AMD Catalyst 13.8 Beta (Beta 2 Released 8/19)

[Dave]

AMD Catalyst™ 13.8 Windows® Beta Driver

Feature Highlights of The AMD Catalyst 13.8 Beta Driver for Windows:

• Support for AMD CrossFire™ Frame Pacing
• Frame Pacing ensures that frames rendered across multiple GPUs in a CrossFire configuration will be displayed at an even and regular pace.
• Enabled through the AMD Catalyst Control Center; Globally or on a per application basis.
• Frame Pacing is enabled by default.
• Supported for DirectX 10 and DirectX 11 applications, and resolutions up to and including 2560x1600 (single display).
• OpenGL 4.3 support – full support for the OpenGL 4.3 feature set

Performance improvements found in AMD Catalyst 13.8 Beta for Windows:

• Metro: Last Light – improves performance up to 7% on the AMD Radeon™ HD 7000 Series
• OpenGL support for User Profiles and Catalyst Application Profiles:
• Users can now create per application 3D setting profiles for OpenGL applications.
• OpenGL applications are now supported through Catalyst Application Profile updates (for single GPU and AMD CrossFire configurations).
• AMD Enduro Technology enhancement - Catalyst Control Center will now show which applications are active on the Performance GPU, and the Power-Saving GPU

Resolved issues:

• Resolved crash when enabling AMD CrossFireX™ on some AMD 970 platforms
• Improved stability for AMD Radeon HD 7790
• Resolved intermittent mouse cursor corruption when rapidly moving the cursor across window borders

System Requirements:

• Windows® 8 (32 & 64-bit versions)
• Windows 7 (32 & 64-bit versions with SP1 or higher)

AMD Product Compatibility:

• AMD Radeon™ HD 7900 Series
• AMD Radeon HD 7800 Series
• AMD Radeon HD 7700 Series
• AMD Radeon HD 6000 Series
• AMD Radeon HD 5000 Series
• AMD Mobility Radeon HD 8000M Series
• AMD Mobility Radeon HD 7000M Series
• AMD Mobility Radeon HD 6000M Series
• AMD Mobility Radeon HD 5000M Series

[Redshirt_X]

Hmm. Well, this should be interesting...c'mon, little R6990 blast furnace, let's feed you...

EDIT: well, I think this driverset actually made Rift a bit smoother (not zippier, just smoother)...but I'll have to go back during peak hours and see how it fares. And probably dust off BF3 or something.

[Dave]

added link for mobile cards. From what I've read so far, these do not support windows 8.1

[Evileh]

So who wants to be the guinea pig? Dave?? ...oh wait... nevermind.

[Dave]

Originally Posted by Evileh

So who wants to be the guinea pig? Dave?? ...oh wait... nevermind.

shush you . Just helping out here/doing my job

[badsykes]

I will jump and be realy nice guninea pig... Of course there is a catch ... I have no CF ... :P

[Ulysses 31]

I'll be the QuadFire lab rat then

[bill dennison]

[badsykes]

LOL bill ... I bet you didn't get enough sleep last night because of the AMD driver...

[Rituel]

My Catalyst Control Center switches off as soon as I change the options on one of my game profiles...

Resolved:
Delete existing games profiles and recreate.

[bill dennison]

Originally Posted by badsykes

LOL bill ... I bet you didn't get enough sleep last night because of the AMD driver...

i don't have a big problem with microstutter

well its loaded


waiting on fcats like reviews
this will most like get to 13.8 beta 19

and for Mr 780

[RadeonHTPCGamer]

The HDMI audio drivers f'ing suck. Won't recognize supported formats on my Onkyo HT-380. No surround sound, nothing higher than 16/41000.

The install also indicates warnings, but it won't let me open the log file to see what is going wrong.

2 months for this joke, are you kidding me AMD?

[Jaillum Malord]

Pixel clock still locked

[bittermann]

Still waiting for release notes...

[Omega53]

[caveman-jim]

Originally Posted by Redshirt_X

...a bit smoother (not zippier, just smoother)...

inherent in the premise of frame rate smoothing is delaying frames ie lowering frame rate to benefit consistently.

[caveman-jim]

Originally Posted by Ulysses 31

I'll be the QuadFire lab rat then

2 gpus shows the best improvement from this driver, as do single display setups.

[Evileh]

ah hell i'll bite... Don't ask me to benchmark... I don't do that. lmao.

[Evileh]

Nevermind.. I have to uninstall my current driver in order to install this new one. Too much work. lol.

[bill dennison]

i just loaded over the top

it was vwry slow (half speed ) with frame pacing on then i removed old cap and was fine

[Gerard]

Doesn't even support Eyefinity resolutions which obviously needs multi gpu for the most part for it to be feasible. Nice...I suppose we Eyefinity users will have to wait even longer for a driver.

[Evileh]

Originally Posted by bill dennison

i just loaded over the top of it.....

it won't let me do it so i said screw it... lol.

[bill dennison]

reviews
http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages..._8_fcat,1.html

http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum...nchmarked.html

[Treeckcold57]

Originally Posted by Gerard

Doesn't even support Eyefinity resolutions which obviously needs multi gpu for the most part for it to be feasible. Nice...I suppose we Eyefinity users will have to wait even longer for a driver.

Though this driver shows real promise, we must point out that AMD’s frame pacing mechanism is still a work in progress. Here’s what AMD had to say about the Catalyst 13.8 betas:
•This phase 1 only, in which we’re addressing DX10 and 11 apps, resolutions up to, including 2560x1600
•For Phase 2, we’ll be addressing resolutions above 2560x1600, DX9 and OpenGL apps
•This feature is turned on by default in the driver, but you have the ability to turn it on and off, on a per-application basis
•This driver has full support now for OpenGL 4.3 feature set and has support for UCPs and CAPs

While the Catalyst 13.8 beta drives don’t address every game across any possible resolution, they should help the vast majority of the market, running a single monitor at a resolution up to and including 2560x1600. DirectX 9 support would be nice, but since they’re typically less taxing, they’re not likely to be GPU bound on a higher-end CrossFire setup, so the benefits of enabling frame pacing are less impactful.

Hothardware link

So Eyefinity will come later. Probably likely will be in 13.8 Beta 2.

[badsykes]

I have to report an unusual stuttering in an indie game named "The Baconing"
I get 1 sec freezes at regular intervals with this driver..I don't remember the old driver version but i think it was 13.150 version and i didn't had this problem...Is not deal braker but is kinda anoying...The game obviously is not taxing in any way..

[bill dennison]

Originally Posted by badsykes

I have to report an unusual stuttering in an indie game named "The Baconing"
I get 1 sec freezes at regular intervals with this driver..I don't remember the old driver version but i think it was 13.150 version and i didn't had this problem...Is not deal braker but is kinda anoying...The game obviously is not taxing in any way..

is it DX9 ?

The later Beta's will add 8.1, DX9 etc. Secondly, in this beta driver frame pacing is supported up-to a resolution of 2560x1600. So everything below it is cool, above it not so much.

[Evileh]

It's not detecting my card now... :\

Just figured it out.. I don't think it works with vista....

[caveman-jim]

Originally Posted by Treeckcold57

So Eyefinity will come later. Probably likely will be in 13.8 Beta 2.

Probably not.

[badsykes]

Originally Posted by bill dennison

is it DX9 ?

The later Beta's will add 8.1, DX9 etc. Secondly, in this beta driver frame pacing is supported up-to a resolution of 2560x1600. So everything below it is cool, above it not so much.

Vsync was enabled and disabling it fixed the problem...I suppose is a bug with vsync on and new driver...Except the driver i didn't change other settings..

[colson79]

Originally Posted by Treeckcold57

Hothardware link

So Eyefinity will come later. Probably likely will be in 13.8 Beta 2.

This sucks, after months of waiting they are finally here but I can't use them unless I give up my eyefinity. I'm glad they are working on it but this is definitely a disappointment for me.