China domestic gaming GPUs receive up to 40% performance uplift — new Moore Threads driver update improves S80 and S70 gaming performance

Moore Threads
(Image credit: Moore Threads)

Following the Moore Threads DX12 enablement driver, the Chinese-based GPU manufacturer has released another driver in quick succession, this one featuring optimizations for new and existing titles and bug fixes. The driver, PES Control Center 270.80.2, features up to a 40% gaming performance improvement for its S80 and S70 graphics cards.

Moore Threads has introduced optimization improvements for five titles: Getting Darker, Predator, War Will, Sniper: Ghost Warrior Contact 2, and Man of War 2. Getting Darker sees the largest improvement, featuring a 40% performance improvement with driver 270.80.2. Likewise, Predator receives a 30% performance improvement. Moore Threads neglected to share any performance-related details for the last three titles, only stating War Will, Sniper: Ghost Warrior Contract 2, and Man of War 2 have received “game experience” optimizations.

The Chinese GPU manufacturer resolved two issues in this driver: Monster Hunter: World no longer suffers from problematic graphics anomalies after modifying image quality settings in the game menu. Video recordings will no longer flicker during the recording process, and the PES control center will no longer respond while recording. Driver 270.80.02 also introduces “full functionality” for “Mobi Ma Liang.”

Moore Threads driver 270.80.2 patch notes

Patch notes translated via Microsoft Edge (Image credit: Moore Threads)

It's great to see Moore Threads constantly improving its GPU drivers. Earlier this month, it finally introduced its first DX12-supported driver, enabling its gaming-focused MTT S-series GPUs to run DX12 titles. However, despite this, Moore Threads still suffers from significant performance issues, even on its latest DX12 driver, that make its flagship GPU run worse than a Turing-based GTX 1650.

As a result, Moore Threads will need to continue pushing driver updates such as the one covered today if it hopes to compete with more experienced manufacturers such as AMD and Nvidia in the future. Moore Threads is in a very similar state to Intel several years ago when it first began building GPU driver updates.

It took Intel several years of constant driver iterations to finetune its Arc Alchemist GPUs. The main difference with Moore Threads is that it is in an even worse state than Intel, with GPUs that can barely compete with entry-level cards from several years ago. Thus, it will need to rely more heavily on driver iterations to overcome this issue, assuming the hardware is not the bottleneck.

Aaron Klotz
Contributing Writer

Aaron Klotz is a contributing writer for Tom’s Hardware, covering news related to computer hardware such as CPUs, and graphics cards.

  • TCA_ChinChin
    If they keep up their driver improvements, even these seemingly weak cards can possible reach a point where they can actually replace entry level graphics from Nvidia and AMD. Curious how much more improvement they can get out of driver + software updates versus them reaching a hardware limitation.
    Reply
  • williamcll
    TCA_ChinChin said:
    If they keep up their driver improvements, even these seemingly weak cards can possible reach a point where they can actually replace entry level graphics from Nvidia and AMD. Curious how much more improvement they can get out of driver + software updates versus them reaching a hardware limitation.
    Very well pass Intel considering they have decent amount of VRAM
    Reply
  • jlake3
    williamcll said:
    Very well pass Intel considering they have decent amount of VRAM
    Unless you're doing GPGPU work, good luck tapping into that extra VRAM. It has FLOPS that on paper put it in-between a RTX 3060 and RTX 3060Ti with memory bandwidth matching the Ti, but that has not translated into gaming performance. It's still underperforming the GTX 1650 after nearly two years of driver development, despite having all that compute and bandwidth and a 255W(!) TDP on tap.
    Reply
  • zsydeepsky
    the DX12 support is done by emulation, so even though it can "technically run" DX12 titles but the performance is terrible. the DX11 performance boost though seems real.

    yet still, it's a good sign that they are still improving through software updates. in fact, the improvements like this news happened multiple times since the release of MTT S80, but it's the first time that I saw news report on English websites.

    fun fact, if you go read the news about the same card back in 2023 Feb, you will find out that it only supported DX9 back then:
    https://www.tomshardware.com/news/moore-threads-mtt-s80-tested-bullslab-jay"Moreover, the card seemed to be restricted to DX9 gaming at the time of review (it is advertised as DX11-capable)"
    Reply
  • bit_user
    TCA_ChinChin said:
    If they keep up their driver improvements, even these seemingly weak cards can possible reach a point where they can actually replace entry level graphics from Nvidia and AMD.
    Did you actually look at the article? The supposed big gains are just game-specific optimizations for only two titles. This is nothing special.

    AMD and Nvidia don't usually have such big title-specific wins, but that's probably because a lot of game-specific optimization already happened before launch, plus the game devs tend to test and optimize their stuff on Nvidia and AMD hardware in the first place. Nonetheless, they still release "game day" drivers, because game-specific optimizations are usually necessary and usually deliver significant wins.

    TCA_ChinChin said:
    Curious how much more improvement they can get out of driver + software updates versus them reaching a hardware limitation.
    This hardware is always going to be dog slow. There are obviously bottlenecks, bugs, etc. holding it back from its theoretical potential.

    Pin your hopes on their next gen hardware. That might actually stand a half decent chance.
    Reply
  • TCA_ChinChin
    bit_user said:
    Did you actually look at the article? The supposed big gains are just game-specific optimizations for only two titles. This is nothing special.

    AMD and Nvidia don't usually have such big title-specific wins, but that's probably because a lot of game-specific optimization already happened before launch, plus the game devs tend to test and optimize their stuff on Nvidia and AMD hardware in the first place. Nonetheless, they still release "game day" drivers, because game-specific optimizations are usually necessary and usually deliver significant wins.


    This hardware is always going to be dog slow. There are obviously bottlenecks, bugs, etc. holding it back from its theoretical potential.

    Pin your hopes on their next gen hardware. That might actually stand a half decent chance.
    I mean Intel made decent improvements in optimization with their GPUs, even in terms of individual games. Yes they're individual games, but do improvments for individual games not matter? I also didn't say they were anything special in the first place? The only reason I bring up future driver and software (games included) improvements is cause Moore's Threads is a newcomer to GPUs so they might be able to improve a lot more in terms of software and game specific optimization.

    In fact, its exactly how AMD & Nvidia still optimize and have "game day" drivers for specific games that leads me to think Moore's Threads have a lot more performance they can extract from their current hardware. If AMD & Nvidia can deliver software improvements even after so much prior optimization, shouldn't Moore's Threads be able to do even more on the software side, since they're so new compared to AMD & Nvidia Reminds me of how Intel improved their entry level graphics from launch till now. They a lot a better in terms of performance on their same graphics silicon.

    Sure they're are plently of hardware improvements to be made, especially since it's the first couple of gens for Moore's Threads, but why dismiss large game driver improvements?
    Reply
  • zsydeepsky
    bit_user said:
    This hardware is always going to be dog slow. There are obviously bottlenecks, bugs, etc. holding it back from its theoretical potential.

    Pin your hopes on their next gen hardware. That might actually stand a half decent chance.

    I agree, however, in @TCA_ChinChin 's defense, he was only asking for replacement of "entry-level" card.
    the MTT S80 priced in China at about $170, the entry card at that level is RTX 3050.

    hardware wise, MTT S80 has 55% more FLops, 100% more VRam, so it does stand a chance with poor software optimization.
    (just ignore DX12 titles lol, it will be a massacre)
    Reply
  • bit_user
    zsydeepsky said:
    hardware wise, MTT S80 has 55% more FLops, 100% more VRam, so it does stand a chance with poor software optimization.
    (just ignore DX12 titles lol, it will be a massacre)
    I've worked at a chip company and seen the kinds of bugs they have. They weren't GPUs, but all chips have the same sorts of bugs and if the ISA isn't something well-specified, then there's always pressure to workaround hardware bugs in software instead of doing another hugely expensive respin. Working around them can have serious performance impacts. I think that's likely what is ultimately limiting these GPUs far below their apparent potential.

    Obviously, I don't know exactly what's holding them back, but I'd just caution you and @TCA_ChinChin not to get your hopes up, at least for this generation of hardware. The next generation will represent a chance both to fix their old mistakes and make some new ones!
    ; )
    Reply
  • TCA_ChinChin
    bit_user said:
    I've worked at a chip company and seen the kinds of bugs they have. They weren't GPUs, but all chips have the same sorts of bugs and if the ISA isn't something well-specified, then there's always pressure to workaround hardware bugs in software instead of doing another hugely expensive respin. Working around them can have serious performance impacts. I think that's likely what is ultimately limiting these GPUs far below their apparent potential.

    Obviously, I don't know exactly what's holding them back, but I'd just caution you and @TCA_ChinChin not to get your hopes up, at least for this generation of hardware. The next generation will represent a chance both to fix their old mistakes and make some new ones!
    ; )
    Of course I agree that next gen hardware is always gonna be better. I just have more faith that MT can extract more performance through software workarounds + updates similar to how AMD, Nvidia, and Intel have done.
    Reply
  • dalek1234
    Does THG get paid for posting stuff about China's tech advances, regardless if they are true, cherry-picked, or some other crypto-lies?

    I need some kind of a filter add-on in my browser to hide all THG articles that contain the word 'china/chinese' in them.

    Can't we just stick to news that is a bit more credible instead?
    Reply