New Cats 4.8

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GabooN

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jun 14, 2004
Messages
401
http://www.ati.com/support/drivers/...ctsXPdriver&submit.x=16&submit.y=4&submit=GO!


Performance Improvements

As with most CATALYST™ releases performance has increased in various situations. The following performance gains are noticed:

* Direct3D driver efficiency has improved considerably. Significant performance gains are noted in multiple "CPU-bound" cases, including 3DMark2001, Aquamark 3, Comanche4, Dungeon Siege, and Unreal Tournament 2003 and 2004. Typical improvements are in the 1-5% range.
* OpenGL driver efficiency is also improved. Older OpenGL games such as Quake III Arena and Wolfenstein - Enemy Territory show small improvement (1-2%) at low resolutions. Call of Duty framerates are up approximately 4%. Doom3 improves considerably more (as much as 12% on some product configurations) as a result of the same software efficiency improvements.
 
Interesting:


Geometry Instancing

This release of CATALYST introduces the support of Geometry Instancing. This new feature provides assistance when a game has to render many objects where the geometry is highly similar. Geometry Instancing allows the VPU to create multiple objects from a single geometric model, rather than passing an entire new model for each item on the screen. This increases the rendering speed of images such as leaves, or grass.
Click to expand...
 
yey! glad to see that ATI has officially released some performance-improving drivers for Doom 3, instead of the beta's i'm currently on.
 
I am holding onto my beta 4.9s until they pry them from my cold dead video cards...
 
Since these are infact newer then the 4.9 betas, is it possible they speed up Doom3 and other opengl games more then the 4.9's? Can anyone do any benchmarks in Doom3 with the 4.8s and te 4.9 to see how much of a difference there is? I would do this myself but I no longer own an ATI card and am curious to see what improvements they have made.
 
iceTraxX said:
Since these are infact newer then the 4.9 betas, is it possible they speed up Doom3 and other opengl games more then the 4.9's? Can anyone do any benchmarks in Doom3 with the 4.8s and te 4.9 to see how much of a difference there is? I would do this myself but I no longer own an ATI card and am curious to see what improvements they have made.
Click to expand...

they are not newer than the 4.9 betas, the 4.9 betas are just that, 4.9 betas, these are 4.8 WHQL'd
 
The geometry instance thing, I thought thas what vertex rendering did and the guys running around test in 3dM2k1 showed. There is just so much I don't know but as long as it makes my card faster with less problems I don't care (actually nothing will make it fast as my system is dead)
 
Not sure about you guys but my 9700pro loves the 4.8's, Doom3 is sweeter than ever

1280x1024 high quality 2xAA 8xAF shows @ least 32fps min

mmmm i luv my ATi
 
Elrein said:
1280x1024 high quality 2xAA 8xAF shows @ least 32fps min

mmmm i luv my ATi
Click to expand...

Kind of a video card n00b, I've used the ati tool to experiment with OCing, but just run it at stock speeds. 2.AA 8xAF? Where are these settings and what do they do? Also, How do you tell how many fps you are running in doom? I can't find anything in the menus.

OH, And I will be running home to test my 9800 pro with the new cats tonight.. YAY!
 
In doom3 drop down the console (ctrl-alt-tilde key) and type com_showfps 1,hit the tilde key to raise the console

AA is anti aliasing (removes the jagged lines) and AF is antistropic filtering with cleans up the textures making them look better cleaner less blurred(i think) all in your advanced tab in the display properties

good luck and enjoy the ride
 
The geometry instancing is fantastic. You can have all the vegetation in FarCry drawn as 3-D models as far as the eye can see. No cardboard cut-out bitmaps in view at all.
 
Instancing is cool.. Nice to see it finally being "turned on". I prefer to call it cloning, its just easier to remember it like that, it clones similar objects (like blades of grass or vegetation) and redraws them with slight variations and full shadows somewhere else.

It can be incredibly detailed if done properly. Nalus hair is a good example of instancing too.
 
I used the 4.9b and now installed the 4.8, timedemo for DooM3 FPS was the same..
 
I'm not liking the 4.8s.
Code: 
----- R_InitOpenGL -----
Initializing OpenGL subsystem
...registered window class
...registered fake window class
...initializing QGL
...calling LoadLibrary( 'opengl32' ): succeeded
Couldn't find proc address for: wglGetExtensionsStringARB
Couldn't find proc address for: wglSwapIntervalEXT
Couldn't find proc address for: wglGetPixelFormatAttribivARB
Couldn't find proc address for: wglGetPixelFormatAttribfvARB
Couldn't find proc address for: wglChoosePixelFormatARB
Couldn't find proc address for: wglCreatePbufferARB
Couldn't find proc address for: wglGetPbufferDCARB
Couldn't find proc address for: wglReleasePbufferDCARB
Couldn't find proc address for: wglDestroyPbufferARB
Couldn't find proc address for: wglQueryPbufferARB
Couldn't find proc address for: wglBindTexImageARB
Couldn't find proc address for: wglReleaseTexImageARB
Couldn't find proc address for: wglSetPbufferAttribARB
...calling CDS: ok
...created window @ 0,0 (1024x768)
Initializing OpenGL driver
...getting DC: succeeded
...attempting to use stereo
...PIXELFORMAT 7 selected
...creating GL context: succeeded
...making context current: succeeded
Couldn't find proc address for: wglGetExtensionsStringARB
Couldn't find proc address for: wglSwapIntervalEXT
Couldn't find proc address for: wglGetPixelFormatAttribivARB
Couldn't find proc address for: wglGetPixelFormatAttribfvARB
Couldn't find proc address for: wglChoosePixelFormatARB
Couldn't find proc address for: wglCreatePbufferARB
Couldn't find proc address for: wglGetPbufferDCARB
Couldn't find proc address for: wglReleasePbufferDCARB
Couldn't find proc address for: wglDestroyPbufferARB
Couldn't find proc address for: wglQueryPbufferARB
Couldn't find proc address for: wglBindTexImageARB
Couldn't find proc address for: wglReleaseTexImageARB
Couldn't find proc address for: wglSetPbufferAttribARB

------- Input Initialization -------
Initializing DirectInput...
mouse: DirectInput initialized.
keyboard: DirectInput initialized.
------------------------------------
sound: STEREO
X..GL_ARB_multitexture not found
X..GL_ARB_texture_env_combine not found
X..GL_ARB_texture_cube_map not found
X..GL_ARB_texture_env_dot3 not found
X..GL_ARB_texture_env_add not found
X..GL_ARB_texture_non_power_of_two not found
X..GL_ARB_texture_compression not found
X..GL_EXT_texture_filter_anisotropic not found
X..GL_EXT_texture_lod not found
X..GL_1.4_texture_lod_bias not found
X..GL_EXT_shared_texture_palette not found
X..GL_EXT_texture3D not found
X..GL_EXT_stencil_wrap not found
X..GL_NV_register_combiners not found
X..GL_EXT_stencil_two_side not found
X..GL_ATI_separate_stencil not found
X..GL_ATI_fragment_shader not found
X..GL_ARB_vertex_buffer_object not found
X..GL_ARB_vertex_program not found
X..GL_ARB_fragment_program not found
********************
ERROR: The current video card / driver combination does not support the necessary features
********************
Error during initialization
Shutting down OpenGL subsystem
...wglMakeCurrent( NULL, NULL ): success
...deleting GL context: success
...releasing DC: success
...destroying window
...resetting display
...shutting down QGL
...unloading OpenGL DLL
 
These drivers are great I picked up substantial amount of fps in most games. Also doom3 I picked up roughly 6% more fps over the 4.9 betas
 
ZenOps said:
Instancing is cool.. Nice to see it finally being "turned on". I prefer to call it cloning, its just easier to remember it like that, it clones similar objects (like blades of grass or vegetation) and redraws them with slight variations and full shadows somewhere else.

It can be incredibly detailed if done properly. Nalus hair is a good example of instancing too.
Click to expand...

It is interesting to me because I had no idea the hardware was even capable of it.
 
Sort of guessed ATi had the capability when they showed off the "crowd" demo. Its essentially instancing with full shadow support there, there would be no other way of doing it without a massive performance hit.

ATi is notorious for this stuff, not turning on or even mentioning certain effects until they are 100 percent sure it works. Underhyped and not even acknowledged as being capable, just in case it didn't work would be my guess.
 
Brent_Justice said:
timedemo demo1

but keep in mind the timedemo does NOT play back the game AI
Click to expand...

Actually you can use timedemo demo1.demo usecache

Places the timedemo in cache so you don't have to discard the first run through.
 
ZenOps said:
Sort of guessed ATi had the capability when they showed off the "crowd" demo. Its essentially instancing with full shadow support there, there would be no other way of doing it without a massive performance hit.

ATi is notorious for this stuff, not turning on or even mentioning certain effects until they are 100 percent sure it works. Underhyped and not even acknowledged as being capable, just in case it didn't work would be my guess.
Click to expand...

in this case a little hype wouldn't have hurt, NVIDIA has been touting geometry instancing for a good while now as a feature they have

and now we find out ATI can do it too

would have had greater impact if it was put in the launch papers in my opinion

i'm all for performance improvements, even if they are a suprise ;)
 
intsancing was there along time before this generation of cards. Ogl has support for something call VBO. Vertex Buffer objects. Which was supported from cards 2 generations past. Dx had something like that too, can't remember the exact name but it was in Dx9. The only thing is instancing is alot easier to call for.
 
I saw no real difference in Doom 3 between Cats 4.9b and 4.8

I have a ATI 9800 flashed to a 9800 Pro(samsung Mem) 378/337.5
Doom 3 is set at 1027 x 768 High vsync off shadows off using the Humus tweak

Cat 4.9b: 55.6

Cat 4.8: 55.4

No real difference
 
those drivers really only effect x800's, probably more things going on in the drivers then meets the eyes :rolleyes:
 
so do you have to do anything to enable instancing in doom3 ?
Also, what's the console command to turn it on in farcry?
 
ratmeleon, It's only for Farcry. You have to have the Farcry 1.2 patch and know how to enable the sm2b patch.
 
rancor said:
those drivers really only effect x800's, probably more things going on in the drivers then meets the eyes :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Oh no.... here they come.....
 
ZenOps said:
Sort of guessed ATi had the capability when they showed off the "crowd" demo. Its essentially instancing with full shadow support there, there would be no other way of doing it without a massive performance hit.

ATi is notorious for this stuff, not turning on or even mentioning certain effects until they are 100 percent sure it works. Underhyped and not even acknowledged as being capable, just in case it didn't work would be my guess.
Click to expand...

I like this approach more than overhyping broken features.
 
gordon151 said:
ratmeleon, It's only for Farcry. You have to have the Farcry 1.2 patch and know how to enable the sm2b patch.
Click to expand...
wats the sm2b patch, and what do you enable?
 
From the RELEASE NOTES:
4.8 Release Notes said:
Doom3 improves considerably more (as much as 12% on some product configurations) as a result of the same software efficiency improvements.
Click to expand...

Interesting...
Probably not anything significant. ;)
 
I wonder if this means we will see the Far Cry patch anytime soon........
 
I went from 46fps to 51 fps in doom3 time demo. 1600x1200 high quality :D
 
just installed them, no probs at all. my performance is good enough in d3 with the cats 4.7s so as long as i dont lost performance i have no worries.
 
spruce said:
I went from 46fps to 51 fps in doom3 time demo. 1600x1200 high quality :D
Click to expand...

Wait CPU and video card you running? I might use these instead of the 4.9b's.
 
cat 4.8 beta was the farcry tweak
and then cat 4.9 beta was the doom 3 tweak that ati released

I am sure that the 4.9 beta was incorporated in the just released final 4.8 cat...thats why there is no difference in performance really. Since I went from 4.7 to 4.9b I am definately gonna install the completed 4.8 cat. Besides, 4.7 was a flaming pile with the problems it had.
 
You're right megawzrd, going from 4.9bs to this yielded pretty much same performance in doom3 so I'm sticking with these. They also fixed an issue I had with nfsu from 4.7s, so I'm straight.
 
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