fact, FSR is the fastest adopted software gaming tech in AMD history(4) and now it is available for our professional users in select applications.
Design professionals can now leverage FSR to enhance performance in content creation workflow such as real-time architectural rendering (e.g., interactive building walkthroughs). FSR upscales frames rendered at a lower resolution into higher resolution ones, delivering a high-quality image quality experience while maintaining smooth framerates. FSR is a cross-platform open-source solution that offers broad hardware and software support, on both AMD and other vendor’s products. Two of our key architectural visualization software partners - Lumion and ACCA Software - have already begun supporting our FSR technology in Lumion 12 and the latest update to ACCA Edificius. Additional FSR integrations with other professional application software providers are planned for future and we will keep you posted as they are available.
Power draw and efficiency are important to professional users. That’s why we’ve added Frame Rate Target Control (FRTC) to our latest driver set. FRTC is aimed at saving energy and extending battery runtime by controlling power consumption. It enables users to set a target maximum frame rate when using an application. Limiting the frame rate not only saves power, but also reduces heat and noise.
Keeping your software up to date will ensure that you get the best performance and the latest features that come with our powerful and reliable professional grade graphic software. In addition, Microsoft has recently launched Windows 11, its latest operating system update. Windows 11 has been built with compatibility in mind. Our latest enterprise driver is tested and validated on Windows 11 which allows users to access the latest Windows features. Drive your design workflows by downloading our latest driver here.
Endnotes:
1. Testing conducted by AMD Performance Labs as of November 29, 2021, on the AMD Radeon™ PRO Software for Enterprise 21.Q4 using Radeon™ W5700 GPU running SPECviewperf® 2020 at 1080p. Results may vary based on factors including hardware configuration and driver version. SPEC® and the benchmark SPECviewperf® are registered trademarks of Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation. Learn more at spec.org. RPS-140.
2. AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution is available on select games and requires developer integration. See https://www.amd.com/en/technologies/radeon-software-fidelityfx-super-resolution for a list of supported games. AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution is “game dependent” and is supported on the following AMD products: AMD Radeon™ RX 6000, RX 5000, RX 500, RX Vega series graphics cards, RX 480, RX 470, RX 460, and all AMD Ryzen™ Processors with Radeon™ Graphics if the minimum requirements of the game are met. AMD does not provide technical or warranty support for AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution enablement on other vendor's graphics cards. GD-187.
3. Testing by AMD Performance Labs as of June 11, 2021, on the AMD Radeon™ 6900 XT, AMD Radeon™ 6800 XT, and AMD Radeon™ 6700 XT graphics cards with pre-release AMD Radeon™ Software 21.6.1 RC Prime 9 (21.20-210518a-367616E) driver with AMD Smart Access Memory enabled, on a test system comprising of an AMD Ryzen™ 9 5900X, 16GB DDR4-3200 RAM, ASRock X570 Taichi motherboard with BIOS version P3.61 at default settings, and Windows® 10 Pro May 2020 Update (19041.508). Benchmark tests: Anno 1800, DX12, 3840 x 2160, Ultra Hight preset, no raytracing. Evil Genius 2, Vulkan, 3840 x 2160, Ultra preset, no raytracing. Godfall, DX12, 3840 x 2160, Epic preset, Raytracing ON. Kingshunt, DX12, 3840 x 2160, Ultra preset, no raytracing. The Riftbreaker, DX12, 3840 x 2160, Ultra preset, Raytracing ON. Terminator: Resistance, DX11, 3840 x 2160, Epic preset, no raytracing. Game 7, DX12, 3840 x 2160, High preset, no raytracing. Performance may vary and is dependent on the FSR Quality Mode selected. FSR requires developer integration and is available in select games only. RS-365.
4. Based on AMD internal analysis, November 2021, FidelityFX™ Super Resolution is the fastest adopted software gaming technology in AMD’s history. GD-195.
© 2021 Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. All rights reserved. AMD, the AMD Arrow logo, FidelityFX, Radeon, RDNA and combinations thereof are trademarks of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. Catia and the Catia logo are registered trademarks of Dassault Systèmes or its subsidiaries in the US and other countries. Creo is a registered trademark of PTC Inc. and/or its subsidiaries in the US and other countries. Blender is a registered trademarks of the Blender Foundation in the US and other countries. Microsoft and Windows are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the US and other countries. SPECviewperf® is a registered trademark of the Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation. Learn more at www.spec.org. Other product names used in this publication are for identification purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective companies.