Download: Catalyst 13.6 beta adds support for new APUs, AMD Wireless Display

Rick

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AMD's Catalyst 13.6 beta is now available for public consumption and is intended for Radeon HD 5000 series cards and newer. On the list of changes is support for Temash, Kabini and Richland APUs; support for AMD Wireless Display (competitor to Intel's WiDi) and improvements to Enduro, AMD's existing dual-GPU technology.

Download AMD Catalyst 13.6 BETA
Note: Package includes support for 32 and 64-bit

Catalyst 13.6 stomps a few bugs, namely HDMI drop out issues and erroneous audio display messages. There are no publicized performance enhancements in this release.

The latest beta also adds AMD Wireless Display support for supported "AMD Elite A-series APUs" with specific Broadcom and Atheros Wi-Fi chips. AMD claims its own wireless display tech is up to four times more responsive than Intel's WiDi -- a claim that will no doubt be thoroughly tested in the future.

Richland-based APUs have already begun seeping into the higher-end consumer market, like MSI's beastly GX70 laptop. Meanwhile, Temash -- AMD's lowest-end APU -- will be appearing in future laptops from HP, Acer and others. Kabini though remains a figment of slideshows and test machines -- at least for now. Kabini is AMD's mid-range APU geared toward what the chip maker would call "convergent platforms", but it's likely Kabini will power mostly lower-end laptops with the remaining packages appearing in Windows tablets and convertibles.

For Enduro owners, the latest beta promises smarter graphics switching while using Windows 8's Metro interface and now shows information on discrete GPUs when paired with an Intel graphics chip.

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