AMD Catalyst 14.12 Omega Performance Analysis

[btarunr]

Every two or so years, AMD rolls out a year-end Catalyst driver update, which not only steps up performance and splats bugs, but also expands their own software feature-set. The new Catalyst 14.12 Omega is part of AMD's effort to catch up with and get ahead of NVIDIA's latest software features.

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[VulkanBros]

"AMD Catalyst 14.12 Omega is just another driver release from AMD" - says it all

 

[Mussels]

The one website i trust to do accurate driver reviews.

 

[alwayssts]

Pretty saucy review, right there.

While ofc the performance claims are overblown, they always are (from both companies).

What I find fascinating is calling this 'feature parity'. For DSR, yes, but for video...no,no,no...no.

Have you seen nvidia's video options? Even before this they...uh...need some work comparatively. This further cements AMD as leading in that area.

IMHO, the most useful part of this review is stating the certain scaling enhancement is like MADVR and lower levels of jinc (I'm going to guess not 3 taps). That's good to know, and very helpful. Thanks Bta.

While it would certainly we welcome if it were better than what is available, it's important to understand not everyone that launches a video also launches a freaking literal suite of crap with it (madvr, ffdshow, lav, reclock, svp, etc etc), nor should it be a requirement to get decent quality regardless of their monitor or the video. I think they deserve a lot of credit for this, and hope they move forward with improving the features. Ain't nothing wrong if they can attempt to add more taps in scaling or work towards a good interpolation algorithm harnessing gpu compute (especially if they keep power/clocks in check). SVP and MadVR can both be VERY resource intensive (can any current consumer cpu run even 1080p svp at 120hz full quality?) if you crank them to high quality settings, the former only really worth it if you do so (and why many people think interpolation sucks...it does if not done really well, which is largely the case). If AMD can continue to tackle that issue, personally, I would find that a very compelling reason to use their products. Even as it sits, some of these features may be very helpful to those that don't go all the way setting up the aforementioned programs and filters...which is probably most people.

 

[qu3becker]

Now, I haven't tried yet but hopefully this new version brings the Linux version to par with the windows driver, at least in the performance department. Last time I tried running a game based on the source engine on Steam for Linux it was a stutter fest.

 

[mastrdrver]

I'm pretty sure I'm getting much better fps with Mantle in BF4, though need further testing to make sure.

Wish Mantle support for the GVR would have made it in. Really like Mantle, but no recorder for it sucks.

 

[Rowsol]

This is a review I can get behind, thanks for this.

 

[RejZoR]

Meh. VSR not available for HD7900. Performance boost? Hardly any. Not really impressed...

 

[Eroticus]

Meh. VSR not available for HD7900. Performance boost? Hardly any. Not really impressed...

1 FPS ... nvidia boys bought new cards to get 7 fps more ~.~ ... what did you expected ? same story like always ... =]

 

[RejZoR]

Well, you have to understand that HD7900 and R9-290 gained larger boosts after release. It's how always is. But once you get it up there, you can't really pull much performance out of existing stuff. It's how shaders and compilers are. They are basically as good as they will ever be and you can't optimize that much further.

 

[Mussels]

so now that these are installed - none of these features work in 7970? thats disapointing

 

[bogami]

AMD is real as good as INVIDIA and we forget that INVIDIA has no verticl synchronization. It is offered separately and even more expensive product we get. In addition relieves the processor. Yes there are various chits for higher FPS but the picture is more beautiful on AMD products. Supports 6 monitors with one element ( vertical synchronization)and also has its own physical support by another name.Mantle es well. If AMD would have a lower power consumption could seriously competed, and only there is a new generation maxwel in advantage. But wait for the new generation of AMD. Only then I will decide what I want to buy.

 

[Hayder_Master]

it's Ryse: Son of Rome Improvement driver

 

[GhostRyder]

I have not downloaded it yet, what I think was most interesting was the new features for 4K users mostly because I think that's a better highlight of the release than anything. I think we all knew that improvements were coming in games but in reality there would probably be only one game that had the "Up to 19%" performance increase. Still this is a nice driver and I cannot wait to download it!

 

[Danteska]

Funny how the actual CCC and display driver versions differ from release notes.

Also, back to 14.4 as ever since 14.9 my FPS dropped substantially in many games.

For example, Tomb Raider Benchmark gives me these results with 14.4 and Ultra settings:
(Anyone else got a Sapphire HD 7950 Vapor-X boost edition here to compare?)
- minimum FPS: 58.0
- maximum FPS: 84.0
- average FPS: 71.4
These are the results with 14.12 (and with 14.9 and with 14.11.2 beta):
- minimum FPS: 50.0
- maximum FPS: 72.0
- average FPS: 61.4
Difference might not seem that big, but for me it changes from almost 70 fps most of the time to barely reaching the 60 fps zone in that game.

Did a benchmark on my system and equal settings while playing The Crew too. My EVGA GTX 670 is able to maintain 60 fps with everything maxed out (well, not everything: vsync off and FXAA instead of 4xMSAA as that drops fps to 30) and the 7950 can -with either 14.4, 14.9, 14.11.2 beta or 14.12- barely reach 42-45 FPS, when both cards are almost equal performance wise in many games. Hope to see an AMD driver with The Crew improvements one day.

 

[Casecutter]

Hey btarunr what gives! In your front-page article you mentioned "specific performance improvements target Batman: Arkham Origins, Bioshock Infinite, Call of Duty: Ghosts, Grid 2"... Although, here you choose not to substantiate those claims?

As 3 of those are from W1zzard own B-M regime, I’d be interested in those particular title improvements and their power usage. While they may have increase gameplay enough we might see altering of the summary though perhaps at the expense of perf/w. If AMD made those games play better and with not as aggressive clocks we might reassess the older data somewhat.

 

[R00kie]

Don't know about you guys, but VSR is my favourite thing now. Anyone agrees?

 

[The Von Matrices]

I think we all knew that improvements were coming in games but in reality there would probably be only one game that had the "Up to 19%" performance increase.

The 19% is also due to comparing this release to year old drivers. Marketing wouldn't have any significant performance improvement to talk about if AMD compared these drivers to the last release.

 

[vega22]

Don't know about you guys, but VSR is my favourite thing now. Anyone agrees?

what since cru?

nice to be able to do in the drivers i guess but it is not a new feature to some of us....

 

[R00kie]

what since cru?

nice to be able to do in the drivers i guess but it is not a new feature to some of us....

CRU never allowed me to change anything. VSR is the only thing that works properly for me.

 

[HumanSmoke]

Hey btarunr what gives! In your front-page article you mentioned "specific performance improvements target Batman: Arkham Origins, Bioshock Infinite, Call of Duty: Ghosts, Grid 2"... Although, here you choose not to substantiate those claims?

Here's a thought....maybe bta doesn't have the games to hand

As 3 of those are from W1zzard own B-M regime, I’d be interested in those particular title improvements and their power usage.

Unless you're under the impression that TPU's staff all live together, it stands to reason that W1zzard's benchmark suite will likely differ from that of other staff members. Wouldn't it be more apropos to PM W1zzard regarding these games rather than hit up a staff member who maybe doesn't have the games in hand? It's also fairly likely that at the next round of graphics card reviews in the new year, W1zzard would be applying the driver - or its successor, no? Since AMD themselves have said that the driver will be more fully inclusive in January/February ( bug fixes, feature support - resolutions, first generation GCN series (HD 7900, 7800/R7 etc) it is reasonable to assume that this future release will be more representative.
Seems a little pointless to run a comprehensive review of the features when not all models within the current product stack are supported. For every satisfied customer you could end up with a few frowns from those left on the sidelines.

 

[GLD]

The Omega drivers didn't work for my system. Tried twice. Went back to 14.9. What gives?

 

[ap4lifetn]

is it possible for a registry edit to allow 3840 x 2400 on a R9 290?

 

[btarunr]

The Omega drivers didn't work for my system. Tried twice. Went back to 14.9. What gives?

HD 7850 isn't supported.

http://support.amd.com/en-us/kb-articles/Pages/AMDCatalystOMEGAWINReleaseNotes.aspx

 

[Primalz]

The Omega drivers didn't work for my system. Tried twice. Went back to 14.9. What gives?

did you use display driver uninstaller or did you just reinstall over 14.9? Sometimes that can make all the difference.