CATALYST- new performance level for the R8500!!!

[10GHZ]

maybe people have read this. but here it is again.

http://www.hothardware.com/hh_files/CCAM/ati_catalyst.shtml

ar...Radeon 8500.... embrace the nitrous oxide.

 

[UoMDeacon]

So...a 2% increase...I guess technically it is a new performance level for 3DMark...
Though I have to admit, the new features added the the drivers are nice.

 

[bront]

<A HREF="http://www.hothardware.com/hh_files/CCAM/ati_catalyst.shtml" target="_new">Clickety</A>

Interesting. The Smartgart has me a bit worried, as most "error prevention" software I've seen caused more problems that there actualy were.

Interesting that the 6091 drivers were leaked last week, and the 6094 drivers are now the official ones. ATI got ahead of the leaks!

"Search your feelings you know it to be true, I am your... twin sister" - Darth Vader

 

[10GHZ]

ye.. but they still hasn't incooperated overclocking utility in to the option tabs.
and the performance boost isn't that significant, i only got llike an extra 60 points. crappy crappy.
maybe other plp 'll get more.

so in summery
pros: improvement in 2d image quality
better option tabs layout, more logical
a little bit of performance boost
compatible with almost all ATI cards
8-10 future updates in a year
driver feedback
Built by ATI user can also benefit from reference
driver

cons: some feature STILL hasb't been implemented (again)
still buggy for some games
openGL still sucks big time

but overall i think ATI has done a good job trying to perfect their driver. even though this is the 1st public release, the driver is still buggy and some feature are still within the testing stage, but ATI says future releases will have thoese feature fixed.

 

[AMD_Man]

You'll see a nice performance boost if you set both DirectX and OpenGL to High Performance. You can still turn on Aniso if you prefer, but the high performance setting improves performance quite noticably in some games without hurting IQ (to my eyes).

<b><i>"A penny saved is a penny earned!"</i></b>

 

[bront]

You'll probably never see an OC feature built into the ATI drivers, simply to prevent people from voiding their waranty.

OpenGL performance has been quite nice in the ATI cards since the 6043 drivers. Make sure you remove your old drivers first (Delete from the HD and remove Reg Entries).

What other features are you looking for that aren't in the drivers?

"Search your feelings you know it to be true, I am your... twin sister" - Darth Vader

 

[Guest]

the benchs i have seen said a performance increase between 2 and 7 percents. i don't think it is so high.
nevertheless there is maybe somewhere an article comparing gf4 and ati cards with the last drivers? this increase is maybe sufficient to burnout gf4 performances.


<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by corsair3200 on 06/14/02 04:14 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[nexus_alpha]

Opengl sucks big time??????? how so?

 

[AMD_Man]

Yeah, I don't get that. OpenGL has always been ATI's strong point.

<b><i>"A penny saved is a penny earned!"</i></b>

 

[chuck232]

I've tried downloading the new drivers 4 times now and everytime, it slows down to ~3KB/s then just stops. I can't resume it and have to restart again. The most I've gotten is 53% or the download. I have a DSL connection and nothing like this has every happened when downloading their drivers. Has anyone else had these problems?

My firewall tastes like burning.

 

[phsstpok]

I think it took me 7 hours, off and on, with my dial-up connection. I use Gozilla! which allows me to stop and resume.

It wasn't worth the effort. Before Catalyst I scored 7916 3DMarks. Now I get a whopping 7963. Not sure if having Windows 98SE has anything to do with it.

<b>I have so many cookies I now have a FAT problem!</b>

 

[AMD_Man]

It took me a whopping 30 min! I was downloading at a little over 10KB/s. I've never seen transfers that slow before. I'm used to 300KB/s or more on my 3mbps cable.

Anyway, 3Dmark is practically the same, but I see a HUGE difference in some games in high and optimal performance mode without any noticable loss in quality!

<b><i>"A penny saved is a penny earned!"</i></b>

 

[lagger]

yeah it was a slow d-load for me too I have 2 mb down on cable.. it did let me resume though so I got it done in about 1/2 hr. So far I'm liking the new driver just fine in my most often used real life game ( Ace's High a massive multiplayer online combat flight sim) I saw a fr increase from about 100 ~ 120 fps to 120 ~ 170 fps at max settings (high quality 32 bit etc) I still get over 100 fps most of the time
lagger

<font color=red><b> Signature removed for your sanitary protection</font color=red></b>

 

[flamethrower205]

haha, slow server, hate that. NV drivrs get distributed through the net Why do I feel like the green goblin when typing this?

My frog asked me for a straw...dunno what happened he's all over the place

 

[AMD_Man]

lol, then I must be Spider-Man! How did you find out?

<b><i>"A penny saved is a penny earned!"</i></b>

 

[phsstpok]

OK, I might be seeing some improvement in Serious Sam. (I wish I recorded more benchmark scores before upgrading the Ati driver). I seem to be getting about a 7 fps improvement. That's 1024x728, Anisotropy 2, Extreme Quality Add-on. I'm sure of my test settings but unfortunately I upgraded Serious Sam to the Truform version yesterday. I don't know if the new version is producing the performance gains or if it's the new driver.

<b>I have so many cookies I now have a FAT problem!</b>

 

[10GHZ]

well, one thing is that i STILL coudn't get smooth frame rate in CS in openGL, there are still tearing, even though i'm getting like 100fps+ i mean come on, the game is like 3 years old. or it could be simply my card's fault.

 

[AMD_Man]

It has something to do with Vsync! How do you turn on Vsync in CS?

<b><i>"A penny saved is a penny earned!"</i></b>

 

[bront]

I just installed the drivers and ran 3DMark2001SE and GLExcess to test them out.

I got a 2 point increase in 3DMark.

I got a 1000 point increase in GLExcess (5625 to 6693). Only Scene 2 and 8 did not show an increase in average framerate. Scene 1, 5, 9, 11 and 12 increased in every stat by about 33%, and most others were up by at least 20 FPS. Not too shaby.

Just think of what I could get if I set the test on performance instead of balanced.

So far, I like these drivers. Great OGL performance, seem stable, image quality "Feels" better to me on the balanced settings than they did previously. Plenty of tweeking in the drivers themselves. I'd highly recomend these drivers to anyone who's got an 8500.

"Meesa thinks that yousa gonna die" - Darth Darth Binks

 

[flamethrower205]

Well, what I did, but this is w/ quadro, although I assume it will apply to ati cards as well is in opengl set it so that there's vsync, and set renderer to ogl. I'm coming for u w/ my little board spiderman!

My frog asked me for a straw...dunno what happened he's all over the place

 

[10GHZ]

i dont' have vsync on for both openGL and direct3D. mainly because i dont' want 2 sacrefice any frame rate. CS seems to be the only game i'm having problem with, so i dont want 2 turn vsync off everytime i finish playing. there is however, an option called "Tear Free Swap" in rage3D tweak under openGL setting, anyone have any idea what it is?

 

[flamethrower205]

Dude, if ur running @ 85Hz or more, it really desn't matter if vsync is on or off, it's not like it'll make u get really low fps, just limits em to match refresh rate. What, must one constantly brag abou max fps? I get 1200 fps in cs, but now I use vsync, and everything looks a lot better.

My frog asked me for a straw...dunno what happened he's all over the place

 

[cakecake]

Lol, most people think that it's their computer's fault when tearing occurs. Maybe I'm saying that because I used to think the same thing too. I don't know why people worry about this, but if I were you I'd leave force v-sync on for both D3d and OpenGl. Your eyes (that's right, your human eyes) cannot notice any difference between 85 fps and 150 fps.

Censorship makes us so much more creative.

 

[10GHZ]

well, all of you guys kinda convinced me about the whole vsync business,so i guess i'll give it a go.

 

[Dogbollox]

Ive just installed the new drivers,but i still have to underclock my card for it not to lock up

AMD Thunderbird 1333mhz
768 ddr memory
GA-7VTXE gigabyte motherboard
Radeon 8500 (retail)
Two 40gig maxtors
soundblaster live 5.1
7vtxe V7 bios update