Catalyst 10.8 Performance Analysis
Test Configuration & Driver Release Notes
- AMD Phenom II 955 X4 reference 3.20 GHz; NB and HT are each at 2000 MHz.
- ECS A890GXM-A (AMD 890 GMA chipset, latest BIOS, PCIe 2.0 specification; CrossFire 8x+8x).
- 4 GB DDR3 PC 1800 Kingston RAM (4×2 GB, at PC 1600 speeds; supplied by Kingston)
- ATi Radeon HD 5870 PCS+ by PowerColor underclocked to reference clocks, 850/1200 MHz; supplied by AMD
- ATi Radeon HD 5870 by Diamond at reference clocks, 850/1200 MHz
- Onboard Realtek Audio
- 250 GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 hard drive
- Thermaltake ToughPowerXT 775 watt power supply and Element G case supplied by Thermaltake
- HP LP 3065 2560×1600 30 inch LCD
Test Configuration – Software
- ATi Catalyst 10-7 and 10-8 (WHQL); highest quality mip-mapping set in the driver, Catalyst AI set to “Standard”
- Windows 7 64-bit Home Premium; very latest updates
- DirectX June 2010.
- All games are patched to their latest versions.
- vsync is off in the control panel and is never set in-game.
- 8xAA enabled in all games (unless specified as 4xAA, or lower) and “forced” in Catalyst Control Center for UT3 and Batman AA; all in-game settings at “maximum” or “ultra” with 16xAF always applied
- All results show average, minimum and maximum frame rates except as noted.
- Highest quality sound (stereo) used in all games.
- Windows 7, all DX10 titles were run under DX10 render paths; DX11 titles under DX11 render paths and DX9c, etc.
The Benchmarks
- Far Cry 2
- Crysis
- F.E.A.R.
- Unreal Tournament 3
- Just Cause 2
- World in Conflict
- Call of Juarez
- Batman: Arkham Asylum
- Left4Dead
- Lost Planet
- Call of Duty 4
- X3:Terran Conflict
- Mafia II Demo
- Serious Sam Second Encounter HD (2010)
- H.A.W.X.
- Battleforge
- Dirt 2
- S.T.A.L.K.E.R., Call of Pripyat
- Resident Evil 5
- Alien versus Predator
- Heaven (Unigine) 2.0
Lets look at some of the release notes from AMD’s .pdf regarding Catalyst 10-8.
Release Notes for Catalyst 10-8
New Features
This section provides information on new features found in this release of the ATI
Radeon™ Display Driver. These include the following:
- OpenGL ES 2.0 support
- Video Quality default options
- Performance enhancement for Eyefinity Quad ATI CrossFireX™ configurations
- Anti-Aliasing support for StarCraft II
OpenGL ES 2.0 support
- ATI Catalyst™ 10.8 delivers full support for OpenGL ES 2.0 specification
- Enables 3D accelerated graphics within a web browser that supports OpenGL ES 2.0
- Supported on Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7
Video Quality default options
The Default video options for ATI Catalyst™ have been greatly enhanced to deliver
the best quality video viewing experience. Users can also choose to apply these
settings to Internet Video via a new checkbox control within the ATI Catalyst™
Control Center
In the “Advanced Color” section, the following defaults are now enabled:
- Color vibrance (default = 40)
- Flesh tone correction (default = 50)
- Brighter Whites
In the “Advanced Quality” section, the following defaults are now enabled:
- Edge-enhancement (default = 25)
- De-noise (default = 64)
- Mosquito Noise Reduction (default = 50)
- De-blocking (default = 50)
Note: Video Quality option settings can be accessed by launching the
Catalyst™ Control Center and clicking on “Graphics”, then “Video”
and “All Settings”.
ATI Catalyst™ Release Note Version 10.8 6
Performance enhancement for Eyefinity Quad ATI CrossFireX™
configurations
- Performance has been greatly improved for users running with ATI Eyefinity on a Quad ATI CrossFireX™ configuration
- Anti-Aliasing support for StarCraft II
- ATI Catalyst™ Control Center enabled Anti-Aliasing is now available for StarCraft II
Catalyst™ Application Profiles
The following application profiles are available with this release of Catalyst™ 10.8:
- Singularity – CrossFire™ profile updateMafia 2 – CrossFire™ profile update
- Final Fantasy XIV Benchmark – new CrossFire™ profile
- Lord of the Rings Online – new CrossFire™ profile
- Aliens Vs. Predator – CrossFire™ profile update
Performance Improvements
The following performance gains are noticed with this release of Catalyst™ 10.8:
Far Cry 2
- Performance increases 2-6% on ATI Radeon™ HD 5800 Series single and CrossFire™ configurations
- Performance increases 2-4% on ATI Radeon™ HD 5700 Series single and CrossFire™ configurations
- Performance increases 3-8% on ATI Radeon™ HD 4800 Series single andCrossFire™ configurations
Left 4 Dead 2
Performance increases 3-5% on CrossFire™ ATI Radeon™ HD 5800 series and CrossFire™ ATI Radeon™ HD 5700 series configurations
Stormrise
- Performance increases 5-10% on ATI Radeon™ HD 5600 series and ATI Radeon™ HD 5500 series configurations
Resolved Issues for All Windows Operating Systems
This section provides information on resolved issues in this release of the ATI Catalyst™
Software Suite for Windows. These include:
- HDMI default refresh rate now appears properly as 60 Hz under HDTV in Catalyst™ Control Center
- Basic wizard pane or resolution combo box in “Display Setting for Desktop Viewing” page no longer turns blank in basic view for component video mode
- “FSAA” is a selectable option in City of Heroes / City of Heroes Going Rogue™
We see great new features with video and some nicely resolved issues including Borderlands is no longer crashing at random as it did with Catalyst 10-7.Unfortunately we haven’t noted a lot of performance improvement for a few months and we are still rather disappointed with CrossFire scaling. If you run CrossFire, make absolutely certain that you download the latest application profiles as it can make a real performance difference. Let’s head right for the results of our performance testing of Catalyst 10-8 versus 10-7.
