Thursday, August 1st 2013
AMD Posts Catalyst 13.8 Beta, Fixes CrossFire Frame Latency
In the run up to the big Catalyst driver update AMD promised, that fixes frame latency issues on Graphics CoreNext-based GPUs, AMD posted Catalyst 13.8 beta, which addresses frame-pacing issues on CrossFire configuration, which minimizes the micro-stuttering issues some CrossFire configurations are notorious for. The driver includes a fix that ensures frames generated by member GPUs of a CrossFire configuration are displayed in an even and regular pace, so there's no micro-stuttering. This fix can be enabled through Catalyst Control Center, on a per-application basis. It supports games that use DirectX 11 and DirectX 10 APIs, running at resolutions of up to 2560 x 1600 pixels.
Next up, Catalyst 13.8 beta includes full support for the OpenGL 4.3 API. You can now create application profiles within Catalyst Control Center for OpenGL applications, and CAP updates will now be issued for such apps. The only performance-improvement you get with this driver, are for Metro: Last Light. Radeon HD 7000 series GPUs get up to 7 percent performance improvement on the game. Lastly, a nifty new feature addition for Enduro shows which apps are active on the discrete-GPU, and which on the integrated/low-power GPU.
DOWNLOAD: AMD Catalyst 13.8 Beta
Next up, Catalyst 13.8 beta includes full support for the OpenGL 4.3 API. You can now create application profiles within Catalyst Control Center for OpenGL applications, and CAP updates will now be issued for such apps. The only performance-improvement you get with this driver, are for Metro: Last Light. Radeon HD 7000 series GPUs get up to 7 percent performance improvement on the game. Lastly, a nifty new feature addition for Enduro shows which apps are active on the discrete-GPU, and which on the integrated/low-power GPU.
DOWNLOAD: AMD Catalyst 13.8 Beta
81 Comments on AMD Posts Catalyst 13.8 Beta, Fixes CrossFire Frame Latency
Great friggn driver. Smoooth as butter!
Good going Amd! Best driver ever :laugh:
Can it play Crysis.... Yes it can.. And extremely well it does, haha :rockout:
Edit: Techreport already tested it. Their conclusion :
"I think we can say with confidence that AMD's frame pacing solution appears to work just as well as Nvidia's SLI frame metering. The Radeon HD 7990's frame production and delivery results look much more like what you'd get from a single fast GPU—and that's exactly the behavior you'd want."
If they extend this technique to 4K displays, I might buy a couple of 9790s and a 4K monitor.
Several hardware sites like Hardware Heaven and Hardocp looked at this driver and said, while a step in the right direction, it's a long way from fixed. Caveat emptor!
They measure the latency in fraps (which was explained by many people has being totaly misleading in frame latency measures), and they should measure it with FCAT as provided by Nvidia to some reviewers.
I let you have a good read at Guru3d as they have the FCAT and have some acurate results: AMD Framepacing Catalyst 13.8 driver examined with FCAT
It obviously has room for improvement, but I think it's hard to criticize what AMD has done here other than to point out how late to the party they are compared to Nvidia. Everyone wins right now (well, except maybe Nvidia fanboys who don't get to bash on AMD and their drivers as much :rolleyes:).
Its no issues here. are you on windows 8? did you remove all the amd entries in the registry? check hidden folders? I cant be happier with this driver :D
Issue resolved. Windows was listing the 2nd adapter as the 1st adapter. This was causing some driver confusion. After a while of trying I managed to get things the way they should be. Not sure how this happened to begin with, but whatevs.
I had noticed changes in windows display manager don't always sit well with catalyst but I had put it down to my odd setup.
Worth looking into