Catalyst 11.11 Performance Analysis – HD 6000, 5000 & 4000 series
Test Configuration & Driver Release Notes
Test Configuration
Test Configuration – Hardware
- Intel Core i7 920 (reference 2.66 GHz and overclocked to 3.8 GHz); Turbo is on.
- Gigabyte EX58-UD3R (Intel X58 chipset, latest BIOS, PCIe 2.0 specification; CrossFire/SLI 16x+16x).
- 6 GB OCZ DDR3 PC 18000 Kingston RAM (3×2 GB, tri-channel at PC 1600 speeds; 2×2 GB supplied by Kingston)
- HIS Radeon HD 6770 (1GB, 880/1250MHz) supplied by AMD/HIS
- AMD Radeon HD 6970 (2GB, reference clocks, 880/1375MHz) supplied by AMD
- AMD Radeon HD 6950 (2GB, flashed to HD 6970 at reference clocks, 880/1375MHz) supplied by AMD
- ASUS Radeon HD 4870 (1GB reference clocks)
- Onboard Realtek Audio
- 500 GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 hard drive
- Thermaltake ToughPower 775 W power supply unit supplied by Thermaltake
- Thermaltake Element G Case supplied by Thermaltake
- Noctua NH-U12P SE2 CPU cooler, supplied by Noctua
- Philips DVD SATA writer
- HP LP3065 2560×1600 thirty inch LCD
Test Configuration – Software
- ATi Catalyst 11.11 and 11.10 drivers for the HD 6770 and HD 6970s (the HD 4870 was only tested with 11.11); highest quality mip-mapping set in the driver; use application settings; surface performance optimizations are off
- Windows 7 64-bit; very latest updates
- DirectX July/November 2010
- All games are patched to their latest versions.
- vsync is forced off in the control panel.
- Varying AA enabled as noted in games and all in-game settings are specified with 16xAF always applied; 16xAF forced in control panel for Crysis.
- All results show average frame rates.
- Highest quality sound (stereo) used in all games.
- Windows 7 64, all DX9 titles were run under DX9 render paths, DX10 titles were run under DX10 render paths and DX11 titles under DX11 render paths.
The Benchmarks
Please note that we are using the same settings that we used from our last Catalyst 11-10 performance evaluation for the HD 6770 (and the HD 4870). We use higher settings to test the HD 6970 and HD 6970 CrossFire as in our last major evaluation, Core i3-2105 vs. Phenom II 970 X4 – the Importance of Hyper-Threading in Gaming, and the differences are marked on the charts. The performance changes result solely from upgrading each driver from the previous one.
- Vantage
- 3DMark 11
- Batman: Arkham Asylum
- Serious Sam, Second Encounter HD (2010)
- Wolfenstein
- Left 4 Dead
- Mafia II
- Crysis
- World in Conflict
- Far Cry 2
- Just Cause 2
- Resident Evil 5
- Alien vs. Predator
- Battleforge
- STALKER, Call of Pripyat
- F1 2010
- Metro 2033
- Lost Planet 2
- H.A.W.X. 2
- Civilization 5
- Total War: Shogun II
- DiRT 3
- Crysis 2
- Deus Ex: Human Revolution
- Heaven 2
Lets look at the Catalyst 11.11 release notes from AMD before we head to performance testing.
Release Notes for Catalyst 11.11
Always start here to download AMD graphics drivers.
Highlights of the AMD Catalyst™ 11.11 Windows release includes:
NEW FEATURES
Adobe Flash Player 11 support
- Enables full support of the GPU accelerated Stage 3D API and Stage 3D applications
- Supported on the AMD Radeon HD Series of GPUs, A-Series APU and E-Series APU
RESOLVED ISSUES
Resolved Issues for the Windows 7 Operating System
This section provides information on resolved known issues in this release of the AMD Catalyst™ 11.11 software suite for Windows 7. These include:
- Images and textures are no longer corrupted (Blue) in Rage.
- Bezel compensation now works correctly with Far Cry 2.
- Screen tearing is no longer randomly observed while moving a window on the desktop while in Clone mode or Eyefinity mode.
- A black screen is no longer observed when extending displays.
- Homefront no longer crashes randomly when Crossfire is enabled.
- DC – Universe Online no longer hangs soon after selecting a character and entering the game.
KNOWN ISSUES
Known issues under the Windows 7 operating system
The following section provides a summary of open issues that may be experienced under the Windows 7 operating system in the latest version of AMD Catalyst™. These include:
- Screen tearing may be observed occasionally while playing Portal 2 in DirectX 9 mode.
- Shogun 2 may exhibit screen corruption while playing on low resolution settings in 2×1 Eyefinity mode.
- Choppy playback may be observed playing interlaced DVD content in full screen mode using PowerDVD 11.
- A BSOD error may occur while playing Call of Duty – Black Ops in Multiplayer mode with Crossfire enabled.
- Video corruption may be observed while playing World of Warcraft in windowed mode and AVI file simultaneously.
- Dragon Age 2 may exhibit corruption during in game cinematics when run in DirectX 9 mode.
- Lost Planet 2 my display random corruption and flickering when run in DirectX 9 mode.
- Lost Planet 2 may crash randomly when Crossfire is enabled.
The following games may experience random flashing textures during gameplay :
- Homefront
- Metro 2033
- Far Cry 2
- Stalker : Call of Pripyat
Known Issues under the Windows Vista Operating System
The following section provides a summary of open issues that may be experienced under the Windows Vista operating system in the latest version of AMD Catalyst™. These include:
- Windows Aero options may be missing after installing the driver.
- A ‘ghost’ cursor may be observed when playing Dragon Age 2 in Crossfire mode.
- The character avatar in Dragon Age 2 may display random flickering.
- HAWX 2 may experience random system reboots when run in Eyefinity mode.
- Civilization V may experience random crashing when run at medium or high in game settings.
- Bulletstorm may experience random flashing during gameplay.
- Dead Space 2 may hang occasionally soon after game launch.
Let’s head to the charts and see if there are any improvements in 22 games and 3 synthetic benches since we tested last.
