AMD Catalyst 12.11 Performance Analysis

[HellasVagabond]

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.

 

[BarbaricSoul]

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

 

[eidairaman1]

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

 

[Mathragh]

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".

 

[HellasVagabond]

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.

 

[eidairaman1]

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.

 

[HellasVagabond]

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.

 

[eidairaman1]

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

 

[BigMack70]

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).

 

[eidairaman1]

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)

 

[JKnows]

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.

 

[Tatty_Two]

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!

 

[cowie]

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

 

[eidairaman1]

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

 

[brandonwh64]

I didn't see it but was crossfire tested?

 

[raghu78]

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

 

[the54thvoid]

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.

 

[Widjaja]

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.

 

[H82LUZ73]

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?"

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.

 

[Mussels]

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.

 

[repman244]

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

 

[Nordic]

From Hexus:



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

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

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.

 

[Clubber_Lang]

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!

 

[Clubber_Lang]

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.

 

[W1zzard]

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.