AMD's Radeon HD 5870: Before And After A Year Of Driver Updates

Benchmark Results: Lost Planet 2 (DX11)

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Header Cell - Column 0 1680x1050No AA/No AF1680x10504xMSAA/No AF1920x1080No AA/No AF1920x10804xMSAA/No AF2560x1600No AA/No AF2560x16004xMSAA/No AF
Percent Gainfrom 10.8 to 11.12.99%2.23%0%-10.68%2.89%3.62%

Besides Metro 2033, Lost Planet 2 is the only other benchmark in our suite that exhibits stability issues when paired with older drivers. The timeline is actually surprising. Lost Planet 2 turns out to be unsupported all the way to Catalyst 10.3, which was released six months after Radeon HD the 5870's debut. Add another six months for Catalyst 10.8, and we finally get a configuration that doesn’t restart midway through a benchmark cycle. Given that Lost Planet 2 was released for the PC in October of 2010, it makes sense that AMD was only able to incorporate official support a couple of months prior. This just goes to show how big a role current drivers are to the stability story too, though.

Even though we only have two data points, the results look pretty similar to Metro 2033. The difference here is that we see small gains across the board, and at 1920x1080 with no AA/AF, there is no gain. The outlier here is at 1920x1080 with 4xAA and 8xAF. Surprisingly, we actually get fewer frames per second when we move from Catalyst 10.8 to 11.1. While the score is only 3.3 fewer frames per second, this works out to more than a 10% drop in performance (30.9 to 27.6 FPS). As we are already under 30 FPS, that sort of loss actually does have an impact on playability.

  • dallaswits
    I run a 5850, have loved it, and always get the newest driver.
    Reply
  • sabot00
    Wow, someone is really pissy.
    Reply
  • cangelini
    More like someone has been really moderated ;-)
    Reply
  • Assmar
    hahahyoursowrong"The moral of the story: be sure your graphics card drivers are always up to date."I'd love to cept I get a blue screen every time and can't even get to windows going from 10.4 to the newest.Uninstall all drivers before installing new ones.
    Reply
  • opmopadop
    If that guy who created/posted his problem 5 times spent that much effort understanding why his rig BSOD'd when he used the latest set, he might have resolved his problem by now.
    Reply
  • slyphnier
    ever since 10.11 ... many user got "100% GPU usage" and "top right mouse lag" issue
    11.4 early preview still having the issue
    from what i know the issue above mostly effect radeon 5000series (5850 and 5970)
    for people having those issue forced to stick with 10.10e

    still no news when amd will fix those issue, as from what i heard amd can't replicate the issue on their lab, thus can't fix it
    Reply
  • Assmar
    I know you're terribly busy, but any way we can get the CF comparisons from then and now, even if it isn't as thorough?
    Reply
  • Zeh
    I'm eager for a new driver release. I've switched my old 4670 ddr2 for a 6850. In some games I'm having a few VSync problems, and the overall performance during video playback has decreased and I have no idea why, quality did not change, or at least I didn't see any changes.

    This 6850 just doesn't feel as rock solid as the good old 4670, which never gave me any trouble. Here's hoping new drivers will solve my issues. Else, I might even switch to a pair of GeForces instead of getting another 6850 for crossfire.
    Reply
  • cangelini
    assmarI know you're terribly busy, but any way we can get the CF comparisons from then and now, even if it isn't as thorough?
    Excellent story idea, assmar.
    Reply
  • howiejcee
    Andrew Ku forgot to mention that ATI's lousy drivers have and for the foreseeable future will always have problems.

    Not to say that Nvidia occasionally has driver issues, but at least they fix the problems. Only 10.9 and a couple versions before that don't give my 5870 any major problems.
    Reply