AMD's ATI Catalyst 10.3a Driver Performance @ [H]

FrgMstr

FrgMstr

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AMD's ATI Catalyst 10.3a Driver Performance - AMD’s new "performance" driver is out in the form of the non-WHQL Catalyst 10.3a. This driver provides performance improvements compared to 10.2 WHQL. We run apples-to-apples test in the latest games to see just how much faster it is in real-world gaming environments.
 
Kyle- with my 2x5750 crossfire I'm getting a much bigger performance boost, though thats the only game I've had a chance to test with the new driver. I'm seeing a jump from 62.0 average FPS, to 73.7 avg FPS, which end up being ~19% increase, which is very close the the claimed "possible 20%". I'm impressed with that. That was run with all in-game settings maxed out, but not forcing anything in CCC. 10.3a is a great update and working perfect for me.
 
Nice writeup, thanks [H].

I am going to install these shortly, should be a little boost for BC2.

I know your testing methods quite well, the only question that I have in this case with the new driver performance is whether at lower resolutions (1900, 1650) if this performance increase is the same or different? The way I understand driver performance improvement should apply equally to all resolutions and just scale. Is this the case?
 
Flyinfinni said:
Kyle- with my 2x5750 crossfire I'm getting a much bigger performance boost, though thats the only game I've had a chance to test with the new driver. I'm seeing a jump from 62.0 average FPS, to 73.7 avg FPS, which end up being ~19% increase, which is very close the the claimed "possible 20%". I'm impressed with that. That was run with all in-game settings maxed out, but not forcing anything in CCC. 10.3a is a great update and working perfect for me.
Click to expand...

Crossfire was bumped significantly vs. single card solutions.
 
Flyinfinni said:
Kyle- with my 2x5750 crossfire I'm getting a much bigger performance boost, though thats the only game I've had a chance to test with the new driver. I'm seeing a jump from 62.0 average FPS, to 73.7 avg FPS, which end up being ~19% increase, which is very close the the claimed "possible 20%". I'm impressed with that. That was run with all in-game settings maxed out, but not forcing anything in CCC. 10.3a is a great update and working perfect for me.
Click to expand...

It is possible CrossFireX is seeing bigger increases, we tested single GPU.
 
g-money said:
Nice writeup, thanks [H].

I am going to install these shortly, should be a little boost for BC2.

I know your testing methods quite well, the only question that I have in this case with the new driver performance is whether at lower resolutions (1900, 1650) if this performance increase is the same or different? The way I understand driver performance improvement should apply equally to all resolutions and just scale. Is this the case?
Click to expand...

I do not know, we don't have the resources right now to ferret out that question. These are all real world gameplay and all game well a 2560, so I would suggest that your gaming experience at lower resolutions would only get better. :)
 
I wouldn't be surprised if CrossfireX is getting a bigger boost. I'll do a little test (hopefully tonight if I get the chance) and see how much performance increase I got with a single GPU. I have a baseline benchmark with a single 5750 with 10.2, so I'll disable CrossfireX and run the benchmark with Dirt2 again and see what that gives with 10.3a and let y'all know. I'm gaming at 1920x1080 BTW.
 
Brent, any Eyefinity tests on the way?

I wish ATI/AMD would list what resolution they tested their improvements at.

I did notice an ingame improvement in Dirt 2.
 
Things are looking positive enough at least.

I can't wait to see how ATI matches up against the Fermi architecture...
 
kcthebrewer said:
Brent, any Eyefinity tests on the way?

I wish ATI/AMD would list what resolution they tested their improvements at.

I did notice an ingame improvement in Dirt 2.
Click to expand...

There will be something very cool in the way of Eyefinity6 testing in a couple of weeks, and this driver will be used.
 
I am waiting for the full download to be on ATi/AMD's website :rolleyes: "official"

The performance isn't a good enough reason to go jumping into a complete driver reinstall.

Seems like just when I get my system where I like it and profiles all figured out and working great... They put out new drivers and I get to start all over:rolleyes:
 
Nickbaldwin86 said:
I am waiting for the full download to be on ATi/AMD's website :rolleyes: "official"
Click to expand...

It is up on the official site:

http://sites.amd.com/us/underground/tips/Pages/catalyst-10-3-preview.aspx

The performance isn't a good enough reason to go jumping into a complete driver reinstall.
Click to expand...

Then install them over the top of your old drivers like the AMD engineers themselves recommend. Should take less than 60 seconds to install the driver.

Seems like just when I get my system where I like it and profiles all figured out and working great... They put out new drivers and I get to start all over:rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Then don't install the new driver :rolleyes:
 
Most of the time Nick- you can just install the new drivers right over the old drivers (actually what ATI suggests and intended you to do) and you won't have to mess with anything. Doesn't always work like it should, but I've not had a problem with it recently at all.
Edit: Just beat me to it GotNoRice:)
 
GotNoRice said:
It is up on the official site:

http://sites.amd.com/us/underground/tips/Pages/catalyst-10-3-preview.aspx

Then install them over the top of your old drivers like the AMD engineers themselves recommend. Should take less than 60 seconds to install the driver.

Then don't install the new driver :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

I was refering to this.... AS BEING OFFICIAL

I am running the 10.3 preview drivers, but not the 10.3a, if there is a difference, I am mostly just confused any more, don't spend hours trying to keep track of it all I guess is my problem :rolleyes:

oh and thanks for the tips :rolleyes:
 
Installed these last night and tested them on AvP with everything max, tessellation, and advanced shadows on, 1x AA at 5040x1050 (5192x1050 with bezel compensation). No difference. Perfomance is still randomly choppy at that. Still going to have to play with my settings to get optimal performance. Wasn't expecting to t let me play like that, but I was hoping.
 
Nick- the 10.3a preview is an updated version of the 10.3/10.3 beta you are using now- it has some added performance tweaks which are quite nice really.
 
does anyone notice a difference in visual quality with these driver? I'm probably crazy but I feel like the colors are less vibrant.
 
Derangel said:
Hm. For everyone using Crossfire or playing AvP ATI released a profile update for these drivers.

http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread.php?t=33960976

Has single and Crossfire improvements for AvP.
Single and Crossfire for Just Cause 2
Crossfire for BC2, Dark Void, Singularity (thats coming out soon?), and Heaven.
Click to expand...

The list:

• Heaven – Crossfire profile
• Dark Void – Crossfire profile
• Singularity – Crossfire profile
• Unigine Heaven Demo – Crossfire profile
• Just Cause 2 -> Single GPU and Crossfire profile
• Battlefield Bad Company 2 -> Crossfire profile
• AvP -> Single GPU and Crossfire profile
Click to expand...

You install this on top of Cat 10.3a as it improves performance beyond 10.3a, adding to it. So install 10.3a driver, then this profile update, then you'll have the best performance possible at this time.
 
Brent, I saw the thread earlier and grabbed the profile. I just realized the one I grabbed was for 10.2 and I installed it anyways with the 10.3a drivers. If I just install the 10.3 profiles will it overwrite the 10.2 one I installed earlier, or do I have to uninstall those?
 
Hmm, the profile update did nothing for me on the Just Cause 2 demo benchmark with a 5870. 79.5fps average both before and after. Maybe it only works for the full game?
 
These 10.3 drivers gave me a nice boost.

My min/avg fps in Dirt2 went from 36/45 to 43/53. Great job ATI! Although I do have one problem. BFBC2 worked fine with the 10.2's. Now with the 10.3 preview I get instant crashes to the desktop when I try to resume the single player campaign. I didn't uninstall/clean the 10.2's before I installed these since I just wanted to see how much of an improvement I'd get in Dirt2. I'll do that later.
 
Flyinfinni said:
Nick- the 10.3a preview is an updated version of the 10.3/10.3 beta you are using now- it has some added performance tweaks which are quite nice really.
Click to expand...

OK thanks

I will give them a shot, I got some free time today to play with them and play some AvP

Also downloaded the profile package
 
no love for me on my 5870..keep getting some weird d3d errors when I try and run a game or 3Dmark ....rolled back to the 10.2s for now....
I'll install them again when I have more time and see if maybe I just got a bad install.
 
Nickbaldwin86 said:
OK thanks

I will give them a shot, I got some free time today to play with them and play some AvP

Also downloaded the profile package
Click to expand...


I installed the 10.3a and profiles...

I played a few to many hours of AvP today... it didn't do anything for me, I have FRAPS to monitor and take benchmarks while I play, played the same mission with both drivers and got the same min max and avg FPS scores (give or take 1fps in either direction).

Anyways,... maybe the final release will hold something for me to wait for, not holding my breath,

I still have not got around to testing Dirt or anything else.


Over all the drivers are rock solid, played for like 5 hours straight of AvP without any issue. So I am not complaining, just wanted to report back on my experience.
 
the 10.3a were bad news for me in bc2 and AVP, both CTD, bc2 would run sometimes but weird lines in the screen. reverted back to original 10.3 preview, was wondering if it makes sense to install the 10.3a profiles for CF since I just thru in another 5850 today.
 
Tried the heaven bench with these. My max possible stable OC vs one that can be done on stock voltage.

The difference between 1050|1300 and 1000|1250 are as follows on my rig in the heaven bench with the 10.3a driver @ 1920x1200 using default filtering DX11; 46.8 vs 44.9.

I have been running 1030|1300 for actual gaming. I never run my core @max for extended periods.
 
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For some reason this 10.3a causes Plants vs Zombies to refuse to run full screen. I've tried selecting full screen in the game as well as editing the value directly in the registry. Each time the game tries to kick to full screen and then reverts to windowed. I rolled the driver back and it works fine now.

Thought I would mention it in case anyone else bumps into something like this.
 
Installed the 10.3a driver over existing driver in a Dell Studio 17 (with ATI HD3650 card). Installation is shown to be successful, but when checking the Catalyst Control Center, the Catalyst version is 09.12.
Just wondering if the older series cards are utilizing the new drivers.
 
Think these started giving me CTDs and BSODs in BC2 yesterday, its kinda random though.
 
I'm confused about the degree to which crossfire profiles are independent of the drivers now.

Could you use the 10.3a crossfire profiles even if you're still using the 10.2 drivers for example?
 
RWCJr, all beta drivers dont have the cat version # in them, so it displays a previously installed version
what matters is the driver version, for example i'm 10.2 which is 8.702-100202 (feb 2, 2010)

xeddex, do you have firefox open by any chance? ever since i got 3.6, SOMETIMES games lower themselves for no reason until firefox is closed (though last night i noticed when the game alt tabs, i could winkey+tab into it without it lowering itself
 
The 5830 specific drivers work well. I can OC and not have artifacting on my desktop and BFBC2 runs a little better. I don't know why the 5830 had a separate download, oh well.
 
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