Catalyst 11-8 Performance Analysis – vs. 11.5 and GeForce 280.26

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
• ATi Radeon HD 6970 (2GB, reference clocks) supplied by AMD
• Nvidia GTX 580 (1.5 GB, reference clocks), supplied by Nvidia
• EVGA GTX 550 Ti (1 GB, 951/2178MHz) supplied by EVGA
  
• Onboard Realtek Audio
• Two identical 500 GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 hard drives configured and set up identically from drive image; one partition for Nvidia GeForce drivers and one for ATI Catalyst drivers
• Thermaltake ToughPower 775 W power supply unit supplied by Thermaltake
• Thermaltake Element G Case supplied by Thermaltake
• Noctua UD 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 11.8 and 11.5 drivers for HD 6770 and HD 6970 (Preview 11.8 used for HD 6770); highest quality mip-mapping set in the driver; use application settings; surface performance optimizations are off
• NVIDIA GeForce WHQL 280.26 and 275.33 for the GTX 580 and GTX 550 Ti. High Quality
• 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 and Batman: Arkham Asylum; all in-game settings are specified with 16xAF always applied; 16xAF forced in control panel for Crysis.
• All results show average, minimum and maximum frame rates 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 same settings that we used for our The Passive Gigabyte & Overclocked HIS HD 6770 meet the EVGA GTX 550 Ti article this week for the HD 6770 and the GTX 550 Ti.   We test at generally higher resolutions and settings for the GTX 580 and the HD 6970 as found in the GeForce 280.26 Performance analysis 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
• Heaven 2

Lets look at some of the release notes from AMD regarding Catalyst 11.8 as well as GeForce 280.26 before we head to performance testing.

Release Notes Highlights for GeForce 280.26

Please see the GeForce 280.26 Performance analysis

Now lets look at the release notes from AMD regarding Catalyst 11.8

Release Notes for Catalyst 11.8

Always start here to download AMD graphics drivers.

Highlights of the AMD Catalyst™ 11.8 Windows release include:

New Features

• AMD Overdrive has been enhanced to include both CPU and GPU over-clocking controls within the AMD Vision Control Center
• CPU over-clocking is only supported on AMD Black edition CPUs

 

Performance Highlights

• Improves performance up to 10% in Crysis 2 DirectX 11 version for both non-Anti-Aliasing, and application enabled Anti-Aliasing cases on the AMD Radeon™ HD 6000 and AMD Radeon™ HD 5000 Series
• Improves performance up to 8% in Fear 3 DirectX 11 version with application enabled Anti-Aliasing on the
  AMD Radeon™ HD 6000 and AMD Radeon™ HD 5000 Series
• Improves performance up to 30% when AMD’s Morphological Anti-Aliasing (MLAA) is enabled through the
  Catalyst™ Control Center on the AMD Radeon™ HD 6000 and AMD Radeon™ HD 5000 Series
• Improves performance up to 20% in Call of Duty Black Operations for single GPU and Multi-GPU configurations on the AMD Radeon™ HD 6000 and AMD Radeon™ HD 5000 Series

 

Resolved Issues for the Windows 7 Operating System
This section provides information on resolved known issues in this release of the AMD Catalyst™ 11.8 software suite for Windows 7. These include:

• The option to “Apply current video quality settings to internet video” is no longer randomly missing from the AMD Catalyst™ Control Center / AMD Vision™ Engine Control Center.
• 3DMark 11 no longer intermittently generates a BSOD error when run using a standard user account.
• Playing HD video content overnight using Windows Media Center no longer causes the system to hang or generates a BSOD error.
• Random graphical corruption is no longer experienced when playing Crysis 2 in a Crossfire environment.
• Image stabilization is now correctly applied to DivX clips when using Windows Media Player.
• Enabling AntiAliasing when playing Starcraft 2 no longer causes random screen blackouts.
• Video corruption is no longer seen when scrolling through DivX 5 video files using Windows Media Center and Windows Media Player.
• Menu corruption is no longer seen when running F.E.A.R 3 in DirectX 11 mode.
• Video playback now functions correctly after enabling hardware acceleration in VLC version 1.1.10.

 

Resolved Issues for the Windows Vista Operating System
This section provides information on resolved known issues in this release of the AMD Catalyst™ 11.8 software suite for Windows Vista. These include:

• PowerDVD no longer randomly displays a blank screen when playing back BluRay content with Crossfire enabled.
• BSOD errors are no longer intermittently experienced after installing the driver with Crossfire enabled.

 

Resolved Issues for the Windows XP Operating System
This section provides information on resolved known issues in this release of the AMD Catalyst™ 11.8 software suite for Windows XP. These include:

• PowerDVD no longer randomly displays a blank screen during video playback when switching from extended display mode to cloned display mode.

 

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:

• STALKER – Call of Pripyat may randomly hang when entering a new or saved game.
• Random corruption may be observed when running the Unigine Heaven benchmark in Fixed High Performance mode.
• F1 2010 may randomly hang on application launch.
• Battlefield – Bad Company 2 may randomly hang after a period of game play.
• Dungeon Siege 3 may randomly hang on application launch.
• Dead Rising 2 may randomly hang on application launch.
• Random flashing may be observed while playing F1 2010 and Dirt 2.

 

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 not be available after installing the driver.
• Doom 3 and Quake 4 may experience graphical corruption.
• Performing Bezel compensation in certain Eyefinity configurations may cause some bezel groups to not appear.

 

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

• Enemy Territory – Quake Wars may experience random graphics corruption.
• Quake 4 may experience random graphics corruption.

 

Installing the AMD Catalyst™ Software Driver
For further information and general help on software driver installation, game issues, and more, visit AMD Customer Care.

Installation information can be found at: How to Install Your AMD Product.

Let’s head to the charts and see if there are any improvements in 20 games and 3 synthetics since we tested last in May and in June. And we get to see HD 6970 tested against GTX 580 with the very latest drivers as well as HD 6770 versus GTX 550 Ti; next month we will add SLI and CrossFire results.

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