# ATI Catalyst 8.3, Hybrid CrossFire and CrossFireX Announced



## malware (Mar 4, 2008)

AMD today announced its latest graphics driver release to advance the Ultimate Visual Experience for PC gaming enthusiasts and casual gamers alike. Expected to be available for download starting March 5, ATI Catalyst 8.3 is a milestone software update in delivering both CrossFireX for Windows Vista - the world's first quad-GPU support, and scalable, cost-effective three GPU support - as well as ATI Hybrid Graphics Technology for casual gamers. These multi-GPU capabilities provide gamers a more realistic and immersive experience allowing them to play at high resolutions with demanding image quality settings, and at a better value than competing multi-GPU solutions.


"AMD packed ATI Catalyst 8.3 with a double-barreled set of leading technologies to simultaneously push the Ultimate Visual Experience to new heights and to a wider population of PC users," said Rick Bergman, senior vice president, AMD Graphics Product Group. "We deliver industry firsts that make a visible difference to PC users, whether it's CrossFireX and the first ever quad-GPU performance on Windows Vista, or ATI Hybrid Graphics that bring a new level of performance to mainstream PC platforms." 

*Advancing Multi-GPU Gaming with CrossFireX *
Through three- and four-GPU configurations in CrossFireX, gamers can see multi-GPU performance scaling across a range of today's most popular DirectX 9 and DirectX 10 games on Windows Vista -- up to 3.2 times the performance over a single GPU2 in some scenarios. The flexible architecture of CrossFireX allows for the mixing and matching of high-performing ATI Radeon GPUs. Any ATI Radeon HD 3850, ATI Radeon HD 3870 or ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 cards can be combined to harness the power of up to four GPUs. CrossFireX also supports a wide range of platforms, enabling many gamers to take advantage of three- and four-GPU gaming on their existing hardware. 

*Boosting Game Performance through ATI Hybrid CrossFire* 
ATI Catalyst 8.3 also introduces ATI Hybrid Graphics support for Windows Vista. An industry first that is unique to AMD processor-based platforms, ATI Hybrid CrossFire delivers a significant 3D performance boost. Up to 70 percent increases in performance are possible in some gaming scenarios3 based on PCs comprised of an AMD 780G motherboard and ATI Radeon HD 3400 Series graphics product in Windows Vista. ATI Hybrid Graphics also support up to four independent displays through the SurroudView feature for those who want to maximize productivity. 

*Additional Innovations Found in ATI Catalyst 8.3 *
Beyond multi-GPU configurations in CrossFireX, ATI Catalyst 8.3 introduces a number of new features including:
_DirectX 10.1 and Tessellation Support_: ATI Catalyst 8.3 marks the first time DirectX 10.1 support for the ATI Radeon HD 3000 series, and tessellation support for the ATI Radeon HD 3800 series have been made available to developers. 
_Anti-Aliasing enhancements_: ATI Catalyst introduces anti-aliasing support for all Unreal Engine 3.0-based games running in DirectX 9 mode. ATI Catalyst also allows users to enable the Custom Filter Anti-Aliasing filters (box and wide tent) while running in CrossFire Super Anti-Aliasing modes, providing superior image quality. 
_HydraVision support for Windows Vista_: HydraVision support is now included in ATI Catalyst Control Center for Windows Vista. HydraVision enables users to efficiently organize multiple applications across single or multiple displays. You may configure up to nine virtual desktops, and divide the Windows Vista desktop into definable areas helping to easily move and organize multiple applications. 
_Digital Panel GPU image scaling_: For those using widescreen displays, ATI Catalyst now allows users to enable GPU-accelerated scaling to maintain the aspect ratio of the display while providing superior image quality. 
_Advanced Video Quality controls_: With ATI Catalyst 8.3, multimedia enthusiasts get further control over video quality. Using the new edge enhancement feature, the level of sharpness of video content can be adjusted. Through the new noise reduction feature, ghosting artifacts can be removed while preserving the details of the original video. The new slider controls can be found in the All Settings page of the Avivo Video tab found in ATI Catalyst Control Center.

*Availability* 
ATI Catalyst 8.3 is scheduled to be available as a free download starting Tuesday, March 4 online at http://ati.amd.com/support/driver.html.

*View at TechPowerUp Main Site*


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## EastCoasthandle (Mar 4, 2008)

Great, when can we download? As of this post it still reads 8.2...


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## malware (Mar 4, 2008)

EastCoasthandle said:


> Great, when can we download? As of this post it still reads 8.2...


I'll add the hot download links as soon as they go online...it's only a matter of hours I guess.


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## EastCoasthandle (Mar 4, 2008)

ok


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## Dr. Spankenstein (Mar 4, 2008)

This looks to be quite a release!

I just need Crossfire support for OpenGL applications and I'll be golden...


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## imperialreign (Mar 4, 2008)

TBH, I'm really excited to see ATI pushing multi-GPU setups so strongly.  I had initially thought it would just be one of those 'fad' ideas they threw out but then drop rather quickly.  I guess the success of the 3870x2 must have reassured them they're on a good path to regaining their market shares, as these capabilities will open up quite a few doors for people with aging hardware and don't have the means to upgrade as the next biggest thing rolls out.


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## EastCoasthandle (Mar 4, 2008)

Oh snap, they revised their press release to say it will be released tomorrow. I knew I should have used screengrab!!


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## InfDamarvel (Mar 4, 2008)

Now imagine if they had support for this on XP. Im sure someone will mod the hell outa it.


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## Fitseries3 (Mar 5, 2008)

damnit! let me download it already!!! i've got my 3870x2 and my 3870 in my machine and vista doesn't know what to do!


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## Dr. Spankenstein (Mar 5, 2008)

Give him^^ the damn driver already! I want to see what the Tri-fire can do!!!!


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## miksanity (Mar 5, 2008)

SICK! but my 850 plat will hold me off untill 2010 or longer


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## MarcusTaz (Mar 5, 2008)

"Tessellation Support" could it be that the stream processors will get some help here with this type of supprt? I wonder if this will even improve the 2900 series...


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## a111087 (Mar 5, 2008)

lol, can't you people wait? its starting March 5= tomorrow


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## tvdang7 (Mar 5, 2008)

isnt scaling too well according to firing squad. 2 x2's loses to 3 gtx's DAMN IT!!


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## thequestor (Mar 5, 2008)

fitseries3 said:


> damnit! let me download it already!!! i've got my 3870x2 and my 3870 in my machine and vista doesn't know what to do!



I'm in the exact same boat. I read some details at a few places that showed gpu scaling above 3 gpu's is nearly non-existent, even so i "was" going to get a 2nd X2 but now if I can Crossfire my X2 with my 3870 I'm golden. Only problem I see so far is this is Vista only and not even Crossfire will drag me into that almost shiny turd. I want so much to like Vista, and even after beta testing it for nearly 2 years I still won't run it as my primary OS. It's just too slow in just about everything that matters to me. I was hoping having upgrading the rig to get a 5.9 in Vista it would be usable, and it is, unless I want to play a game [which is often, hence the X2 and 3870] which is a horrible exerience to say the least. The problem with my experience is not so much the graphics, but the horrible drivers from Creative, and Vista's new sound stack. Hate em both!!!!!! And ATI's less than stellar performance in either DX9 or DX10 modes. Vista will rock for games in about 2+ years, when the hardware is there to be able to push Vista to do, what XP has been able to do now for about 4 years, [I don't count pre SP2 XP as an os]. The problem I forsee is that in the next 2 years we will have Vista R2 and it will screw up everything further as MS tries to do what my grandad used to say. "You can't shine a turd" 

But it is the shiniest turd I've ever seen


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## Fitseries3 (Mar 5, 2008)

i have the 8.3!!!!! it's installed and does support crossfireX(duh) but my 3870 is dead. SUCKS!!!


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## thequestor (Mar 5, 2008)

fitseries3 said:


> damnit! let me download it already!!! i've got my 3870x2 and my 3870 in my machine and vista doesn't know what to do!



Also, just remove the crossfire ribbon and Vista runs fine [er runs Vista fine] but grey's out the Crossfire box in CCC.


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## Fitseries3 (Mar 5, 2008)

it's a NO GO. my 3870 is dying.


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## thequestor (Mar 5, 2008)

fitseries3 said:


> i have the 8.3!!!!! it's installed and does support crossfireX(duh) but my 3870 is dead. SUCKS!!!



The one floating around on the net for a couple weeks now is not 8.3 it was some biostar bastardized driver set that didn't allow disjoined cards Xfire. So you card is probably fine. 

Take the X2 out, put the 3870 in the slot and take a look to see if it boots, if it boots, card is fine. Or if your board bios allows tell it to boot from PCIex2 instead of PCIex1 or 0/1 what ever. 

I'll wait until http://game.amd.com/us-en/drivers_catalyst.aspx?p=vista32/common-vista32 shows 8.3 or at least 

http://ati.amd.com/support/driver.html
shows the X2 as a card at all


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## Dr. Spankenstein (Mar 5, 2008)

Uff da! So close....


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## Fitseries3 (Mar 5, 2008)

here guys.... just DL the damn thing already.....

thanks goes to EROCKER....

http://www.directx10-games.com/Sample_vista_8-471-80222a-60170.exe


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## EastCoasthandle (Mar 5, 2008)

tvdang7 said:


> isnt scaling too well according to firing squad. 2 x2's loses to 3 gtx's DAMN IT!!



I stop reading firing squad ages ago.


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## thequestor (Mar 5, 2008)

fitseries3 said:


> here guys.... just DL the damn thing already.....
> 
> thanks goes to EROCKER....
> 
> http://www.directx10-games.com/Sample_vista_8-471-80222a-60170.exe



I downloaded them [again] and installed them [again] and again I no longer have a 3870 lol. The X2 works fine, except CCC wont load. The 3870 shows in device manager but not in display manager at all 

I'll wait for the real ones. again


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## thequestor (Mar 5, 2008)

tvdang7 said:


> isnt scaling too well according to firing squad. 2 x2's loses to 3 gtx's DAMN IT!!



Let's see. 
2 HD 3870 X2 = 2 x 429.00 [ish] = 858.00
3 8800 GTX = 3x 400.00 [ish] = 1200.00 [FREAKIN OUCH, though I did spend 1200 on 2 X800 XTX once[shame on me]]


At 2/3 the price for "nearly" the same game experience, I'd have to call the X2's the winner!


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## Saakki (Mar 5, 2008)

hmm..8.1 neither hotfix NOR 8.2 didnt fix my AGP card drivers..im runnin some MSI drivers on my  card but hey..they work fine so aint bragging about..good luck for rich guys buying 4 x 3870x2 ;D


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## DanishDevil (Mar 5, 2008)

Well actually, you can't run 4 3870X2s, only two.  Crossfire maxes out at 4GPUs...or maybe 5 with the integrated graphics chipset...but I don't think those come with 2 PCI-E slots.


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## Saakki (Mar 5, 2008)

actually knew that ( thats why teh stupid smiley in the end ) ..yaeh its 4 GPU limit ..would be a littlebit sick if u got 8 gpus runnin !?

"the world’s first quad-GPU support, " kek


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## DanishDevil (Mar 5, 2008)

8 GPUs would be insane.  Hello 1080P projector 

Well, it's officially the 5th here on the West coast, and we're still on the 8.2's.

Anyone wanna volunteer to do a comparison test between 8.1's, 8.2's, and 8.3's on a 3870???   I would, but I'm in pieces at the moment.


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## binormalkilla (Mar 5, 2008)

It's still not posted....my guess is that it won't be posted on AMD's site until 12PM Eastern.  That's typically when they release/announce things.


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## mandelore (Mar 5, 2008)

any vistax64 linky?


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## Saakki (Mar 5, 2008)

http://downloads.guru3d.com/AMD-ATI-Catalyst-8.3-Vista-(32-bit)-download-1871.html



Originally Posted by v4npro View Post:
vista 32bit only drivers?

   RagDoll_Effect
Maha Guru
 :
Works here on vista 64 bit


"Yeees, Crysis is 5fps faster in the benchmark  That's a big jump because I have everything on very high except shadows. In the benchmark, it goes right up to 5fps faster.

Tested in 3dmark 06 with my 2900XT and it's about the same... but I think some of the Guru's with 3870 x2's will see heaps of performance gain, especially in games."


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## mandelore (Mar 5, 2008)

hey.. niiice 

it continually amazes me how you get a great card, then it just keeps getting BETTER and BETTER with each driver release.

if you add up all the improvements as a % since an ATI cards release that equates to one hellova % increase in performance


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## Saakki (Mar 5, 2008)

got to agree with that when drivers update they  get even more juice out of ur card..have noticed with mine too..hopefully 8.3 will work with my sloppy gun too


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## mandelore (Mar 5, 2008)

Saakki said:


> hopefully 8.3 will work with my sloppy gun too



i beg your parden?


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## Saakki (Mar 5, 2008)

i mean that 8.2 catalysts DO not work with my 2600 XT 512 AGP..so im hoping these would


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## InnocentCriminal (Mar 5, 2008)

Saakki said:


> got to agree with that when drivers update they  get even more juice out of ur card..have noticed with mine too..hopefully 8.3 will work with my sloppy gun too



I wouldn't hold your hopes up, might be in the next couple of releases that AGP cards start to see some improvement as they'll most likely want to work on getting the 3850 support properly. However, the X2 is in the spotlight for now so all their attention is going on that. Then again, we might seem some improvements. 

^^


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## Saakki (Mar 5, 2008)

yeah yeah im runnin 7.9 because higher version do not wanna install even the hotfix didnt work so im waiting...but best luck to your CFX etc testing!


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## mandelore (Mar 5, 2008)

heres the image scaling function


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## InnocentCriminal (Mar 5, 2008)

All this talk of CrossfireX just makes me so hungry and impatient to build my new machine.... URGH!


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## LTJOE118 (Mar 5, 2008)

So Im installing these drivers pre release that where posted on here and the post my scores after I run 3DMARK. I shoud see something happening here, I just don't hope its less.

You guys should see my Pre 8.3 scores already on my profile, but its 19362

Hope good luck to me.


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## InnocentCriminal (Mar 5, 2008)

Keeps us posted!

^^

Oh, and welcome to the forums!


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## entilza (Mar 5, 2008)

I am very happy with choosing ATI, and an X38 chipset which has given me plently of room for improvement.  Now I have so many options such as adding another 3870 or a 3870x2 for 3 GPU's...  The X38 allows 2-16x PCI-E (2.0) slots.

I had not built a new system in about 4 years and am very happy with this sytem, it's been 100% stable.  The ATI Drivers keep getting better, it pays to do some research on which upgrade path you want to go when building a new system.

So far the 3870 has been an incredible card and very good for gaming.


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## InnocentCriminal (Mar 5, 2008)

Another person to welcome to TPU!



I'm glad y'happy with your new build, be proud of it and if you feel it's worth showing in the Case Mods gallery, don't be afraid to show it off (if you want the constructive criticisms).


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## EastCoasthandle (Mar 5, 2008)

what score?


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## InnocentCriminal (Mar 5, 2008)

LTJOE118 said:


> So Im installing these drivers pre release that where posted on here and the post my scores after I run 3DMARK. I shoud see something happening here, I just don't hope its less.
> 
> You guys should see my Pre 8.3 scores already on my profile, but its 19362
> 
> Hope good luck to me.



Yeah, where is your profile?  Don't forget to fill in your System Specs in your User CP.


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## LTJOE118 (Mar 5, 2008)

*New 3DMARK score with 8.3 Drivers*

Actually I hit a personal best with these new drivers, now these scores are with the card overclocked to the max of 878 Core and 955 mem but as you can clearly see that this cards score before was 19362 In 3d mark, and I have just broke the 20k barrier with these new drivers on the same OC settings. Of course do not try this unless you can get your stock cooler fan to stay on permanently because the card has some issues with the auto sensor that only this fix worked for me. Saw that the card was struggeling when the auto temp/fan settings where juicing up or slowing down, so I kept it the same at 100% under any load. Loud but proud.


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## btarunr (Mar 5, 2008)

The Crossfire X cometh. 

So, will this driver allow 2x HD 3870-X2 ?


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## kylew (Mar 5, 2008)

LTJOE118 said:


> Actually I hit a personal best with these new drivers, now these scores are with the card overclocked to the max of 878 Core and 955 mem but as you can clearly see that this cards score before was 19362 In 3d mark, and I have just broke the 20k barrier with these new drivers on the same OC settings. Of course do not try this unless you can get your stock cooler fan to stay on permanently because the card has some issues with the auto sensor that only this fix worked for me. Saw that the card was struggeling when the auto temp/fan settings where juicing up or slowing down, so I kept it the same at 100% under any load. Loud but proud.



Welcome to the forums!

What CPU do you have? and at what clock speed? I've been trying to break 20k but it's having none of it. I've got my X2 at 890 core and 1050 mem, my CPU is a Q6600 at 3.9Ghz.


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## LTJOE118 (Mar 5, 2008)

*Sorry, here are the pics for your eyes to enjoy*

Sorry, trying to get the hang of this forum stuff.

So here is my before 8.3 installation





and here is my after 8.3 installation


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## InnocentCriminal (Mar 5, 2008)

Nice!

\m/


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## btarunr (Mar 5, 2008)

LTJOE118 said:


> Sorry, trying to get the hang of this forum stuff.
> 
> benches



I just keeps getting better. 

I'm interested in how the HD2900 XT fares.


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## crow1001 (Mar 5, 2008)

LTJOE118 said:


> Sorry, trying to get the hang of this forum stuff.
> 
> So here is my before 8.3 installation
> 
> ...



Looks like you have clocked the X2 after YOU installed the 8.3 drivers, i know GPUZ is showing 2D clocks but they have increased over the first GPUZ shot with previous drivers.


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## kylew (Mar 5, 2008)

LTJOE118 said:


> Sorry, trying to get the hang of this forum stuff.



You suck!  How're you getting such scores? lol, clock for clock an E8400 isn't that much faster than a Q6600 is it? I'm getting about 19,200 with a CPU score of about 5600 . I should be getting well over 20k judging from your results.


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## LTJOE118 (Mar 5, 2008)

crow1001 said:


> Looks like you have clocked the X2 after YOU installed the 8.3 drivers, i know GPUZ is showing 2D clocks but they have increased over the first GPUZ shot with previous drivers.



HMM THATS WEIRD. I know I had them overclocked to max last time. Maybe it was because Last time I used the CCC and this time I used the Rivatuner to OC the card. Thats weird but thanks for catching that one for me. 

Will run some more test after I have some fun with the 8.3  Drivers. 

Let me know what you think.


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## DOM (Mar 5, 2008)

LTJOE118 said:


> HMM THATS WEIRD. I know I had them overclocked to max last time. Maybe it was because Last time I used the CCC and this time I used the Rivatuner to OC the card. Thats weird but thanks for catching that one for me.
> 
> Will run some more test after I have some fun with the 8.3  Drivers.
> 
> Let me know what you think.



also the cpu is faster


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## EastCoasthandle (Mar 5, 2008)

Yea I noticed that too.  Why is it that ATI cards reduce cpu scores like that?


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## CY:G (Mar 5, 2008)

So where can we find the Windows XP version of the drivers, i cant find them!!!!, im so close to breaking 20k too with a e8400 and HD3870x2, im at 19444 right now, im hoping the drivers will bump me to 20k !!!!


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## kylew (Mar 5, 2008)

ps, I was joking when I said LtJoe sucks


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## olstyle (Mar 5, 2008)

Are there any HydraVision goodies in the guru3d release?
Thats what me and my 2900XT are waiting for.


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## LTJOE118 (Mar 5, 2008)

Wish I could revert back to 8.2 but I don't want to. lol. These drivers are good. Im going to go and get a 3870 for the triple.


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## thequestor (Mar 5, 2008)

CY:G said:


> So where can we find the Windows XP version of the drivers, i cant find them!!!!, im so close to breaking 20k too with a e8400 and HD3870x2, im at 19444 right now, im hoping the drivers will bump me to 20k !!!!



You wont. CrossfireX is Vista/DX10.1 not XP/DX9


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## Ravenas (Mar 5, 2008)

Are the 780g boards the only ones that will have hybrid crossfire?


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## CY:G (Mar 5, 2008)

thequestor said:


> You wont. CrossfireX is Vista/DX10.1 not XP/DX9



So there are no speed upgrades for people with H3870x2, there are no 8.3 Drivers for XP???


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## erocker (Mar 5, 2008)

XP can't recognize more than two gpu's.  New XP drivers will be out, however Vista now comes first.  If you have an X2 might as well get Vista 64 anyways.


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## CY:G (Mar 5, 2008)

erocker said:


> XP can't recognize more than two gpu's.  New XP drivers will be out, however Vista now comes first.  If you have an X2 might as well get Vista 64 anyways.




Man i TRIED, when i just finished building my new system a week ago (Specs on sig) i installed Vista 64 on it and it really tested my patience until i just said FUCK THIS and installed XP 64bit....

The offender to getting me mad was a file transfer i was doing from a USB HDD that holds a backup of My Documents folder, the folder weighs 30gb and the progress bar was just not moving, it was SOOO slow, after that i installed XP 64bit, did the same copy and it transfered like butter...

Im planning on getting a single HD3870 to go with my 3870x2 in the near future, and im gonna have to get used to Vista's flaws just so i can use it...


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## EastCoasthandle (Mar 5, 2008)

Cat 8.3 is now available for download getting while they hot!


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## t_ski (Mar 5, 2008)

http://game.amd.com/us-en/drivers_catalyst.aspx?p=vista32/common-vista32


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## kylew (Mar 5, 2008)

CY:G said:


> Man i TRIED, when i just finished building my new system a week ago (Specs on sig) i installed Vista 64 on it and it really tested my patience until i just said FUCK THIS and installed XP 64bit....
> 
> The offender to getting me mad was a file transfer i was doing from a USB HDD that holds a backup of My Documents folder, the folder weighs 30gb and the progress bar was just not moving, it was SOOO slow, after that i installed XP 64bit, did the same copy and it transfered like butter...
> 
> Im planning on getting a single HD3870 to go with my 3870x2 in the near future, and im gonna have to get used to Vista's flaws just so i can use it...



Did you try SP1?


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## MarcusTaz (Mar 5, 2008)

erocker said:


> XP can't recognize more than two gpu's.  New XP drivers will be out, however Vista now comes first.  If you have an X2 might as well get Vista 64 anyways.




Why 64? I run 32 and I have read that 64 actually does not perform as well in certain cases. Also after installing RTM SP1 the PAE switch seems to work fine... 

Anyway, I hope this tessalation support gives our cards the needed boosts to compete with Nvidia...


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## CY:G (Mar 5, 2008)

kylew said:


> Did you try SP1?



Nope, i shall install it in another partition and try SP1.


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## ninjagordy (Mar 5, 2008)

*catalyst 8.3 is kack!*

well guys,

i installed 8.3 and my 3870 x2 is running well pants now...going to revert back to my previous drivers....


anyone else get this issue??


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## Fitseries3 (Mar 5, 2008)

no...my x2 runs fine. but when i enable xfirex, i get the same scores???


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## DanishDevil (Mar 5, 2008)

Isn't your 3870 dead anyway fit?


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## Fitseries3 (Mar 5, 2008)

i "borrowed" another x2.


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## binormalkilla (Mar 6, 2008)

Well surprise surprise, AA does NOT work in UT3 or Frontlines Fuels of War (based on UT3 engine).  I tested with 32X AA and I got nothing.......


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## MarcusTaz (Mar 6, 2008)

So these drivers sound worse then the 8.2???


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## t_ski (Mar 6, 2008)

Ravenas said:


> Are the 780g boards the only ones that will have hybrid crossfire?



As of right now, that is the only one listed on the AMD/ATI compatibility page:

http://game.amd.com/us-en/content/images/crossfirex/CF_combo_chart_Dec07.jpg


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## ninjagordy (Mar 6, 2008)

Well.... my previous scores on 3dmark 06 with my Q6600 at 3.96ghz and the x2 @ stock i was just under the 20k mark. so...ones i fired in the 8.3 drivers i get just short of 13k... im guessing that the drivers are running the card as a dual 3870 set up with crossfire dissabled....very strange......


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## DaedalusHelios (Mar 6, 2008)

ninjagordy said:


> Well.... my previous scores on 3dmark 06 with my Q6600 at 3.96ghz and the x2 @ stock i was just under the 20k mark. so...ones i fired in the 8.3 drivers i get just short of 13k... im guessing that the drivers are running the card as a dual 3870 set up with crossfire dissabled....very strange......




Oh god.


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## ninjagordy (Mar 6, 2008)

yep...my thoughts exactly...i was waiting with high hopes of these drivers but not so for me...unless im doing anything wrong....... but i doubt it.... looks like im set to revert back to 8.2 revision i was using....

Sigh...ah fook!


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## binormalkilla (Mar 15, 2008)

I take it back....I got AA working with Frontlines by changing the FFoW.exe to Oblivion.exe. 


BTW these drivers do not suck.....they own.  Crysis DX10 performance is INSANELY faster.


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## imperialreign (Mar 15, 2008)

seeing as how this thread was dug back up - I'll add my take on CAT 8.3 with my 2 X1950 PROs


single card - still the same performance, no improvement or decline; 3m06 score for citation: 5603

CrossfireX 1950 PROs - do run in Crossfire, but I'm seeing a major hit in performance.  It's as if one card is almost completly disabled - 3m06 score with CAT 8.2: 9356; 3m06 score with CAT 8.3: 6910

performance in-game with CrossfireX is even worse overall.

So, for the time being, I rolled back to 8.2 - I'll give 8.4 a shot once that driver is released


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## thequestor (Mar 16, 2008)

*8.3 the good the bad and the ugly*

8.3 is a total mixed bag. On XP I dropped over 5000 points in 3dmark06  but all my games play as well as they did before. 

On Vista, well 1st off, after install the cards are automatically set to Crossfire mode, so my 3870 doesn't even show up. But it did give me a score of 19000 in 3dmark 06. But in game play is not good. Strange pauses, stutters, and overall poor gaming. Plus when the 3rd core kicks in it makes a TON of noise over the PCI bus which my X-FI seems to pick up and makes very odd sounds out of my speaker. Again this only happens when the 3rd core kicks in.

So far they are better than 8.2 in vista but way worse in XP. I think MS pays card makers to make the XP drivers slow as dirt so they can say that Vista is now faster than XP. Strange that I lost a staggering 5000 points in 06 on XP but gained that ammount on Vista. HMMMMMMM


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## allen337 (Mar 16, 2008)

8.3s suck on my 2900s scored 8000 with xp 8500 with vista, 8.2 scores 14000 stock with both.  ALLEN


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