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AMD Never Settle Catalyst 12.11 Driver Update

Do you guys think the 7970 is worth it over the 7950? 1920x1080 is my res and I would like to play games like BF3 maxed. I would be coming from a GTX 570. Also, I won't watercool, but which would be the best for air cooling with OC'ing to like 1100 core in mind?

This new driver/bundle has settled it for me, HD 79xx it is! :cool:
 
holy shit. time to get off the RC11 drivers. hopefully these are stable since the last one i tried (12.7 beta) gave my system fits.
 
Bought one of those cheap diamond 7970's a little while back and was unsure of whether or not it was the right decision, but this seals the deal.
 
Drivers on the Amd Website now, under 12.11 beta.

Woot!

downloading :-D, Looked at the legit review, and seems like i can expect 10-20% more power. Out of my 7870 crossfire setup. Great news :-D
 
xIronCrossx said:
Do you guys think the 7970 is worth it over the 7950? 1920x1080 is my res and I would like to play games like BF3 maxed. I would be coming from a GTX 570. Also, I won't watercool, but which would be the best for air cooling with OC'ing to like 1100 core in mind?

This new driver/bundle has settled it for me, HD 79xx it is! :cool:
Click to expand...

7970 would most likely OC better.
1100mhz a 7950 might do again might,
however a 7950 oc is fine for your resolution
 
xIronCrossx said:
Do you guys think the 7970 is worth it over the 7950? 1920x1080 is my res and I would like to play games like BF3 maxed. I would be coming from a GTX 570. Also, I won't watercool, but which would be the best for air cooling with OC'ing to like 1100 core in mind?

This new driver/bundle has settled it for me, HD 79xx it is! :cool:
Click to expand...

I made intensive testing about this, and the conclusion is this.

If you get card which has decent memory chips (good overclocker) it does not WORTH.

But, if you get crap memory like mine, or lets say average it does worth! because 7970 memory chips are better, (rated for 6000+) and they go like 6500+ with no problem, 7950 around 5800/6000 max as average, and also the core on 7970 usually goes to 1200/1200+ but on 7950 your top is around 1150, so your looking at 10/15% difference.
 
Theres a post on OCN from an AMD Rep

We're aware of the clock issue on the 7970, we've had two reports out of Europe today. We're on it.

On the flip side, the long-standing idle GPU clock bug for the 7870 should be solved.
Click to expand...
 
FaRKle0079 said:
Crossing my fingers that yours doesn't have a terrible whine like my three did...
Click to expand...

I usually game with my G35, so if I can hear it then it's definitely going back. But I can't even hear it when someone runs in my room and yells :D


I would hope they fixed that by now though, I know my EVGA X58 had a weird squeal during heavy loads, but it wasn't really annoying.
 
PeeWeePee said:
i paid $600 for my 7970 and i have no regrets
Click to expand...

Ditto - still using the same 2 Black Edition DD XFX's bought from Amazon at 600.

1200 dollars to get me the godly FPS to complement my 120hz monitor? Hell yes. Looks like AMD has the performance crown again.
 
psyside said:
I made intensive testing about this, and the conclusion is this.

If you get card which has decent memory chips (good overclocker) it does not WORTH.

But, if you get crap memory like mine, or lets say average it does worth! because 7970 memory chips are better, (rated for 6000+) and they go like 6500+ with no problem, 7950 around 5800/6000 max as average, and also the core on 7970 usually goes to 1200/1200+ but on 7950 your top is around 1150, so your looking at 10/15% difference.
Click to expand...
Considering that the 7900 series is already on a higher bus-width compared to the 600-series NVIDIA cards, are these really that bandwidth starved where the memory makes a difference?
 
Rizen said:
The 4870X2 was released in 2008. It's nearly 2013. No, I don't think you should continue to expect driver updates. And they have done two entirely new architectures since then. If they need to branch out the older architectures to make the new drivers leaner, so be it. 4870X2s are old now.
Click to expand...

My 4870x2s haul ass even still. The main reason I got my 2nd GTX680 is because with only one it was basically a sidegrade coming from 2x 4870x2. I don't mind old tech eventually being put out to pasture, but it should at least get to the point where games are slow on it before the driver rug gets pulled out from underneath. These cards have years left.

It's also comical to refer to tech from 2008 (that wasn't replaced until late 2009) as "old" when the majority of gaming these days takes place on XBox360s (2005) and Playstation 3s (2006).

And again, Nvidia seems to have no issues supporting cards going as far back as 2004. I guess none of this matters if you are the sort of person that just junks anything more than a year or two old. I don't.
 
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaand no updates for Enduro cards. The 12.10 driver on the site is still incompatible with switchable graphics.

At this rate, I figure they get it fixed around about the time I decide to upgrade the laptop anyhow.
 
GotNoRice said:
My 4870x2s haul ass even still. The main reason I got my 2nd GTX680 is because with only one it was basically a sidegrade coming from 2x 4870x2. I don't mind old tech eventually being put out to pasture, but it should at least get to the point where games are slow on it before the driver rug gets pulled out from underneath. These cards have years left.

It's also comical to refer to tech from 2008 (that wasn't replaced until late 2009) as "old" when the majority of gaming these days takes place on XBox360s (2005) and Playstation 3s (2006).

And again, Nvidia seems to have no issues supporting cards going as far back as 2004. I guess none of this matters if you are the sort of person that just junks anything more than a year or two old. I don't.
Click to expand...

Your 4870x2 is as fast as 1 5870. Which you can pick up for around $130.

Hauls ass isnt the word I would use for a 4870x2, which is DX10 as well.
 
Sycraft said:
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaand no updates for Enduro cards. The 12.10 driver on the site is still incompatible with switchable graphics.

At this rate, I figure they get it fixed around about the time I decide to upgrade the laptop anyhow.
Click to expand...

FEATURE HIGHLIGHTS OF THE AMD CATALYST 12.11 BETA DRIVER:

This driver introduces significant performance improvements for many games across ALL 28nm AMD Radeon™ HD 7000 Series products: HD 7700, HD7800 and HD7900 products.
Performance Highlights of the AMD CATALYST 12.11 BETA Driver

10%-15% more performance in Battlefield 3 in most cases
More than 20% in certain missions and sequences (Comrades)
Up to 7% more performance in Metro 2033
Up to 10% more performance in DIRT Showdown
Up to 8% more performance in Sleeping Dogs
Up to 12% more performance in Civilization V
Up to 10% more performance in StarCraft II
Up to 8% more performance in Sniper Elite: V2

Resolved issue highlights of AMD Catalyst™ 12.11 Beta

Resolves performance issues (where GPU activity runs at lower values than expected) seen on the AMD Radeon HD 7870
AMD Catalyst Mobility 7970M performance for AMD Enduro™ Technology supported platforms has been substantially improved for DirectX 10 and DirectX 11 applications. An updated driver for 7970M users featuring AMD Enduro™ Technology with additional DirectX 9 performance improvements will be released soon.
3DMark Vantage – Up to 15%
3DMark 11 – Up to 12%
AvP – Up to 11%
Battlefield 3 – Up to 25%
Crysis 2: Up to 45%
DiRT Showdown – Up to 62%
ETQW – Up to 8%
Hard Reset – Up to 8%
Just Cause 2 – Up to 90%
The Chronicles of Riddick – Up to 4%
Shogun 2 – Up to 56%
Sniper Elite V2 – Up to 60%
Tom Clancy’s HAWX – Up to 56%
Unigine Heaven – Up to 33%
Wolfenstein – Up to 9%
Click to expand...
http://support.amd.com/us/kbarticles/Pages/AMDCatalystSoftwareSuiteVersion1211BetaReleaseNotes.aspx

FEATURE HIGHLIGHTS OF THE AMD CATALYST 12.10 DRIVER:


AMD Catalyst 12.10 – Ready for Windows 8


For AMD Radeon™ HD 5000, HD 6000 and HD 7000 Series users, Microsoft® has certified today’s AMD Catalyst™ 12.10 release as “compatible with Windows 8.” With this driver, these products offer full support for WDDM 1.2, which is an updated model for graphics drivers that Microsoft has developed to ensure smooth performance and wide compatibility in their new operating system.

Target-Independent Rasterization (TIR): TIR is a new rendering path that enables superior anti-aliasing in Direct3D driver applications
Native Stereo 3D Support: Windows 8 natively supports stereoscopic 3D gaming and videos via compatible applications
Unified Video API: Video playback has been integrated into the DirectX® 11 API, enabling simultaneous video and gaming content. Transcoding performance may also be improved for supported applications.
Optimized screen rotation for rotation aware devices
Improved sleep/resume performance
Optimized GPU power consumption
Major technologies / features also supported under Windows 8:
AMD Eyefinity technology
OpenCL™
OpenGL
Unified Video Decoder (UVD)
AMD Dual Graphics
AMD CrossFire technology
AMD Overdrive
AMD Catalyst Control Center/ AMD Vision Engine Control Center
AMD Catalyst Mobility support for AMD Enduro™ Technology

AMD Catalyst Mobility now includes support for AMD Enduro™ Technology. AMD Enduro Technology is currently supported on all notebook Intel® IvyBridge platforms and AMD Comal platforms that support the AMD Radeon HD 7900M, 7800M, 7700M – additional products will be supported in future Catalyst releases.”

AMD Enduro™ Technology for Notebooks delivers:

Unbeatable battery life
GPU accelerated performance for gaming, video, and compute apps
A Seamless and automatic experience
New Enduro™ Technology features found in Catalyst 12.10:

Re-designed Catalyst Control Center user interface
View all profiled applications
View recently run applications
Profile applications based on power source
Expert mode control and customization
Performance centric AC
Battery centric DC

RESOLVED ISSUES

This section provides information on resolved known issues in this release of the AMD Catalyst12.10 software suite.

Resolved Issues for the Windows 8 Operating System

Enemy Territory Quake Wars performance affected when run at high resolutions
Wolfenstien performance affected when run at high resolutions
System hangs when disabling Eyefinity
World of Warcraft – Mists of Pandaria experiences graphical corruption when anti-aliasing is forced to 2X or higher

Resolved Issues for the Windows 7 Operating System

F1 2011 : Vehicle textures flicker when game is run at low settings
Dirt Showdown : Flickering seen when benchmark is run in DirectX 11 mode
Battlefield – Bad Company 2 : Flickering textures seen in AMD CrossFire mode
Alan Wake – Freezes when run in DirectX 9 mode with AMD CrossFire and Eyefinity enabled
Portal 2 – Freezes when run in DirectX 9 mode with AMD Crossfire and Eyefinity enabled

KNOWN ISSUES

The following section provides a summary of open issues that may be experienced with the AMD Catalyst 12.10 software suite.

Known issues under the Windows 8 operating system

AMD Eyefinity portrait resolutions may not apply correctly when AMD CrossFire is enabled
Known issues under the Windows 7operating system

Serious Sam 3 may crash when AMD CrossFire and Eyefinity are enabled
May Payne 3 may experience flickering and ghosting when in DirectX 9 mode with Anti Aliasing enabled.
Click to expand...
http://support.amd.com/us/kbarticles/Pages/AMDCatalystSoftwareSuiteVersion1210ReleaseNotes.aspx
 
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Rizen said:
Considering that the 7900 series is already on a higher bus-width compared to the 600-series NVIDIA cards, are these really that bandwidth starved where the memory makes a difference?
Click to expand...

From my testing, games like Metro 2033, and Crysis benefit more from memory oc then core.

Especially with mods/volumetric effects based parts of the games.

But yea, i was under the same impression as you before the testing, point is almost every 7970 will do 1150 at least, and with the clock is already very fast, but memory oc, from lets say 5500, to 7000 will give you huge framrate stability with AA and extreme mods/downsampling, you can feel the difference quite a bit more then core oc.
 
Canned benchmarks clearly indicate significant performance improvements.
Now, what about smoothness (e.g. FPS consistency)?
 
RadXge said:
Canned benchmarks clearly indicate significant performance improvements.
Now, what about smoothness (e.g. FPS consistency)?
Click to expand...

Im sure that is any of the reviewers would of seen bad smoothness and consistency they would of mentioned it.
 
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RadXge said:
Canned benchmarks clearly indicate significant performance improvements.
Now, what about smoothness (e.g. FPS consistency)?
Click to expand...

yea right, canned. ultra - 4XMSAA all maxed even trough driver/RP + SMAA injector on ultra setting.

nuQD1.jpg


2f4sd.png



MvXCQ.jpg


BTW, before this driver 12.9 was crap, far from the GTX680 i had 1 week ago, regarding smoothness was crapppppp!

With this driver, game is for sure even smoother then with GTX680! which to me, is freaking amazing!!! :D
 
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Who said that these new drivers were shit??? :rolleyes:
I got rid of two 7970s a few weeks ago and smoothness was still an issue at that time.
 
RadXge said:
Who said that these new drivers were shit??? :rolleyes:
I got rid of two 7970s a few weeks ago and smoothness was still an issue at that time.
Click to expand...

You sounded skeptical of the performance. And again, CFX is probably going to be "Meh" for quite a while. It's just, some people notice it more than others, and if you really notice it then go Nvidia and be happy.
 
I just finished playing Canals on BF3 since installing 12.11's. These drivers are amazing!
 
these drivers are a game changer. playing BF3 multiplayer is a different experience now.
 
I just finished playing Canals on BF3 since installing 12.11's. These drivers are amazing!
Click to expand...

Yes i installed, i am seeing 15-20% improvement in Battlefield 3 with 7870 crossfire. I Haven't messed with graphic settings yet, but i think i can notch out a bit more on the image quality.@5760x1080.
 
DASHlT said:
Your 4870x2 is as fast as 1 5870. Which you can pick up for around $130.

Hauls ass isnt the word I would use for a 4870x2, which is DX10 as well.
Click to expand...

I run two in a pair for Quad crossfire, which are indeed still quite fast. They would wipe the floor with the single GTX480 you are running, assuming your signature is accurate. Not sure what your DX10 comment is meant to imply. They are actually DX10.1 cards, and run DX11 games just fine using the DX10.1 downlevel compatibility path.

But even a single 4870x2, even if it is "only" as fast as a 5870 - that still makes it faster than all the budget cards and many of the mid-range cards being sold on the market *today*. Why wouldn't a company support their products when they are still useful?

The only other company I can think of that is so quick to drop their older products is apple. Even creative, known at one point for their bad drivers, manages to still update drivers for their cards that are 6+ years old.

My GTX680s - I feel pretty confident that 5 years from now I'll still be able to run them in what will likely be a secondary rig at that point using up to date drivers that will keep things nice and bug-free for new games. When I eventually retire them, it will be because they got slow, and served their purpose, not because the company that made them dropped the ball. Do you 7970 owners seriously think you'll still be getting new driver updates 5 years from now? Call yourselves lucky if you make it past 3 :p
 
I have a gtx 670 ftw and the hd 7970 is on its way ,I though to sell the hd 7970 and keep the gtx 670 but after seeing the new scores the gtx 670 is going to sold.
the single gpu crown was made for ati.
 
1100+ 3dmark11 just from changing 12.8 to 12.11!!! Santa in his big red suit came early this year and seems I've been a gooooood boy lol thank you red team!
 
GotNoRice said:
The AMD cards I have were the fastest video cards money could buy as of Fall 2009. I guess for AMD, 3 years is a long time, because my 4870x2 cards can't use these drivers and are stuck on the legacy driver.
Click to expand...

12.6 (which are only 3mos old) supported the HD2000, 3000, and 4000.

AMD has moved to the AMD Radeon™ HD 4000, AMD Radeon HD 3000, and AMD Radeon HD 2000 Series new driver support model. These updates will focus on resolving application specific issues and critical updates. The reason for the shift in support policy is largely due to the fact that the AMD Radeon HD 4000, AMD Radeon HD 3000, and AMD Radeon HD 2000 Series have been optimized to their maximum potential from a performance and feature perspective.
Click to expand...
 
I don't see the huge deal with these drivers. They seem to be good, but if you compare stock to stock the FPS are fairly similar +-2fps. GHz edition is a overclocked 7970, so it's not a fair direct comparison against a stock 680.

I personally will never touch AMD again after the countless BSoD, shitty drivers and crossfire problems (negative scaling, micro stuttering). That it took them 10months to get a proper driver out speaks loads. Nvidia isn't perfect, but I also did not need to wait a few weeks to get a working driver after launch day.

Just to be clear, I owned 3 7970s at one point. Tri-fire was horrendously unstable, and crossfire was plagued with BSoD and micro-stuttering for months. I basically bought the 680s as soon as they came out. This was all on a Enermax Revo 1.25Kw PSU.
 
Sycraft said:
Yes, as in "Not out right now." So we are back to where we've been since the release of this (well more like since AMD actually admitted there was an issue) of "Oh, ya we'll have a fix for that real soon!"
Click to expand...

http://support.amd.com/us/kbarticles/Pages/AMDCatalyst1211betadriver.aspx
http://www2.ati.com/drivers/beta/AMD_Catalyst_12.11_Beta3_dotNET4.exe

Note! This Driver is provided “AS IS” and under the terms and conditions of the End User License Agreement provided therewith.

Applicable Products:

This article applies to the following configuration(s):

Hardware:

AMD Radeon HD 7900 Series
AMD Radeon HD 7800 Series
AMD Radeon HD 7700 Series
AMD Radeon HD 6000 Series
AMD Radeon HD 5000 Series
AMD Mobility Radeon HD 7000M Series
AMD Mobility Radeon HD 6000M Series
AMD Mobility Radeon HD 5000 Series
Click to expand...


by Jarred Walton on 10/22/2012 5:10:00 PM
http://www.anandtech.com/show/6395/amds-1211-mobility-catalyst-enduro-hotfix-mostly-included
The drivers have now posted on AMD's site. Note that these are beta drivers and thus you don't go through the usual "mobility driver download utility"; all of the necessary hardware IDs are already present in the INFs. AMD also informs us that they’re working to push out a fixed mobile driver “shortly” that will include the DX9 improvements as well. I would hope that will bring the 12.11 release to the performance level of the 12.9 Hotfix, and hopefully AMD can address the issues with laptop support on older Enduro/Dynamic Switchable Graphics laptops.
Click to expand...
 
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