AMD Releases Radeon Software Crimson Edition 16.3, Vulkan On Board

News
By Derek Forrest
published

AMD announced the availability of the latest update for its Radeon Software Crimson Edition, version 16.3. In addition to being ready for Hitman, the driver also features support for the Vulkan API.

Radeon Software Crimson Edition 16.3 features support for the upcoming release of Hitman, including day-one Crossfire support. The Park -- a creepy, amusement park-themed, single-player horror adventure -- also gains Crossfire profiles. New features like per-game display scaling, an on-screen Crossfire status indicator, a power-efficiency toggle, and two-display Eyefinity make their debut.

The new software also provides performance improvements for a few recent AAA game titles, which include up to 16 percent for Rise of the Tomb Raider with R9 Fury X GPUs and up to 60 percent in Gears of War: Ultimate Edition (using the same Fury X). AMD Radeon R9 380 users will also see up to a 44 percent performance boost in Gears of War.

However, one of the most compelling features of the new Radeon Crimson software is support for Vulkan. We had thought that AMD would be late to the party with support for the low-profile API, but the company appears to be in lock-step with the market as games featuring Vulkan seem to be right around the corner.

AMD’s Radeon Software Crimson Edition 16.3 is available now from the company’s website.

Derek Forrest is an Associate Contributing Writer for Tom’s Hardware and Tom’s IT Pro. Follow Derek Forrest on Twitter. Follow us on Facebook, Google+, RSS, Twitter and YouTube.

Derek Forrest
Derek Forrest
Derek Forrest is a Contributing Writer for Tom's Hardware US. He writes hardware news and reviews gaming desktops and laptops.
13 Comments Comment from the forums
  • falchard
    Why would AMD be late with Vulkan? It's pretty much Mantle with things added to support nVidia gpus
    Reply
  • Roberto-NM
    Does this driver's Vulkan support passes the conformance test?
    Reply
  • Roberto-NM
    Does this driver's Vulkan support passes the conformance test?
    Reply
  • FCsean
    "We had thought that AMD would be late to the party with support for the low-profile API, but the company appears to be in lock-step with the market as games featuring Vulkan seem to be right around the corner."

    Why the hell would you guys think this? They were pretty much the first one who did low level apis in the GPU industry. Hello Mantle, and both DX12 and Vulkan pretty much based their code on Mantle.
    Reply
  • mamasan2000
    AMD-supported game wouldn't have Vulkan-support? Wheres the logic in that? They've probably had drivers for a long time, how would the devs be able to test their implementation otherwise? It's not a last-week effort.
    Reply
  • ohim
    Why would AMD be late with Vulkan? It's pretty much Mantle with things added to support nVidia gpus
    Nvidia came out with a driver just to be the first with few days ahead and then pulled it out because system instability, my brother found the hard way about the driver on his GTX960.


    And it`s not late at all, name 1 single game that is out, has Vulkan on it and you couldn`t play it till now, people are getting ridiculous with complains at AMD`s side at this moment.
    Reply
  • Biscuit42
    So --- DX12 or Vulcan? When can we expect the side-by-side?
    Reply
  • eklipz330
    So --- DX12 or Vulcan? When can we expect the side-by-side?
    all we need is a few of the big players to start using vulkan, and dx12 will become an afterthought. unfortunately, my library consists mostly of games that use direct x, which stinks.
    Reply
  • Fluffy_Hedgehog
    "We had thought that AMD would be late to the party with support for the low-profile API, but the company appears to be in lock-step with the market as games featuring Vulkan seem to be right around the corner. "

    I am smelling a lot of anti amd bias lately in the articles here ... has nvidia sent around a couple of gameworks-bunnies to bring you cookies ... or maybe do your hair? *cough*
    Reply
  • Roberto-NM
    Does this driver's Vulkan support passes the conformance test?
    Wow! What's up with all the downvotes? This was a genuine question because las time I checked their beta driver's Vulkan implementation didn't pass the conformance test.

    I looked it up at home later on and the answer is no but " is expected to pass".

    From amd's driver support pages:

    "(1)Product is based on the Vulkan 1.0 Specification and has been submitted to, and is expected to pass, the Khronos Conformance Process. Current conformance status can be found at www.khronos.org/conformance. Vulkan™ and the Vulkan™ logo are trademarks of the Khronos Group Inc.?"
    Reply