# AMD Catalyst 12.11 Performance Analysis



## W1zzard (Oct 17, 2012)

Today AMD announced a new game bundle for their Radeon graphics cards and the new Catalyst 12.11 driver which brings performance improvements across the board. We test each card of the HD 7000 lineup in 20 games and benchmarks to verify what the new driver offers.

*Show full review*


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## Delta6326 (Oct 22, 2012)

Great Review/Update! Wow that really changes some numbers! Really like the way you put it together now that put's AMD on top of some stuff, just goes to show how important software optimization really can be.


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## Jstn7477 (Oct 22, 2012)

I'll be trying these with my HD 7950 on W8 Pro. Currently using the 12.9 Beta driver.


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## RejZoR (Oct 22, 2012)

Can't wait for these drivers. I really miss such driver updates more often so they'd really squeeze e very drop of performance out of the cards. In the past this was quite common but these days they just make bug fixes and profile updates. And thats it.


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## manofthem (Oct 22, 2012)

I'd say 10% for the 7870 is awesome, and 7% for 7950/70 is good looking too. I'll be trying the new release tomorrow and see what happens, that is if I can find them 

Thanks W1zz, nice one!


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## RejZoR (Oct 22, 2012)

Where can drivers be downloaded? Can't seem to find them on AMD page (yet)...


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## HTC (Oct 22, 2012)

If these improvements don't come from image quality tampering, then congratulations AMD: you've surpassed W1zzard's expectations regarding driver related performance improvements.


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## reverze (Oct 22, 2012)

hopefully drivers will be out for us today, gonna make alot of people happy that i advised to buy 7850 cards.


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## Nordic (Oct 22, 2012)

My thoughts in order:
"What happened to 12.10. I am on 12.9 beta."
"Ah, a holiday driver."
Read it
"Nice" 
*"How the heck did they do it?"*
"Why couldn't they figure out what ever it was until now?"


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## Rowsol (Oct 22, 2012)

Impressive numbas.


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## reverze (Oct 22, 2012)

man that must have been a sleepless night(s) of benchmarking...


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## Novulux (Oct 22, 2012)

And here I was, just about to sell my HD 7870. 
Can't wait.


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## t_ski (Oct 22, 2012)

RejZoR said:


> Where can drivers be downloaded? Can't seem to find them on AMD page (yet)...





reverze said:


> hopefully drivers will be out for us today, gonna make alot of people happy that i advised to buy 7850 cards.



Please remember that the second number in the driver revision refers to the month of the year.  If these are 12.*11*'s, then they won't be available until November.


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## RejZoR (Oct 22, 2012)

BETA will be available sooner despite the number because they don't have to wait for WHQL certificate...


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## Nordic (Oct 22, 2012)

reverze said:


> man that must have been a sleepless night(s) of benchmarking...



I believe he has it all automated.



t_ski said:


> Please remember that the second number in the driver revision refers to the month of the year.  If these are 12.*11*'s, then they won't be available until November.


Learn something every day


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## MxPhenom 216 (Oct 22, 2012)

Wow now theres really no difference in HD7970 or GTX680. Just pick your color and you going to get the same performance haha. Nice Drivers AMD.


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## ArchStupid (Oct 22, 2012)

I don't get it...

In this review - http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ASUS/HD_7970_Matrix/26.html
The 7970 GHz Edition (vanilla) is *stronger *than the 680 GTX by about 3%.

But in the Catalyst review 7970 GHz Edition is about 4% *weaker*.

What gives?


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## jihadjoe (Oct 22, 2012)

GJ AMD driver team. I hope whoever did this isn't among those about to be laid off.


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## Naito (Oct 22, 2012)

I'm not much of an AMD (ATI) fan myself, but I must say I am impressed by those numbers. Will be interesting to see what AMD do with the HD8000 series.

Just a thought, though; are these gains from just massively reworked/optimized drivers or is AMD performing some sort of image/performance trickery? I mean, if it is the latter, hopefully it doesnt sacrifice anything or affect the end user.


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## W1zzard (Oct 22, 2012)

The driver should be available later today. Got this from AMD a few minutes ago: "Regarding driver: if possible please wait for a new build. It addresses a few bugs. It should be available from AMD page later today (of course if I get it sooner via FTP I'll share it with you)."


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## wotevajjjj (Oct 22, 2012)

awesome stuff from amd once again. The cheapest 7970 here is the gigabyte 3x one at €354 while the 680 soc is the cheapest 680 at €480.. the 7970 is faster..


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## kukreknecmi (Oct 22, 2012)

On hexus.net they concluded that BF3 gains up to %33 on 1080p. How did they get that much of improvent, or why on TPU review isnt that much ?

http://hexus.net/tech/reviews/graphics/46905-amd-catalyst-1211-benchmarked-surprising-performance-gains/?page=3


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## W1zzard (Oct 22, 2012)

kukreknecmi said:


> On hexus.net they concluded that BF3 gains up to %33 on 1080p. How did they get that much of improvent, or why on TPU review isnt that much ?



They used 8xAA they say, and probably a different map/scene.


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## 1Kurgan1 (Oct 22, 2012)

Holy cow, thats amazing if the gains that large with AA. BF3 the killer for AMD cards has bee nthe AA. Thats a massive performance leap, makes the 680 look bad, very shocked, sad that my rig is down now and won't be able to try them


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## exodusprime1337 (Oct 22, 2012)

Just got my second 7970 yesterday.. Posted some impressive scores myself in crossfire.  Can't wait to try out these graphics and put up some bigger numbers. WoooHoooo


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## SonDa5 (Oct 22, 2012)

Awesome! 

I want to try the drivers right now!


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## crazyeyesreaper (Oct 22, 2012)

nice work W1zz hard to believe the amount of performance the driver team managed to pull out of their behinds with this release.


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## dj-electric (Oct 22, 2012)

Kinda reminds the the 10.1-10.4 drivers of the HD5000 series, just a big explosion of performance


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## tacosRcool (Oct 22, 2012)

decent performance numbers for AMD cards yes


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## Ikaruga (Oct 22, 2012)

Thanks for the review, and congrats to AMD, well done!


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## tt_martin (Oct 22, 2012)

ArchStupid said:


> I don't get it...
> 
> In this review - http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ASUS/HD_7970_Matrix/26.html
> The 7970 GHz Edition (vanilla) is *stronger *than the 680 GTX by about 3%.
> ...



It's also really weird for 7950/7870:
HD 7870 significantly faster than GTX 660, HD 7950 faster than GTX 660Ti





But after this review the results turn upside down and GTX 660 overtakes 7870 and GTX 660 Ti - 7950





NV drivers are the same - 306.23 WHQL. The only thing has changed was added one game - WoW, but the results simply can not affect the overall score.
@W1zz, what happened?


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## leopr (Oct 22, 2012)

Honestly i was so close to sell my 7970 (1250/1700, 1.19v - Accelero ), somehow my sixth sense told me to stop fucking wasting money xD...glad i listened.

Nevertheless i think they saved this kind of performance boost for the right moment (now) which is kinda gay considering the price some of us paid (7970 launch).


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## eidairaman1 (Oct 22, 2012)

1Kurgan1 said:


> Holy cow, thats amazing if the gains that large with AA. BF3 the killer for AMD cards has bee nthe AA. Thats a massive performance leap, makes the 680 look bad, very shocked, sad that my rig is down now and won't be able to try them



they figured out how to finally work with GCN and not VLIW4/5


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## W1zzard (Oct 22, 2012)

tt_martin said:


> NV drivers are the same - 306.23 WHQL. The only thing has changed was added one game - WoW, but the results simply can not affect the overall score.
> @W1zz, what happened?



look again at the game list

also dragon age 2 had a bug that is fixed now


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## eidairaman1 (Oct 22, 2012)

tt_martin said:


> It's also really weird for 7950/7870:
> HD 7870 significantly faster than GTX 660, HD 7950 faster than GTX 660Ti
> http://i.imgur.com/y11nJ.png
> But after this review the results turn upside down and GTX 660 overtakes 7870 and GTX 660 Ti - 7950
> ...



you only copied and pasted what you wanted to see 



W1zzard said:


> look again at the game list
> 
> also dragon age 2 had a bug that is fixed now



to me it was the best Move AMD did, stop releasing monthly drivers but wait a few months between releases pretty much


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## Xero Fatal1ty (Oct 22, 2012)

Not too happy with the 7850 scores. Took a hit in several games. That's just unacceptable


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## eidairaman1 (Oct 22, 2012)

Xero Fatal1ty said:


> Not too happy with the 7850 scores. Took a hit in several games. That's just unacceptable



so wheres your machine specs


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## tt_martin (Oct 22, 2012)

W1zzard said:


> look again at the game list
> 
> also dragon age 2 had a bug that is fixed now



The thing is, if performance improvement for 7870/7950 is 7%, the first one should be on GTX660Ti level, and second one with Boost (which you forget to add) nearly GTX670. 
After driver update, the situation is almost the same. NV cards are even better. Such a shame...


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## Xero Fatal1ty (Oct 22, 2012)

eidairaman1 said:


> so wheres your machine specs



Sorry, just updated it


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## Xero Fatal1ty (Oct 22, 2012)

tt_martin said:


> The thing is, if performance improvement for 7870/7950 is 7%, the first one should be on GTX660Ti level, and second one with Boost (which you forget to add) nearly GTX670.
> After driver update, the situation is almost the same. NV cards are even better. Such a shame...



The graphs show 7870 got a 10% boost, the highest in the bunch


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## eidairaman1 (Oct 22, 2012)

tt_martin said:


> The thing is, if performance improvement for 7870/7950 is 7%, the first one should be on GTX660Ti level, and second one with Boost (which you forget to add) nearly GTX670.
> After driver update, the situation is almost the same. NV cards are even better. Such a shame...



well you amounted to nothing in here


I look at it this way, they took their time and focused on the quality actually. so your post is actually useless in these forums period


go be a troll at another forum


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## tt_martin (Oct 22, 2012)

eidairaman1 said:


> well you amounted to nothing in here
> 
> go be a troll at another forum



Is it wrong I need an explanation? If you can't answer me and have nothing new to say, then you should probablly leave this thread.


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## eidairaman1 (Oct 22, 2012)

tt_martin said:


> Is it wrong I need an explanation? If you can't answer me and have nothing new to say, then you should probablly leave this thread.



read the previous post kiddo


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## tt_martin (Oct 22, 2012)

eidairaman1 said:


> read the previous post kiddo



Your post was edited 1min after I send my previous post, kiddo...

nonetheless


eidairaman1 said:


> I look at it this way, they took their time and focused on the quality actually. so your post is actually useless in these forums period


No, they focused on performance improvements.


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## eidairaman1 (Oct 22, 2012)

for now im goin to bed, do a lil more thinking before you post on these topics kiddo

Personally id say review this here
http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/announcement.php?f=14


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## RejZoR (Oct 22, 2012)

Good to hear gains are even bigger with FSAA. I'm using MLAA2 and 4x EQAA with 16x AF in all games.


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## HellasVagabond (Oct 22, 2012)

Congrats on AMD for this but personally i will wait to see what they cut off this time....Usually it takes sometime before the ones that really dig such things up come with the answer.


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## cowie (Oct 22, 2012)

Is aa really working and IQ is ok?
Not just a bs boost by getting rid of quailty?....if so its a good thing


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## eidairaman1 (Oct 22, 2012)

HellasVagabond said:


> Congrats on AMD for this but personally i will wait to see what they cut off this time....Usually it takes sometime before the ones that really dig such things up come with the answer.



too bad after this they couldnt focus on the 6 series and 5 series improvements


cowie- W1zzard and cadaveca provide an honest review- cadaveca doesnt get paid to do this. W1zzard im unsure about as of pay but I dont think they take bribes to falsify performance gains from no one.


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## tt_martin (Oct 22, 2012)

eidairaman1 said:


> for now im goin to bed, do a lil more thinking before you post on these topics kiddo
> 
> Personally id say review this here
> http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/announcement.php?f=14


http://redwing.hutman.net/~mreed/warriorshtm/xenophobe.htm



eidairaman1 said:


> too bad after this they couldnt focus on the 6 series and 5 series improvements



Because 5/6 series is VLIW architecture. Now, they finally managed how the GCN works.


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## HellasVagabond (Oct 22, 2012)

Cowie is saying the same thing i am. Last time we saw "large" performance gains from new AMD drivers they had changed the entire IQ (Image Quality) structure of the drives so they favored speed by reducing IQ with the default settings. Later on they did admit doing so (after word got spread) and not a word about that since.
So once again something like that might have happened, it has nothing to do with Wizz and any other reviewer. However there are those who will sniff out any "tweaks" made by AMD that May sacrifice quality so we will have to wait and see.


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## BarbaricSoul (Oct 22, 2012)

Well this is a nice surprise to wake up to. Now to drink coffee and wait for the drivers to be released.


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## eidairaman1 (Oct 22, 2012)

HellasVagabond said:


> Cowie is saying the same thing i am. Last time we saw "large" performance gains from new AMD drivers they had changed the entire IQ (Image Quality) structure of the drives so they favored speed by reducing IQ with the default settings. Later on they did admit doing so (after word got spread) and not a word about that since.
> So once again something like that might have happened, it has nothing to do with Wizz and any other reviewer. However there are those who will sniff out any "tweaks" made by AMD that May sacrifice quality so we will have to wait and see.



Ya NV has done so before too but I get what youre saying dude


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## Mathragh (Oct 22, 2012)

HellasVagabond said:


> Cowie is saying the same thing i am. Last time we saw "large" performance gains from new AMD drivers they had changed the entire IQ (Image Quality) structure of the drives so they favored speed by reducing IQ with the default settings. Later on they did admit doing so (after word got spread) and not a word about that since.
> So once again something like that might have happened, it has nothing to do with Wizz and any other reviewer. However there are those who will sniff out any "tweaks" made by AMD that May sacrifice quality so we will have to wait and see.



if this was the case then surely they wont only decrease the quality for the 7xxx series? That would be stupid lol. Also, none of the other reviews of these drivers mentioned an IQ decrease, except for a bug with skyrim at the anandtech "review".


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## HellasVagabond (Oct 22, 2012)

It's very easy to setup drivers to use reduced IQ settings with a specific line of cards since they only pass specific files and registry components so i don't know why you think that's hard. Naturally they want to boost 7xxx sales and not 6xxx and 5xxx.
That aside noone who rushes to release a review on launch (of any product incl drivers) checks IQ. Even if they did it's very hard to detect differences in rolling demos (not to mention that i really doubt most would even retest cards with older drivers so how would they remember?).
Bottom line it's Not easy to see such things, that's why they did it last time. However some people like sniffing around and that's who i'm counting on.


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## eidairaman1 (Oct 22, 2012)

HellasVagabond said:


> It's very easy to setup drivers to use reduced IQ settings with a specific line of cards since they only pass specific files and registry components so i don't know why you think that's hard. Naturally they want to boost 7xxx sales and not 6xxx and 5xxx.
> That aside noone who rushes to release a review on launch (of any product incl drivers) checks IQ. Even if they did it's very hard to detect differences in rolling demos (not to mention that i really doubt most would even retest cards with older drivers so how would they remember?).
> Bottom line it's Not easy to see such things, that's why they did it last time. However some people like sniffing around and that's who i'm counting on.



speaking of GCN vs VLIW

76** and lower are VLIW4/5 all the way back to the Radeon 9500 days.

Also 5 series are no longer produced and Im sure 6 series boards are the same, but i say why not improve performance for those users too?

Also by quality of the driver- i meant not in detail levels but as of bug fixes and frame gains. they took their time actually instead of rushing it out.


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## HellasVagabond (Oct 22, 2012)

Because to my knowledge the 6xxx series are not produced any more and when you have "cash" issues your priority is to boost sales of current models.


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## eidairaman1 (Oct 22, 2012)

HellasVagabond said:


> Because to my knowledge the 6xxx series are not produced any more and when you have "cash" issues your priority is to boost sales of current models.



ya i understand that too.

course would you agree that they could release a 5/6/76**- series driver set separate from the 77**+ series?

I know that would be time consuming but they could figure out a different release cycle for those units


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## BigMack70 (Oct 22, 2012)

All I can say is WOW! Can't wait to get these and see what my Lightnings @ 1200/1800 will put out 

I really thought AMD was done with performance enhancements after 12.7... this is just pretty much amazing. Maybe this will help put an end (finally) to misinformed claims littering tech forums that AMD's drivers suck - that's just not true anymore (and it hasn't been true for a while now).


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## eidairaman1 (Oct 22, 2012)

BigMack70 said:


> All I can say is WOW! Can't wait to get these and see what my Lightnings @ 1200/1800 will put out
> 
> I really thought AMD was done with performance enhancements after 12.7... this is just pretty much amazing. Maybe this will help put an end (finally) to misinformed claims littering tech forums that AMD's drivers suck - that's just not true anymore (and it hasn't been true for a while now).



Hell last issue i had with Catalyst was when they switched over to PCI E the regular drivers dont have the AGP driver sets (games would just CDT and DX tests would fail).

other than that a machine with a 6770 here has been easy to update without driver removals (about time that was fixed)


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## JKnows (Oct 22, 2012)

SuperB testing, this is what I like to read . May I suggest for 3DMark11 would better to see P scores because these FPS numbers ain't means anything for me.


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## Tatty_One (Oct 22, 2012)

One or two of you need to sort your attitudes out, to be honest I am getting sick and tired of deliberate flamebaiting and insults, please learn to agree to disagree in a more mature manner..... thank you!


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## cowie (Oct 22, 2012)

eidairaman1 said:


> cowie- W1zzard and cadaveca provide an honest review- cadaveca doesnt get paid to do this. W1zzard im unsure about as of pay but I dont think they take bribes to falsify performance gains from no one.




I relieze that but there has been more then one tested driver that was later found to be lacking in the quailty dept.
It is alot of performance for a driver 10 months later

Lets just roll with these awhile and see how they go


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## eidairaman1 (Oct 22, 2012)

cowie said:


> I relieze that but there has been more then one tested driver that was later found to be lacking in the quailty dept.
> It is alot of performance for a driver 10 months later
> 
> Lets just roll with these awhile and see how they go



both NV and AMD have done this to gain a minor advantage, 2-3 FPS is pretty understandable in gains, if it was like 10+ id be a lil concerned


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## brandonwh64 (Oct 22, 2012)

I didn't see it but was crossfire tested?


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## raghu78 (Oct 22, 2012)

AMD really kicked some ass with these drivers. good job AMD  As for people who are suspicious of IQ compromises it won't take long for the public and the tech press to find out if AMD did that. 

AMD is learning a lot because this is a complete new architecture built from the ground up. GCN is AMD's Fermi so its quite natural to expect driver updates bring significant performance improvements. 

But BF3 is an exception. BF3 has been an Achilles heel till now for HD 7970. Quite a few reviews showed GTX 680 significantly faster. guru3d, anandtech, hexus, hardwarecanucks, computerbase. With 12.11 AMD has addressed that and now the tables have turned so much that HD 7970 Ghz leads by huge margins in a few of the sites test suite. hexus, computerbase, guru3d, anandtech are now showing the HD 7970 Ghz leading by margins starting at 8 - 10% which go as high as 20%.

AMD has resolved the performance hit which came from MSAA with deferred rendering in the Frostbite 2 engine. AMD had to do this because MOH Warfighter uses Frostbite 2 engine and is a GAMING EVOLVED title. it would have been embarassing to see GTX 680 dominate HD 7970 in MOH Warfighter. AMD got it done before MOH Warfighter's release tomorrow.  so good for them


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## the54thvoid (Oct 22, 2012)

From Hexus:



> As a final prelude to the benchmarks, we spent a little time in comparing the image-quality attributes of the Catalyst 12.8 and 12.11 drivers. Both have the same default IQ parameters in the control panel, and looking at side-by-side screenshots showed no image-quality 'cheating' in the newer set - something that would aid performance at the expense of IQ.



http://hexus.net/tech/reviews/graph...211-benchmarked-surprising-performance-gains/

So it seems no IQ manipulation here, just GCN being used better.


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## Widjaja (Oct 22, 2012)

I think the current drivers for the 7870s are still somewhat buggy/immature.
e.g. 
68% max load readings
Random core drops

Which possibly leads to the significant gain the 7870s appear to have with the 'never settle' drivers.
Maybe less work had been done on the 7870s until now.


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## H82LUZ73 (Oct 22, 2012)

james888 said:


> My thoughts in order:
> "What happened to 12.10. I am on 12.9 beta."
> "Ah, a holiday driver."
> Read it
> ...



 12.10 is a beta driver,came out a bout a month ago. just checked You guys are right ,they are 12.9s ....Maybe they skipped 12.10s to work on cats performance under Win8?

So these are out just before Win8 hits on the 26,Thanks Wizz for taking the time to do this.


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## Mussels (Oct 22, 2012)

looking good, even tho i miss out on 5870's.


this reminds me of the time w1zzy tested a bunch of drivers and there was a 1% improvement over many months - and now its 4-10% in a single driver.


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## repman244 (Oct 22, 2012)

Mussels said:


> looking good, even tho i miss out on 5870's.



+1

But I think the HD5xxx series are optimized to their full potential - at least I hope they are


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## Nordic (Oct 22, 2012)

the54thvoid said:


> From Hexus:
> 
> 
> 
> ...



How is GCN being used better now? What took them so long? I would like answers but I don't expect them to be answered for a week or so.


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## Clubber_Lang (Oct 22, 2012)

Ah crap!!!!!!

This is terrible news for me!  I was hell bent on getting a GTX670......and now , with 4 games included ( ones I was going to buy anyways! )......looks like a 7970 will be my new card! Heavy dilemma. That deal is just to good to pass up to be honest. 

Btw.....the video card is the last thing I need to get , to finish my very first computer build!  The last few items should arrive today from newegg. I'm so stoked on this stuff right now!


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## Clubber_Lang (Oct 22, 2012)

BTW.....Wizz....anyone.....when does this offer end? Do we have until the end of the month....end of the year?  I didn't see an expiration date on this great package.


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## W1zzard (Oct 22, 2012)

Clubber_Lang said:


> BTW.....Wizz....anyone.....when does this offer end? Do we have until the end of the month....end of the year?  I didn't see an expiration date on this great package.


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## Clubber_Lang (Oct 22, 2012)

Sweet! Thanks Wizz!


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## 1Kurgan1 (Oct 22, 2012)

eidairaman1 said:


> too bad after this they couldnt focus on the 6 series and 5 series improvements



I don't think there is anymore to be gained there. Those cards run the old shader type that AMD has known.


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## RejZoR (Oct 22, 2012)

I wonder when we'll get the actual drivers today... If it's based on some location on west coast of USA that means it's like morning there right now. AMD engineers waking up slowly i guess


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## eclipx (Oct 22, 2012)

Nice i have the 7870 but where can i download it? I'm using 12.9 beta drivers


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## VulkanBros (Oct 22, 2012)

At own risk: http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/693484-catalyst-12-11-beta-drivers.html


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## johnnyfiive (Oct 22, 2012)

This is exactly why I'm glad I went with a 7970 even after having a gtx 680. NICE review wizz.


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## FreedomEclipse (Oct 22, 2012)

no performance boost for 6970s? I guess theres no need for me to update then.


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## raghu78 (Oct 22, 2012)

newegg and superbiz have the Never settle game bundle offer already up on their site for the HD 7900 cards. 

 Computer Hardware, Video Cards & Video Devices, D...
 Computer Hardware, Video Cards & Video Devices, D...
 Computer Hardware, Video Cards & Video Devices, D...

http://www.superbiiz.com/query.php?...rom+current+results&ob=r&myanchor=#displaytop
http://www.superbiiz.com/query.php?...rom+current+results&ob=r&myanchor=#displaytop


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## erocker (Oct 22, 2012)

Looks like Newegg is jacking up the price too. :shadedshu


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## TheMailMan78 (Oct 22, 2012)

erocker said:


> Looks like Newegg is jacking up the price too. :shadedshu



lol you knew that was coming.

Anyway Newegg's days are numbered. There is a bill in congress to make e-tailers charge tax now.


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## UbErN00b (Oct 22, 2012)

Sorry didn't read the entire thread though are these available now as beta? can't seem to find anything in the OP or on AMD


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## erocker (Oct 22, 2012)

"They found a bug" and there will be an updated release later today.


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## W1zzard (Oct 22, 2012)

2 hours ago AMD told me 14 minutes ago


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## alwayssts (Oct 22, 2012)

Widjaja said:


> I think the current drivers for the 7870s are still somewhat buggy/immature.
> e.g.
> 68% max load readings
> Random core drops



I had not heard this before, but it does not surprise me.  The average CU usage for 32 ROPs is approx 1280/.68 (18xx shaders, ~29 CUs).  Been saying this since the Tahiti launch ad nauseam.  It is why 7950 is efficient, 680 is efficient (when factoring in sfus amd does with shaders), and 8870 will probably be efficient.

(I suppose considering these drivers 'has been' is more accurate than 'is'...need to re-evaluate at some point and figure out what they did in these drivers because unit efficiency has now done a flip-flop with nvidia...granted it's only a percent or so better now on average going by the tpu graphs...but it was around 5-6% less.  That is a HUGE deal and could change future product match-ups like 660ti versus 8850 or an 6 SMX part using less than 150w versus 7870.)

Either way, I finally broke and bought a 7870 last week.  This is a nice surprise.  Seems 'old' stock 7970 performance is now somewhat within reach with overclocking...and that is just flat out awesome.  Doesn't really change the market for the card, but it sure will be nice to have a cushion rather than just barely squeaking by with acceptable frames at 1080p and the settings cranked.


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## Novulux (Oct 22, 2012)

TheMailMan78 said:


> lol you knew that was coming.
> 
> Anyway Newegg's days are numbered. There is a bill in congress to make e-tailers charge tax now.



Hah, certain states like California already had to. Doesn't stop me from buying items from them if a product is cheaper/more available on their site than from Microcenter or Fry's.


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## VulkanBros (Oct 22, 2012)

They are up now  

http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/windows/Pages/radeonaiw_vista64.aspx


----------



## TheoneandonlyMrK (Oct 22, 2012)

definately trying them just to see anyways  ty for the link, i did look earlier but no luck
ive 12.10beta and had them all prior so ill know


----------



## Widjaja (Oct 22, 2012)

alwayssts said:


> I had not heard this before, but it does not surprise me.



The issue is only there if you intentionally monitor the card with GPU-Z logging.
Otherwise not noticeable in real World performance from what I have found so I am putting it down to false readings.

Some people have reported seeing not increase in fps performance over a 6870 compared to a 7870.

I am also wondering if what is reported in GPU-Z is the source of the Sapphire 7870 OC black screen issue rather than a BIOS issue.
Either way Sapphire have released a BIOS which corrects the problem for the card.


----------



## VulkanBros (Oct 22, 2012)

They updated the chipset drivers as well v. 12.10

http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/windows/Pages/raid_windows.aspx


----------



## W1zzard (Oct 22, 2012)

Driver can be found at TPU downloads: http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/2176/AMD_Catalyst_12.11_Beta_3.html


----------



## erocker (Oct 22, 2012)

I hope the "media codec package" works with these. The program formerly known as AVIVO just didn't show up for me with 12.9's.


----------



## Boneface (Oct 22, 2012)

VulkanBros said:


> At own risk: http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/693484-catalyst-12-11-beta-drivers.html



I gabbed those, bf3 does run loads better but image seems like they have the AntiAliasing Post forced on, At least thats what it seems like to me.


----------



## TheMailMan78 (Oct 22, 2012)

Really nice to see ATI get their act together! Kudos!


----------



## InnocentCriminal (Oct 22, 2012)

Must admit I'm a little gutted but still, I'll give 'em ago. Love my 6970*.

Let's hope that they keep this up and the next set are even better.


----------



## RejZoR (Oct 22, 2012)

Drivers are also available on AMD's webpage...


----------



## erocker (Oct 22, 2012)

My 2D clocks are are stuck in this mode now.


----------



## cadaveca (Oct 22, 2012)

erocker said:


> My 2D clocks are are stuck in this mode now.
> 
> http://gpuz.techpowerup.com/12/10/22/g9f.png



Install error, I'd say, no problems like that here, both single and multi-GPU, 300 MHz GPU, 150 MHz memory no problem.


----------



## TheoneandonlyMrK (Oct 22, 2012)

i only got a slight improvement 1-2% negligable,, tut they work well though, they seem to have 5xxx series as good as they are getting, they are working very well still 

mine are at 157 Erocker but no glitching, odd ,good but odd ,theres time yet for your trick


----------



## TheMailMan78 (Oct 22, 2012)

erocker said:


> My 2D clocks are are stuck in this mode now.
> 
> http://gpuz.techpowerup.com/12/10/22/g9f.png



Damn looks like a messed up install. Try this out...

http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showthread.php?t=52502


----------



## MxPhenom 216 (Oct 22, 2012)

1Kurgan1 said:


> Holy cow, thats amazing if the gains that large with AA. BF3 the killer for AMD cards has bee nthe AA. Thats a massive performance leap, makes the 680 look bad, very shocked, sad that my rig is down now and won't be able to try them



They are the same performance even more now. I dont see how it makes the 680 look bad. Must make the 7970 look bad then too. Like i said, pick your color, and your getting same card with different drivers.

Im wondering what they did to push this amount of performance out of the cards. When Nvidia did this with the GTX2xx series they lowered the image quality in a lot of the games to get the extra performance.


----------



## erocker (Oct 22, 2012)

TheMailMan78 said:


> Damn looks like a messed up install. Try this out...
> 
> http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showthread.php?t=52502



Oh you.

I've reinstalled several times now. Using my method and using ATiMan Uninstaller. It may be the bios I'm using which has unlocked clocks.


----------



## TheoneandonlyMrK (Oct 22, 2012)

http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/windows/Pages/raid_windows.aspx


there is also an updated chipset and raid driver available


----------



## the54thvoid (Oct 22, 2012)

erocker said:


> My 2D clocks are are stuck in this mode now.
> 
> http://gpuz.techpowerup.com/12/10/22/g9f.png



I'm getting the same clocks with my primary 7970. 2nd card is still using zero core though.

EDIT:

Just tried a few things and it does seem to be better (even with crossfire).  It's also fixed my Afterburner bug where my 2nd gpu temps/clocks wouldn't show.  Now it does 

Can confirm, BF3 is faster 

But yeah, primary card doesn't down clock as much but it doesn't exactly suck juice at 0-1% load so no biggie.


----------



## erocker (Oct 22, 2012)

Tried the stock and GHz bios and get the same high 2D clocks. Only happens with these drivers. When I switch back to 12.9 beta, clocks become 300/150 in 2D mode. I don't know what I'm missing. 

@cadaveca, did you just install over your previous drivers?

@ 54thvoid, are you running reference card(s)?

**I found others having similar issues: http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18452871&page=10

Seems to be happening to 7970 reference card users. Apparently AMD is aware of it. I'll take the power usage in trade for performance though for now.


----------



## BigMack70 (Oct 23, 2012)

Great driver for gaming... this is the first driver where The Witcher 2 has worked 100% fine with ubersampling enabled for me - no crashes + 60fps performance!

The bad news? It seems unstable for bitcoin mining. When I'm mining, I get weird artifacting on the screen regardless of my clock and voltage settings. The problem does not exist in any games so far, and obviously not many people mine bitcoins, so not a huge deal.

It also nearly bumped my 3dmark11 X score over 7000! I could probably get my clocks up enough to score X7000 and survive for a single run, but at 1195/1800 (which is my max 100% stable clock), I'm getting around X6850-X6900.


----------



## eidairaman1 (Oct 23, 2012)

BigMack70 said:


> Great driver for gaming... this is the first driver where The Witcher 2 has worked 100% fine with ubersampling enabled for me - no crashes + 60fps performance!
> 
> The bad news? It seems unstable for bitcoin mining. When I'm mining, I get weird artifacting on the screen regardless of my clock and voltage settings. The problem does not exist in any games so far, and obviously not many people mine bitcoins, so not a huge deal.
> 
> It also nearly bumped my 3dmark11 X score over 7000! I could probably get my clocks up enough to score X7000 and survive for a single run, but at 1195/1800 (which is my max 100% stable clock), I'm getting around X6850-X6900.



ya that stuff right there is not a normal task. Id say try folding/crunching


----------



## Nordic (Oct 23, 2012)

Interesting about bitcoin mining doing that. What miner do you use? Btc mining is all single precision math. Try lowering your aggression.


----------



## manofthem (Oct 23, 2012)

I'm going to try the 12.11 and see if they affect my reference 7970 the same way as erocker. I'll post back shortly.


erocker said:


> My 2D clocks are are stuck in this mode now.
> 
> http://gpuz.techpowerup.com/12/10/22/g9f.png


*12.11*
My clocks are also stuck at 500/1375





And apparently it's only my main card, as my second card doesn't have the issue of high clocks,  but it doesn't seem to be powering off like it used to.  





Went ahead and downloaded and installed 12.10 also, no change ?  I swear 12.8 didn't have this issue
*12.10*


----------



## Novulux (Oct 23, 2012)

My 3DMark11 performance preset graphics score increased 1.4k on my HD 7870. Time to try some games.


----------



## t_ski (Oct 23, 2012)

I've been running the 12.4's for a while, and my clocks are already stuck at 500/1375.  Might as well try these out for the extra boost 

EDIT:  Ok, ran the installer package and did an uninstall, rebooted, then ran the package again and installed them.  Had to go back in and configure my Eyefinity setup (no big deal - 30 seconds maybe), then had to reboot again for cards #2 and #3 to be recognized in Afterburner.  Right now I am sitting idle at the desktop and GPU #1 is at 500/1375, but GPU #2 & #3 are sitting at 0/0.  Nice


----------



## Mussels (Oct 23, 2012)

12.10 is working as expected for me on 5K crossfire, no bugs with idle clocks.


----------



## Clubber_Lang (Oct 23, 2012)

Well.....I'm glad I have you guys here that actually know what you're doing to test this stuff. If I had my new card I wouldn't know what the hell was going on. Hopefully be able to pick up a new 7970 within the next couple weeks!!


----------



## BigMack70 (Oct 23, 2012)

james888 said:


> Interesting about bitcoin mining doing that. What miner do you use? Btc mining is all single precision math. Try lowering your aggression.



Using GUIMiner because I don't really know what I'm doing (don't know what aggression is or how to lower it) and the other miners seemed more complex, and I just started leaving my rig on at night to mine while I sleep to make some free $$ to pay for new tech toys (I don't pay for electricity).

It doesn't seem to do anything harmful... the artifacts seem to have to do with aero glass in win7 as it seems to have problems drawing the borders of windows - they will become sporadically "blocky" until you move the window and make it re-draw. 

I've had it up and running for a few hours now and no crashes, so it's not unstable... just some sort of weird bug.


----------



## Nordic (Oct 23, 2012)

BigMack70 said:


> Using GUIMiner because I don't really know what I'm doing (don't know what aggression is or how to lower it) and the other miners seemed more complex, and I just started leaving my rig on at night to mine while I sleep to make some free $$ to pay for new tech toys (I don't pay for electricity).
> 
> It doesn't seem to do anything harmful... the artifacts seem to have to do with aero glass in win7 as it seems to have problems drawing the borders of windows - they will become sporadically "blocky" until you move the window and make it re-draw.
> 
> I've had it up and running for a few hours now and no crashes, so it's not unstable... just some sort of weird bug.



Ah, guiminer. Guiminer uses poclbm. It does not have aggression.
You are useing this on a 7970 right. You should try these settings in the extra flags section.


```
-f 60
```
-f refers mostly to how the system will prioritize graphical load. -f 60 will put it last. -f 0 will put it before everything. It may reduce your hash rate by 10mhz but your system will run better hopefully.


```
-w 256
```
-w refers to work size. This should increase your hashrate.

I would suggest cgminer. It is the best out there right now. It will give you the best hash rate and it is actually really easy to use.


----------



## manofthem (Oct 23, 2012)

Mussels said:


> 12.10 is working as expected for me on 5K crossfire, no bugs with idle clocks.



12.10 has normal idle clocks?  I tried it w/ 79xx but it did the same high 2d clocks 500/1375. Back on 12.8 for the time being and everything looks good


----------



## Widjaja (Oct 23, 2012)

Both the 12.10 and 12.11 BETA are giving me flickering artifacts in Skyrim with my 7870 
I can confirm the 12.11 BETA has resolved the 7870  core clock reporting 450Mhz randomly.
But still the artifacts.

Revert back to 12.8 and no artifacts.


----------



## TheGuruStud (Oct 23, 2012)

Well, I tested 12.10 and 12.11, but there wasn't much to test. The drivers are junk.

3D clocks never engage no matter what you do. Any attempt at applying an OC results in crazy distortion and sometimes the image bouncing up and down (is that the flickering ppl are talking about) with lines running through it.

JFC. Get your shit together, AMD. I expect bugs in a beta but not an official release.


----------



## cadaveca (Oct 23, 2012)

I have no issues to report with my dual 7950's and the 12.11 Beta. Secondary card will go full shutdown when system is truly idle..etc...etc...etc..










Battlefield 3 Visual quality has been adjusted somehow...I have to play a few rounds more before I can say much on that...I can say that I have my very own driver un-install method, dunno if that's what got things worknig for me or not, however.


----------



## Widjaja (Oct 23, 2012)

TheGuruStud said:


> Well, I tested 12.10 and 12.11, but there wasn't much to test. The drivers are junk.
> 
> 3D clocks never engage no matter what you do. Any attempt at applying an OC results in crazy distortion and sometimes the image bouncing up and down (is that the flickering ppl are talking about) with lines running through it.
> 
> JFC. Get your shit together, AMD. I expect bugs in a beta but not an official release.



My HD7870 is factory OC'd to a whopping 1010Mhz core clock!
Fastest 7870 Ghz edition factory stock! 

Yet I am getting sporadic flickers and crazy distortion in Skyrim which appears for a split second, but if I walk backwards to the same spot, those flickery triangles are there.

No 3D clock issues wiht the 7870 though besides the usual random core clock drop to 450Mhz noted in GPU-Z which does not appear to affect game play on current WHQL.

Back to 12.8 for me....not that I really needed the fps boost.



cadaveca said:


> I can say that I have my very own driver un-install method, dunno if that's what got things worknig for me or not, however.


I just go to control panel, right click the AMD install manager, select change and uninstall all AMD software.
Theoretically it should be enough.


----------



## Assimilator (Oct 23, 2012)

Has ATI fixed the idle clocks for multi-monitor setups yet?


----------



## cadaveca (Oct 23, 2012)

Widjaja said:


> I just go to control panel, right click the AMD install manager, select change and uninstall all AMD software.
> Theoretically it should be enough.



Yes, when installing a WHQL, sure.


However, this thread is about the beta?


  For a beta, you must get rid of left-over stuff, like overdrive profiles and such, maybe some registry keys. I always remove driver as you say, but before reboot, I manaully delete AMD folder on C:\, and then remove AMD/ATI listings in the registry under the "SOFTWARE" sections of each main heading. Then I reboot. Not much more than a normal install, really, but I found it fixes issues with Overdrive when swapping cards, so now I do that each and every time I change drivers. ATIMAN and all that other stuff aren't needed, IMHO, unless perhaps you run full AMD rigs, which I do not.


----------



## erocker (Oct 23, 2012)

cadaveca said:


> I can say that I have my very own driver un-install method, dunno if that's what got things worknig for me or not, however



No. It seems to be a common occurrence with reference 7970's and these drivers.



cadaveca said:


> ATIMAN and all that other stuff aren't needed, IMHO, unless perhaps you run full AMD rigs, which I do not.



I agree. It is easy to use though in case there is a problem. I've literally tried everything. AMD is aware of the problem as I linked earlier. 

*In response to your comment below, I just don't get it. I compared the 12.9 beta's and these 12.11 beta's profiles and they are identical. I don't think it's the profiles.


----------



## cadaveca (Oct 23, 2012)

erocker said:


> No. It seems to be a common occurrence with reference 7970's and these drivers.



Just looks like minor profile issues to me though. Oh well, it'll get fixed at some point, I imagine.


----------



## Novulux (Oct 23, 2012)

Over 10k graphics score on performance preset of 3dmark11 after overclocking my HD 7870.


----------



## Rahmat Sofyan (Oct 23, 2012)

I wonder, how much improvement for HD 7990 with this Driver?


----------



## Mussels (Oct 23, 2012)

Rahmat Sofyan said:


> I wonder, how much improvement for HD 7990 with this Driver?



considering the card doesnt officially exist... (only as a powercolor custom made card)


----------



## kiddagoat (Oct 23, 2012)

Maybe it is just me but now when I goto watch videos with these drivers installed... the picture is zoomed in almost like double the size of what it used to be.  

My eyes might be playing tricks on me but the videos seem really distorted and clipped now.


----------



## Rahmat Sofyan (Oct 23, 2012)

Mussels said:


> considering the card doesnt officially exist... (only as a powercolor custom made card)



Yeah, I knew..I'm just curious since this driver only made for HD 7000 series, it'll be big surprise if this driver can improve unofficial HD7990 performance and moreever can match gtx 690 in some bench maybe...


----------



## Widjaja (Oct 23, 2012)

cadaveca said:


> Yes, when installing a WHQL, sure.
> 
> 
> However, this thread is about the beta?
> ...



I went straight for the WHQLs first because I do not clear out the registry of profiles etc.
Unfortunately the problems appeared on my card, so i went to the 12.11 betas hoping I would not get the same result which I did.

So I did my usual uninstall and am now back on 12.8 with no graphic issues what so ever.

I guess I'll give the 12.11s a go when they are officially released as WHQL.

Either way I have reported the issues I have been having since the 12.10s and mentioned the same result in 12.11 beta


----------



## matthew_eli (Oct 23, 2012)

Hi guys, I've a strange problem with GPU-Z: I installed 12.11 beta3 driver on Win8 Pro x64 RTM and it's what I got:












I guess it'd be a bug on the dedicated memory amount since I think it'd no possible...

Please, let me know!!!


----------



## W1zzard (Oct 23, 2012)

where is the issue with memory ?


----------



## matthew_eli (Oct 23, 2012)

Hi! is in the (dedicated) memory usage: 0 MB, you see?


----------



## W1zzard (Oct 23, 2012)

matthew_eli said:


> Hi! is in the (dedicated) memory usage: 0 MB, you see?



that means that 0 mb of the dedicated memory is currently in use. seems correct to me. try running the render test (? icon next to pcie) or some 3d app to see it go up


----------



## matthew_eli (Oct 23, 2012)

mmmhh, there'd be something strange...with the 12.8 WHQL installed, also without using the 3D render test, I've seen a dedicated memory usage of about 50 MB. BTW, here is the memory usage during 3D render test:


----------



## UbErN00b (Oct 23, 2012)

Novulux said:


> Over 10k graphics score on performance preset of 3dmark11 after overclocking my HD 7870.



I find this hard to believe, my OC 7950 only scores 8.5K with a 4.5ghz 2500k do you have a SS?


----------



## BigMack70 (Oct 23, 2012)

Rahmat Sofyan said:


> I wonder, how much improvement for HD 7990 with this Driver?



It improved similarly to the 7970, I think. I'm running 7970 CF which is basically the same as the 7990s out there, and I'm seeing 5-15% improvements across the board in performance, which is really awesome.

I'm just super excited I can play The Witcher 2 with ubersampling at long last... that was half of my excuse to buy a second 7970 and I've been really upset that it wasn't working 

Also @James888 - thanks for the tips! Didn't really mess with my hashrate (still @ 1250 MHash/s) but it reduced the level of artifacting I'm seeing. Didn't get rid of it completely, but definitely reduced it so that it's less annoying.

Also, my 2 cents about the clocks - I'm not experiencing any problems... cards clock themselves just fine at idle 2D and at load. Maybe it only affects reference 7970s?


----------



## Boneface (Oct 23, 2012)

Is anyone having problems running MOH with these drivers and a 7970, I cant do full screen with them, drop to 12.10s and all is good lol!


----------



## Novulux (Oct 23, 2012)

UbErN00b said:


> I find this hard to believe, my OC 7950 only scores 8.5K with a 4.5ghz 2500k do you have a SS?



I was only referring to graphics score, not the total. Of course, your processor is significantly better. 
If you are referring to graphics score, here is my normal usage OC before I bumped it up, as free accounts can only have 1 score recorded.
http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/4728854


----------



## t_ski (Oct 23, 2012)

Assimilator said:


> Has ATI fixed the idle clocks for multi-monitor setups yet?



I have three monitors and the main card will now idle at 500 and the 2nd and 3rd cards will shut down when idle.  This didn't happen on the 12.4's I was running before these.


----------



## leopr (Oct 23, 2012)

Impressive results:

7970 @ 1230/1700 [CAT 12.8]:






7970 @ 1230/1700 [CAT 12.11]





So right now we can consider the 7970 GHZ as the fastest single-gpu graphics card ?.


----------



## Cool Mike (Oct 23, 2012)

I have a 7990 Devil 13. I will download tonight.


----------



## MetalRacer (Oct 24, 2012)

Thanks for the review Wizz! 

Heres an interesting tidbit: Cat 11.12 on LN2 = Cat 12.11 on Water.
http://www.hwbot.org/newsflash/1836...atalyst_11.12_on_ln2__catalyst_12.11_on_water


----------



## t_ski (Oct 25, 2012)

Probably the best part of these drivers for me so far have been the power management actually working to shut off the second and third cards in the system.  If I'm not gaming this makes the loop much cooler and brings my idle temps way down.


----------



## Jurassic1024 (Oct 26, 2012)

Thank you AMD Catalyst team!!!


----------



## Blau&Gruen (Oct 26, 2012)

Informative review to the point. Thx.

Question:

Why is Shogun2 tested on without antialiasing? I have taken notice of this already in your review of Sapphire's HD 7950 Vapor-X.


----------



## eidairaman1 (Oct 26, 2012)

Blau&Gruen said:


> Informative review to the point. Thx.
> 
> Question:
> 
> Why is Shogun2 tested on without antialiasing? I have taken notice of this already in your review of Sapphire's HD 7950 Vapor-X.



go to google.com and type this in

total war shogun 2 supports AA


----------



## Blau&Gruen (Oct 26, 2012)

eidairaman1 said:


> go to google.com and type this in
> 
> total war shogun 2 supports AA



Well, it supports up to 8x multisample anti-aliasing after a patch.


----------



## eidairaman1 (Oct 26, 2012)

Blau&Gruen said:


> Well, it supports up to 8x multisample anti-aliasing after a patch.



just to me after reading what i had seems AA is broken to an extent. You could always force AA in AVECC,


----------



## Blau&Gruen (Oct 26, 2012)

Ok, thx

I need to have a look into this.


----------



## SIGSEGV (Oct 26, 2012)

leopr said:


> Impressive results:
> 
> 7970 @ 1230/1700 [CAT 12.8]:
> 
> ...



even without of its newest catalyst, amd radeon 7970Ghz edition is still the fastest single gpu graphics card right now.


----------



## Super XP (Oct 26, 2012)

Nice AMD 
Now should I upgrade, I am currently using CAT 12.8


----------



## SIGSEGV (Oct 26, 2012)

Super XP said:


> Nice AMD
> Now should I upgrade, I am currently using CAT 12.8



you must


----------



## PatoRodrigues (Oct 27, 2012)

Well, considering that here in Brazil HD7970 and GTX670 have almost the same price... no doubt about what to get for a new build.

Do you guys know about any review of HD7970 CFX with Catalyst 12.11? Google wasn't so friendly when i searched for it.


----------



## exodusprime1337 (Oct 27, 2012)

i went from 15.9k in 3dmark11 to 16.649k with the new drivers, performace across the board seems to be great.  I can post some benchmarks if you want.  Lemme know what you wanna see and i'll put them up if i can


----------



## erocker (Oct 27, 2012)

1Kurgan1 said:


> Holy cow, thats amazing if the gains that large with AA. BF3 the killer for AMD cards has bee nthe AA. Thats a massive performance leap, makes the 680 look bad, very shocked, sad that my rig is down now and won't be able to try them



Yes, they are that good. I was pretty amazed myself seeing 10+ more FPS all the time.


----------



## PatoRodrigues (Oct 27, 2012)

exodusprime1337 said:


> i went from 15.9k in 3dmark11 to 16.649k with the new drivers, performace across the board seems to be great.  I can post some benchmarks if you want.  Lemme know what you wanna see and i'll put them up if i can



That would be very, very nice. And also a really cool favor for all the guys (or girls, )out there trying to choose a new graphics card.

After 12.11 Beta 4, i'm leaning towards a Sapphire Dual-X 3GB HD7970.

And those Diamond 7970's are really good looking!


----------



## manofthem (Oct 27, 2012)

for what it's worth, the 12.11 beta 4 on Windows 8 also has the high 2d clocks.  just throwing that out there


----------



## eidairaman1 (Oct 27, 2012)

erocker said:


> Yes, they are that good. I was pretty amazed myself seeing 10+ more FPS all the time.



considering a 10 FPS increase can mean playable Frame rates (60+) vs bearable frames (45-59) and unbearable (0-44)


----------



## electro1971 (Oct 28, 2012)

*Gpu vs Cpu*

Hello everybody,

It was my first time here and my english is not very well, apologize me. I want to congratulation for this analysis and aprove what is saying when you talk for they old card that we are no see the performance. I have a HD 5750 and i dont see the diffirence. 

My question is: For my cpu dual core 6550, what kind of video card i need to my cpu. I want to buy a HD7850, do i need to change my old cpu? And there is anywhere in the web to see 
which cpu work whit some video card?

Because i play whit the game Guild Wars 2 and when a lot of people are in the battle my video card do is best, an a optain 10 FPS. 

Thanks a lot

Electro1971


----------



## Widjaja (Oct 28, 2012)

The GPU will work fine with the your current CPU.
Bare in mind CPU intensive games may exhibit lackluster performance despite the GPU upgrade.


----------



## kciaccio (Oct 28, 2012)

I just re-ran the window experience index. My HD7770 went from a 6.0 score to a 7.7 with this new 12.11 upgrade. Nice!

3D Mark is P4706 3DMarks


----------



## levat (Oct 28, 2012)

Which settings (AF, tesselataion,...) do you use in Heaven 2.0?


----------



## kciaccio (Oct 28, 2012)

levat said:


> Which settings (AF, tesselataion,...) do you use in Heaven 2.0?



I have heaven 2.0. You want me to run it?


----------



## levat (Oct 28, 2012)

*I was interested in which settings does TPU use in that bench*

because they only state AA.  I have Heaven 2 and wanted to compare my 7750 to theirs, so I have to know their settings (at least on 1680x1050)


----------



## kciaccio (Oct 28, 2012)

levat said:


> because they only state AA.  I have Heaven 2 and wanted to compare my 7750 to theirs, so I have to know their settings (at least on 1680x1050)



http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/Catalyst_12.11_Performance/22.html


----------



## os2wiz (Nov 2, 2012)

W1zzard said:


> [page=Introduction & Specifications]
> 
> 
> Is there any benefit for 6000 series cards with Catalyst 12.11?  I have a crossfire 6970 setup.


----------



## levat (Nov 3, 2012)

Probably not, but you should download latest CAP (CAP 12.10).


----------



## os2wiz (Nov 3, 2012)

levat said:


> Probably not, but you should download latest CAP (CAP 12.10).



I underestimated power requirements for Crossfire. I am not going to use 350 watts extra every time I game. That would run me an extra $100 a year on the electric bill. Plus I would have to buy an 850 watt power supply. That's an extra $35 for a good one over the 650 watt Kingwin LZP 650 that is coming to me on Monday. Not worth it. So the pair of used MSI Radeon HD6970's I bought for $390 on Ebay will be resold as soon as the solitary Sapphire Radeon 7950 arrives Tuesday. I'll save a few books get almost the same performance and save bundles on power. I wish I had done my home work in advance. I hate having to sell things on Ebay with taking pictures and haggling with people who no matter how good the price is, try to knock it down further.  I am anti-capitalist at heart.


----------



## eidairaman1 (Nov 3, 2012)

os2wiz said:


> I underestimated power rerquirements for Crossfire. I am not going to use 350 watts extra every time I game. That would run me an extra $150 a year on the electric bill. Plus I would have to buy an 850 watt power supply. That's an extra $35 for a good one over the 650 watt Kingwin LZP 650 that is coming to me on Monday. Not worth it. So the pair of used MSI Radeon HD6970's I bought for $390 on Ebay will be resold as soon as the solitary Sapphire Radeon 7950 arrives Tuesday. I'll save a few books get almost the same performance and save bundles on power. I wish I had done my home work in advance. I hate having to sell things on Ebay with taking pictures and haggling with people who no matter how good the price is, try to knock it down further.  I am anti-capitalist at heart.



you should try to sell them here too


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## os2wiz (Nov 3, 2012)

eidairaman1 said:


> you should try to sell them here too



 It is just as bad here selling as on Ebay. You have to supply a picture, which means absolutely nothing about fraud prevention. I woujld rather give my home address and telephone number when joining Tech power Up then having to do these false security measures that really do NOT making a safer place to sell. Any thief could find a picture to duplicate if they did not really have the product to sell. Any body can provide a false name and hand sign it on a picture. I built a life long reputation for being a man of my word. I earned whatever respect I have gotten in life. These false security measures are just like the TSA at the airports . A mega billion dollar industry based on mass fear and deception by the government. I would rather build a bond of trust  rather than a world based on fear. No sale here it is more complicated than Ebay. I wanted to sell my 2 GB 6950 Radeon HD for $140 & free shipping here just to give guys a break, but if I have to jump through hoops to do it then it's not worth it to me. I'll sell it for $165 on Ebay plus shipping costs.


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## os2wiz (Nov 3, 2012)

manofthem said:


> for what it's worth, the 12.11 beta 4 on Windows 8 also has the high 2d clocks.  just throwing that out there



What does windows 8 have to with the high 2nd clocks??? You telling us that windows 7 won't see that?


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## os2wiz (Nov 3, 2012)

PatoRodrigues said:


> Well, considering that here in Brazil HD7970 and GTX670 have almost the same price... no doubt about what to get for a new build.
> 
> Do you guys know about any review of HD7970 CFX with Catalyst 12.11? Google wasn't so friendly when i searched for it.



You must like high electric bills! Extra 350 watts/hour x say 2 hours a day x 365 days per year=
255.5 kwh per year . Con Edison in New York 39 cents /kwh = $100 a year in added electrcity costs. If you are a crazy addicted gamer double that.


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## levat (Nov 3, 2012)

os2wiz said:


> You must like high electric bills! Extra 350 watts/hour x say 2 hours a day x 365 days per year=
> 255.5 kwh per year . Con Edison in New York 39 cents /kwh = $100 a year in added electrcity costs. If you are a crazy addicted gamer double that.



CFX is not for everybody, some people just don't care about those costs. If he wants better performance and has the money - why not invest in such configuration?

Btw i just ran 3dmark 11 on my HD 7750 and graphics score is 2860, while overclocked it went to 3607 (overclock: GPU 1050 MHz, Memory 1370).


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## exodusprime1337 (Nov 4, 2012)

os2wiz said:


> You must like high electric bills! Extra 350 watts/hour x say 2 hours a day x 365 days per year=
> 255.5 kwh per year . Con Edison in New York 39 cents /kwh = $100 a year in added electrcity costs. If you are a crazy addicted gamer double that.



I get that you don't agree with the added cost.  But unless you're seriously gaming on a budget i don't think many people here actually consider the power options available to them when purchasing a high end rig.  It's true my computer takes 1100 watts out of the wall everytime i play bf3, but then again i have the money to spend.  I'm not exactly concerned with the cost of owning my computer as much as i am the performance it affords me.  Similar things can be said about my corvette or my outer limits boat.. both chew through shitloads of fuel.. and yes i could by a sailboat and save some money on the fuel, or buy a prius.. but neither would go very fast and i don't find that very fun.


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## erocker (Nov 4, 2012)

os2wiz said:


> $100 a year in added electrcity costs



I'll pay that and a bit more for my hobby. 


*Also, remember to use the multi-quote button. 

Thanks!


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## FreedomEclipse (Nov 4, 2012)

exodusprime1337 said:


> I get that you don't agree with the added cost.  But unless you're seriously gaming on a budget i don't think many people here actually consider the power options available to them when purchasing a high end rig.  It's true my computer takes 1100 watts out of the wall everytime i play bf3, but then again i have the money to spend.  I'm not exactly concerned with the cost of owning my computer as much as i am the performance it affords me.  Similar things can be said about my corvette or my outer limits boat.. both chew through shitloads of fuel.. and yes i could by a sailboat and save some money on the fuel, or buy a prius.. but neither would go very fast and i don't find that very fun.



no way your rig takes 1100w from mains. even mine doesnt even hit 600w when in BF3 and I have more hardware and other bits and bobs bolted on.


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## manofthem (Nov 4, 2012)

os2wiz said:


> What does windows 8 have to with the high 2nd clocks??? You telling us that windows 7 won't see that?



I think you need to calm down; I'm not telling you anything.  My comment was in the context of what we had even talking about earlier specifically regarding high 2d clocks on the 7979 in Win7, and since no one mentioned Windows 8, I thought I would, as i said "just throwing that out there." 

Please don't be ridiculous and please formulate your posts better, leaving the argumentative tone out.


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## os2wiz (Nov 4, 2012)

exodusprime1337 said:


> I get that you don't agree with the added cost.  But unless you're seriously gaming on a budget i don't think many people here actually consider the power options available to them when purchasing a high end rig.  It's true my computer takes 1100 watts out of the wall everytime i play bf3, but then again i have the money to spend.  I'm not exactly concerned with the cost of owning my computer as much as i am the performance it affords me.  Similar things can be said about my corvette or my outer limits boat.. both chew through shitloads of fuel.. and yes i could by a sailboat and save some money on the fuel, or buy a prius.. but neither would go very fast and i don't find that very fun.



  I get it. Your one of the 1%. We all love performance, but some of us have to worry about paying the mortgage , the food, the credit cards etc. So among the 99% it is a game of balance.



FreedomEclipse said:


> no way your rig takes 1100w from mains. even mine doesnt even hit 600w when in BF3 and I have more hardware and other bits and bobs bolted on.



He does Crossfire, you can't do Crossfire on less than 800 watts unless your using 5000 series or older chipsets. Of course if you have a platinum certified power supply you may skate by with 750 watts, but that would be cutting it very close.



FreedomEclipse said:


> no way your rig takes 1100w from mains. even mine doesnt even hit 600w when in BF3 and I have more hardware and other bits and bobs bolted on.





manofthem said:


> I think you need to calm down; I'm not telling you anything.  My comment was in the context of what we had even talking about earlier specifically regarding high 2d clocks on the 7979 in Win7, and since no one mentioned Windows 8, I thought I would, as i said "just throwing that out there."
> 
> Please don't be ridiculous and please formulate your posts better, leaving the argumentative tone out.



 There was nothing angry in my post , you through out the windows 8 remark out of the blue, and I being a skeptic wanted to know if there was something about windows 8 that influenced the results you mentioned. No need to be so defensive.

*Please stop triple/double posting.  -Staff*


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## erocker (Nov 4, 2012)

os2wiz said:


> I get it. Your one of the 1%. We all love performance, but some of us have to worry about paying the mortgage , the food, the credit cards etc. So among the 99% it is a game of balance.



Please keep the political diatribes off of this forum





> He does Crossfire, you can't do Crossfire on less than 800 watts unless your using 5000 series or older chipsets. Of course if you have a platinum certified power supply you may skate by with 750 watts, but that would be cutting it very close.



This information is inaccurate. There are other 7000 series cards that can be CrossFired besides the highest end. Also, running a couple 6 series cards in CrossFire I never went above 600 watts. Your best bet is to check out some CrossFire reviews, some reviews will go over power consumption.




> There was nothing angry in my post , you through out the windows 8 remark out of the blue, and I being a skeptic wanted to know if there was something about windows 8 that influenced the results you mentioned. No need to be so defensive.



This is why it is best to keep on topic on an internet forum. The topic of this thread is specifically for Catalyst 12.11 drivers.


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## os2wiz (Nov 4, 2012)

erocker said:


> Please keep the political diatribes off of this forum
> 
> I only responded as I did after the guy mentions a Corvette and power boat. Don't you think he was pushing the envelope a little far? You can have wealth but you need not rub it in people's faces. You for instance are a more understated person . I do not condemn people for spending a lot on a hobby that is very intriguing to them. I do have financial concerns and it has to temper every decision I make about spending money. That is why I mentioned my concerns about the power usage.  I get it that it would be better to leave out the 1% stuff and I will.
> 
> ...


 I am sorry for going off topic. I must admit I do so more than I would like to admit , not intentionally but I believe my power of concentration is not that sharp laser beam it used to be. Sometimes I get caught up with secondary matters instead of keeping focused on the primary I will endeavor to be a little more attentive to the topic of discussion. Thank you.


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## Nordic (Nov 4, 2012)

2x overclocked 6950's and a 4.5ghz 2500k along with the rest of my system only used 522watts at max usage. Tested. I have a killawat to test. Fun little thing to play with and see how much power each thing uses.

Edit: I think I was just above around 300W while gaming. I was just messing around with the killowat at the time.


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## Mussels (Nov 4, 2012)

james888 said:


> 2x overclocked 6950's and a 4.5ghz 2500k along with the rest of my system only used 522watts at max usage. Tested. I have a killawat to test. Fun little thing to play with and see how much power each thing uses.



^ roughly 450W peak for mine in synthetic testing, sits under 300W for most gaming.


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## os2wiz (Nov 4, 2012)

james888 said:


> 2x overclocked 6950's and a 4.5ghz 2500k along with the rest of my system only used 522watts at max usage. Tested. I have a killawat to test. Fun little thing to play with and see how much power each thing uses.



 I checked out the 6970's on the AMD web site and they wouldn't work with 650 watts at full load. So I guess the 2 6950's use probably 100 watts less than 2 6970's. I'll go to the review on graphic cards power usage. So those 7900 series boards are very power hungry compared to the 6900's.  That is a little surprising since they are done on a much smaller process than the 6900 chips. They must have twice as many transistors.


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## Mussels (Nov 4, 2012)

os2wiz said:


> I checked out the 6970's on the AMD web site and they wouldn't work with 650 watts at full load. So I guess the 2 6950's use probably 100 watts less than 2 6970's. I'll go to the review on graphic cards power usage. So those 7900 series boards are very power hungry compared to the 6900's.  That is a little surprising since they are done on a much smaller process than the 6900 chips. They must have twice as many transistors.



those are just generic requirements. meaning, they suggest you have a 650W PSU, so that if you get a *CRAP* 650W PSU, it should still run.


doesnt mean it needs anywhere near that level of power for regular use (again: if you'd tested it/researched it, the average power consumption of  video cards is far, far lower than their peak - especially with Vsync on)


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## eidairaman1 (Nov 4, 2012)

only diff is you have to provide a piece of paper with your user name on here. besides the product yourselling. Stuff here tends to sell faster than on Ebay



os2wiz said:


> It is just as bad here selling as on Ebay. You have to supply a picture, which means absolutely nothing about fraud prevention. I woujld rather give my home address and telephone number when joining Tech power Up then having to do these false security measures that really do NOT making a safer place to sell. Any thief could find a picture to duplicate if they did not really have the product to sell. Any body can provide a false name and hand sign it on a picture. I built a life long reputation for being a man of my word. I earned whatever respect I have gotten in life. These false security measures are just like the TSA at the airports . A mega billion dollar industry based on mass fear and deception by the government. I would rather build a bond of trust  rather than a world based on fear. No sale here it is more complicated than Ebay. I wanted to sell my 2 GB 6950 Radeon HD for $140 & free shipping here just to give guys a break, but if I have to jump through hoops to do it then it's not worth it to me. I'll sell it for $165 on Ebay plus shipping costs.


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## Nordic (Nov 4, 2012)

os2wiz said:


> I checked out the 6970's on the AMD web site and they wouldn't work with 650 watts at full load. So I guess the 2 6950's use probably 100 watts less than 2 6970's. I'll go to the review on graphic cards power usage. So those 7900 series boards are very power hungry compared to the 6900's.  That is a little surprising since they are done on a much smaller process than the 6900 chips. They must have twice as many transistors.



The gpu reccommened wattage is large safe zone. You can actually be a bit tighter than that. A 7970 and 6970 have the same power consumption according to amd (250 watts). I have found that the extreme psu calc is pretty accurate. According to it, a 6970 uses about 50 more watts.


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## os2wiz (Nov 4, 2012)

Mussels said:


> those are just generic requirements. meaning, they suggest you have a 650W PSU, so that if you get a *CRAP* 650W PSU, it should still run.
> 
> 
> doesnt mean it needs anywhere near that level of power for regular use (again: if you'd tested it/researched it, the average power consumption of  video cards is far, far lower than their peak - especially with Vsync on)



So Mussells, would a 650 watt Platinum certified Kingwin LZP psu be able to Crossfire 2 HD7950s in your opinion?
I am searching on the web site here for a guide on AMD gpu power requirements and I can't find it. Can you provide me with the link?


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## Nordic (Nov 4, 2012)

os2wiz said:


> So Mussells, would a 650 watt Platinum certified Kingwin LZP psu be able to Crossfire 2 HD7950s in your opinion?
> I am searching on the web site here for a guide on AMD gpu power requirements and I can't find it. Can you provide me with the link?



You asked mussells but I beleive you could. I don't know your specs so I put in a higher power using cpu along with 7950 crossfire. Psu calc, with those specs, recommends a 500watt psu. I would think of that as a minimum. 650 watts should be plenty.


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## Mussels (Nov 4, 2012)

os2wiz said:


> So Mussells, would a 650 watt Platinum certified Kingwin LZP psu be able to Crossfire 2 HD7950s in your opinion?
> I am searching on the web site here for a guide on AMD gpu power requirements and I can't find it. Can you provide me with the link?



yeah, you quite likely could. obviously other things come into account as well, such as insane overclocks, or 50x hard drives - but at stock at least, it'd run with room to spare.


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## crazyeyesreaper (Nov 4, 2012)

if i remember right cadaveca with his 2x 7950s stock on his rig was using around 400w when fully overclocked he was pulling 600-700


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## os2wiz (Nov 4, 2012)

Mussels said:


> yeah, you quite likely could. obviously other things come into account as well, such as insane overclocks, or 50x hard drives - but at stock at least, it'd run with room to spare.



   I only have 2 SSD drives , I disconnected my 1.5 GB Seagate  Sata III drive ,as I rarely use it, and am looking to make more room for a future Crossfire setup with my now solo 7950 that arrives Tuesday. MY Kingwin 650 Platinum certified psu arrives Monday. I also have a blu-ray burner, but that doesn't draw a whole lot of current, and I rarely use it. With my AMD FX-8350 overclocked to 4.8 ghz I figure the cpu will draw 135-145 watts max. I have a Corsair H100 liquid cooler that should keep it nice and cool. That all gets installed Monday on my Crosshairs
V motherboard. The review for HD Radeon 7950 Crosshairs states at max 358 watts power usage. That is for the 2 cards together. Singly it is 179 watts.  SO you are absolutely correct 
I should be able to run the two with the psu that I am installing.  I really do not understand why AMD doesn't explain in more detail what psu would need . I know builds vary greatly but they could give more detail that would make the choices easier. The review here on this site was far more useful than anything I read on AMD's site.


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## os2wiz (Nov 4, 2012)

crazyeyesreaper said:


> if i remember right cadaveca with his 2x 7950s stock on his rig was using around 400w when fully overclocked he was pulling 600-700



Well it appears at least it is a viable option for me in the future with the hardware I am assembling  Thanks for the information.


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## os2wiz (Nov 4, 2012)

james888 said:


> You asked mussells but I beleive you could. I don't know your specs so I put in a higher power using cpu along with 7950 crossfire. Psu calc, with those specs, recommends a 500watt psu. I would think of that as a minimum. 650 watts should be plenty.



Thank you for the link for psu calc. I subscribed gave them all my ram. cpu, potential crossfire setup, ssd's , hard drive, card reader, fans, usb 3.0 front panel hub , blu ray re-writable burner.  All in all they recommend 619 watts. So with 650 platinum, I am should have a quite comfortable safety margin.


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## crazyeyesreaper (Nov 4, 2012)

yea should be fine just keep the overclocks moderate, and it shouldnt be an issue.


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## Mussels (Nov 4, 2012)

and really, if you're spending that much cash on a PC, cough up the $20-$30 for a wall meter and check the power use yourself.


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## os2wiz (Nov 4, 2012)

crazyeyesreaper said:


> yea should be fine just keep the overclocks moderate, and it shouldnt be an issue.



The 619 watt recoommendation was based on overclocking to 4.8 GHz on my FX-8350 , so it's all been factored in, even my Corsair
 H100 cooler requirements.


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## crazyeyesreaper (Nov 4, 2012)

which is all well and good but isnt end all be all i had 2x 6970s stock and 2500k system an HX 850 still failed to power it going pop and killing 2x GPUs and 3x HDDs due to loads on the 3.3v and 5v rails.

619 is well and good but it doesnt say how much is cross loaded what the demands on other rails are so keep that in mind. 8350 oced can hit 200+w and 7950s overclocked can hit 250w 250+250+200 = 650 add in fans hdds pump motherboard requirements etc.

take it from someone that has overloaded and blown up a part or two lol. Chief Broken Rig is a title i have earned


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## os2wiz (Nov 4, 2012)

crazyeyesreaper said:


> which is all well and good but isnt end all be all i had 2x 6970s stock and 2500k system an HX 850 still failed to power it going pop and killing 2x GPUs and 3x HDDs due to loads on the 3.3v and 5v rails.
> 
> 619 is well and good but it doesnt say how much is cross loaded what the demands on other rails are so keep that in mind. 8350 oced can hit 200+w and 7950s overclocked can hit 250w 250+250+200 = 650 add in fans hdds pump motherboard requirements etc.
> 
> take it from someone that has overloaded and blown up a part or two lol. Chief Broken Rig is a title i have earned



Well the web site that estimates the power needs asks whether you have a high end motherboard, which obviously uses more power, they ask about all attached devices, amount of memory, how many hard drives, how many ssds, what kind and number of  front bay peripherals, like card readers, extra usb hub, etc. It is ALL factored in. They know what they are doing and they mention power requirements for all the rails is factored into their formulation. They even ask to what GHZ you plan to overclock the cpu. They ask cpu model. I have complete confidence they are on the money.


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## Nordic (Nov 4, 2012)

os2wiz said:


> Well the web site that estimates the power needs asks whether you have a high end motherboard, which obviously uses more power, they ask about all attached devices, amount of memory, how many hard drives, how many ssds, what kind and number of  front bay peripherals, like card readers, extra usb hub, etc. It is ALL factored in. They know what they are doing and they mention power requirements for all the rails is factored into their formulation. They even ask to what GHZ you plan to overclock the cpu. They ask cpu model. I have complete confidence they are on the money.



They are pretty close in my experience. Exact is another matter.


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## os2wiz (Nov 4, 2012)

james888 said:


> They are pretty close in my experience. Exact is another matter.



What is exact in this world? There is Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle


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## kciaccio (Nov 4, 2012)

*Con Edison in New York 39 cents /kwh = $100 a year in added electrcity costs. *

Holy shit those unions up there fuck you guys in the ass huh? 

Texas is 8 to 11 cents /kwh.


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## kciaccio (Nov 5, 2012)

os2wiz said:


> You are not very astute. Who set sprices? Under capitalism it is the capitalist , not the worker, who sets prices as well as wages.
> Con Edison is controlled by JP Morgan Chase and the Rockefeller arm of finance capital. The banks siphon off a large portion of corporate earnings through their financing of debt. Con Edison doesn't have any 6 figure union workers. The working class produces all wealth. If they did earn 6 figure salaries, they would deserve every penny of it rather than going to parasitic banks and corporate sharehoilders. Wall Street is screwing us all. Please keep 4 letter words out of your commentary. It is vulgar.



If you have to pay the worker $50 an hour compared to $30 is what sets the prices..Along with competition..and your whole theory falls apart with Texas rates..


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## Mussels (Nov 5, 2012)

guys.

screw off with the economics and politics in a thread about video card drivers.


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## Nordic (Nov 5, 2012)

I welcome you both to my general nonsense thread on the same subject! http://www.generalnonsense.net/showthread.php?t=10231


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## kciaccio (Nov 5, 2012)

james888 said:


> I welcome you both to my general nonsense thread on the same subject! http://www.generalnonsense.net/showthread.php?t=10231



Awesome..


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## levat (Nov 7, 2012)

Catalyst 12.11 Beta6 is out.


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## Mussels (Nov 8, 2012)

thanks levat. lets see what changes they gave us this time


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## Mussels (Nov 8, 2012)

> AMD Catalyst 12.11 Beta6 resolves the issue with engine and memory clocks running too high when the GPU is idle. Clocks will now run at the proper level when the GPU is idle. This issue was only observed with specific displays and was observed in the AMD Catalyst 12.11Beta 4 and AMD Catalyst 12.10 drivers; The AMD Catalyst 12.11 Beta6 has replaced the AMD Catalyst 12.11Beta 4 driver that was posted Oct 23, 2012



http://www2.ati.com/drivers/beta/AMD_Catalyst_12.11_Beta6.exe


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## eidairaman1 (Nov 8, 2012)

Mussels said:


> http://www2.ati.com/drivers/beta/AMD_Catalyst_12.11_Beta6.exe



ya theres been numerous cases of that across the entire lineup. So im guessing EDID tables are screwed up on several monitors then


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## erocker (Nov 8, 2012)

These fixed my idle clocks.


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## os2wiz (Nov 8, 2012)

erocker said:


> These fixed my idle clocks.



These broke my game Sid Meir's Pirates. Now I get that infamous screen upon starting game "can't access  directx support".   It was fine with the previous beta. I fixed the problem. Just by deleting the configuration file for video settings, it was able to work again. What a relief.The game is old but still entertaining.


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## manofthem (Nov 8, 2012)

erocker said:


> These fixed my idle clocks.



That's what I wanted to hear, very cool.


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## levat (Nov 13, 2012)

Catalyst 12.11 beta 7 available. 



> Additional update found in AMD Catalyst 12.11 Beta7
> ◦Call of Duty Black Ops 2:  AMD CrossFire performance has been improved in the AMD Catalyst 12.11 Beta7 release (especially at higher resolutions – such as 2560x1600)
> ◦Please note that AMD Catalyst 12.11 Beta 7 includes all of the fixes found in previous versions of AMD Catalyst 12.11 Beta



http://support.amd.com/us/kbarticles/Pages/AMDCatalyst1211betadriver.aspx


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## ulti-killer (Nov 14, 2012)

I wanna see GeForce 310.54 Beta Drivers performance.


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## xeridium (Nov 14, 2012)

Anyone experiencing artifacting, flickering light sources and bsod with 12.11 while playing GTA EFLC? I BSOD once on my 2 day old system. Other games runs flawlessly though.


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## AlienIsGOD (Jan 3, 2013)

the latest 12.11 beta's are running great on my freshly aquired 7870


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## Widjaja (Jan 3, 2013)

AlienIsGOD said:


> the latest 12.11 beta's are running great on my freshly aquired 7870



Yes the performance of these drivers for the 7870 at least is great 
A couple of games ran like a dog with the old 12.8s I was using which are now running at optimal level.

Good to hear you are having no issues with your Sapphire 7870 OC.
I was hoping you didn't get any old stock or least the retailers had the decency to return the old faulty stock.


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## AlienIsGOD (Jan 3, 2013)

Widjaja said:


> Good to hear you are having no issues with your Sapphire 7870 OC.
> I was hoping you didn't get any old stock or least the retailers had the decency to return the old faulty stock.



ya i was a bit worried after reading some newegg reviews, but the card has been rock solid in games and WCG crunching 4WU's at a time since i installed it.  My guess (at least i hope this is what it is) is that its a later revision or just not a faulty card.  I personally have never had any issues with Sapphire cards > 9250/x1600/4850 times 2/6870/7870.  All cards have worked fine and the last 3 cards have o/c ed well too.


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## Widjaja (Jan 3, 2013)

AlienIsGOD said:


> ya i was a bit worried after reading some newegg reviews, but the card has been rock solid in games and WCG crunching 4WU's at a time since i installed it.  My guess (at least i hope this is what it is) is that its a later revision or just not a faulty card.  I personally have never had any issues with Sapphire cards > 9250/x1600/4850 times 2/6870/7870.  All cards have worked fine and the last 3 cards have o/c ed well too.



The later revision of the Sapphire 7870 as of May 2012 are supposed to be fault free.

All my AMD cards have been Sapphire in the past as well so it was a surprise for me to see Sapphire had a major fail with one of their cards, in fact a card was was seriously considering until a sale came up for the ASUS model.

As for OCing, I had terrible luck with my Sapphire HD4850.
Core clock would go all the way up to 700 no problems, memory would not budge past 1050.
Either way the card performed very well for me for a number of years right from the get go with an Arctic Twin Turbo installed.


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## AlienIsGOD (Jan 3, 2013)

Widjaja said:


> Either way the card performed very well for me for a number of years right from the get go with an Arctic Twin Turbo installed.



ya I strapped 2 Zalman VF1000s on my 4850s and they ran solid from aug 08 to dec 2011


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