New AMD Pro Edition driver promises ‘giant leap’ in performance

Two office workers using CAD software to design vehicle

(Image credit: Unsplash / Kumpan Electric)

The new AMD Software: PRO Edition 22.Q3 Driver has arrived - and AMD claims it delivers the “most significant performance advancements to date in all OpenGL applications”.

According to the CPU manufacturer, users can expect up to 72% performance uplifts compared to previous versions. The team has also ensured support for the Windows 11 2022 OS update.

The redesigned OpenGL Driver follows a number of high-profile releases from the company, notably the AMD 7000 Series processors, including the AMD Ryzen 7 7700X and the powerful AMD Ryzen 9 7950X.

Comparing performance

Following a significant rebrand in June 2022, the business-focused suite, formerly known as Radeon PRO Software for Enterprise, has increased emphasis on accelerating performance and workflows - particularly when using the best 3D modeling software, CAD tools, VFX software, and other hardware-intensive apps.

And in a series of benchmark tests, comparing the 22.Q3 driver with the previous iteration, results suggest significant improvements across a range of content creation software.

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Testing on both the AMD W6600 and W6800 professional GPUs, the team behind the new driver saw performance gains between 28-29% in top CAD software SolidWorks.

In rendering software Autodesk Maya, that figure leaps to 72% running on the W6800; 40% on the W6600. Meanwhile, in CATIA - one of the best architecture software tools - performance gains ranged from 57% to 66%.

Across the board, AMD reported enhanced model visualizations, improved handling for larger projects, and streamlined operations. For some tools, such as Maya, overall stability and performance has also been enriched.

“We took the rearchitected OpenGL and tailored it to increase performance for OpenGL-based Creator and CAD applications, such as Autodesk Maya, which has seen improvement increase up to 72% over the previous driver and up to 41% over the competition. The new architecture will also benefit the low-power Radeon PRO workstation graphics cards, significantly improving performance for integrated platforms,” AMD confirmed.

The AMD Software: PRO Edition 22.Q3 driver is available to download here.

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Steve is B2B Editor for Creative & Hardware at TechRadar Pro. He began in tech journalism reviewing photo editors and video editing software at Web User magazine, and covered technology news, features, and how-to guides. Today, he and his team of expert reviewers test out a range of creative software, hardware, and office furniture. Once upon a time, he wrote TV commercials and movie trailers. Relentless champion of the Oxford comma.