AMD Catalyst 14.1 Beta Now Available

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The folks at AMD sent work that the new Catalyst 14.1 beta drivers are now available. Those of you hoping for Mantel support will want to read this:

  • Known issue of AMD Catalyst 14.1 Beta: Mantle performance for the AMD Radeon™ HD 7000/HD 8000 Series GPUs and AMD Radeon™ R9 280X and R9 270X GPUs will be optimized for BattleField 4™ in future AMD Catalyst™ releases. These products will see limited gains in BattleField 4™ and AMD is currently investigating optimizations for them.
  • Multi-GPU support under DirectX® and Mantle will be added to StarSwarm in a future application patch. Intermittent stuttering or stability issues may occur when utilizing Mantle with AMD CrossFire™ technology in BattleField 4. A future AMD Catalyst release will resolve these issues.
  • Intermittent stuttering or stability issues may occur when utilizing Mantle with AMD CrossFire™ technology in BattleField 4™ - AMD recommends using the DirectX code path when playing Battlefield 4 with multiple GPUs. A future AMD Catalyst release will resolve these issues.
Click to expand...
 
So.. Basically.... a Mantle driver is still incoming. This is a sorry attempt at a Mantle driver, I'm figuring.
 
They have fixes and feature support to enable still, yes, so of course there will be more driver updates, as well as BF4 patches.

Initial Beta performance is positive, however.
 
Strange that people with 7870 are seeing improvement but it doesn't apply to R9 270X which is supposedly a higher clocked 7870. For me it's actually slower.
 
Seems to give me around 10 FPS in single card (my stock 290 is out ATM cos I am putting a Gelid on it this evening). That is with everything maxed, sitting 65-75FPS.
 
Well it sure worked for me. The star swarm stress test on my system is great now. I have an HD 7950
 
mach1.9pants said:
Seems to give me around 10 FPS in single card (my stock 290 is out ATM cos I am putting a Gelid on it this evening). That is with everything maxed, sitting 65-75FPS.
Click to expand...

deff something wrong, i got 50fps mantle on my single 290 (i put a gelid on as well), 35fps on d3d
 
Warsam71 said:
Hello everyone, we just released more information:

Blog: “AMD Catalyst™ 14.1, a must-have driver for gamers!” - http://community.amd.com/community/...md-catalyst-141-a-must-have-driver-for-gamers

Known Issues: http://support.amd.com/en-us/kb-articles/Pages/Mantle-Known-Issues.aspx

FAQ: “Mantle Graphics API Frequently Asked Questions”: www.amd.com/mantlefaq

I hope you'll find the above links helpful.
Click to expand...

Warsam,

There is a serious bug with 14.1 right now, please channel this internally. People who have their integrated GPU enabled in Device Manager will get a crash to desktop when they click Options in Battlefield 4, every time.

Fairly widespread, people here and BF4 forums going on about it. Everyone who has disabled their integrated GPU has resolved it. This seems like something AMD should fix, so you might want to let the engineering team know.
 
I downloaded and installed right over my 13.11 drivers. No uninstalling of anything, no reboot. So far no issues. Changed settings in BF4 and it feels more consistently smooth. FPS doesn't seem like it's fluctuating as much, at least while playing Lockers. Gonna test out the other maps tomorrow, but so far I'm satisfied to say the least.
 
Running 2 7950s, used a driver cleaner and did a fresh install with one crash on exiting. Other than that no issues.
 
So basically this is an alpha testing? Best to avoid unless you want to have lots of issues?

I guess I will wait another month before updating everything
 
WiLLiSTER said:
I downloaded and installed right over my 13.11 drivers. No uninstalling of anything, no reboot. So far no issues. Changed settings in BF4 and it feels more consistently smooth. FPS doesn't seem like it's fluctuating as much, at least while playing Lockers. Gonna test out the other maps tomorrow, but so far I'm satisfied to say the least.
Click to expand...

So I works will all GPUs in BF4? In driver "Known Issues" is stated that is only for 290/x, Kaveri and r7 260.
 
It is a Beta driver, one that everyone knows has issues starting with AMD, yet, everyone gets their panties in a bunch when it doesn't work butter smooth. It is a beta for a very new feature set/api, it is going to be broken. If you were happy with your performance before, why did you bother installing this at all until it was either official or had a couple of refreshes...

This is the exact reason why it is important to have a spare hard drive with a copy of Windows on it to play around with new things like this... Am I the only one that does this? All the irrational bitching and moaning about this just gross.

Thank you AMD for doing something different and trying to shake up the entire graphics and API community. Perhaps next time you can not set release dates on such things so you can just release it when it is done and people don't have a fucking bitch-fest when the things that were openly said to be broken... were broken for them...

Quit bitching...
 
I thought this was just a Mantle demo, nothing much to do with Nvidia.

Results for me:
== Results ================================================
Test Duration: 360 Seconds
Total Frames: 12086

Average FPS: 33.57
Average Unit Count: 4030
Maximum Unit Count: 5490
Average Batches/MS: 686.92
Maximum Batches/MS: 1384.12
Average Batch Count: 21285
Maximum Batch Count: 81166
===========================================================


Mantle:
== Results ================================================
Test Duration: 360 Seconds
Total Frames: 20285

Average FPS: 56.34
Average Unit Count: 4564
Maximum Unit Count: 5944
Average Batches/MS: 1065.20
Maximum Batches/MS: 2745.72
Average Batch Count: 20955
Maximum Batch Count: 148239
===========================================================
 
Aside from the release snafu, if mantle delivers on half of what is claimed I think it will be good for gamers and AMD. My results were not to bad either in the demo.

DX~
Test Duration: 360 Seconds
Total Frames: 7518

Average FPS: 20.88
Average Unit Count: 3936
Maximum Unit Count: 5419

Mantle~
Test Duration: 360 Seconds
Total Frames: 13437

Average FPS: 37.32
Average Unit Count: 4137
Maximum Unit Count: 5502
 
well AMD didn't disappoint my prediction of the driver itself sucking.

I get it's a beta driver... the problem is everything they have released always has the beta tag next to it. Every time ive upgraded, to fix X, it breaks Y. And 14.1 is no exception.

Their huge mantle release for BF4 made my BF4 unplayable. It also broke my entire mining operation. Looking back -- it's pretty obvious that they fucked up releasing in december as planned, they fucked up releasing in January, but just to be able to say "we did it" they released a half baked 14.1 yesterday

Sure -- the star swarm demo works great in mantle on my PC -- who cares though, it's a demo. I use my main rig for mining and gaming, two things I'm now dead in the water with till I roll back.

I have tons of AMD hardware, and nobody wanted mantle to work without a hitch more than me.... but their first impression left me pissed and bitter. I'd rather they take the valve approach, don't promise dates and times and then scramble to release some worthless piece of shit that works for 20% of the population.
 
mi7chy said:
Strange that people with 7870 are seeing improvement but it doesn't apply to R9 270X which is supposedly a higher clocked 7870. For me it's actually slower.
Click to expand...

I've never seen my 7870 work so hard before. In bf4 especially. I hope we get more games soon. I fucking hate bf4 but I'm apparently "good" at it ad my local gaming group plays it a lot. It would be nice to have previously released games have mantle patches. Future looks bright. Fuck the nay sayers. :shrug:

Kaori said:
what a waste of time to install those..
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uhh...Nope. BETA, they gotta release something and see whats wrong before they can fix it. AMD certainly can't catch everything for every configuration just by testing, they got to let out into the wild. This is much different than a standard driver revision, and I don't see how free performance is a waste of time, get a clue and troll elsewhere.

SixFootDuo said:
So basically this is an alpha testing? Best to avoid unless you want to have lots of issues?

I guess I will wait another month before updating everything
Click to expand...

Or you could spend 5 minutes installing it, try out a round of bf4, and if you have issues just spend 5 minutes rolling back to your old drives, kind of like AMD has suggested. I don't see why you wouldn't, I mean if it works just fine you have a nice boost to play with, if not then it's not very hard to just uninstall the new drivers and throw the old ones back in. Why do people act like installing drivers is such a pain in the ass? It's not at all. Spending way to much time trying to fix something that's broken (if it even is) is the pain in the ass. IF something, anything, is worse than before then just roll back and let it be. But that's just me man. Either way you have a nice system. You'll have fun :)
 
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Guess the meaning of Beta got lost with WHQL... maybe should have called it Alpha driver...whatever it's a name.

In any case... I'll wait until mining works though, having my main rig downed for mining is not a pleasant experience...
 
Yakk said:
Guess the meaning of Beta got lost with WHQL... maybe should have called it Alpha driver...whatever it's a name.
Click to expand...
Seriously this.

I just sigh @ the whining from pebcaks. Only an idiot would install beta drivers specially when operating a rig that requires stability for mining and was operating fine to begin with...
 
I would love to see the impact that an API like Mantle could have on the ground up development of a flight simulator.

The Flight Simulator X development team bumped up against the limitations of DirectX big time. I can only image what you can get away with when you have draw calls to spare. Photorealistic textures, objects as far as the eye can see, complex lighting, spare horsepower to perform physics calculations, etc.

I remember Phil Taylor of Microsoft's ACES studio making more than one post about DirectX and it's limitations regarding the development path of FSX.

I don't feel like digging them up, but here is his FSX blog for the hard core. http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ptaylor/

/Holy fuck, I can see the potential for skies filled with huge B17 formations as far as the eye can see, or scenes from the Battle of Britain with hundreds of aircraft. Or huge amounts of ground units engaging each other as you fly overhead in your IL-2, a living battlefield with hell breaking loose.

Even if Mantle doesn't become the "next big thing", I'm betting it will make Microsoft pull it's head out of it's ass and address the weaknesses present in DX.
 
Lorien said:
Seriously this.

I just sigh @ the whining from pebcaks. Only an idiot would install beta drivers specially when operating a rig that requires stability for mining and was operating fine to begin with...
Click to expand...

Dear lord its a first release beta driver for a brand new api. Oh, by the way its free. WTF are people whining about? Half the comments are just thread crapping.
 
On my 7970 crossfire setup in BF4 ive gained about 5FPS at 1920X1200 in multiplayer
 
roki977 said:
So I works will all GPUs in BF4? In driver "Known Issues" is stated that is only for 290/x, Kaveri and r7 260.
Click to expand...

Could be placebo. I spend majority of my BF4 time in my clan's 24/7 Lockers server and last night definitely felt consistently smoother than what I was used to. Especially in more chaotic situations where grenades are blowing up all over the place. I wouldn't say my fps numbers were higher overall, just that they weren't dipping into the 30-40's as much. Or maybe it's all in my head :D The game is working well for me though so I'm quite satisfied considering this is a first release. I'm excited to see what else will come in the future.
 
Anyone else having problems with these in CrossFire? I know Mantle doesn't support CFX well in Battlefield 4 yet, but I am having negative scaling using Direct3D in Battlefield 4 now and in Far Cry 3 as well. Reverting back to 13.12 resolves the issue.

Anyone else? Trying to determine if I did something wrong (reinstalled several times including a few fresh installs), if it's my system, or if it's the drivers.
 
MY CPU was almost entirely free when playing and I was getting a constant 67fps at 1080p with Cranked up AA settings.
This is only a little faster then before but still I agree that the game feels smoother.
 
Rizen said:
Anyone else having problems with these in CrossFire? I know Mantle doesn't support CFX well in Battlefield 4 yet, but I am having negative scaling using Direct3D in Battlefield 4 now and in Far Cry 3 as well. Reverting back to 13.12 resolves the issue.

Anyone else? Trying to determine if I did something wrong (reinstalled several times including a few fresh installs), if it's my system, or if it's the drivers.
Click to expand...

Yep. 14.1 completely broken in BF4 with CFX. Totally unplayable, had to revert back to 13.12. Sigh.
 
collegeboy69us said:
,
I have tons of AMD hardware, and nobody wanted mantle to work without a hitch more than me.... but their first impression left me pissed and bitter. I'd rather they take the valve approach, don't promise dates and times and then scramble to release some worthless piece of shit that works for 20% of the population.
Click to expand...

"and nobody wanted mantle to work without a hitch more than me." - uh huh, and that's why your 'first impression' of a beta driver for a brand new API left you 'pissed and bitter'?

Believable.
 
2700K @4.5ghz and R9 290X windforce edition on win7 64 bit here.....getting massive speed up going from d3d to mantle in star swarm.

but not able to get fraps to run with mantle in bf4 so not able to make comparison.

Will say though that I get quite frequent "hitching" in BF4 with mantle that I didn't notice in d3d.
 
fraps wont run with mantle, its only for DX and OGL. Same with all the other proggies.

I assume they add support at some point assuming the hooks exsist. They may not.
 
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