Expect good things from Catalyst 8.8

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Marfoo

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#1 Marfoo
Member since 2004 • 6002 Posts

Well I've been doing some snooping around the internet and there are some Catalyst 8.8 beta drivers floating around which I went ahead and tried out.

1. Powerplay is supposed to be working in the final release, it doesn't seem to be in the Beta though, as well as some altered fan settings (official fan fix).

2. Adaptive Antialiasing is simplified, the drop down box to select "super-sampling" or "multi-sampling" has been removed. The reason is that Catalyst has always decided the best method to use when you enable adaptive anti-aliasing, the drop down box was only to set the magnitude for super-sampling and multi-sampling, although the driver itself picked which mode to use. Now there is just quality and performance.

3. Improved Crossfire performance, I can say this is definitely true because I'm playing at around 30-40fps in Crysis very high DX10, 25fps is about as low as it goes. Also I tried very high in DX9 mode and found the DX10 very high performed better than DX9! :shock: I haven't tried my other games just yet, but so far with just Crysis I'm impressed.

I've also read around the net that the 8.8 beta drivers are also increasing single card performance in Crysis significantly.

I'll keep you updated.

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GodLovesDead

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#2 GodLovesDead
Member since 2007 • 9755 Posts
CF support? My HD4850 already gets ~50 FPS at high settings on XP for Crysis. I doubt it can get much better.
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Marfoo

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#3 Marfoo
Member since 2004 • 6002 Posts
Crysis looks really good on high settings with 4x AA and adaptive AA set to quality, and it runs great. Like I said though, I'm seeing 5-10fps increase on very high in DX10.
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GodLovesDead

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#4 GodLovesDead
Member since 2007 • 9755 Posts
What does CF stand for?
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beefdog

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#5 beefdog
Member since 2004 • 9185 Posts
crossfire.
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bungie93

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#6 bungie93
Member since 2008 • 2445 Posts
Do you think it's worth downloading the beta drivers or should I just wait for the official release?
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Wartzay

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#7 Wartzay
Member since 2006 • 2036 Posts
I am using the 8.8 beta right now. While they do add some welcome FPS to various games(Crysis esp) I have this weird screen tearing issue that doesnt go away even with vsync forced. Hopefully that is fixed in the official release
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Marfoo

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#8 Marfoo
Member since 2004 • 6002 Posts
They are working fine for me, improved performance across the board. Supposedley it causes anomalies in Vantage... but that's just a benchmark anyway. If you're hurting for a little extra power, try them out, couldn't hurt.
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kodex1717

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#9 kodex1717
Member since 2005 • 5925 Posts
I always found Crysis to give a lot worse performance than I expected with my 8800GT. I'll be sure to try out these drivers when I get my 4850 this week.
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Vax45

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#10 Vax45
Member since 2005 • 4834 Posts

Is Linux going to have day-1 support?

I bought the 4850 because it's supposed to be future-proof since AMD has released the specifications so open source drivers can be developed.

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-CheeseEater-

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#11 -CheeseEater-
Member since 2007 • 5258 Posts

Nvidia's latest Drivers have officially blue screened my PC into the abiss..:cry:

Physx ftw...not =(

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Games_pro

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#12 Games_pro
Member since 2007 • 220 Posts

I am using the 8.8 beta right now. While they do add some welcome FPS to various games(Crysis esp) I have this weird screen tearing issue that doesnt go away even with vsync forced. Hopefully that is fixed in the official releaseWartzay

I too have that weird issue and hope they fix it ,I notice it the most in scenes where the light intensity vary rapidly,I see a tear in the lower third portion of the screen not just in crysis but in some other games too.

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Lehman

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#13 Lehman
Member since 2005 • 2512 Posts
ill be downloading these beta drivers for sure when i get my 4870 (tomoz)
cant waiT!

il prbably download now on my laptop and copy the exe onto a memory stick and then to my computer tomrow
what site should i download from?
Guru3D?
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Lehman

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#14 Lehman
Member since 2005 • 2512 Posts
ill be downloading these beta drivers for sure when i get my 4870 (tomoz)
cant waiT!

il prbably download now on my laptop and copy the exe onto a memory stick and then to my computer tomrow
what site should i download from?
Guru3D?
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MajinFix

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#15 MajinFix
Member since 2005 • 480 Posts

Nvidia's latest Drivers have officially blue screened my PC into the abiss..:cry:

Physx ftw...not =(

-CheeseEater-

you poor thing :>