ATI Catalyst 9.3 Driver: Performance Express-Test

[Maziar]

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/catalyst-9-3.html









A driver mainly for lost planet colonies,i wont bother myself installing it since i dont play this game

 

[L1qu1d]

wow, ok I really don't understand, from both ATI and Nvidia (but lately more from ATI).

How can you go onto new driver, and actually LOWER frames, instead of atleast keeping the same frame rates and upgrading other game framerates?

Seriously ....

Well Jaydee another failed driver for the most part

 

[Euphoria_MK]

wow, ok I really don't understand, from both ATI and Nvidia (but lately more from ATI).

How can you go onto new driver, and actually LOWER frames, instead of atleast keeping the same frame rates and upgrading other game framerates?

Seriously ....

Well Jaydee another failed driver for the most part

Loosing 1 to 3 frames per second is absolutely acceptable when you gain in stability.

People keep expecting miracle improvement in FPS from new drivers.
Check the ATI logs for the latest driver update, it also contain the ATI HDMI sound driver, so you dont have to install the Realtek HDMI driver separately.

So far I am happy with these drivers. ATI has been working on increasing compatibility and stability and IMHO they are doing a good job.

Cheers

I dont want to sound like an ATI Fanboy, since I've had a great experience with both Nvidia and ATi Cards, but I really would reconsider your "failed driver" statement above, especially when you yourself are not using ATI cards and are not affected by any of these updates.

 

[L1qu1d]

Stability is a given, (btw I had a 4870 X2 that i bought in sept 08, and sold 3 weeks ago). Drivers should require stability but not loss in performance, I'm sorry, then the card being sold is sold on false pretenses, seeing as it performs sub what it did as the drivers upgrade...

that doesn't make sense 2 me. If Nvidia can do stability + increase in frames, trust me ATI can 2.

Nvidia is the lazy company and ATI isn't so I dunno why they haven't done it till now.

Thats my point.

1-3 frames isn't alot, def not, but its still a loss.

 

[Euphoria_MK]

Stability is a given, (btw I had a 4870 X2 that i bought in sept 08, and sold 3 weeks ago). Drivers should require stability but not loss in performance, I'm sorry, then the card being sold is sold on false pretenses, seeing as it performs sub what it did as the drivers upgrade...

that doesn't make sense 2 me. If Nvidia can do stability + increase in frames, trust me ATI can 2.

Nvidia is the lazy company and ATI isn't so I dunno why they haven't done it till now.

Thats my point.

1-3 frames isn't alot, def not, but its still a loss.

Yeah I understand what you are saying. I think that at this point compatibility and stability is their first priority. As Terry Makedon aka Ctalyst maker stated, they did include Windows 7 support in these drivers and also a unified solution for their HDMI Audio capability, and since ATI cards are the only ones that offer this feature they better get it right.
I mean just a month and a half ago ATI officialy got the dual GPU support in their drivers, so it will take them a bit longer before they resolve the compatibility issues and they start working on performance. I am just happy that they are working on these drivers instead of seating on their collective arses. My card works great as it is, so I am not really neatpicking for any additional performance from the drivers, but If they do manage to offer this with a newer driver release, more power to them.

BTW check the last three Nvidia driver releases reviews and see how much of performance did they actually offer

 

[cjl]

Honestly, 1-2% is within normal variation anyways, so I would consider this driver's effect to be essentially neutral for performance (except for lost planet colonies obviously).

 

[The_Blood_Raven]

Ha, SLI is useless in Oblivion since the performance was over halved thanks to the newer drivers. If a modern SLI system lags in Oblivion, it is sad.

 

[L1qu1d]

Just my take on things

The cards Ati busted out deserve the praise for their time, I think they deserve the drivers to back em up as well.

As for Nvidia Euphoria, its been proven that when Nvidia states 10% it generally close. I dunno how they do it, its a mystery to me.

Then again its prob because they save soo much money on the revisions

 

[The_Blood_Raven]

Again I have had no major problems with my TWO 4870 X2s in CrossfireX. I have had to mess with a few settings and had to reinstall the motherboard drivers once I installed the second card, but the performance gains have been great, 10-20 minimum FPS increase which is what I needed. From my experience the drivers coming out from both companies have the quirks, but both work and are fine most of the time.

 

[cjl]

Again I have had no major problems with my TWO 4870 X2s in CrossfireX. I have had to mess with a few settings and had to reinstall the motherboard drivers once I installed the second card, but the performance gains have been great, 10-20 minimum FPS increase which is what I needed. From my experience the drivers coming out from both companies have the quirks, but both work and are fine most of the time.

Yep. I don't have a pair in CFX because basically, I don't need it. The only game I can't max out with at least 4xAA is Crysis/Crysis Warhead, and I can max those out with no AA, which is good enough for me. Adding another $400 card simply to add AA in crysis is just not worth it. I'm honestly not that concerned with drivers though. 9.2 has been rock solid for me.

 

[JAYDEEJOHN]

The main thing for this driver is the wddm1.1 compatability with W7 as well as Vista, and how well this driver does in W7, which is fairly well, even tho it isnt a cert driver, as you cant cert a beta os driver

 

[Euphoria_MK]

From my experience the drivers coming out from both companies have the quirks, but both work and are fine most of the time.

+1

Getting few people that have issues with the Nvidia drivers and calling their whole driver release a failure it's a bit of an overstatement.

 

[murdoc]

Thanks for the heads up. Since I'm on Vista 64bit, there's no incentive for me to download latest drivers. I'll wait for 9.4