A few days ago AMD released a new RAID driver version 9.3.3.00117 along with the new RAID installer software package version 6.10.09.200 for Windows 11 and 10. New RAID driver adds support for Windows 11 version 24H2. The drive now also supports HMB (Host Memory Buffer); This means that HMB will work when RAID is enabled on NVMe SSDs.

For those who don’t know, many SSDs come with a special DRAM chip that acts as a buffer (cache) for metadata between the controller and NAND flash memory. Having this DRAM cache improves write caching and generally reduces random access times. NVME SSDs without DRAM cache usually support HMB technology; This helps the controller access system memory via direct memory access (DMA).

Meanwhile, RAID, or Redundant Array of Independent Disks, is a technology that allows users to create data redundancy by combining multiple, often inexpensive, disks together to prevent data loss and/or improve performance.

In addition to supporting new features, the new RAID driver also addresses the blue screen of death (BSOD) issue. Highlights of the release are listed below:

• The installer supports Windows® 10 and Windows® 11.
• New version of AMD RAID driver (9.3.3.00117) and AMD RAIDxpert2 utility (9.3.3.00117).
• Added AMD RAID driver support for Windows® 11 24H2.
• Driver fix for random BSOD.
• NVMe HMB support is enabled on the RAID drive.
• If you update the AMD RAID drivers, the system must reboot twice in a row for the AMD RAID drivers to work properly. The RAID software installer will automatically perform two consecutive reboots

Despite the improvements, the drive has some known issues and limitations. IT:

• The operating system installation may fail if the operating system is not installed on the initial RAID array.
• RaidXpert2 will not start if the operating system username contains non-Latin characters.
• Disk-Informed Erase (NVMe) is not recommended during I/O operations.
• Intentional removal of the NVMe front partition may not occur after array conversion.
• RAIDXpert2 may freeze/unresponsive after converting an array or when connecting to a remote NVMe.
• Raid installer takes almost 3-4 minutes to install the package.
• After installing the Raid package on the first admin account, the second reboot will not occur after the first reboot when logging in with the non-administrator user account. This scenario only occurs in administrator accounts.

To download the new RAID installer package, go to AMD’s website at this link; You can also find the release notes here. The driver works on both Ryzen 7000/9000 series processors and Threadripper.

As for motherboard support, Socket AM5 is compatible with chipsets 800 series (X870E/X870), 600 series (X670E/X670, B650E/B650 and A620). WRX90/TRX50 is supported on the Threadripper side.