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

FrgMstr

FrgMstr

Just Plain Mean
Staff member
Joined
May 18, 1997
Messages
55,629
AMD's ATI 10.3a Catalyst Driver Update - AMD is putting out a new "performance" driver that sports some very aggressive frame rate increases according to AMD. The new "10.3a" driver will soon be released to the enthusiast with a WHQL driver coming in shortly behind that. Interestingly enough, the non-WHQL will have a couple more tweaks than the WHQL version. Let's give you the details.
 
Love the nVidia Avatar advertisement from google. Luck of the draw I guess.
 
They aren't joking about the 30% improvement in Dirt2 either. It's pretty nuts now on a 5970, if the 10.3 betas are anything to go by.

Apart from the Eyefinity6 and the AvP stuff, will these 10.3a have anything over the 10.3 beta drivers that have been around for a few weeks now?
 
J Macker said:
Love the nVidia Avatar advertisement from google. Luck of the draw I guess.
Click to expand...

Actually that is not a Google ad, it is an ad paid for by NVIDIA.

anthrex said:
Looks like AMD is trying to stave off Fermi.
Click to expand...

Yes.

Finkus said:
Apart from the Eyefinity6 and the AvP stuff, will these 10.3a have anything over the 10.3 beta drivers that have been around for a few weeks now?
Click to expand...

I would guess that the 10.3 drivers you have in hand now are a leaked version of the 10.3 WHQL driver that will post at the end of the month.
 
Wasn't there some discussion a while ago that it may have looked like AMD was holding back the performance of the 5XXX series? I thought I remember reading some reviews that could not really explain some of their benchmark anomalies- especially with the 5770 series. This could be interesting :)
 
I was hoping these drivers would fix the horrible load times in BfBC2 or have a workaround for them, otherwise i guess i have to wait until DICE fix it.

For anybody who doesnt know, ATI load times under DX10/11 mode are horrible, anywhere from 40-60 seconds per map change......in DX9 mode, or using the same system with a Nvidia card, load times are about 10 seconds.
 
Kyle, do you have a preview of these installed already? If so, what is the date on the display driver itself so we can compare it to the date on the leaked 10.3 betas. I'm curious about whether or not this is the same as the same 10.3 beta I've been running for the past few weeks...
 
I was hoping these drivers would fix the horrible load times in BfBC2 or have a workaround for them, otherwise i guess i have to wait until DICE fix it.
Click to expand...

There are lots of bugs in BFBC2... The most annoying one is definately how long it takes to log in, update stats, then download server list...
 
I'm thinking this 10.3a is just the 10.3 beta I'm currently using.......no?
 
There is certant things ive missed about ati/amd cards.

That is public beta drivers, looks like amd is actually going to hand out them now at the underground site :D

Anyways, looking forward to the mobile driver thing :D cant wait to finally get to use the 3 series ati card with a driver from this year, and well, not from december 2008!
 
Toytown said:
I was hoping these drivers would fix the horrible load times in BfBC2 or have a workaround for them, otherwise i guess i have to wait until DICE fix it.
Click to expand...

Yeah I didn't realise this was an ATI bug until recently. I was wondering why, with a 5970 and an SSD, I was barely managing to get into a new map and spawn before the first capture point was grabbed.
 
ljbade said:
There are lots of bugs in BFBC2... The most annoying one is definately how long it takes to log in, update stats, then download server list...
Click to expand...

I'm sure it has something to do with memory management- since no one has the 10.3a drivers we really don't know yet.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Diseaseboy said:
Wasn't there some discussion a while ago that it may have looked like AMD was holding back the performance of the 5XXX series? I thought I remember reading some reviews that could not really explain some of their benchmark anomalies- especially with the 5770 series. This could be interesting :)
Click to expand...

Eh, doesn't look like that at all... Other than Dirt 2 and HAWX most of the improvements were relatively minor (~5%), huge improvements in those two games tho... Clearly some well-developed game-specific optimizations in those two cases.
 
Diseaseboy said:
Wasn't there some discussion a while ago that it may have looked like AMD was holding back the performance of the 5XXX series? I thought I remember reading some reviews that could not really explain some of their benchmark anomalies- especially with the 5770 series. This could be interesting :)
Click to expand...

If you really think AMD has been intentionally holding back the performance of its GPUs, so it can "surprise attack" NVIDIA, you need to put down the crack pipe and get some help.

Majeztik12 said:
Any improvements for single card performance???
Click to expand...

RTFA

Rattle said:
where is this 10.3a driver? i am on 10.3 preview driver now.
Click to expand...

RTFA
 
legoman666 said:
Kyle, do you have a preview of these installed already? If so, what is the date on the display driver itself so we can compare it to the date on the leaked 10.3 betas. I'm curious about whether or not this is the same as the same 10.3 beta I've been running for the past few weeks...
Click to expand...

CCC10dot3a.png
 
Kyle- the driver you used in the preview article on 10.2 and 10.3- was it the 10.3 WHQL preview or was it the 10.3a?
 
Diseaseboy said:
Seriously, if I remember correctly it came up because some benchmarks of the 5770 were questioned because they were so close to the 58XX cards even though it has half of the memory bandwith. It was suspected that either they were holding back some performance or possbily still needed more time for optimizing the 58XX cards.
Click to expand...

No, the 5770 was a bit disappointing because it had the same core clock as a 4890 but still performed worse than a 4870 which had a 100Mhz slower core. Yet, you are correct in that the 5870 was also a bit disappointing in that it did not even beat a 4870X2, let alone equal 2x 4890's in crossfire (which was anticipated by the crowd).

Hell, why on earth would ATI actually hold back performance? They are a business and they would want it to be as fast as possible so that the demand would be as high as possible. Only if they made 5770's with 256-bit bus and 58xx's with 512-bit bus.. those cards would have been at least 20-27% faster overall. It seems like the most cost efficient way to counter the Fermi (to actually "kill" Fermi) with say, 950MHz core clock and 512-bit bus with GDDR5 memory. This is the perfect chance for ATI. If they do not really seize the opportunity with a deathgrip, they will regret it for a long time wishing that they did.

---

Even if every single game receives a 3-5% boost, I'm still not really impressed. I can clearly remember when Nvidia released driver updates that offered at least 10% boost across the board a couple times a few years ago. One update had to do with vastly improved HSR (Hidden Surface Removal) algorithm. Practically every single Geforce card received around 15% boost across the board. It was amazing.

Well, at least my 4870 1GB (that is still doing exceptionally well for a card that's only $100-130) will receive roughly the same boost as a 5870 with those 10.3a drivers.
 
Last edited:
Bo_Fox said:
No, the 5770 was a bit disappointing because it had the same core clock as a 4890 but still performed worse than a 4870 which had a 100Mhz slower core. Yet, you are correct in that the 5870 was also a bit disappointing in that it did not even beat a 4870X2, let alone equal 2x 4890's in crossfire (which was anticipated by the crowd).

---

Even if every single game receives a 3-5% boost, I'm still not really impressed. I can clearly remember when Nvidia released driver updates that offered at least 10% boost across the board a couple times a few years ago. One update had to do with vastly improved HSR (Hidden Surface Removal) algorithm. Practically every single Geforce card received around 15% boost across the board. It was amazing.

Well, at least my 4870 1GB (that is still doing exceptionally well for a card that's only $100-130) will receive roughly the same boost as a 5870 with those 10.3a drivers.
Click to expand...

huh? what driver you smoking from?

from nVidia's driver almost nearly everyone single one of them have a performance increase description on it while IT DOES NOT increase a crap in reality...
I am not quite sure why nVidia keep putting those same change log on it all the time.
but so far the only real improvement from driver is 4870X2 and ATI's 9.12 HF that boost like 20-30% in Crysis that surpass nVidia card...
 
Bo_Fox said:
No, the 5770 was a bit disappointing because it had the same core clock as a 4890 but still performed worse than a 4870 which had a 100Mhz slower core. Yet, you are correct in that the 5870 was also a bit disappointing in that it did not even beat a 4870X2, let alone equal 2x 4890's in crossfire (which was anticipated by the crowd).

---

Even if every single game receives a 3-5% boost, I'm still not really impressed. I can clearly remember when Nvidia released driver updates that offered at least 10% boost across the board a couple times a few years ago. One update had to do with vastly improved HSR (Hidden Surface Removal) algorithm. Practically every single Geforce card received around 15% boost across the board. It was amazing.

Well, at least my 4870 1GB (that is still doing exceptionally well for a card that's only $100-130) will receive roughly the same boost as a 5870 with those 10.3a drivers.
Click to expand...

Wow... not impressed with free performance increases? You are hard to please!
 
Damn, I was editing my above post before I saw your replies.

@ shansoft, just google for "Forceware driver boost performance". You'll see what I was smoking, dude! :D

@ inglewood78.. Yeah, it's hard to please somebody with a performance difference that is hardly noticeable in real life. Are you really sure that you can notice a 3-5% difference?

Well, I guess I was spoiled by Nvidia's surprises in the past. One game like Dead Space along with several others for example got a 40% boost for all cards from 8800 series and up in one driver revision.
 
Bo_Fox said:
Damn, I was editing my above post before I saw your replies.

@ shansoft, just google for "Forceware driver boost performance". You'll see what I was smoking, dude! :D

@ inglewood78.. Yeah, it's hard to please somebody with a performance difference that is hardly noticeable in real life. Are you really sure that you can notice a 3-5% difference?

Well, I guess I was spoiled by Nvidia's surprises in the past. One game like Dead Space along with several others for example got a 40% boost for all cards from 8800 series and up in one driver revision.
Click to expand...

Regardless of how much of a performance increase it is...its free right? I mean, if someone come up to me and gave me $1, I'm not going to smack them across the face and say "I can believe you have the audacity to insult me with a meesely dollar! What kind of low class person do you think I am. For your information, I got $10 last month! Poof, be gone"
 
Well, talking about a single title that got a big perf boost, maybe Dirt2 getting a 30% perf. boost is enough? and that MANY games all getting a few % is pretty impressive. And hey- 5% can make a difference if you are on the edge of playability!
 
Flyinfinni said:
Kyle- the driver you used in the preview article on 10.2 and 10.3- was it the 10.3 WHQL preview or was it the 10.3a?
Click to expand...

It was NOT the "performance driver" we are talking about with 10.3a.
 
Wow that's some pretty impressive performance gains (in games that I actually care about too)...Crysis, DiRT 2, AvP, Clear Sky etc

Catalyst Maker tweeted that these drivers are being referred to as the 'Holy Crap' drivers

this and the i7 980X makes geeks like me happy this week
 
Its sad that there is no Battlefield bad company 2 optimizations. There seems to be a great deal of delay between a nvidia system and a ati 5xxx system in regards of loading. This might be in relation the DX11 in the game. But when your first on the battlefield its helps!
 
inglewood78 said:
Regardless of how much of a performance increase it is...its free right? I mean, if someone come up to me and gave me $1, I'm not going to smack them across the face and say "I can believe you have the audacity to insult me with a meesely dollar! What kind of low class person do you think I am. For your information, I got $10 last month! Poof, be gone"
Click to expand...

Haha LOL! I did say that I am glad that my 4870 1GB is at least receiving almost the same boost as a 5870 with those 10.3a's. At least I showed my appreciation! :eek: :D
 
I think ATI held these drivers back...they were supposed to be released 'early' this month...my guess is that they purposely delayed the release to put a damper on Nvidia's upcoming luanch...since Nvidia has delayed retail availability until April now ATI will have the spotlight all to themselves
 
Bo_Fox said:
Damn, I was editing my above post before I saw your replies.

@ shansoft, just google for "Forceware driver boost performance". You'll see what I was smoking, dude! :D

@ inglewood78.. Yeah, it's hard to please somebody with a performance difference that is hardly noticeable in real life. Are you really sure that you can notice a 3-5% difference?

Well, I guess I was spoiled by Nvidia's surprises in the past. One game like Dead Space along with several others for example got a 40% boost for all cards from 8800 series and up in one driver revision.
Click to expand...

uh.. you mean that big bang driver? that thing does not really boost fps at all.. its a myth..

and it was a disaster .......
 
polonyc2 said:
I think ATI held these drivers back...they were supposed to be released 'early' this month...my guess is that they purposely delayed the release to put a damper on Nvidia's upcoming luanch...since Nvidia has delayed retail availability until April now ATI will have the spotlight all to themselves
Click to expand...

But most of the performance improvements are also for 4xxx cards, it doesn't make sense that they would have held back improvements on those cards for all this time. Many of the games listed are not even new games.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top