Windows 11 24H2 is set to begin shipping in the second half of September or early October on Intel and AMD PCs. Ahead of the rollout, AMD has just shipped a new Ryzen driver that adds support for Windows 11 24H2. In our tests, Windows Latest observed that these drivers test early support for WDDM 3.2 (Windows Display Device Driver).
Chipset drivers help the operating system communicate effectively with the motherboard components. This new driver release ensures compatibility with the upcoming feature update of Windows 11.
The AMD Ryzen Chipset Driver installation package bundles many smaller drivers related to various components. This release includes support for the following motherboard series:
- AMD WRX90/TRX50
- AMD WRX80
- AMD TRX40
- AMD X670E/ X670
- AMD B650E / B650
- AMD X570
- AMD B550
- AMD A520
- AMD X399
- AMD X470
- AMD B450
- AMD X370
- AMD B350
- AMD A320
All Ryzen processor series, from the Ryzen 2000 series (mobile and desktop) to the latest Threadripper Pro series, are supported. Sadly, the Ryzen 1000 series processors, which debuted in 2016, won’t receive this chipset driver update.
The official changelog doesn’t mention anything in detail and highlights that the new drivers include bug fixes and “new program support.”
AMD driver 6.05.28.016 tests WDDM 3.2 support
The main highlight of the new Ryzen 6.05.28.016 update is WDDM 3.2 support. While Microsoft has yet to share the details, Windows Latest has learned everything about the new features in WDDM 3.2
WDDM 3.2 introduces several changes, particularly optimizing GPU and NPU usage in cloud-based scenarios. It is worth noting that NPU optimization applies only to PCs with dedicated NPU chips. In addition to NPU optimizations, a notable feature is dirty bit tracking, which boosts VRAM data transfer performance.
These changes are available only for Windows 11 24H2 with WDDM 3.2 and Ryzen 6.05.28.016. Here’s the full list of improvements:
- Full support for migration of heterogeneous GPU-P compute devices.
- WDDM 3.2 also adds a GPU native fence synchronization object. This allows GPU wait on monitored fence value without relying on the CPU.
- Power savings improvements.
- An extended D3D12 video encoding DDI to support AV1 encoding.
- Better methods for user-mode or kernel-mode graphics drivers to check if a WDDM feature is supported and enabled.
- Enhanced TDR (timeout detection and recovery) debugging to provide more details about TDR events.
To download the latest Ryzen chipset drivers, visit the official download link. AMD also has a super-helpful and detailed guide to help you install the drivers without any difficulty.
AMD does warn about a few problems that you may face while installing this driver:
- Some driver names on a non-English OS may appear in English.
- The Uninstall Summary may incorrectly display the uninstall status as Failed.
- Occasionally, Ryzen PPKG may not install/upgrade.
However, AMD will patch up things in future updates for these drivers as Windows 11 24H2 reaches the stable channel users (presumably in September or October 2024). However, AMD is planning to release Copilot+ PC-compatible processors.
2024 is the year of Qualcomm
The Copilot+ PCs released in May 2024 offer Qualcomm’s new AI chips with 45 TOPS NPU performance. AMD and Intel had AI PCs in the market before Qualcomm, but their NPU performance was nowhere near Qualcomm’s new offering.
Surprisingly, AMD did unveil that its new Ryzen AI 300 PCs with 50 TOPS NPU performance aren’t Copilot+ certified. So, it won’t offer the same AI experiences as Paint Cocreator, Restyle in Photos, and the much-debated Recall at launch.
These features will become available with a future Windows 11 update, meaning its customers will have to wait longer to try them out.
