Catalyst Showdown: 6.5 vs 6.6 vs 6.6 Beta

[ahmad]

Posted this in the other thread, but I'll start a new one so it gets the attention it deserves:

Test setup:

x1900XT (w/ x1900XT BIOS) - Benchmarks @ 681MHz/801MHz, Games @ 625MHz/750MHz
Opteron 170 @ 2.65GHz
OCZ PC4000 EB @ 2.5-3-2 (221MHz) @ 2.5v
OCZ PowerStream 520W
Windows XP Pro SP2
ATI Catalyst 6.5 (Official), 6.6 (Official), 6.6 (Beta)

Catalyst Settings -

No AI:
Catalyst AI - Off
Midmap Detail - High Quality
HQ AF - Enabled (don't know if it made a difference)

AI:
Catalyst AI - Advanced
Midmap Detail - High Quality
HQ AF - Enabled

-Should note I got lower benchmark numbers with Performance Midmap Detail...


http://www.ahmadh.net/images/driverbench/3DMark2001SE-noai.gif http://www.ahmadh.net/images/driverbench/3DMark2001SE-ai.gif
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http://www.ahmadh.net/images/driverbench/3dmark05-noai.gif http://www.ahmadh.net/images/driverbench/3dmark05-ai.gif
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http://www.ahmadh.net/images/driverbench/3dmark06-noai.gif http://www.ahmadh.net/images/driverbench/3dmark06-ai.gif
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http://www.ahmadh.net/images/driverbench/fear-noai.gif http://www.ahmadh.net/images/driverbench/fear-ai.gif
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http://www.ahmadh.net/images/driverbench/nfsmw-noai.gif http://www.ahmadh.net/images/driverbench/nfsmw-ai.gif
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http://www.ahmadh.net/images/driverbench/css-noai.gif http://www.ahmadh.net/images/driverbench/css-ai.gif


So you can see, huge difference with AI. Also, it seems like 6.6 Beta is only good for 06 benching. 01 and 05 go to 6.6 official (NFSMW worked with 6.6 Beta AI and no AI, I just didnt run it with AI).

EDIT: Fixed it to make it easier to read. Although its gonna look messy if you are viewing it at less than 1152x864.

EDIT#2: Added CSS bench.

[einCe]

nice writeup

[Axylone]

Your graphs are a bit misleading; I would use percentage changed or something.
Other than that good review

[NickS]

Nice comparison. I cant wait to try these drivers out on my X1900GT when it gets here.

[cronic]

Nice work, charts are fine, just makes you have to read them which is a good thing. lol
keep up the great work

[cantankerous]

Thanks a bunch for this, it seems 6.6 official is better than 6.5 all around so an upgrade regardless from my current ones is a must. Weird how much higher 6.6beta scores with AI enabled over any of the other drivers.

[ahmad]

Thank you all for the kind words.

Yeah I purposely made the graphs like this because differences are very small, and I wanted them to be obvious.

AI advanced vs Off did not show any massive quality differences in the benchmarks, but things did look better in NFSMW without AI. I think if you have an x1800xl or an x1900GT and just want good performance at high resolution, AI is a good feature.

For benching, its obviously a must to use. Especially with 6.6 Beta and 06 :)

[IvanAndreevich]

Strange.. some people were reporting a huge boost from 6.5 to 6.6 beta but it's nowhere to be seen here.

[ahmad]

Strange.. some people were reporting a huge boost from 6.5 to 6.6 beta but it's nowhere to be seen here.

Only in 3DMark06 (about 300points+). Maybe other games have seen other advantages, I haven't tested yet. Maybe I'll run a Source stress test with these drivers.

[cantankerous]

I can't wait till the Omega variant of these are out. Looking forward to updating.

[ahmad]

Updated first post with Counterstrike Source stress test (HL2 engine).

WOW! 43FPS difference with AI enabled from 6.5 to 6.6. Insane.

[cronic]

nice info. how well does the 6.6 work with ati tool? does the overclock stick?

[Mehmet_Ali]

Anyone knows where to get cat. 6.6 with the control panel...

[ahmad]

nice info. how well does the 6.6 work with ati tool? does the overclock stick?

ATiTool worked fine with 6.6.

@Ali:

CP doesnt have as many options as CCC. I suggest getting used to CCC.

[deathman20]

ATiTool worked fine with 6.6.

So in other words it keeps its clocks even if you play a video? Where it doesn't reset the drivers back to 2D speeds even if those 2 services are disabled?

[Rovtar]

Updated first post with Counterstrike Source stress test (HL2 engine).

WOW! 43FPS difference with AI enabled from 6.5 to 6.6. Insane.

great i hope that this work for me to :D

[Cornelious0_0]

Wow...this is an amazing gain...would these gains be seen by an older X850XT or is it something that's maybe exclusize to X1800/1900's?

If it's something that'll help the X800 series then I'm excited to give this a try...as I'm finally getting back into gaming, and any gains like this are always appreciated.

[anubis]

tnx for the info :)

[ahmad]

So in other words it keeps its clocks even if you play a video? Where it doesn't reset the drivers back to 2D speeds even if those 2 services are disabled?

Unfortunately 2D clocks are still reset when you play a video (and thats only if you have CCC running).

I think because of Avivo, 2D clocks have to be fixed. Not sure on that, so don't quote me on it.

[deathman20]

Unfortunately 2D clocks are still reset when you play a video (and thats only if you have CCC running).

I think because of Avivo, 2D clocks have to be fixed. Not sure on that, so don't quote me on it.

Not even having CCC running or even installed still causes the issue, but that Avivo idea there could explain it and is surely worth at least trying to find info on.

[cantankerous]

The omega drivers never do this guys, use those instead. My 6.5 can play video all day long, I am waiting for the omega 6.6 before I switch to these.

[deathman20]

The omega drivers never do this guys, use those instead. My 6.5 can play video all day long, I am waiting for the omega 6.6 before I switch to these.

I'll check that out when they release the 6.6's.

[Frackal]

I will go omega as soooon as they allow that "Avivo color" setting

[Rovtar]

hmm this boost doesn't seem to work for me :S (in cs i didn't try hl graphic test)

[tvdang7]

WOW how is it possible to have such a fps gap between 6.5 and 6.6 and ai on and off for CSS

is this the stress test or your own time demo

[cantankerous]

I will go omega as soooon as they allow that "Avivo color" setting

I do agree on this too, I am dying for the saturation option to appear in the Omega drivers as I loved how that made my desktop look during the short while I used CCC. That option alone however is not going to have me keep CCC over the Omega drivers which do more than they don't.

[ahmad]

WOW how is it possible to have such a fps gap between 6.5 and 6.6 and ai on and off for CSS

is this the stress test or your own time demo

This is the "Video Stress test" in Counterstrike Source.

I didn't bother testing the betas because I knew performance would be similar to the 6.6 official (and 6.6 official would be better).

I should also note: I used maximum quality settings for the CSS stress test: 6xAA, 16xAF HQ and full detail, maximum everything and 1440x900 (my 16:10 widescreen res). If you don't do that, you won't stress the video card as much, and it would be the CPU playing a bigger role.

Imagine what the results would have been had I not used those settings..

[tvdang7]

so i guess this is only a bigger gap on high end video cards? any one test this like on x1800xt and below.

[ahmad]

x1800 is pretty high end. This result should be easily repeatable on all x1K cards. Not sure about r4xx cores, someone will have to test that.