New Catalysts, Official Beta

[Flanker35M]

S!

These just popped up, go get them while hot! Has the new MLAA etc. and at least for me smooth CoD experience even with MLAA on! Check them out HERE (http://support.amd.com/us/kbarticles/Pages/HD78007Support.aspx)

[Ze-Jamz]

:-)

[Al Capwn]

S!

These just popped up, go get them while hot! Has the new MLAA etc. and at least for me smooth CoD experience even with MLAA on! Check them out HERE (http://support.amd.com/us/kbarticles/Pages/HD78007Support.aspx)

Just so people know, only owners of the 7xxx series will see the benefits of the improved SSAA LOD and improved MLAA algorithm with these drivers. Full support for the rest of the line should be in 12.4.

Edit: From what I understand, the improved SSAA LOD is a 7xxx series exclusive feature, but 4xxx-7xxx will have the improved MLAA.

[Volksieg]

Just so people know, only owners of the 7xxx series will see the benefits of the improved SSAA LOD and improved MLAA algorithm with these drivers. Full support for the rest of the line should be in 12.4.

:(

Still... thanks for the warning! 12.4 is due soon, I think, so it won't be long until I "turn that frown upside down". lol That said, I seem to have experienced a totally out of the blue performance boost as of yesterday that almost convinced me they'd snuck the patch in without telling anyone. lol

Edit: Oh well... the performance boost has vanished overnight as well.... what a strange game this is. LOL

[Al Capwn]

:(

Still... thanks for the warning! 12.4 is due soon, I think, so it won't be long until I "turn that frown upside down". lol That said, I seem to have experienced a totally out of the blue performance boost as of yesterday that almost convinced me they'd snuck the patch in without telling anyone. lol

Edit: Oh well... the performance boost has vanished overnight as well.... what a strange game this is. LOL

I don't mean to threadjack but I thought this was a logical place to post this.

It appears an early 12.4 build (open cl 1.2 developer beta) has been posted by AMD.

Windows 7/Vista x86 & x64: http://developer.amd.com/Downloads/OpenCL1.2betadriversWindows.exe

I never tested the OP's drivers but with the 12.4 developer beta and my 6950 the new MLAA algorithm is definitely working; tested in ClOD with the official 12.2 vs. 12.4 developer beta and saw a large performance boost (12.2 MLAA had a performance cost of ~30-40% while 12.4 MLAA ~1-5%) and noticed an improvement in the visual quality as well, especially how the antialiasing effect appears on moving objects (personally I still find this to be one of the largest limitations of shader based AA, at least in its current state).

So far I'm very impressed with 12.4 and I am interested to know if others are also seeing similar benefits.

Disclaimer: I generally never have issues with AMD Catalyst betas/previews however, I must add that of course these drivers are a developer preview and are not guaranteed to be stable, or to even work in any way; Install at your own risk! If you're one to be leery of troubleshooting problems I would recommend sticking with official drivers.

[Volksieg]

Cheers Al Capwn!

I shall give this a look and see if it offers any improvements for the 6770. :) (Posting results below, of course.) What's the worst that can happen apart from having to load up driver sweeper and reintall 12.3?

[Al Capwn]

Cheers Al Capwn!

I shall give this a look and see if it offers any improvements for the 6770. :) (Posting results below, of course.) What's the worst that can happen apart from having to load up driver sweeper and reintall 12.3?

I would say driver sweeper + reinstall is really the only worst case scenario.

The only driver related video card damage that I've ever personally seen in 15 years was from a bad nvidia driver that bugged out the fan in 2D mode so the card would overheat from things like a '3D' screen saver, and I think that may have even been an official driver; my memory is a little hazy on it.

Although I wouldn't let that scare anyone away. In my experience, AMD cards, at least since the 2xxx series, adjust their fan speed based solely on the gpu temp reading, regardless of 2D/3D. I'm also 99% sure that the default fan profile is stored on the firmware of the card (since many custom cards have very different fan profiles) and should be unaffected by a 'bad' driver. This of course is based solely on personal experience and if anyone has a deeper understanding of how the default AMD fan profile is controlled I welcome their input!

[Volksieg]

Thank you Al Capwn!

Just gave Black Death a quick run through with everything set to Medium apart from Buildings Amount (High) and Building Detail (Low). I had Grass and Roads on..... I got an average fps of 35!!! VERY playable. (System specs below.)

There was, of course, the dip in fps when the radio first kicks in but, for the first time ever, it didn't go below 20. The huge explosion was still a fps killer but, when playing, I hope to be causing explosions like that rather than being in the middle of them :D

To say I am impressed would be an understatement!

Now all I need is the performance patch to turn up and allow me to turn the shadows on..... or I am seriously throwing my dummy out of the pram. LOL

I'll give it a more thorough play through when the screaming rugrat is in the other room safely shut up...*cough* I mean tucked up. :D

[Al Capwn]

Thank you Al Capwn!

Just gave Black Death a quick run through with everything set to Medium apart from Buildings Amount (High) and Building Detail (Low). I had Grass and Roads on..... I got an average fps of 35!!! VERY playable. (System specs below.)

There was, of course, the dip in fps when the radio first kicks in but, for the first time ever, it didn't go below 20. The huge explosion was still a fps killer but, when playing, I hope to be causing explosions like that rather than being in the middle of them :D

To say I am impressed would be an understatement!

Now all I need is the performance patch to turn up and allow me to turn the shadows on..... or I am seriously throwing my dummy out of the pram. LOL

I'll give it a more thorough play through when the screaming rugrat is in the other room safely shut up...*cough* I mean tucked up. :D

No problem at all, I'm glad if I can offer any help, especially if it helps players get greater performance/visual quality for free! ;)

Are those performance numbers from running the game with MLAA enforced from the CCC? If that is with no MLAA that's awesome you're seeing a boost with your 6770! I didn't notice any performance boost without MLAA with 12.4 vs. 12.2 in CloD; do you know roughly what you were getting previously? Also, what drivers are you upgrading from?

If you haven't tried out the new MLAA yet I think you'll be very pleased with the results, although make sure the in game AA is disabled, it only seems to work up to 2x anyways and has a fairly large determent to performance. Also, just in case anyone reading this hasn't used MLAA before, when enabling MLAA you only have to select the check box; leave the mode in 'use application settings' and I would also save it to a profile instead of just leaving it as always on. I noticed it may cause issues in certain programs such as WMC.

Previously I have been using the SMAA package that was posted here on the forum (I absolutely can't stand FXAA's amount of blurring and would rather use no AA than FXAA) and I'm getting better performance with MLAA 2.0 and I'm overall more impressed with the visual quality as well (MLAA still blurs more than SMAA). I find it especially noticeable during Black Death, the lines on the farmland below don't appear to be 'shifting' or aliased as much with MLAA 2.0 compared to 1.0 or even SMAA.

I'm not sure if this happens to everyone, but at least for me I notice whenever the mission loads up there's usually a ~5 second time before all the textures are loaded and in that time it runs very slow/choppy. So I usually open up the console, and I have 'fps START SHOW' typed in, and I wait for the textures to pop in, then I hit enter and close the console. I find that gives me the most consistent results for comparative purposes.

I also can't wait for that performance patch, from what little we know about it, it sounds like you'll most certainly be able to enable shadows (even if the patch is only a 50% increase compared to the 100% they mentioned, that's more of a gain than the hit I was seeing from having shadows enabled compared to disabled).

Sorry about the lengthy post and good luck with the rugrat, though I don't know of any fixes for that! :grin:

[Volksieg]

That was without the MLAA... just did another quick run of Black Death with the MLAA enabled and...... wow. This time it was with an average of 45fps and the effect on the graphics was rather wonderful too. I nearly forgot I was playing at 1280x720. :)

I really can't recommend this driver enough for people on similar systems to mine.

As for the rugrat.... the sound problems have ceased now, though he is still in the beta-testing stage at the moment. He should be sleeping through the night more effectively...... in two weeks. :D

[Al Capwn]

I'm glad you're enjoying the new MLAA :) Although I have a little bit of bad news.

I've found that apparently when using programs such as Sapphire Trixx or MSI Afterburner, the card will stay in 3D clocks/voltage at all times. Also, it appears that 2 important .dll files for 'unofficial overclocking' are no longer included in 12.4 (possibly 12.3 as well? I didn't discover this until doing an uninstall/driver sweep/12.4 reinstall and then seeing Sapphire Trixx no longer could see what version of CCC I was running nor would it allow me to overclock). You can download the .dll's and you'll regain OC functionality but you'll find you'll be stuck in 3D mode.

two .dll's found here: http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?p=4270324

If you're not overclocking or just using CCC to overclock there doesn't appear to be any issues in this regard, it's just a little annoying since 840 core limit is a little low for me.

[Volksieg]

Luckily for me, I'm one of those nervous types who break out into a cold sweat at the mere mention of overclocking. :D

Just really amazed at the performance boost this has given me!

[Flanker35M]

S!

I tested those 8.96(12.4 beta) ones and they seem to work very nicely too.

[Al Capwn]

Well after some more extensive testing, it appears that the 12.4 beta drivers seem to have issues with powerplay overall, even when not doing 'unofficial' overclocking (oc'ing above CCC limits) the card may bounce between 3D/2D clocks when it should stay in 2D and it may stay in 3D mode for extended periods of time. This is more an inconvenience than anything, but I figure I should report my findings here.

Edit: It appears that even though I had Sapphire Trixx set to not apply clock settings anymore, just having it running seemed to be causing my powerplay issues. It must be related to the fact that those 2 .dlls are no longer included in the 12.4 library and they must be what the overclocking software is using to interface with the card and with the changes in powerplay it must be causing a conflict.

Edit #2: Well after some more testing, it appears that once you enter a 3D application and leave, powerplay will kind of work, sometimes it's a little slow in downclocking, although mine doesn't appear to lower voltage if you're using 'unofficial overclocking'.