AMD Rolls Out Catalyst 10.7a, Forces AA for Starcraft II Wings of Liberty

[btarunr]

Barely a week after releasing the Catalyst 10.7 WHQL software suite, AMD rolled out the Catalyst 10.7a BETA. This new version packs all the features and fixes of Catalyst 10.7, with the added feature of letting users enable forced anti-aliasing for Starcraft II Wings of Liberty from Catalyst Control Center to improve image quality. The fix affects all ATI Radeon graphics processors from Radeon HD 2000 series to HD 5000 series, supporting all Windows client versions from Windows XP. The other added feature is improved 4-way CrossFireX performance in ATI Eyefinity setups.

DOWNLOAD: ATI Catalyst 10.7a BETA

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[Wile E]

/subscribed to hear reports.

 

[dark2099]

http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=127667 Thread started a couple days ago. I personally updated drivers today, didn't try enabling AA or anything and games flawlessly at my previous settings.

 

[Mussels]

enabling 2xaa dropped me to 30FPS in the menus, let alone the game.

while this allows AA, the performance hit is massive (which may be why blizzard didnt add an AA option into the game in the first place)

 

[a_ump]

....there's no way that it could drop it that badly. I mean if correctly done, there has to be something not going the right way implementation or something. I'll test it out myself n see if i get diff results.

 

[Mussels]

....there's no way that it could drop it that badly. I mean if correctly done, there has to be something not going the right way implementation or something. I'll test it out myself n see if i get diff results.

its brute force AA, not optimised at all. theres a reason this is a preview/hotfix driver.

 

[a_ump]

i played through the second mission real quick, avg of 98 fps. gonna play it again after i install these 10.7a's

Settings were everthing maxed(ultra, high for a few since they don't go ultra). at 1680x1050. stock HD 5770

 

[toyo]

Settings go all on Ultra on a HD4850. Event that is the configuration recommended by their Default Settings, so you should try harder to set them on Ultra. Performance not that good... but gets better with the CPU overclocked.

 

[TheMailMan78]

Damn it! I have to go and buy this F#@king game.

 

[a_ump]

Settings go all on Ultra on a HD4850. Event that is the configuration recommended by their Default Settings, so you should try harder to set them on Ultra. Performance not that good... but gets better with the CPU overclocked.

no, i custom went through and set everyone one to ultra. i'll check in a sec which ones don't for me.

But i re-ran my results without AA and with 2xAA(msaa) with the 10.7a drivers.

No AA
min:11
avg:55.596
max:72
AA
min:11
avg:38.769
max:53

recorded w/FRAPS

EDIT:....and now SC2 is sayin i need to re-install. fml my bro has the dvd for the guest pass.

 

[DriedFrogPills]

no, i custom went through and set everyone one to ultra. i'll check in a sec which ones don't for me.

But i re-ran my results without AA and with 2xAA(msaa) with the 10.7a drivers.

No AA
min:11
avg:55.596
max:72
AA
min:11
avg:53
max:38.769

recorded w/FRAPS

how can the average fps be higher than the max?

 

[a_ump]

blah, it's the way fraps outputs the data in excel. it lists min/max/avg. but to me makes more sense to list it min/avg/max. havent' slept yet XD so bear with mah mistakes lol (fixed)

OT: I did notice the lag more, but only when i clicked, not really with unit movement. Though i have had some big MP battles, so gonna leave AA off until performance is more optimized for it, but for missions i'll probly leave the AA on

 

[toyo]

In my opinion, I can't see any reason to force AA on this game. So yeah, it's much more playable then a FPS at 20 fps, but lower FPS are just bad for your game experience. I play it at 1080p and the action gets so alert, you do not have time to observe how good the graphics are, you're just immersed - and that's how it should be.

I play this game for story 99%, and if it were not for the 2 expansion packs, after finishing the campaign (last mission now), I would just have sold it.

The thing is, in my opinion, it has too much action for you to stare at the graphics and try to observe the difference between AA or no AA.

 

[Mussels]

In my opinion, I can't see any reason to force AA on this game. So yeah, it's much more playable then a FPS at 20 fps, but lower FPS are just bad for your game experience. I play it at 1080p and the action gets so alert, you do not have time to observe how good the graphics are, you're just immersed - and that's how it should be.

I play this game for story 99%, and if it were not for the 2 expansion packs, after finishing the campaign (last mission now), I would just have sold it.

The thing is, in my opinion, it has too much action for you to stare at the graphics and try to observe the difference between AA or no AA.

let me put it this way: 1080P on a 23" screen may look OK, but 1080P on a 52" HDTV is gunna have those jaggies a hella lot more visible.

 

[toyo]

Oh well, I admit never thinking of that. Maybe the fact that I never saw anyone game on anything more than 27" could have something to do with that? )

The only thing close to what you say was some Guitar Hero on a Xbox or PS3, have no idea (there were both consoles there, was in a store) - it was kinda jaggy, but I was very close to the screen.

Nice to have a place (and money!) for such a big screen...

 

[a_ump]

yea, i played on my buddies 42 inch once only at 1368x720, deff had to crank up the AA to 8xAA. course that is a bit worse than 52@1080p .

Anyone else run comparisons?

 

[Mussels]

yea, i played on my buddies 42 inch once only at 1368x720, deff had to crank up the AA to 8xAA. course that is a bit worse than 52@1080p .

Anyone else run comparisons?

its 1360x768, btw. its what my 40" runs at.

 

[Wile E]

its 1360x768, btw. its what my 40" runs at.

You're both wrong. lol

It's 1366x768.

 

[Mussels]

You're both wrong. lol

It's 1366x768.

on PC and console, it runs as 1360. 1366 is an invalid res since its not a multiple of 8 or something... fuck knows what genius decided to use it.

 

[a_ump]

lol. yea i couldn't remember the last 2 digits, guesed. thought bout doing 13XXx720, but yea haha too many x's

 

[Mussels]

lol. yea i couldn't remember the last 2 digits, guesed. thought bout doing 13XXx720, but yea haha too many x's

its not x720 tho, its x768

1280x720
1360x768 (or 1366x768 if you're anally retentive/OCD)
1920x1080

 

[Wile E]

on PC and console, it runs as 1360. 1366 is an invalid res since its not a multiple of 8 or something... fuck knows what genius decided to use it.

Still displayed at 1366x768.

And the res never made much sense to me either, especially on a TV, considering HD is 1280x720 anyway.

 

[Mussels]

Still displayed at 1366x768.

And the res never made much sense to me either, especially on a TV, considering HD is 1280x720 anyway.

well TV signals might be at 720, but i'm glad for the extra res on PC use.


oh and its not displayed at 1366 at all, when using HDMI i actually get those 6 pixels as a very very thin black line on each side of the screen.

 

[Wile E]

I don't. My old TV automatically took it all the way out to 1366. It's an older model tho. Can't comment on the newer ones, as I have a 1080p set now.

 

[KaelMaelstrom]

im sorry as hell to say this but only Geforce Cards can turn on AA, this was announce by Blizzard. i think its unfair for ATI users and i hope Blizzard could fix this