Catalyst 11.9 Performance Analysis

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, 880/1375MHz) supplied by AMD
• ATi Radeon HD 6950 (2GB, flashed to HD 6970 at reference clocks, 880/1375MHz) supplied by AMD
  
• 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 UD CPU cooler, supplied by Noctua
• Philips DVD SATA writer
• HP LP3065 2560×1600 thirty inch LCD

Test Configuration – Software

• ATi Catalyst 11.9 and 11.8 drivers for HD 6770 and HD 6970s; 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 11-8 performance evaluation for the HD 6770.  We use higher settings to test the HD 6970 and HD 6970 CrossFire as in our last major evaluation, SLI Versus CrossFire, Part 2, and the differences are marked on the charts. The performance changes result solely from upgrading each driver from the previous one.

We had one issue with Total War: Shogun II which downloaded a 1.8GB patch from Steam in the middle of our testing.  The HD 6970 was benched “pre-patch” with Catalyst 11.8 and 11.9, and the HD 6770 was benched after the patch; CrossFired HD 6970s were not benched with Catalyst 11.9 at all.

• 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 some of the release notes from AMD regarding Catalyst 11.9 before we head to performance testing.

Release Notes for Catalyst 11.9

Always start here to download AMD graphics drivers.

Highlights of the AMD Catalyst™ 11.9 Windows release includes:

New Features: 

AMD HD3D support enhancement

• Enables AMD HD3D technology support on DisplayPort panels, such as Samsung 750 and 950 series 3D displays.
• Enables existing Stereo 3D displays, such as the Viewsonic V3D241wm-LED monitor and 3D projectors.

Resolved Issues for the Windows 7 Operating System: 

This section provides information on resolved known issues in this release of the AMD Catalyst™ 11.9 software suite for Windows 7. These include:

• STALKER – Call of Pripyat no longer hangs randomly when launching a new game or opening a previously saved game.
• Scaling options are now correctly displayed when connecting a Digital monitor to the Display port on some video cards.
• The following games no longer experience random hangs during game loading :
• Call of Duty – Black Ops
• F1 2010
• Dungeon Siege 3
• The following games no longer hang intermittently during gameplay:
• Battlefield  – Bad Company 2
• Borderlands
• Dead Rising 2
• The following games no longer hangs while running the benchmark :
• Serious Sam 2
• Resident Evil 5
• HAWX 2
• HAWX 2 no longer displays random flashing black pixels
• Flashing pixel corruption is no longer experienced while playing F1 2010 and Dirt 2
• The Windows Event Log no longer reports unwanted Distributed DCOM errors.
• Negative Crossfire Scaling is no longer occasionally observed while playing EarthSim 2, Battle – Bad Company 2 , Metro and HAWX
• Video corruption is no longer observed while playing full screen HD WMV format files using PowerDVD with Windows Aero Mode turned off.
• Blank video playback is no longer observed when hardware accelerations is enabled in VLC 1.1.10
• Dawn of War II – Retribution no longer exhibits a black screen when alt-tabbing in and out of the game
• Random display corruption is no longer observed when playing WMV format files using Windows Media Player
• City of Heroes no longer experiences stuttering after excessive use if in-game Anti-Aliasing slider

Resolved Issues for the Windows Vista  Operating System:

This section provides information on resolved known issues in this release of the AMD Catalyst™ 11.9 software suite for Windows Vista. These include:

• The screen no longer goes black on when the Aero Desktop is enabled on some Radeon products.
• Lost Planet 2 no longer randomly crashes when running the benchmark

Resolved Issues for the Windows XP Operating System:

This section provides information on resolved known issues in this release of the AMD Catalyst™ 11.9 software suite for Windows XP. These include:

• Enemy Territory – Quake Wars no longer displays random screen corruption
• Cyberlink PowerDVD no longer hangs when attempting to play a BluRay disc.

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:

• The display may freeze after playing HD Videos over an extended period of time using Windows Media Center
• Random screen tearing may be observed while playing Portal 2
• Random screen corruption may be observed while playing Wolfenstein in multiplayer mode
• Random corruption may be experienced while playing Enemy Territory – Quake Wars
• Choppy playback may be experienced during playback of interlaced DVD content in full screen mode using PowerDVD 11

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

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 22 games and 3 synthetics since we tested last.