Mantle Feedback/Bugs

[LtMatt]

Ok i managed to fix it.

had to reinstall Drivers after a complete driver wipe.

Played with crossfire fine for 10 mins then game crashed.

But those 10 mins were the smoothest i have ever felt in BF4

Shame on you bro. Didn't you read the OP? Take a look.

 

[LtMatt]

In the process of making a benchmark time demo video that we can all copy. Will be ready in an hour or two. Might ask Stulid/Mod/Dons if i should make a new thread as this one has been ruined again i see with the same crap as the other one.

 

[LtMatt]

Personally i dont think a new thread will be any different LT
people have there interpretation and get frustrated when other assume its wrong happens on both sides tbh

No but perhaps we can have a Mantle benchmarking BF4 thread and a Mantle user feedback/discussion thread and never the two shall meet. This is supposed to be for benchmark results and i can't see any apart from a few at the start.

 

[LtMatt]

Uploading a BF4 time demo that we can all use and copy when benching. Its going to help us get more consistent results i think. Its a very demanding sequence from the single player campaign. It will be ready in about 30 minutes.

 

[LtMatt]

Ok i hope to now turn this thread into the Mantle Feedback/Bugs thread.

 

[LtMatt]

Just look at the gpu rendering line. Then you'll know why we say its like playing a different game.

 

[LtMatt]

Matt, any chance you can update the op with BF 4 console commands?

I have the overlay and csv one, what about the screenshot one and the fps counter.

Sure.

FPS Monitor type - PerfOverlay.DrawFps 1

Cpu+Gpu performance overlay type - PerfOverlay.DrawGraph 1

To take a screenshot type - Render.Screenshot

To enable a FPS log type at start of bench - PerfOverlay.FrameFileLogEnable 1

To stop FPS log at end of bench type - PerfOverlay.FrameFileLogEnable 0

A little tip. Whilst the level/map is loading you can type in PerfOverlay.FrameFileLogEnable 0 and press enter. Then when you need to start logging just bring up the console, press down arrow key on your keyboard or S and that last written command comes up. Saves you retyping it each time. Just change the 0 to 1 and hit enter to start recording.

 

[LtMatt]

^ What most of us have been saying.

 

[LtMatt]

Different gravy.

 

[LtMatt]

Why didn't they add any aa? Surely full ultra is playable at 1080 on a single 290x

Don't know, but it won't change things at all. They did run some 1600P tests though where they used AA.

Zavod 311 - 2560x1600 2X AA - Ultra Settings

With the AA reduced down to 2X AA, which is at playable levels, the performance advantage with Mantle does go up more than the very GPU dependent 4X AA setting. Here AMD Mantle is almost 14% faster than D3D 11.1.

Under D3D this map is playable at 2560x1600 2X AA, but just barely. When we play under the AMD Mantle API the performance improves enough for us to notice it, and is more than playable. Therefore, AMD Mantle has helped improve upon the gameplay experience by giving us a super smooth at all times 2560x1600 2X AA gameplay experience.

In terms of frame times, AMD Mantle is clearly superior with more consistent, less "spiky" frames, and overall better numbers.

Siege of Shanghai - 2560x1600 4X AA - Ultra Settings

Under this GPU limited test, the results turn out to be not as extreme as our CPU limited 1080p with no AA test. Here Mantle is improving on performance, but not by a whole lot. AMD Mantle is providing a 7% performance improvement. It's not massive, but a free performance improvement is always welcomed.

At this setting, the game isn't exactly at the level of performance we'd deem playable on the R9 290X. We would want to maintain a consistent 60 FPS average to be playable. Under D3D performance is at 52 FPS, under Mantle it rises to 55-56 FPS. However, even that isn't quite enough to call these settings playable. Therefore, AMD Mantle did not improve the gameplay experience at this GPU dependent resolution and AA setting in BF4.
When it comes to the frame times, we found that once you start going toward GPU dependent settings the variance of D3D isn't as bad. However, AMD Mantle is still more consistent, and overall produces lower frame times, which is better.

Is AMD Mantle everything it is cracked up to be? The answer is potentially yes. As we stated, you first need to understand the goals of AMD Mantle, and the kind of benefits it can provide. Do not expect GPU dependent performance to get significantly better. Rather, if you are on a more mid-range system this should help more than someone who has the latest bleeding edge hardware overclocked to madness. At least, that is the trend we see so far. When we test lower-end video cards, it will really tell us just what kind of advantages Mantle has in store.

Mantle could potentially, drastically change the gaming world if more games used it. Lower-end computers, especially notebooks, and ultrabooks could see significant gaming performance increases. AMD isn't done with Mantle, this is just a first taste of it. We have to say, this first taste is sweet. We also experienced no issues, no crashing, it was rock stable for all the pounding we gave it the whole day. We look forward to future improvements from DICE and AMD, and hopefully more games that will implement Mantle. Remember, we have more evaluation coming, so stay tuned.

 

[LtMatt]

You're forgetting the overhead of DX API Besty. Unless you have 290 cards then you'll have to wait for better optimisation for your 79xx cards. It says so in the notes so it should come as no major surprise.

 

[LtMatt]

I don't see why they delayed the driver due to "bugs" but released it buggy anyways

People were all on about "Oh, we don't want them to release it broken/buggy etc" hence delay, but they release it in a state anyway and now it's "Well it's a beta",

That's misinformation. The driver was delayed due to a specific install issue rather than just typical driver bugs.

As mentioned in our older article from Thursday, AMD discovered a major bug with its Catalyst 14.2 driver at the last minute, which threw a wrench in the works at the company. The driver was originally slated to come out in sync with DICE' update of Battlefield 4 on Thursday. AMD now tells us that their teams have been working overnight to fix the driver, and should have their next status update for us by mid-afternoon EST (New York time), later today.

Source
http://www.techpowerup.com/197425/amd-catalyst-mantle-driver-delayed.html

 

[LtMatt]

^ Or you can get into safe mode via start menu> search box > type msconfig > boot tap > tick safe mode > restart > run DDU > whilst its running go back to msconfig and untick safe mode.

 

[LtMatt]

Just sayin

That was before i knew the reason though so was speculating.

 

[LtMatt]

But that doesn't change anything.
You were on about them releasing a none bug filled driver, and they've released a bug filled driver.

It's all well and good saying Mantle's in beta, in which case it should never be put into games yet.

If Thief's working perfectly, then we know Dice messed up, but if Thief is broken with Mantle, then it's plain not ready yet to be implemented, and dev's shouldn't really be playing with it as far as I'm concerned as I feel that's compromising the end product.

When DX11 came out, everything I ran on it was perfect, the Heaven benchmark etc, Dirt 2 with DX11.

It does, the bug meant the driver would not install at all, so im glad they delayed it to fix it so i could have a small taster of what's in store. Driver works fine for me on single card and i see 14% improvement in performance and the smoothness in the game makes it feel like a different game. Crossfire does not work at all for me though, but it says that in the notes so that was expected.

DX11



Mantle



14% improvement for me. Single 290 at stock. Can't test crossfire yet unfortunately.

[email protected]
1X 290 975/1250
1440P Ultra Preset+x4AA
14.1 Beta

 

[LtMatt]

I gave it another go using DDU this time. Still the same BS and now alt+enter turns my second monitor into a nice black screen. (must have alt+entered 250 times).

Stutter.. freezes every 10 seconds.. using up to 2.8GB of vram with only 2xMSAA.

Im on 13.12 now until at least 90% of AMD card owners start saying that a future driver is awesome.

I just cant be arsed with the hassle and wasting of time so im gona let everyone else test drivers for me.

Peace out o/

Understandable. Worth trying but i guess in your case with more than one screen its better to wait for a newer driver. Let me tell you, you're in for a nice surprise as and when you do get to try it. Always best to check release notes for things like this, can save yourself some heartache sometimes.

Known Issues of 14.1

Intermittent stuttering or stability issues may occur when utilizing Mantle with AMD CrossFire™ technology in BattleField 4™

Mantle performance for the AMD Radeon™ HD 7000/HD 8000 Series GPUs and AMD Radeon™ R9 280X and R9 270X GPUs will be optimized for BattleField 4™ in future AMD Catalyst™ releases. These products will see limited gains in BattleField 4™ and AMD is currently investigating optimizations for them.

AMD Eyefinity configurations utilizing portrait display orientations are currently not supported by the Mantle codepath in Battlefield 4™

 

[LtMatt]

Can't you roll back to 13.12 WHQL Brains? Try a repair install on BF4. Sounds like there is some other issue at play here. Try updating punkbuster for BF4 (pbsetup - google is your friend) as well.

 

[LtMatt]

Wasn't/isn't the memory leak primarily to do with having an onboard gpu enabled? iirc the same happened in bf3. If its happening in mantle bf4 on systems with igpu's disabled or even not present in the system I'd say its an entirely new error. Though most likely an issue at dices end (shocker) as pointed out star swarm works fine. That said has anyone set star swarm to loop for a decent length of time to make sure?
You ccan't help but feel amd may have been better skipping bf4 and just putting out some more tech demos, as it is amd will take most of the flak even when its most likely not their fault.

I hear you but man BF4 needs Mantle. It just runs (even with a buggy driver and buggy game) so much nicer than DX. I have the performance overlay running 24/7 when i play BF. It enables you to see the constant shortcomings of the DX API. I cannot wait until we reach a level of decent stability with Mantle and the driver. Eventually i hope ill never have to experience bf4 on dx ever again.

 

[LtMatt]

The mantle effect. 29% increase. i7 3770K and a single 290X @ stock @ 1080P.





In other news LT is now big in germany. The hoff has been in touch and has warned me off




Source
http://www.pcgameshardware.de/AMD-R...ecials/AMD-Mantle-Test-Battlefield-4-1107754/

 

[LtMatt]

wtf, Mantle ran great until last night and tonight after work. Wont go over 40 fps and my the weapon does not appear or is invisible ??

8350 290 x

Slight oc via trixx

any advice or anyone getting the same. It worked perfectly when i first dloaded the driver

Weapon does not appear is a bf4 bug i think. Verify game files maybe?