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

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Are you dutiful about keeping your drivers up-to-date? AMD does a pretty fantastic job about maintaining a monthly release schedule, after all. Today we look at how much performance you can expect from an old card in new games using four driver packages.

Benchmark Results: Aliens Vs. Predator (DX11)

  

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Header Cell - Column 0 1680x1050High/No AA1680x1050Ultra/4x MSAA1920x1080High/No AA1920x1080Ultra/4x MSAA2560x1600High/No AA2560x1600Ultra/4x MSAA
Percent Gainfrom 9.10 to 11.113.90%9.76%13.48%9.24%12.20%8.62%

As we move away from newer titles impacted by older driver packages that simply lack stability (suggesting they were likely developed on Nvidia's hardware), we start to see consistent improvements. There is a 2% to 5% bump in performance every five months, from Catalyst 9.10 to 10.3, 10.8, and finally 11.1. However, the total performance gain is what surprises us the most. If you've ever read the release notes for a driver, you know that most improvements occur at higher resolutions and higher quality settings. We see the reverse happen here. We see higher percentage gains at lower resolutions and lower quality settings.

Andrew Ku
89 Comments Comment from the forums
  • 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