Non soltanto NVIDIA ha scelto il blog ufficiale per annunciare lo status di WHQL, è più in generale una certificazione, in relazione al suo driver video per Windows 8 (al momento disponibile come Release Preview). Con il messaggio di seguito indicato, infatti, Robert Hallock, Product Marketing Manager in AMD, ha reso noto che il driver video Catalyst ha ottenuto la certificazione Windows Hardware Certification (WHC) per Windows 8.
Di conseguenza, il driver video Catalyst, convalidato da Microsoft in abbinamento ai prodotti AMD Radeon, AMD Accelerated Processing Unit (APU) e AMD FirePro, e che AMD renderà disponibile per il download nel corso della prossima estate, supporta pienamente la nuova architettura di Windows 8, che implementa il Windows Display Driver Model (WDDM) v. 1.2.
La certificazione WHC consente inoltre ad AMD di usare ufficialmente il logo "Windows 8 Compatible".
Today, we are proud to announce that AMD has received Windows Hardware Certification (WHC) for an AMD Catalyst graphics driver on Windows 8. This landmark moment reflects both our commitment to AMD Radeon graphics customers, and our vision of providing quality hardware/software solutions for Microsoft Windows products.
Formerly known as the Windows Logo Program, WHC is a rigorous mark of compatibility and reliability for products intended for use with Microsoft Windows. It also allows AMD to serve as an official partner in the upcoming Windows 8 release, use the "Windows 8 Compatible" logo (seen here), and offer the drivers on Windows Update.
Our certified driver has been successfully tested against several families of AMD Radeon, AMD Accelerated Processing Units (APUs), and AMD FirePro products. We’ll be able to detail these products in the days ahead.
In the meantime, we’re proud to mention that our certified driver fully supports the new WDDM 1.2 driver model. As applications are updated to leverage this model’s new features, users with compatible products and this certified driver will be treated to a host of new features:
- Native Stereo 3D support: Windows 8 natively supports stereoscopic 3D gaming and videos via compatible applications. Middleware applications will not be required for such apps.1
- Unified Video API: Video playback has been integrated into the DirectX 11 API, enabling simultaneous video and gaming content. Transcoding performance may also be improved for supporting applications.
- Optimized screen rotation for rotation-aware devices.
- Improved sleep/resume performance.
- Optimized GPU power consumption.
AMD’s Windows Hardware Certified driver will be posted later this summer after additional QA has been performed to ensure the highest reliability. For now, AMD customers interested in evaluating the new Windows 8 Release Preview can test drive an evaluation AMD Catalyst driver we’ve made available on our Windows 8 Release Preview driver page.
Source: AMD Blog Post
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