AMD Releases Radeon Software Crimson Edition 16.7.2 WHQL

[btarunr]

AMD on 19th July, released a WHQL-signed version of Radeon Software Crimson Edition 16.7.2 drivers. The company first released the RSCE 16.7.2 as a Beta on the 12th of July. The change-log of the new 16.7.2 WHQL drivers don't say exactly what is different between the 16.7.2 Beta and the 16.7.2 WHQL; so we guess it's just 16.7.2 with WHQL certification. Grab the drivers from the links below.



DOWNLOAD: AMD Radeon Software Crimson Edition 16.7.2 WHQL for Windows 10 64-bit | Windows 10 32-bit | Windows 8.1 64-bit | Windows 8.1 32-bit | Windows 7 64-bit | Windows 7 32-bit

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[Jism]

Cool. Official drivers now with that RX 480 patch.

 

[xkm1948]

It is actually 16.7.3 WHQL. It shows this info on both GPU-Z as well as Crimson Information tab.

 

[G33k2Fr34k]

The main issue with AMD cards is their DX11/OpenGL driver overhead. Even without async compute, AMD cards perform considerably better in Doom and Ashes of Singularity going from DX/OpenGL to Vulkan/DX12.

AMD cards seem to have no problems utilizing their relatively higher single and double precision FP horse power. It seems that their DX11 driver implementation is very inefficient.

 

[BlueFalcon]

AMD cards seem to have no problems utilizing their relatively higher single and double precision FP horse power. It seems that their DX11 driver implementation is very inefficient.

That's only half the answer. If the DX11 driver inefficiency was the primary bottleneck, then AMD's graphics cards would not see 30-60% increase in performance under Vulkan in Doom with last generation's Fury X beating 1070 by 18-26%:

https://www.computerbase.de/2016-07/doom-vulkan-benchmarks-amd-nvidia/

There is a lot more to it: shader intrinsics and multi-engine utilization of async compute allow better utilization of the GPU's resources.

Even though many believe that NV's GPUs are mostly utilized under DX11, this statement is only partially true. They are mostly utilized when being handled serial programming code. If Pascal had ACE engines and Command Processors + its efficiency, it would be even faster.

"At 1440p using the same playable settings found on the GeForce GTX 1060 we find the AMD Radeon RX 480 simply blows the GeForce GTX 1060 out of the water in terms of performance. While both are allowing a very high post 60FPS performance, AMD Radeon RX 480 takes it to a new level and even beats out the GeForce GTX 980! The Radeon RX 480 is performing 25% faster than the GeForce GTX 1060 under the Vulkan API, just wow."

Furthermore, when a gamer has the option to utilize D12 or Vulkan in a AAA game, unless the performance or IQ is inferior to the old DX11 API, there is no reason not to use it. More and more PC titles will use ASync Compute because PS4/Neo and XB1/Scorpio will stick around for at least another 3-4 years until 2019-2020. To get the most out of these consoles, game developers will start to utilize all of the areas of GCN architecture because it's not possible to upgrade the consoles. As a result we should see more AAA games that favor GCN over Fermi, Kepler and Maxwell architectures. NV will do just fine this generation due to the raw power (i.e., 1.7-2Ghz GPU clocks) and amazing perf/watt efficiency of Pascal.

If AMD had the resources of NV to work closely with nearly every major AAA developer to take advantage of GCN, it would help them significantly because RX 480's performance under DX12 vs. 1060 is excellent.

There are also very few games that would benefit from 6-8GB of VRAM over the RX 480 4GB model. AMD dropped the ball by having so few $200 RX 480 4GB out in the market. For budget gamers it appears to be the best value card, and as a bonus could be unlocked to 8GB on the reference design.

http://www.techspot.com/review/1209-nvidia-geforce-gtx-1060/page10.html

 

[xkche]

There are also very few games that would benefit from 6-8GB of VRAM over the RX 480 4GB model. AMD dropped the ball by having so few $200 RX 480 4GB out in the market. For budget gamers it appears to be the best value card, and as a bonus could be unlocked to 8GB on the reference design.

http://www.tweaktown.com/tweakipedia/90/much-vram-need-1080p-1440p-4k-aa-enabled/index.html

Not all have 4K.

 

[Octopuss]

The main issue with AMD cards is their DX11/OpenGL driver overhead. Even without async compute, AMD cards perform considerably better in Doom and Ashes of Singularity going from DX/OpenGL to Vulkan/DX12.

AMD cards seem to have no problems utilizing their relatively higher single and double precision FP horse power. It seems that their DX11 driver implementation is very inefficient.

You're pretty late to the party.