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

[17seconds]

I'm still not sure why they did away with the "Hardware FPS" vs. the "Practical FPS" from the original 7990 review. That seemed like the best measure of dropped and runt frames from the FCAT testing. As far as I can see (in an admittedly quick skim of the review) the FCAT testing has been pushed off to the sidelines.

In terms of Metro Last Light, I would assume the problem lies with AMD's driver support, rather than a conspiracy. In TechPowerUp's original 7990 review, out of 18 games tested, 5 showed zero or even negative scaling on the second GPU. This was not a frame pacing issue, but the usual lack of Crossfire driver profiles for those games. I'm sure the problem would still be there if tested on these latest drivers.

 

[oxford373]

I wonder why Techpowerup's benchmark is completely different for metro last light http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/MSI/GTX_780_Lightning/18.html it's either THG didn't download the latest update for this game http://www.pcgameshardware.de/Metro-Last-Light-PC-235304/Tests/Metro-Last-Light-Benchmark-Test-1069286/ (this benchmark shows the performance difference before and after the update) or they forgot to disable physx because sometimes physx is enabled by default.

 

[smeezekitty]

AMD does not use any kind of strong-armed tactics, in fact it's against their internal code of conduct, all the evidence for Nvidia's strong-armed tactics is well documented during the geforce 6000, 7000, 200, 400, 500 & now we are seeing it again.
A few examples are the 3DMark benchmark scandel, & in he early 2000s where Nvidia strong-armed the developers into not supporting ATi's far superior anti aliasing implementation in-games.

Nvidia in fact does not offer less problematic solutions, as evidenced by the catastrophe that is the 312.08 drivers that killed cards.
I have no loyalty to any company, but I refuse to support any company that harms the customer, Nvidia continually does things to harm AMD customers, if you call that better driver support then you have bought Nvidia's PR.
I bet you've never owned a crossfirex setup, AMD did in fact have a stutter free experience through their RadeonPro software, the software is in fact developed by indepednent fans but all of its features were implemented with the help of AMD engineers.
Where do you think Nvidia got Adaptive V-Sync from ? it was stolen from RadeonPro, AMD users had access to dynamic V-Sync for over 4 years.

The only reason people like you buy Nvidia cards is because they feel elitist by doing so, they feel like the big green bully is their friend & when that big green bully starts beating up on the small red folk you stand and applaud, disgusting.

I agree with your completely. And lets not forget the hybrid physx lockout.
Even if NVidia were a bit more stable, I refuse to support a company that uses anti competitive practices that end up hurting the customers in the process if I have a decent alternative.

I would switch away from Windows in a heartbeat if Linux had better software support

 

[Tanquen]

Why no 13.8 Beta2? Been out for two weeks+

Feature Highlights of The AMD Catalyst 13.8 Beta2 Driver for Windows:

◾CrossFire: Frame Pacing feature – includes improved performance in World of Warcraft, Sniper Elite, Watch Dogs, and Tomb Raider

 

[snowzsan]

There is TOO much corporate love in this thread.

It's common knowledge that Nvidia's current line of cards are more powerful, albeit by a small margin, than their AMD counterparts. So quit this "AMD is better but Nvidia buys off developers" crap. NO ONE should care about what these companies do beyond their video cards that we purchase. Much like people still buy Nike's even WITH the child labor scandal. The product is what matters. Nvidia is better in that regard.

AMD isn't doing too shabby either, mind you. I currently own two Sapphire Radeon HD 7850 OC Edition cards and they're great, but that's not to say I purchased them because they're better, but because they're cheaper. You pay more for Nvidia cards BECAUSE they're better. This isn't always the case (cost=quality) but in this case, it is.

So quit with the nonsense, seriously. This thread is about how AMD is working out the kinks with Crossfire, not about how Nvidia is better. We know Nvidia is better, however that's not to say they should drop research altogether, because people like me benefit from it. So just shut the f*** up!

 

[snowzsan]

AMD does not use any kind of strong-armed tactics, in fact it's against their internal code of conduct, all the evidence for Nvidia's strong-armed tactics is well documented during the geforce 6000, 7000, 200, 400, 500 & now we are seeing it again.
A few examples are the 3DMark benchmark scandel, & in he early 2000s where Nvidia strong-armed the developers into not supporting ATi's far superior anti aliasing implementation in-games.

Nvidia in fact does not offer less problematic solutions, as evidenced by the catastrophe that is the 312.08 drivers that killed cards.
I have no loyalty to any company, but I refuse to support any company that harms the customer, Nvidia continually does things to harm AMD customers, if you call that better driver support then you have bought Nvidia's PR.
I bet you've never owned a crossfirex setup, AMD did in fact have a stutter free experience through their RadeonPro software, the software is in fact developed by indepednent fans but all of its features were implemented with the help of AMD engineers.
Where do you think Nvidia got Adaptive V-Sync from ? it was stolen from RadeonPro, AMD users had access to dynamic V-Sync for over 4 years.

The only reason people like you buy Nvidia cards is because they feel elitist by doing so, they feel like the big green bully is their friend & when that big green bully starts beating up on the small red folk you stand and applaud, disgusting.

I agree with your completely. And lets not forget the hybrid physx lockout.
Even if NVidia were a bit more stable, I refuse to support a company that uses anti competitive practices that end up hurting the customers in the process if I have a decent alternative.

I would switch away from Windows in a heartbeat if Linux had better software support

Why no 13.8 Beta2? Been out for two weeks+

Feature Highlights of The AMD Catalyst 13.8 Beta2 Driver for Windows:

◾CrossFire: Frame Pacing feature – includes improved performance in World of Warcraft, Sniper Elite, Watch Dogs, and Tomb Raider

So it's okay to use Microsoft products because they're currently better but not okay to use Nvidia because they're currently better? They're both known for shifty marketing schemes. Hell, Microsoft buys up exclusives for the Xbox 360 all the time! Throwing money at it to gain an advantage over their competitor without actually doing anything that benefits customers. But that's okay, because they have better product support.

You're an idiot.

 

[smeezekitty]

AMD does not use any kind of strong-armed tactics, in fact it's against their internal code of conduct, all the evidence for Nvidia's strong-armed tactics is well documented during the geforce 6000, 7000, 200, 400, 500 & now we are seeing it again.
A few examples are the 3DMark benchmark scandel, & in he early 2000s where Nvidia strong-armed the developers into not supporting ATi's far superior anti aliasing implementation in-games.

Nvidia in fact does not offer less problematic solutions, as evidenced by the catastrophe that is the 312.08 drivers that killed cards.
I have no loyalty to any company, but I refuse to support any company that harms the customer, Nvidia continually does things to harm AMD customers, if you call that better driver support then you have bought Nvidia's PR.
I bet you've never owned a crossfirex setup, AMD did in fact have a stutter free experience through their RadeonPro software, the software is in fact developed by indepednent fans but all of its features were implemented with the help of AMD engineers.
Where do you think Nvidia got Adaptive V-Sync from ? it was stolen from RadeonPro, AMD users had access to dynamic V-Sync for over 4 years.

The only reason people like you buy Nvidia cards is because they feel elitist by doing so, they feel like the big green bully is their friend & when that big green bully starts beating up on the small red folk you stand and applaud, disgusting.

I agree with your completely. And lets not forget the hybrid physx lockout.
Even if NVidia were a bit more stable, I refuse to support a company that uses anti competitive practices that end up hurting the customers in the process if I have a decent alternative.

I would switch away from Windows in a heartbeat if Linux had better software support

Why no 13.8 Beta2? Been out for two weeks+

Feature Highlights of The AMD Catalyst 13.8 Beta2 Driver for Windows:

◾CrossFire: Frame Pacing feature – includes improved performance in World of Warcraft, Sniper Elite, Watch Dogs, and Tomb Raider

So it's okay to use Microsoft products because they're currently better but not okay to use Nvidia because they're currently better? They're both known for shifty marketing schemes. Hell, Microsoft buys up exclusives for the Xbox 360 all the time! Throwing money at it to gain an advantage over their competitor without actually doing anything that benefits customers. But that's okay, because they have better product support.

You're an idiot.

YOU are an ignorant idiot!
If you think that what a company does in the background doesn't matter, then you are just being a fool.
What a company does reflects their core values and NVidia has demonstrated again and again that they only care about scooping up profit rather then making a better user experience regardless of what fanboys will say.

I don't use Microsoft products because they are "better" but because of better software support. This is of no fault of Linux developers but is mainly caused by vendor lock-in because it started providing OSes early on.

 

[06yfz450ridr]

would be nice if these came out when testing


Feature Highlights of The AMD Catalyst 13.10 Beta Driver for Windows:

AMD Catalyst 13.10 Beta includes all of the features/fixes found in AMD Catalyst 13.8 Beta2
PCI-E bus speed is no longer set to x1 on the secondary GPU when running in CrossFire configurations
Rome Total War 2: Updated AMD CrossFire™ profile
improves CrossFire scaling up to 20% (at 2560x1600 with extreme settings)
resolves corruption issues seen while playing the game
Saints Row 4: Updated AMD CrossFire profile
improves CrossFire scaling up to 20% (at 2560x1600 with ultra settings)
Metro Last Light: Updated AMD CrossFire profile
improves CrossFire scaling up to 10% (at 2560x1600 with ultra settings)
Includes a number of frame pacing improvements for the following titles:
Tomb Raider
Metro Last Light
Sniper Elite
World of Warcraft
Max Payne 3
Hitman Absolution

 

[bl4c]

It would be interesting to see what this new FCAT testing system can learn us about the Lucid Virtue technology available on many mainboards:
I don't think I've seen any conclusive benchmarking yet, because traditional frame rates reported are not "real" when using Lucid Virtue ... Any idea if FCAT can learn us something meaningful ?

 

[bl4c]

It would be interesting to see what this new FCAT testing system can learn us about the Lucid Virtue technology available on many mainboards:
I don't think I've seen any conclusive benchmarking yet, because traditional frame rates reported are not "real" when using Lucid Virtue ... Any idea if FCAT can learn us something meaningful ?