Frame Rating: AMD Improves CrossFire with Prototype Driver

[LtMatt]

Pcper were the only site to actually get a sneak preview of the June scheduled latency fix driver, though it is far from ready for public release.
If you read the full review they say the 7990 has lower frame times than the 690 using this driver. Although both look good frame time wise to me so i can't see it making much difference.


A Great Start For AMD Crossfire

With today's release of both this article that analyzes a new prototype driver for CrossFire improvements AND the launch of the reviews for the AMD Radeon HD 7990 dual-Tahiti graphics card, it's a mixed bag for the company. On one hand, this new prototype driver has really impressed me and the amount of effort the company has put into completely reworking the Catalyst pipeline to address this issue is impressive! On the other hand, we are still weeks or months from the public availability of this software, and until then, the Radeon HD 7990 continues to look overpriced and overmatched.


When I was first briefed by AMD on the Radeon HD 7990 I strongly recommended that they delay the launch until they had a driver ready that would address the significant issues CrossFire was facing. They didn't though, so we are left to analyze the product as it stands today. I did so in my review - not mincing words.

With its performance completely dependent on CrossFire technology, the HD 7990 as a $1000 graphics card has a very hard time justifying its price. With our early testing of the Catalyst prototype driver showing positive results though, there is yet hope for CrossFire to be fixed in this generation, at least for single monitor users! But until that driver is perfected, is bug free and is presented to buyers as a made-for-primetime solution, I just cannot recommend an investment this large on the Radeon HD 7990.

If AMD is able to get a passable, beta version of this driver out to consumers in the mid-summer time frame as I am expecting, it will make the HD 7990 a much more appealing option for those people that want to spend $1000 on graphics cards. Not only that, but it will improve the performance of CrossFire users across the board and THAT is the reason we are writing our Frame Rating series and why we wanted to be sure to have this article ready for you as well. Pushing AMD to make these changes will help the community at large, and that was our goal.

Full Article
http://www.pcper.com/reviews/Graphics-Cards/Frame-Rating-AMD-Improves-CrossFire-Prototype-Driver

 

[Random Guy]

If this is true, then AMD just nailed it, big-time.

 

[LtMatt]

If this is true, then AMD just nailed it, big-time.

The frame times are already good from the reviews ive seen. Better than what i get on my single card a lot of the time. I still think way too much is made of this. But, if they can fix this supposed runt frame issue then great. For me though, as long as the game looks good, feels smooth thats all that matters to me.

 

[Gregster]

Smoothness is far more important than frame rates. I would rather have a game at 40fps that is smooth, than 80fps that is stuttering. Good work AMD but shame it wasn't ready for the 7990 release.

 

[Martini1991]

I picked two at random, and the GTX690 still had the better frame times, the story is the same with Toms hardware.

So your opening statement has me confused.

 

[LtMatt]

Smoothness is far more important than frame rates. I would rather have a game at 40fps that is smooth, than 80fps that is stuttering. Good work AMD but shame it wasn't ready for the 7990 release.

Smoothness is how it feels to me, not what numbers are telling me. If it feels smooth, its smooth. Doesn't matter what the time frame is or if there are runt frames.

 

[Gregster]

Smoothness is how it feels to me, not what numbers are telling me. If its feels smooth, its smooth. Doesn't matter what the time frame is or if there are runt frames.

You have one GPU or have you bought another?

 

[LtMatt]

I picked two at random, and the GTX690 still had the better frame times, the story is the same with Toms hardware.

So your opening statement has me confused.

bf3 - average frame time 22 - only beaten by a 690+titan
crysis 3 average frame time 31 - only beaten by a 690
dirt 3 - 11.4 - only beaten by a 690
farcry 3 - 35 - poor, but known game issue with needs fixing
max payne 3 - 16.6 only beaten by 690+titan
sleeping dogs 37 - the best by a long way
MOH - 22.4 - only beaten by 690+titan
hitman - 35 - tied for best with a titan

Those frame times are generally very good and this is on drivers with no fix for frame times or latency or even runt frames.

You have one GPU or have you bought another?

I've had many crossfire setups.

 

[Martini1991]

I was looking at the frame variance too.

 

[KillBoY_UK]

Good to see they took it on the chin and made improvements

 

[Gregster]

I've had many crossfire setups.

Fair enough. IIRC, you had crossfire 6950's?

By the way, I don't care either way but smoothness is something AMD are putting a lot of time into with crossfire setups and this is a very good thing. It will be the end user who will reap the benefits. I am rebuilding the Mrs computer this year and it will have AMD GPU/s in it. Price for performance, it just makes sense.

 

[LtMatt]

I look at what actual users with xfire say about it here like Rusty or Tommy for example. Both will speak up if there are problems affecting certain titles but you rarely hear anything from either regarding this as both are clearly happy with the performance and smoothness. I believe only farcry 3 has been mentioned by either one of them with issues relating to smoothness.

EDIT

And Civ 5 thank you rusty

 

[Rusty0611]

And Civ 5. But that's due to odd GPU utilisation as both GPUs are only 30-40% utilised. When they spoke to 60-70 it stops temporarily.

 

[LtMatt]

And Civ 5. But that's due to odd GPU utilisation as both GPUs are only 30-40% utilised. When they spoke to 60-70 it stops temporarily.

Duly noted.

 

[Gregster]

Far Cry 3 is poo on either AMD or Nvidia. I forget what drivers Nvidia released but out of all of them, only that one driver had the game smooth for me with SLI 680's. It does run fine on Titans but I am sure if you look deeper, it is still stuttering but because of the high frames, it makes it feel smoother.

 

[Rusty0611]

To be honest I don't play enough regularly enough to really provide conclusive analysis but I've played Hitman, FC3, Tomb Raider, BF3, Bioshock Infinite and Civ 5 recently and they've all been as smooth as can be expected bar FC3 and Civ 5. No visual discomforts at all. I mean they're mainly AMD games so to be expected to an extent... BL2 apparently has issues and I'm going to start playing that again soon as I only messed about with it before.

 

[LtMatt]

Far Cry 3 is poo on either AMD or Nvidia. I forget what drivers Nvidia released but out of all of them, only that one driver had the game smooth for me with SLI 680's. It does run fine on Titans but I am sure if you look deeper, it is still stuttering but because of the high frames, it makes it feel smoother.

Thanks for clearing that up Greg. It has to be a game issue. Honestly for me its the best its ever been on 13.4 WHQL but there is still something there, a slight hitching. If i remove vsync it goes, or i think it goes. The game feels smooth then, but fraps tells me its hitching. Ubisoft really let the ball down on this one. This issue has been going on for as long as i can remember with this game.

 

[Gregster]

Drivers can do so much but if it is the game engine/code, there is little a driver can do I expect. Most of the early players had it stuttering with single cards as well and needed work arounds/DX9/CFG files altering/Inf files altering etc to get it running smoothly.

This is why I say forget the frame rates and make the game as smooth as possible. I like what AMD are doing with those prototype drivers. This shows commitment from AMD to its users/owners, the same as chucking in Far Cry 3 blood money to those who bought an AMD card prior to what ever the date was. They didn't need to do that but they did and those small things go along way.

 

[Random Guy]

The frame times are already good from the reviews ive seen. Better than what i get on my single card a lot of the time. I still think way too much is made of this. But, if they can fix this supposed runt frame issue then great. For me though, as long as the game looks good, feels smooth thats all that matters to me.

Yeah I was talking specifically about the widely known (and reviewed/reported) fact that AMD cards in Crossfire have much worse latency than comparable Nvidia cards in SLI.

Now if AMD had this issue nailed a year ago when I was looking to upgrade, I may have easily gone down the 7970 route, but it was the main factor in deciding to go with the 680 SLI route instead.

I would welcome a game-changer like this because it levels the playing field once more and going forward it will only force both companies to innovate even further to give us the best product.

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

PCPER did do a dodgy thing earlier though. They actually worked with Nvidia over FCAT for the last year,and then did three articles where they did not mention the Nvidia involvement at all,and indicated it was 100% their own effort. Their involvement with Nvidia was confirmed by the graphics card editor over on Anandtech,the editor over on HardOCP and hinted at by TR. In fact it seems according to the HardOCP editor,Nvidia had been fishing around with review sites to look for partners for FCAT.