Early Reviews on AMD Catalyst 12.11 drivers

[dudewitbow]

Anandtech Review

Hexus Review

I wasn't even aware 12.11 was already slated, felt like 12.8 didn't happen too long ago. What surprised me most about these reviews is the ridiculous jump in Battlefield 3 performance, to the point that different price point AMD cards have equaled or surpassed their nvidia price point counterparts. Sadly, no movement in power consumption with the cards. GCN has really been a large refreshment when it comes to drivers for AMD. I'm going to assume Toms might test as well?(while all the review sites will be busy for the upcoming FX-8350 Benchmarks either tommorrow or the day after)

Thoughts?

 

[RussK1]

Just ran 3DMark 11 Basic before and after installing the 12.11 Beta.
The difference is pretty dramatic.

The System.
3570k @ 4.2Ghz, Sapphire Radeon HD7870 (1150Mhz Core, 1375Mhz Memory), 8GB of 1600Mhz CL9 RAM. Benchmark was run from an OCZ Vertex 4 128GB (1.4 firmware) at ~50% capacity.
Any info about the bench itself is in the links, as well as more info on each stage of the test.
Using 3D Mark 11 v1.03.0

Before (12.10 driver).
http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/4740745
Score: P6825 3DMarks
Graphics Score: 6663
Physics Score :7839
Combined Score: 6747

After (12.11 Beta v4)
http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/4740914
Score: P8283 3DMarks
Graphics Score: 8458
Physics Score: 7996
Combined Score: 7525

That's a pretty big improvement. The 3D Mark Score went up by near 2000 and the Graphics score did the same, The Overall score by almost 800. Physics score stayed somewhat the same, but that's to be expected since that is largely CPU bound. Still, that is a pretty good result from a single driver update.

When I updated the driver to the Beta, it closed MSI Afterburner (disabling my overclock) and I didn't realize before it was through the test.
Results are pretty good on there as well, actually beats the 12.10 score despite the lack of overclocking.

Stock Clocks (1000Mhz Core, 1200Mhz Memory) on the 12.11 Beta
http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/4740809
Score: P7494 3DMarks
Graphics Score: 7400
Physics Score: 7991
Combined Score: 7515

That great!

**Note on the beta's. They usually end up WHQL... I've never really had any problems other than some minor bugs in games. From my understanding, the difference between beta and WHQL is Microsoft's stamp of approval.

 

[proffet]

manofchalk - nice..

RussK1 - the difference between beta and WHQL is Microsoft's stamp of approval.
good to know..

 

[born2rock4life]

Hey guys, here are my results. My setup is as follows :

Mobo : MSI Z77A-G43
CPU : Intel 2600K (o/c to 4.5GHz)
Memory : Patriot Viper 3 Intel Extreme Edition Memory 1600MHz rated 9-9-9-24 (o/c to 1866 @ 10-11-10-27 stock 1.5v)
SSD : Corsair Force GT 240GB
HDD : Western Digital 1TB Green
GFX : Asus HD7870 DirectCU II (o/c 1200core/1450mem) [Model:HD7870-DC2O-2GD5]



I had issues overclocking on the 12.8 Driver, so I rolled back to 12.6 just a few days ago and was able to achieve a stable overclock. I am running 1200 gpu core / 1450 memory on the 12.6 overclock, and now also the 12.11 beta 4 drivers. Here are my results:



12.8 Driver (Stock clock 1010/1210)

3DMarks : P7308 [[ on 12.6 drivers w/ 1200/1450 o/c it came in at P7728 at best ]]

GRAPHICS SCORE
6959
PHYSICS SCORE
10591
COMBINED SCORE
6720


12.11 beta 4 Driver (Overclocked 1200/1450)

3DMarks : P8861

GRAPHICS SCORE
8661
PHYSICS SCORE
10256
COMBINED SCORE
8598

 

[RussK1]

Oh?

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/HIS-Radeon-HD7970-X2-HD7990,18699.html#xtor=RSS-998

 

[tomniko]

There has already been a 12.9 beta. and also a 12.10 driver, but only for embedded systems or something along those lines.

I am using the 12.10 driver for my Desktop.......However the 12.11 is a Major update (not a minor one). So expect a lot of performance imporvments and fixes in many games!

 

[tomniko]

Although my 3DMark 11 graphics score stayed the same from 12.9 to 12.10 to 12.11 on my A8-3500M APU (6620G)+6750M combo, my physics score went up over 25%! Nobody thought about them improving GPGPU performance for the non-GCN cards. 😉

On the AMD 12.11 Beta release notes it says:

3DMark Vantage - Up to 15%
3Dmark 11 - Up to 12%

Make sure you install Beta11 which is the latest and re-test. I am assuming you should get a better score.....

 

[tomniko]

NVIDIA Releases the Performance-Boosting GeForce 310.33 Beta Driver
http://www.hardwareheaven.com/news.php?newsid=4796

told ya it was coming.
it's a never-ending cycle.

But the gains are way much lower than the equivalent AMD drivers....
and also the game list is much smaller too....
I mean 4% in Dragon Age 2? .....What would that be 3-4 Frames equivalent?