Editorial It's Now Been Over 160 Days Since a Catalyst WHQL Release

[W1zzard]

I understand why W1zzard doesn't retest everything with every new driver release. He even stated that typically the difference is negligible to nonexistent (paraphrasing), and I agree.

The issue for me is time. Every full rebench takes around 2 weeks non-stop. Obviously I have other things to do than babysit benchmarks. So I retest every few months only, not every driver release, in which case the differences are negligible. I rebenched ahead earlier this month to be ready for upcoming cards from NV and AMD. This rebench also includes GTA V. Next rebench (which could be on Windows 10 if it's awesome) includes Project Cars and Witcher 3.

 

[Tatty_Two]

I am failing to really understand some people's issues here with this "Editorial", I could easily see said issues if for example ........... 1. It has been much less than 160 days since the last WHQL Catalyst release (and therefore this thread is inaccurate) or ..... 2. It's quite normal/acceptable/realistic to expect only possibly 2 releases a year. Now I could go with a "bias" approach if some members thought that if the same thing happened with NVidia driver releases then that issue would not be reported here, all I can say is that if some do think that they don't really know or understand the nature of this community.

Having said all of that, everyone is entitled to have their opinions and air them here, this is exactly what this thread is about, all I would ask is that it is done so in a mature way without making assumptions that in themselves are biased.

 

[Relayer]

It's the old "mountains out of molehills". AMD's GPU lineup is pretty mature. It's not like they are going to find performance improvements every month. They surely don't need msft to tell them that their drivers are OK. They have released drivers to fix games crossfire etc... It's not like they have dropped their support which is how the editorial paints the picture.

 

[R-T-B]

It's not like they have dropped their support which is how the editorial paints the picture.

The support has certainly dropped, and there's really no debating that. What the editorial states there is fact.

Or do you mean it's painting it like support has "stopped completely?"

 

[Haytch]

So basically, now that AMD are releasing drivers every 6 months, W1zzard can run all the benchmarks he needs without having to stress that in 28 days there will be another driver version with a negligible to non-existent difference .

Sorry, I do not wish to imply that AMD will be releasing drivers every 6 months from now on, I guess I am just having a laugh with/at above comments.

I also find it funny that we are having a go at TPU on TPU! Well, not I, and not you, just the few.
I do agree with the concept of 'Free Press' and I applaud raghu78 for having the balls to point out biased articles. Perhaps raghu78 will be the reason why articles will become more accurate instead of opinionated. Opinionated, did I spell that correctly ?

I prefer articles that are pure fact. My brain automatically reads over opinions when reading an article, it's something I guess I have developed over the years because I am too old for bull-s*(T. It would be nicer for my limited brain capacity if articles stuck to the facts.

Back to the point, my 290x's are running 'Football manager 2015, Nascar 15, Carmegeddon, Just Cause 2, Game Of Thrones, Temple Of Osiris, Starships, H1Z1, Dying Of The Light, Batman saga, Call Of Duty, Colin McRae 1, 2 & 3, FEAR series, F1 2014, L4S, Shador Of Mordor, NFS Carbon onwards, Test Drive 1 & 2, iRacing, rFactor, whole bunch of LEGO games, Total War series, and probably 30 pre-2008 titles that I wont bother mentioning, PERFECTLY.

Yes, I am biased to car racing games because I have a car-sim that I love to utilize. Yes I do have all of these games installed at once, and yes I love to be able to walk up to my pc and play anything I am in the mood for. I don't bother installing a lot of games on the Titan-X in SLi machine which is very simular because I just use that for work (video editing, number crunching and YOUTUBE .

 

[64K]

So basically, now that AMD are releasing drivers every 6 months, W1zzard can run all the benchmarks he needs without having to stress that in 28 days there will be another driver version with a negligible to non-existent difference .

Sorry, I do not wish to imply that AMD will be releasing drivers every 6 months from now on, I guess I am just having a laugh with/at above comments.

I also find it funny that we are having a go at TPU on TPU! Well, not I, and not you, just the few.
I do agree with the concept of 'Free Press' and I applaud raghu78 for having the balls to point out biased articles. Perhaps raghu78 will be the reason why articles will become more accurate instead of opinionated. Opinionated, did I spell that correctly ?

I prefer articles that are pure fact. My brain automatically reads over opinions when reading an article, it's something I guess I have developed over the years because I am too old for bull-s*(T. It would be nicer for my limited brain capacity if articles stuck to the facts.

Back to the point, my 290x's are running 'Football manager 2015, Nascar 15, Carmegeddon, Just Cause 2, Game Of Thrones, Temple Of Osiris, Starships, H1Z1, Dying Of The Light, Batman saga, Call Of Duty, Colin McRae 1, 2 & 3, FEAR series, F1 2014, L4S, Shador Of Mordor, NFS Carbon onwards, Test Drive 1 & 2, iRacing, rFactor, whole bunch of LEGO games, Total War series, and probably 30 pre-2008 titles that I wont bother mentioning, PERFECTLY.

Yes, I am biased to car racing games because I have a car-sim that I love to utilize. Yes I do have all of these games installed at once, and yes I love to be able to walk up to my pc and play anything I am in the mood for. I don't bother installing a lot of games on the Titan-X in SLi machine which is very simular because I just use that for work (video editing, number crunching and YOUTUBE .

I just checked your specs and you may have the most radical rig on this site.

 

[Haytch]

I just checked your specs and you may have the most radical rig on this site.

I like to upgrade every 2 years and stay on-top. I love the whole, overkill concept, always have since the Atari 16! I always sell my rig's and move on and I basically sell my rig for the price of my next upgrade excluding labour which is equal to another day's excitement for me.

There was a stage where I avoided PC gaming and opted for console gaming, but that changed after the x486DX rig died. The math co-processor couldn't have foreseen that happening! I do miss the Turbo button, and because of that, I learned to overclock

I always wanted to build a desk with the pc incorporated in it and have a glass lid that can smoke up with hydraulics, custom water-cooling and fancy lighting (on/off switch). One day I started to build one and realised that the thickness of the desk was silly and I couldn't get use to it. Years later, lian-li releases one with the same issue, I guess it's more of a gimmick. I do need a nicer case for my pc. I picked the Aerocool Strike X because it was simply massive and could fit all my junk in.

 

[R-T-B]

So basically, now that AMD are releasing drivers every 6 months, W1zzard can run all the benchmarks he needs without having to stress that in 28 days there will be another driver version with a negligible to non-existent difference .

Sorry, I do not wish to imply that AMD will be releasing drivers every 6 months from now on, I guess I am just having a laugh with/at above comments.

I also find it funny that we are having a go at TPU on TPU! Well, not I, and not you, just the few.
I do agree with the concept of 'Free Press' and I applaud raghu78 for having the balls to point out biased articles. Perhaps raghu78 will be the reason why articles will become more accurate instead of opinionated. Opinionated, did I spell that correctly ?

I prefer articles that are pure fact. My brain automatically reads over opinions when reading an article, it's something I guess I have developed over the years because I am too old for bull-s*(T. It would be nicer for my limited brain capacity if articles stuck to the facts.

Back to the point, my 290x's are running 'Football manager 2015, Nascar 15, Carmegeddon, Just Cause 2, Game Of Thrones, Temple Of Osiris, Starships, H1Z1, Dying Of The Light, Batman saga, Call Of Duty, Colin McRae 1, 2 & 3, FEAR series, F1 2014, L4S, Shador Of Mordor, NFS Carbon onwards, Test Drive 1 & 2, iRacing, rFactor, whole bunch of LEGO games, Total War series, and probably 30 pre-2008 titles that I wont bother mentioning, PERFECTLY.

Yes, I am biased to car racing games because I have a car-sim that I love to utilize. Yes I do have all of these games installed at once, and yes I love to be able to walk up to my pc and play anything I am in the mood for. I don't bother installing a lot of games on the Titan-X in SLi machine which is very simular because I just use that for work (video editing, number crunching and YOUTUBE .

I'd agree with all your post, if this wasn't an editorial. It is.

That said, wow, that is a nice rig.... You make my baby Chernobyl rig cry.

 

[Haytch]

I guess now that a new beta driver has been released, we might be looking at a WHQL driver release with the next series GPU's.

 

[Relayer]

The issue for me is time. Every full rebench takes around 2 weeks non-stop. Obviously I have other things to do than babysit benchmarks. So I retest every few months only, not every driver release, in which case the differences are negligible. I rebenched ahead earlier this month to be ready for upcoming cards from NV and AMD. This rebench also includes GTA V. Next rebench (which could be on Windows 10 if it's awesome) includes Project Cars and Witcher 3.

I'd be careful how many Gameworks titles you include.

 

[HumanSmoke]

I'd be careful how many Gameworks titles you include.

Benchmarking graphics cards is done to give an idea of how they perform in games being played by the user base. If those titles are GameWorks, Gaming Evolved, or non-aligned. If a slew of AAA titles arrives with GameWorks affiliation do you honestly expect that they should be shunned to keep an old title in rotation?

 

[Relayer]

Benchmarking graphics cards is done to give an idea of how they perform in games being played by the user base. If those titles are GameWorks, Gaming Evolved, or non-aligned. If a slew of AAA titles arrives with GameWorks affiliation do you honestly expect that they should be shunned to keep an old title in rotation?

I believe the benchmark suite should be unbiased. If we can drop surround/Eyefinity testing because on brand doesn't support it as well, or not turn on certain features because they are unfairly weighted to one brand, surely we can find a selection of games that fairly represent the cards potential.

Now, when doing game performance reviews you let the chips fall where they may, but you still need to present them objectively. Example: "Multi GPU isn't working but the game dev is working on a patch."

If an issue is resolved then I think the review should at least be updated. Crossfire patch, or, for instance, a hardware issue like in TFT Central's BenQ XL 2730Z review

Update 1/6/15

BenQ have confirmed that the FreeSync/AMA issue has now been fixed. A driver update from AMD is already available and should be downloaded from their website. In addition BenQ will be releasing a firmware update for the monitor itself to fix this issue. Current stocks in distribution are being recalled and updated with retailers so future purchases should already carry this new firmware. This is expected to apply for stock purchased AFTER 1st July, as V002 firmware screens should be shipped by BenQ to distributors in late June.

For those who already have an XL2730Z if you want to, you can return it to BenQ for them to carry out the firmware update for you. This only applies if the user is experiencing issues with the performance of the screen. There is no simple way for the end user to update the firmware themselves and it is not encouraged. Users should contact BenQ support through their relevant country website for more information on how to return their screen for the update.

This only applies in Europe and we do not have any information about how this update will be handled in other countries unfortunately. We would suggest contacting BenQ support for additional help if you need more information, now that a V002 firmware is in circulation. You should be able to identify the firmware version you have by accessing the factory OSD menu (hold menu button while powering the screen on, then press menu). The Firmware version (F/W) should start with V001 or V002 and then a date. You are looking for V002 for the updated firmware.

It's bad when people continue to think there is an issue, but it's been resolved. Reviews stay on the net available "forever". We don't want people to be mislead by info that is no longer accurate. Just like we don't want people to think one model card is overall faster than another because there are a couple of outlier games that one card is 30% or 40% faster but in the rest of the suite that same card might be 5%-10% slower. That's down to game performance, not the hardware.