AMD Catalyst 9.3 For Linux Brings OpenGL Composite Support

Another nice feature about Catalyst 9.3 is the improved display device properties available through the AMD Catalyst Control Center Linux Edition. There is now the ability to add HDTV modes for displays where the modes may be missing due to corrupted or missing EDID data and other display management possibilities. Also adjustable is the color temperature, overscan, HDMI settings, and other options.

In Catalyst 9.3 are also a variety of fixes in this release and minor additions like enabling RandR 1.2 and CrossFire on dual-GPU graphics cards. Accelerated OpenGL support when rotating the screen using RandR is also now supported. Video playback after resuming from S4 has also been fixed. Different Linux distributions also had their packaging scripts updated; in particular, support for SuSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 11 was added along with Red Flag DT 7.0 and Red Flag DT 6.0 SP2.

While there are some nice improvements in this Linux driver release, what it continues to lack is support for the Linux 2.6.29 kernel and X Server 1.6. At least we know there will be X Server 1.6 in Catalyst 9.4, since Canonical is already shipping an unreleased beta driver in Ubuntu 9.04. There is also no support yet for OpenGL 3.1, which was just released by the Khronos Group earlier this week and greeted by same-day NVIDIA Linux drivers.

Catalyst 9.3 for Linux can be downloaded at AMD.com. This is the last proprietary driver release where the R300 through R500 series is supported (in other words, you will need a Radeon HD 2000 series graphics card or later to use future drivers). Owners of this older hardware are encouraged to use the open-source driver stack, with more information on those options being available within our display drivers category. Questions about the latest Linux graphics drivers can be asked in the Phoronix Forums.