AMD First with Top-to-Bottom OpenGL 4.0 and 3.3 Support on Windows and Linux Platforms

AMD today continued its proud tradition of driver firsts,
announcing widespread support of the recently-published OpenGL
versions for Windows 7, Windows Vista,
Windows XP, and Linux across select ATI
Radeon, ATI FirePro and ATI FireGL graphics cards. OpenGL
4.0 is now supported on ATI Radeon HD 5900, HD 5800, HD 5700, HD
5600, HD 5500 and HD 5400 series graphics cards, and OpenGL
3.3 is supported by all discrete graphics products from AMD –
both consumer and professional graphics – released since the
spring of 2007. The new functionality is made possible by a beta
driver, available on the AMD
website.

“AMD’s
ability to support OpenGL 4.0 and OpenGL 3.3 almost immediately
after the release of their specifications is an incredible feat on the
part of our OpenGL software team, and speaks volumes to the
commitment and continued support for the many developers utilizing
OpenGL,” said Ben Bar-Haim, general manager, AMD Canada and
corporate vice president, Software Engineering, AMD. “As a company
that believes in and encourages open industry standards,
maintaining OpenGL as a strong and viable graphics API is very
important to AMD.”

AMD’s beta driver for OpenGL 4.0 and 3.3
includes:

  • Full
    compatibility with the OpenGL 4.0 standard on AMD’s most recent graphics
    products, the ATI Radeon HD 5900, HD 5800, HD 5700, HD 5600, HD 5500
    and HD 5400 series:

    • Offloading of geometry tessellation from the CPU to the GPU, for a
      more flexible and productive workflow
    • On the ATI Radeon HD 5800 and HD 5900
      series graphics cards, double precision processing, designed to
      enable more accurate modeling and higher quality rendering,
      applicable to both consumer and workstation uses
    • Seamless interoperability
      between OpenGL and OpenCL, or other external APIs
  • Support for OpenGL 3.3
    functionality across all of AMD’s discrete graphics products – ATI
    Radeon, ATI FirePro and ATI FireGL graphics cards – released since
    the spring of 2007

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here