Catalyst 11.3 and 11.4 beta vs. 11.2 Performance Analysis

Test Configuration & Driver Release Notes

Test Configuration

Test Configuration – Hardware

• Intel Core i7-920 reference 2.66GHz and overclocked to 3.8GHz (3.97GHz with 21x multiplier); Turbo is on.
• Gigabyte EX58-UD3R (Intel X58 chipset, PCIe 2.0 specification; CrossFire/SLI 16x+16x).
• 6 GB OCZ DDR3 PC18000 Kingston RAM (3×2 GB, tri-channel at PC 1600 speeds; 2×2 GB supplied by Kingston)
• AMD Radeon HD 6870 (1GB, reference clocks) supplied by AMD
  
• AMD Radeon HD 6970 (2GB, reference clocks) supplied by AMD
• Onboard Realtek Audio
• 500 GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 hard drive
• Thermaltake ToughPower 775 W power supply unit supplied by Thermaltake
• Thermaltake Element G Case supplied by Thermaltake
• Noctua UH-U12P SE2 CPU cooler, supplied by Noctua
• Philips DVD SATA writer
• HP LP3065 2560×1600 thirty inch LCD/SOYO 1920×1200 twenty-four inch LCD

Test Configuration – Software

• ATi Catalyst WHQL 11.2 and 11.3 drivers for HD 6870 and HD 6970 (Beta 11.4 tested for HD 6970 also); highest quality; 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 “forced” in Catalyst Control Center for UT3; all in-game settings are specified with 16xAF always applied; 16xAF forced in control panel for Crysis and Warhead.
• All results show average framerates except as noted.
• 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 exact same settings that we used for our Introducing AMD’s HD 6790 article this week. The performance changes result solely from upgrading each driver from the previous one.

• Vantage
• 3DMark11
• F.E.A.R.
• X3:Terran Conflict
• Enemy Territory: Quake Wars
• Call of Duty 4
• Unreal Tournament 3
• Batman: Arkham Asylum
• Grand Theft Auto IV
• Serious Sam, Second Encounter HD (2010)
• Wolfenstein
• Left 4 Dead
• Grand Theft Auto IV
• Mafia II
• Call of Juarez
• Crysis
• Warhead
  
• Lost Planet
• World in Conflict
  
• Far Cry 2
• Just Cause 2
• H.A.W.X.
• Resident Evil 5
• Alien vs. Predator
• STALKER, Call of Pripyat
• Dirt 2
• F1 2010
  
• Metro 2033
• Lost Planet 2
• H.A.W.X. 2
• Heaven 2

Lets look at some of the release notes from AMD regarding Catalyst 11.3 before we head to performance testing.  They look like mostly bug fixes and also seamless GPU compute support was added.

Release Notes Highlights for Catalyst 11.3

Highlights of the AMD Catalyst 11.3 Windows release includes:

New Features:

Seamless GPU Compute support

• The AMD Accelerated Parallel Processing (APP) OpenCL runtime is now enabled by default within AMD Catalyst.  Applications that leverage OpenCL for GPU based compute tasks will automatically benefit from the significant performance boost that this provides.

Resolved Issues for the Windows 7 Operating System
This section provides information on resolved known issues in this release of the AMD Catalyst 11.3 software suite for Windows 7. These include:

• 3D BluRay playback no longer displays random frame loss.
• The 8x Anti-Aliasing is now correctly listed in some OpenGL applications.
• System no longer shows laggy performance when playing 720P WMV video files.
• Tearing is no longer randomly observed when playing Bioshock with Vsync and MLAA enabled.

Resolved Issues for the Windows Vista Operating System
This section provides information on resolved known issues in this release of the AMD Catalyst 11.3 software suite for Windows Vista. These include:

• 3DMark 2011 no longer hangs on a quad crossfire HD6990 system.
• World of Warcraft no longer fails to respond when alt-tabbing out and into the game when running on the AMD HD6990.
• Mpeg2 Video playback now correctly uses hardware acceleration when played with Windows Media Player or Windows Media Center.
• Youtube HD Flash video now renders correctly.
• Enabling Anti-Aliasing no longer causes figure to have a bright outline in Medal Of Honor Single Player mode.

Resolved Issues for the Windows XP Operating System

• Need for Speed Shift no longer randomly crashes during gameplay.

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:

• OpenGL acceleration may not get enabled even if selected in Photoshop CS5.
• Bulletstorm may display random corruption when DirectX 9 mode is selected.
• PowerDVD 10 player may crash randomly if Crossfire is enabled/disabled during BluRay playback.
• Playing Dirt 2 in DirectX 11 mode may display random corruption while driving through water.
• Star Wars Jedi Knight II / Jedi Academy may crash randomly during launching.

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:

• Performing Bezel compensation on a 3×2 Eyefinity group may cause the bezel group to disappear.
• Doom and Quake 4 may display corruption with a HD 4770 product.

Known Issues Under the Windows XP Operating System
The following section provides a summary of open issues that may be experienced under the Windows XP operating system in the latest version of AMD Catalyst. These include:

• Civilization V may stop responding during launch when Crossfire is enabled.
• System may hang while playing Dead Rising 2.

Known Issues under all Windows Operating Systems
The following section provides a summary of open issues that may be experienced under all supported Windows operating systems in the latest version of AMD Catalyst. These include:

• LCD Overdrive settings may not be retained after enabling/disabling Crossfire.

Let’s head to the charts and see if there are any performance improvements. Look for Part Two of our SLI vs. CrossFire evaluation next week that will show the very latest CrossFire scaling with WHQL 11-4.  If the betas are any indication, they promise major performance improvements over Catalyst 11.3