Do AMD's Radeon HD 7000s Trade Image Quality For Performance?
Table of contents
- 1. Radeon HD 7000 Texture Problems: Uh Oh!
- 2. Test System And Benchmarks
- 3. Comparing Three Different Graphics Cards
- 4. Press Drivers Versus AMD's Official Builds
We discovered blurry textures when we reviewed the Radeon HD 7800s, so now we're performing an in-depth investigation. Why does the Radeon HD 6000 series demonstrate crisper image quality? Is performance affected? Does AMD know about the issue?
When we were testing the Pitcairn-based Radeon HD 7800 cards for last month's launch, we stumbled upon image quality issues with AMD’s two most recent boards. Specifically, we noticed textures in popular games that appeared blurrier on all of the Radeon HD 7000s compared to the prior-generation offerings. And this was using identical image quality settings in the software driver and the games we were testing.
Here is an animation from AMD Radeon HD 7870 And 7850 Review: Pitcairn Gets Benchmarked that demonstrates the issue:
Unfortunately, AMD hasn't given us much time with any of its Radeon HD 7000-series cards prior to launching them, so our ability to go into more depth with our review was severely limited. But now we're all freed up, and ready to dig deeper.
Was the issue limited to just AMD's press-only beta driver? Does it affect the Radeon HD 7800s exclusively, or do all of the 7000s take a step backward? Does it change performance? If so, the implications there would be that AMD altered image quality to deliver more competitive performance. If not, the texture issue could just be a bug that needs to be fixed.
Of course, we always wanted to compare the Radeon HD 6900s and 7000s to Nvidia's default image quality as well. And naturally, we wanted to work with AMD each step of the way to figure out what went wrong, so we have the company's feedback as well. What does AMD have to say?
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These differences are things that no one would ever notice if tech review sites didn't point them out.
Well, not that I mind knowing that it can be fixed with a driver update, but I find it unnecessary for the average gamer to worry about these minor differences with image quality (knowing it's "fixed" is more of a placebo than an actual improvement of gaming experience). Not to mention that the typical gamer plays on 6-bit TN-panel monitors because "HURR 1ms RESPONSE TIME HOLY SHIT BEST SCREEN EVER" and they in turn elect to give up the superior color gamut and viewing angles conferred by IPS panels. They ought to the last ones who deserve to complain about image quality, at any rate.
got to love nvidia....why is it that most of AMD's graphics are blurry?
Almost forgot...AMD was caught lying again
...what a shame
Huh, don't know about all of that but thx for the article. I do think its important to bring such things to the vendor's attention and follow up to see if they respond appropriately. Good job!
Is it just me or is toms heavily biased towards nvidia? We see tons of articles for the Nvidia 6xx but very few for the 7xxx. Nothing negative for nvidia, but an article like this for AMD's, which is already being fixed even though it is undetectable... and the fix doesnt even yield a real change in framerates.
"HURR 1ms RESPONSE TIME HOLY SHIT BEST SCREEN EVER"
HAHAHAHAHA
Oh man that made my night. But yea, that's exactly why I just got a panny st30 screen, tn's are just garbage, and lcd just can't do black. As for framerate lag? Doesn't affect my average scoreboard k/d ratios, or lap times, or whatever other "precision" timing actions both online and offline.
Least I got a screen that can do my cards justice, this also makes me glad I got my crossfire setup with the 6780's instead of waiting for the 7000 series...
Nothing new really early driver support for new graphics cards always have their bugs, but normally by the 3rd supported driver version a lot of the generel bugs are normally fixed, because by then a lot more people own that card series thus giving a lot more feedback to the gpu company about the drivers suppported for that card.
6870's**
Do AMD's Radeon HD 7000s Trade Image Quality For Performance?
No, no they do not
"HURR 1ms RESPONSE TIME HOLY SHIT BEST SCREEN EVER"HAHAHAHAHAOh man that made my night. But yea, that's exactly why I just got a panny st30 screen, tn's are just garbage, and lcd just can't do black. As for framerate lag? Doesn't affect my average scoreboard k/d ratios, or lap times, or whatever other "precision" timing actions both online and offline.Least I got a screen that can do my cards justice, this also makes me glad I got my crossfire setup with the 6780's instead of waiting for the 7000 series...
Going from a dell u2711 2560 x 1600 to a asus vg278h 120hz 2ms tn panel, there is a clear difference in gaming. The u2711 compared to vg278h feels sluggish. The image quality, sharpness and color is clearly better in u2711, but the lag is terribly noticable.
Once you get a real gaming monitor, you will see the difference for yourself. TN 120hz monitors are the only true choice for pro gaming, imo.
Glad its fixed, I want the best possible IQ so it was important this defect in the drivers was identified, escalated and driven to resolution. Let's hope 12.4 absolutely nails it for the 7000 series (I had to roll back to 12.2 on my CrossFire 7970s but won't go into why here). Cheers
Thanks Tom for doing this sort of investigation with image quality. I don't have the tools or knowledge to actual notice this, but i do want the crispiest image possible with no turning back.
Is it just me or is toms heavily biased towards nvidia?
...it's just you.
I knew writer of this was "Don" immediately after I saw the title. Always talking trash about AMD/ATi.
Nice work Tom's, but I can't help question the wisdom in putting this article on the front page for weeks to come when it should have been a blurb in the news section.
As nebun so artfully pointed out, there a many readers that will see a headline and jump to conclusions. In this regard would it not have been better to say make your headline, "AMD's Radeon HD 7000s Trade Image Quality For Performance? Short answer NO."
As "investigative journalists" your opinions should be omitted. Complaining of AMDs delay in response, or misleading your readers by eluding to the fact that their avoiding you is entirely opinionated, and the fact that they not only worked with you, gave you a complete answer, and a solution should have necessitated a rewrite of your article.
I don't think you're biased, but this article does lend credence to those claims.
I think you're doing what all journalists do, making a story out of nothing, hurting any individuals involved, and then moving on without a backward glance at the consequences.
I may be being dramatic, but AMD deserves better than this on one of the top PC hardware sites in the world.
"we went back and found one specific setting that was causing the described texture blurriness. This has now been removed and the quality of textures should be as intended, with performance unchanged."
So "Don" spend his whole week writing this Radeon bashing article (hoping it would be a hardware issue of course) about something nobody noticed just to find out there was a simple driver fix for it. Ain't that great?
Thanks Toms for keeping these guys honest.
everything looks the same to me
So is this part of dons or toms testing methods not to check the settings before just jumping right into benchmarking? Now you write an entire review to complain that you didn't check the settings that can only be seen while face planting a wall to see the textures as close as possible?
Conclusion: its amd's fault that we didn't check any settings ... I think you should try an electron microscope next to see what else you can complain about.
This should have been a 1 or 2 page blog, not a 6 page review discussing how one setting wasn't the same. Next article by don should be titled " why I think AMD sucks."