Dual-GPU Battle: Does Frame Pacing In Catalyst 13.8 Turn The Tide?

By Don Woligroski
published

We take AMD's Catalyst 13.8 beta driver for a spin to see if its frame pacing feature fixes CrossFire's dropped and runt frame issues. Follow along as we compare the Radeon HD 7990 to Nvidia's GeForce GTX 690 in seven popular titles, with video to match!

Results: Grid 2

Grid 2 is Codemasters' newest racing title, so we thought we'd replace F1 2012 and see how it handles these dual-GPU solutions.

When it comes to average performance, the Radeon HD 7990 is clearly faster than GeForce GTX 690. However, Catalyst 13.6 gets hit with a significant reduction in minimum frame rate during our benchmarking run, which dips below the dual-GK104-based card. What's going on there?

We see that Catalyst 13.6 registers a handful of big performance dips that get smoothed out by Catalyst 13.8. The GeForce GTX 690 is slower overall, but it maintains a narrower performance range.

For a third time, the quantitative data tells us that Catalyst 13.8 should give the Radeon HD 7990 a notable advantage over Catalyst 13.6.

Because even the worst-case scenario for AMD's Radeon HD 7990 with Catalyst exceeds 60 FPS, it's really difficult to tell the difference with frame pacing enabled. So, our 60 Hz capture doesn't reflect any real advantage for one card or another. This will be one of the games I most look forward to see analyzed tomorrow, when gamers get their hands on both systems and pick a favorite based on a few minutes of game play.

Don Woligroski
59 Comments Comment from the forums
  • jimmysmitty
    The drivers do seem to make the FPS much smoother overall. BF3 is a good example with the game dropping then jumping and so on but 13.8 made it a much smoother line.

    Its good to see that work is being done to make it more competitive but I fear that its almost pointless since Hawaii XT is on its way and will be a better option in CFX.

    Also Laras hair on the GTX690 was funny. Just fluttering around like crazy. I guess TressFX does make a difference after all.
    Reply
  • jase240
    This is great, AMD is finally getting on par for dual GPU config with Nvidia!!
    This might make 2 AMD cards a way better value than Nvidia!!
    Reply
  • slicedtoad
    awesome, I'm glad they got around to addressing that indiscrepancy.
    Reply
  • viewgamer
    The Metro Last Light benchmark is a modern example of the way Nvidia handles its business.
    These strong arm tactics to eliminate the competition aren't beneficial to anyone, Nvidia's less than pleasant business practices is why I try to support AMD whenever possible.
    Reply
  • viewgamer
    The Metro Last Light benchmark is a modern example of the way Nvidia handles its business.
    These strong arm tactics to eliminate the competition aren't beneficial to anyone, Nvidia's less than pleasant business practices is why I try to support AMD whenever possible.
    Reply
  • Emma Long
    Apart from Metro the 7990 tied the 690 on two occasions and beat it in the rest, that's very encouraging from the red team.
    The situation with Metro last light seems peculiar to me, we've seen things like this before with Nvidia sponsored titles & I thought the industry was passed this sort of thing.
    Nvidia can compete, it has proven so time and time again, which makes this all the more reprehensible.
    I would like to see an Nvidia that competes on the basis of performance & features not strong-arming developers.

    Back to the 7990, so overall it's faster than the 690 and significantly less expensive, at $700 the 7990 puts very serious pressure on the 780 so I'd like to see the 780 added into the benchmarking mix as well.
    Reply
  • CarlitoBanderas
    What's the point of a 690 ? in 1080o & 1440p it's slower than the 7990, in 4K & multi monitor it doesn't have enough memory & it's 300 bucks more expensive.
    Nvidia needs to bring out a 790 asap, the 690 is not competitive anymore.
    Reply
  • m32
    I've enjoyed this article, Toms. We've seen the flaws and now some improvements with the 7990.
    Reply
  • _zxzxzx_
    AMD deserves a pat on the back for working hard on improving their drivers
    Reply
  • aggroboy
    11476339 said:
    What's the point of a 690 ? in 1080o & 1440p it's slower than the 7990, in 4K & multi monitor it doesn't have enough memory & it's 300 bucks more expensive.
    Nvidia needs to bring out a 790 asap, the 690 is not competitive anymore.
    Enthusiast mindshare is still dominated by the GTX Titan, so Nvidia can afford to stand pat.
    Reply