Wednesday, January 19th 2011

AMD Catalyst 11.1a Hotfix Update Driver Leaked

In the wake of impending competition from NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560Ti, AMD is busy fine-tuning its performance-segment offer. It is lowering prices of Radeon HD 6950 with the introduction of a new 1 GB variant, and reportedly working on Radeon HD 6870 "Turbo" models. Combined with the two, AMD is also planning a new driver which is out and out focussed on performance enhancements for Radeon HD 6000 series GPUs.

Catalyst 11.1a Hotfix introduces performance improvements specific to Radeon HD 6800 and HD 6900 series, in turn specific to games. One can expect performance improvements of up to 35% with Anti-Aliasing in some games. Catalyst 11.1a is also going to give users full control over the way the driver handles tessellation, allowing users to override applications' tessellation settings (much like AA and AF). In the future, there's also scope for an AMD-optimised tessellation setting that adjusts tessellation detail to give the best details with minimal performance impact.

DOWNLOAD: AMD Catalyst 11.1a Hotfix Update

A list of changes follows.

Performance improvements for the AMD Radeon HD 6800 & HD 6900 series include but not limited to:

AMD Radeon HD 6900 and AMD Radeon HD 6800 Series:
  • 3DMark Vantage improves ~7%
  • 3DMark06 improves ~3%
  • Call of Duty Black Ops improves ~20% at 4xMSAA and up to 35% at 8xMSAA
  • Riddick Assault on Dark Athena SSAO performance improves ~20%
  • Unigine Heaven OpenGL performance improves ~10% at moderate, 30% at normal and 100% at extreme tessellation levels
AMD Radeon HD 6800 Series:
  • Aliens vs. Predators improves ~9% at 2xMSAA and up to 20% at 4xMSAA
  • Batman Arkham Asylum improves ~4%
  • Crysis Warhead improves ~2-4%
  • Metro 2033 improves ~28% at 4xMSAA
AMD Radeon HD 6900 Series:
  • Battleforge DirectX 11 performance improves as much as 6%
New Tessellation Controls:
The Catalyst Control Center includes an early prototype of some new tessellation controls. Our goal is to give users full control over the tessellation levels used in applications. The default selection "AMD Optimized" setting allows AMD, on a per application basis, to set the best level of tessellation. The intention is to help users get the maximum visual benefit of Tessellation, while minimizing the impact on performance. Currently no applications have been profiled, so the "AMD Optimized" setting will be non-operational until further notice.
  • The "Use Application Settings" option gives applications full control over the Tessellation level. Users can also manually set the maximum tessellation level used by applications with the slider control
  • The long term goal for the "AMD Optimized" setting is to use the Catalyst Application Profile mechanism to control the AMD recommended level of tessellation on a per application basis. AMD's intention is to set the tessellation level such that we will not be reducing image quality in any way that would negatively impact the gaming experience.
Source: Google
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40 Comments on AMD Catalyst 11.1a Hotfix Update Driver Leaked

#1
buggalugs
I like it, Everything seems to work.

The screen shake from the 10.12a driver is gone too.
Posted on Reply
#2
Over_Lord
News Editor
bah, useless for HD5800 owners.. did they forget us soo soooon already??
Posted on Reply
#3
gumpty
thunderisingbah, useless for HD5800 owners.. did they forget us soo soooon already??
Unfortunately for HD5000 series owners the biggest battle for AMD right now (and into the future) is in it's 6000 series - so that must be where it throws most of it's efforts. Hopefully once the dust settles they can address their full range.
Posted on Reply
#4
human_error
thunderisingbah, useless for HD5800 owners.. did they forget us soo soooon already??
This is a hotfix driver. It is meant to fix bugs in the drivers.

The fact this is aimed at the 6k series is because the bugs are with the 6k series - the 5k's all work fine already so we don't need anything from the hotfix (there isn't anything urgent to fix). We'll get the usual progressive updates/fixes in the WHQL driver release next week (wednesday i believe).
Posted on Reply
#5
buggalugs
thunderisingbah, useless for HD5800 owners.. did they forget us soo soooon already??
There are new settings for 5 series too so its not useless. And it fixes the screen shake of the 10.12a driver so just that is gold for my 5870.

Edit BTW The driver is titled AMD_Catalyst_Win7_8.82.2Beta1_Jan13.exe Its the beta of the new driver not a hotfix.
Posted on Reply
#6
Unregistered
the same boring question:
Does it support MLAA for 5xxx series or show I stay with 10.10e drivers another couple of months??:nutkick:
#7
buggalugs
TAViXthe same boring question:
Does it support MLAA for 5xxx series or show I stay with 10.10e drivers another couple of months??:nutkick:
Yes. Its there along with the new tessellation settings
Posted on Reply
#8
DarkOCean
•Unigine Heaven OpenGL performance improves ~10% at moderate, 30% at normal and 100% at extreme tessellation levels

wow 100% improvement at extreme tessellation levels !? for real ? can someone confirm these?
Posted on Reply
#9
NathanXtremeOC
I have these drivers installed with my crossfire 6870's and All I can say is OpenGL in Heaven 2.1 is crap! tessilation doesnt work the graphics just look pants! it doesnt draw anything thats tesilated! im just doing benchmarks with these drivers at the minute and at best its worse!!! maybe its just my system! :S

Here is my vantage score

Posted on Reply
#10
bogie
10.10e is super sweet and stable on my HD5870. Shall I stay on those or try the new ones? hmmm :confused:
Posted on Reply
#11
Wrigleyvillain
PTFO or GTFO
What you mean do don't have separate windows install on a different HDD just to test video drivers? :p
Posted on Reply
#12
MrScary
NathanXtremeOCI have these drivers installed with my crossfire 6870's and All I can say is OpenGL in Heaven 2.1 is crap! tessilation doesnt work the graphics just look pants! it doesnt draw anything thats tesilated! im just doing benchmarks with these drivers at the minute and at best its worse!!! maybe its just my system! :S

Here is my vantage score

i1015.photobucket.com/albums/af276/nathanxtremeoc/th_Vantage.png
Are you sure u dont have the windows 7 RC on that pc? if so, there is no tesellation your u until u get windows 7 7600
Posted on Reply
#13
Over_Lord
News Editor
human_errorThis is a hotfix driver. It is meant to fix bugs in the drivers.

The fact this is aimed at the 6k series is because the bugs are with the 6k series - the 5k's all work fine already so we don't need anything from the hotfix (there isn't anything urgent to fix). We'll get the usual progressive updates/fixes in the WHQL driver release next week (wednesday i believe).
bah, humbug, bugs driver leaked before the final driver?? thats shit a$$
Posted on Reply
#14
NathanXtremeOC
MrScaryAre you sure u dont have the windows 7 RC on that pc? if so, there is no tesellation your u until u get windows 7 7600
Definatly RTM windows 7 but no tessilation in opengl heaven 2.1 with 11.1a drivers but there is with DX 11
Posted on Reply
#15
meran
what about metro with 58xx did any one see any improvements:cry:
Posted on Reply
#16
NathanXtremeOC
meranwhat about metro with 58xx did any one see any improvements:cry:
You taking the mick??? you know these drivers dont work with the 5xxx series yeah :)
Posted on Reply
#17
marcthpro
so you're saying basically any ati driver released from 3-4 month of now don't do performances boost at all for ATI 4xxx / 5xxx ?

that be weird cause i'm sure i gained few fps from ATI CCC 10.10 from 10.8 for Starcraft 2 and i use a ATI HD4870x2 lol even tough driver are long gone to upgrade graphic performances for 4xxx since ATI think Ebay work like a goldmine to get lost of ur card n buy new one anyway i wish ATI didn't drop Graphic Driver for Card For Specific Game Boost like Sc2 / Metro 2033 after 1 Year

IE HD5870 won't see any performances boost in the coming years but HD6870 will yet it weaker then HD5870 but cost 50$ less Consume less : and even tough it said it do better Tesselation it seem HD5870 performances will always be better then hD6870 no matter what game even if we are talking of 3-8fps difference it still here
Posted on Reply
#19
W1zzard
amd asked us to remove the download, updated the original url with a link to google
Posted on Reply
#20
cristian.a
uuuuuh i just write this notice in my web! ja.
Posted on Reply
#21
n-ster
I gotta admire you for that link change lol... This hotfix seems promising
Posted on Reply
#22
horik
got nice results 10.12a vs 11.1a
Posted on Reply
#23
cristian.a
are really fantastic !!!

but i haven`t hd 5000, 6000 :'(
Posted on Reply
#24
semantics
More interested in image quality not just still frame but also movement, sometimes amd's optimizations look fine in a screen shot but flicker on the sides of objects or something else that isn't desired while under the eyes of a keen observer.
Posted on Reply
#25
RejZoR
So, this hotfix also works with HD5000 series cards? And MLAA is enabled by default without hacking the INF ? If true, i might give it a try.
Posted on Reply
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