- [#5544](https://github.com/gradio-app/gradio/pull/5544) [`a0cc9ac9`](https://github.com/gradio-app/gradio/commit/a0cc9ac931554e06dcb091158c9b9ac0cc580b6c) - Fixes dropdown breaking if a user types in invalid value and presses enter. Thanks [@abidlabs](https://github.com/abidlabs)!
- [#5384](https://github.com/gradio-app/gradio/pull/5384) [`ddc02268`](https://github.com/gradio-app/gradio/commit/ddc02268f731bd2ed04b7a5854accf3383f9a0da) - Allows the `gr.Dropdown` to have separate names and values, as well as enables `allow_custom_value` for multiselect dropdown. Thanks [@abidlabs](https://github.com/abidlabs)!
### Fixes
- [#5508](https://github.com/gradio-app/gradio/pull/5508) [`05715f55`](https://github.com/gradio-app/gradio/commit/05715f5599ae3e928d3183c7b0a7f5291f843a96) - Adds a `filterable` parameter to `gr.Dropdown` that controls whether user can type to filter choices. Thanks [@abidlabs](https://github.com/abidlabs)!
- [#5323](https://github.com/gradio-app/gradio/pull/5323) [`e32b0928`](https://github.com/gradio-app/gradio/commit/e32b0928d2d00342ca917ebb10c379ffc2ec200d) - ensure dropdown stays open when identical data is passed in. Thanks [@pngwn](https://github.com/pngwn)!
#### Improve startup performance and markdown support ([#5279](https://github.com/gradio-app/gradio/pull/5279) [`fe057300`](https://github.com/gradio-app/gradio/commit/fe057300f0672c62dab9d9b4501054ac5d45a4ec))
##### Improved markdown support
We now have better support for markdown in `gr.Markdown` and `gr.Dataframe`. Including syntax highlighting and Github Flavoured Markdown. We also have more consistent markdown behaviour and styling.
##### Various performance improvements
These improvements will be particularly beneficial to large applications.
- Rather than attaching events manually, they are now delegated, leading to a significant performance improvement and addressing a performance regression introduced in a recent version of Gradio. App startup for large applications is now around twice as fast.
- Optimised the mounting of individual components, leading to a modest performance improvement during startup (~30%).
- Corrected an issue that was causing markdown to re-render infinitely.
- Ensured that the `gr.3DModel` does re-render prematurely.
- [#5215](https://github.com/gradio-app/gradio/pull/5215) [`fbdad78a`](https://github.com/gradio-app/gradio/commit/fbdad78af4c47454cbb570f88cc14bf4479bbceb) - Lazy load interactive or static variants of a component individually, rather than loading both variants regardless. This change will improve performance for many applications. Thanks [@pngwn](https://github.com/pngwn)!
- [#5062](https://github.com/gradio-app/gradio/pull/5062) [`7d897165`](https://github.com/gradio-app/gradio/commit/7d89716519d0751072792c9bbda668ffeb597296) - `gr.Dropdown` now has correct behavior in static mode as well as when an option is selected. Thanks [@abidlabs](https://github.com/abidlabs)!
- [#5039](https://github.com/gradio-app/gradio/pull/5039) [`620e4645`](https://github.com/gradio-app/gradio/commit/620e46452729d6d4877b3fab84a65daf2f2b7bc6) - `gr.Dropdown()` now supports values with arbitrary characters and doesn't clear value when re-focused. Thanks [@abidlabs](https://github.com/abidlabs)!