Cat 8.3 to be release tomorrow (Wed, March 5, 2008)

[Eastcoasthandle]

Beyond multi-GPU configurations in CrossFireX, ATI Catalyst 8.3 introduces a number of new features including:

* DirectX 10.1 and Tessellation Support: ATI Catalyst 8.3 marks the first time DirectX 10.1 support for the ATI Radeon™ HD 3000 series, and tessellation support for the ATI Radeon™ HD 3800 series have been made available to developers.
* Anti-Aliasing enhancements: ATI Catalyst introduces anti-aliasing support for all Unreal Engine 3.0-based games running in DirectX 9 mode. ATI Catalyst also allows users to enable the Custom Filter Anti-Aliasing filters (box and wide tent) while running in CrossFire Super Anti-Aliasing modes, providing superior image quality.
* HydraVision™ support for Windows Vista: HydraVision support is now included in ATI Catalyst Control Center for Windows Vista. HydraVision enables users to efficiently organize multiple applications across single or multiple displays. You may configure up to nine virtual desktops, and divide the Windows Vista desktop into definable areas helping to easily move and organize multiple applications.
* Digital Panel GPU image scaling: For those using widescreen displays, ATI Catalyst now allows users to enable GPU-accelerated scaling to maintain the aspect ratio of the display while providing superior image quality.
* Advanced Video Quality controls: With ATI Catalyst 8.3, multimedia enthusiasts get further control over video quality. Using the new edge enhancement feature, the level of sharpness of video content can be adjusted. Through the new noise reduction feature, ghosting artifacts can be removed while preserving the details of the original video. The new slider controls can be found in the All Settings page of the Avivo™ Video tab found in ATI Catalyst Control Center.


Availability
ATI Catalyst 8.3 is scheduled to be available as a free download starting Wednesday, March 5 online at http://ati.amd.com/support/driver.html.

1. Based on AMD benchmark results that demonstrate a performance/$ ratio in favor of ATI Radeon GPUs vs. competing Nvidia GeForce GPUs. Cost per 3DMark determined based on AMD internal benchmark results in 3DMark06 v1.1.1.0 at 1920x1200 4xAA 8xAF on an ASUS P5E (X38) or EVGA 780i platform running an Intel X9650, 2GB DDR2-800 (5-5-5-12 timings), Windows Vista RTM 64bit, and 8.471-Beta2_080214a-059709E-ATI or ForceWare 169.28beta. Based on the average price at Newegg.com as of March 3, 2008, two ATI Radeon™ HD 3870 X2 cards at $900, and two Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTX cards at $900, two ATI Radeon™ 3870 X2 cards combine to score 16412 3DMarks while two GeForce 8800 GTX cards combine to score 12748 3DMarks resulting in the two ATI Radeon™ HD 3870 X2 cards delivering 28% more performance for the same price as the Nvidia solution.

2. Based on AMD benchmark results in Supreme Commander (2560x1600x32 8xAA 16xAF quality=Very High) and Unreal Tournament 3 (2560x1600x32 4xAA 16xAF dxmode=dx9) on an AMD Phenom 2.6GHz platform, using MSI K9A2 Plat (790FX) motherboard, 2GB DDR2-800 (5-5-5-12 timings), Windows Vista RTM 64bit, ATI Catalyst 8.3 beta drivers and Forceware drivers 169.28 Beta. Comparing the performance of two ATI Radeon™ HD 3870 X2 cards vs. one ATI Radeon™ HD 3870 card, Supreme Commander exhibits 3.32 times the performance of the single card when using quad CrossFireX, and Unreal Tournament 3 exhibits 3.23 times the performance of the single card when using quad CrossFireX.

3. Based on AMD benchmark results in 3DMark06 (1280x1024), Quake 4 (1600x1200 HQ), Prey (1280x1024) and FarCry (1600x1200) on an AMD Phenom 2.3 GHz platform using MSI K9A2 Plat (790FX) motherboard, 2GB DDR2-800 (5-5-5-12 timings), Windows Vista RTM 64bit, ATI Catalyst 8.3 beta drivers. With ATI Hybrid CrossFire enabled, the four applications listed above exhibit at least 1.7 times the performance of stand-alone integrated graphics on the AMD780G motherboard without ATI Hybrid CrossFire enabled.


Source (http://www.amd.com/us-en/Corporate/VirtualPressRoom/0,,51_104_543~124080,00.html)

[[XC] Kayin]

Whoo-****ing_hoo! I will have drivers when my board comes back!

[RedBull78]

Cool, on my birthday. Niceeeee

[STaRGaZeR]

Cool, on my birthday. Niceeeee

Happy bday! :up:

Can't wait for this. Tomorrow, Cat 8.3 and X-Fi Prelude, wohooo :D

[fatredwombat1]

So now Australia just has to wait for the rest of the world to get to the 5th already :)

[STaRGaZeR]

In Europe we are already in the 5th :)

[X.T.R.E.M.E_ICE]

Today, 03:25 PM is the time this thread was created :shrug: :shrug:

[Gambit_2K]

What is this "Digital Panel GPU image scaling", is it support for widescreenresolutions even if games don't support the resolutions?

[Dragy2k]

hi
well the drivers should be nice and mature by the time i dip my toe in this pond.:cool:

[ChaosMinionX]

cant wait!!!

[ThatGuy16]

Woot! so it should be coming out the same day my second 3870 arrives

Am i the only one that gets excited over new drivers? :shrug:

[junkun13]

i've been waiting for this :D

[vmsein]

Outstanding!!! Been waiting for these since the release of the 3870X2. Happy day tomorrow:)

[003]

Does the HD2000 series get tessellation support? It had :banana::banana::banana::banana:ing better, it uses the same tessellation chip/engine as the HD3000, though it's little talked about.

Man it seems like ATI has given the HD2000 series the shaft, even though it continuously wins 3dmark world records and overclocks like a beast.

[NapalmV5]

Digital Panel GPU image scaling: For those using widescreen displays, ATI Catalyst now allows users to enable GPU-accelerated scaling to maintain the aspect ratio of the display while providing superior image quality.

funny.. scaling worked perfectly fine prior to cats 6.5 without ccc

since then scaling has been a long hellish road..

im very curious what theyve fixed and broken this time..

[Nosfer@tu]

http://www.octeamdenmark.com/forums/showthread.php?p=12441#post12441
It is online now :)
Not at AMD yet though :D

[KoHaN69]

"ATI Catalyst introduces anti-aliasing support for all Unreal Engine 3.0-based games running in DirectX 9 mode."
-That's great, now recode it completely to AA with shaders instead of ROPs!!


Digital Panel GPU image scaling: For those using widescreen displays, ATI Catalyst now allows users to enable GPU-accelerated scaling to maintain the aspect ratio of the display while providing superior image quality.
-So can it letter/blackbox the screen? if it does: OMFG, that's amazing, do you people realise how awesome this is?

[0maro]

Waiting for x64 Vista version of CAT:)

[roadie]

Seems to be one of the more significant Catalyst updates. I'll install these in the next few days, I guess.

[ChaosMinionX]

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a168/ChaosMinionX/Capture-13.jpg



:D :D :D :D :D


Time to put CrossfireX through the ropes!

[donitsi]

:D :D :D :D :D
Time to put CrossfireX through the ropes!

Benchies please!! :D

[Sly Fox]

Well these drivers have done it for me.

Just put down the order on a Sapphire 3870x2. Hopefully I can finally play Crysis at half decent FPS now :P

[zerazax]

NICE! i cant wait for benchies

[jimmyz]

no hybrid x-fire yet, shows the crossfire-x dialog but says both bridges must be connected and the 3870x2 only has 1? put in my other card and same message, so 1 3870 x2 and 2 3850's not working together, waiting for rma return on my second 3870x2 is gonna kill me.

[STaRGaZeR]

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a168/ChaosMinionX/Capture-13.jpg



:D :D :D :D :D


Time to put CrossfireX through the ropes!

Test! test! TEST! :lol: :D

Have fun mate :up:

[GunterFalstaff]

WOW finally 3870x2 crossfire! i think i might actually make the jump from 3870s to the x2s =P. good luck chaos!

[mascaras]

catalyst 8.3 Vista 32bit already avaible for Download

http://downloads.guru3d.com/AMD-ATI-Catalyst-8.3-Vista-(32-bit)-download-1871.html

:up:

[BulldogPO]

Where in the hell is that Vista X64 cat?

[SafeFire]

Cool, on my birthday. Niceeeee
Happy birthday :up:

That looks pretty sweet, makes me wish I had an amd card right now.

[003]

Where the hell is the download for XP x64??

[junkun13]

just intalled it, no performance gain on my 3870 CF :(

[sonofander]

someone post some freaking x2 crossfire results already!!!

[Syn.]

someone post some freaking x2 crossfire results already!!!

Here you go...

http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTQ3MCwxLCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==

[vmsein]

Here is a quick run of 3D Mark 03 with the new driver:

http://img107.imageshack.us/img107/627/cfxun8.th.jpg (http://img107.imageshack.us/my.php?image=cfxun8.jpg)

[STaRGaZeR]

Vista x64 :wasntme:

[tictac]

Here is a quick run of 3D Mark 03 with the new driver:

http://img107.imageshack.us/img107/627/cfxun8.th.jpg (http://img107.imageshack.us/my.php?image=cfxun8.jpg)

:woot: :up:

[C-N]

Hi Guys & galls

I just got my first ever decent ATI/AMD card a 3870 X2 (nVidia fanboy up until now :sofa: )

I am just downloading the Catalyst 8.3 driver now & plan on installing the new driver in an hour or so & then all going well I'll post a few benchmarks if anyone is interested.

I have a couple of questions if anyone can point me in the right direction I would appreciate it.

1: What does everyone use to overclock these cards?

2: What can I reasonably expect to get this card up to without any mods?

CN :)

[ChaosMinionX]

FYI- The 32bit download from guru3d is Vista64 as well :)

Its what I am using.

[Eastcoasthandle]

Here you go...

http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTQ3MCwxLCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==

They are still using betas. Take it with a grain of salt ;)

[vmsein]

Hi Guys & galls

I just got my first ever decent ATI/AMD card a 3870 X2 (nVidia fanboy up until now :sofa: )

I am just downloading the Catalyst 8.3 driver now & plan on installing the new driver in an hour or so & then all going well I'll post a few benchmarks if anyone is interested.

I have a couple of questions if anyone can point me in the right direction I would appreciate it.

1: What does everyone use to overclock these cards?

2: What can I reasonably expect to get this card up to without any mods?

CN :)
Try AMDGPU clock tool for overclocking. Works well for me, except that you have to reset your clocks with every reboot.
You should be able to safely reach 920mhz for the core and 1000mhz for the ram without artifacts on stock cooling. Good luck!

[xoqolatl]

1: What does everyone use to overclock these cards?
Riva Tuner, optionally: clocks flashed into bios (that's what I use)

2: What can I reasonably expect to get this card up to without any mods?
I get 18.5k in 3Dm06 with sig rig, so I'd say you should do 19k easily, maybe 20k

[Syn.]

They are still using betas. Take it with a grain of salt ;)

Yea i know but everything was working fine, the guys at [H] seem impressed.


What we do like though is the simple seamless nature of "new" CrossFireX. It has greatly matured. Both of our CrossFireX video cards installed perfectly and CrossFireX was enabled automatically with no effort on our part beyond installing the driver. CrossFireX technology also offers multi-display support which is a huge advantage over NVIDIA’s SLI right now. CrossFire technology has come a very long way since its introduction. To put it simply, AMD’s CrossFireX has trumped NVIDIA’s SLI in terms of usability and features. Now AMD simply needs to be able to compete at the "ultra" GPU level.

Perhaps down the road the right games will be released that truly showcase the advantages of two Radeon HD 3870 X2s in CrossFireX, but hopefully before then we will see some driver tweaks that make Crysis scaling work more efficiently. Currently, the huge price tag greatly diminishes the value as it stands today. But really it is not the fault of the hardware but rather the fact that there are simply not enough new games out there that are graphically challenging enough to show off all the multi-GPU power we have at our fingertips today.

[Der_KHAN]

CrossFireX technology also offers multi-display support which is a huge advantage over NVIDIA’s SLI right now.sweeeeeet :)

just imagine if u could use more than two displays. no more matrox triple head required!

[xoqolatl]

HydraVision reminds me of nView that was present in Forceware long time ago.. I loved it, especially mulit desktop feature and window transparency settings. Now HydraVision has multiple desktops, and I don't need transparency anymore. I'm loving this release so far :up:
I'll check if flickering in TF2 is gone, if it is, I'm the happiest man :D

[LowRun]

I like the tessellation part a lot, hope programmers will use it extensively :up:

[ChaosMinionX]

In case anyone was wondering about the download link on Guru3d.....

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a168/ChaosMinionX/Capture-14.jpg


It has both Vista32, and Vista64 drivers in it. And that is the Screenshot of how CCC looks.

Cheers

[cadaveca]

ChaosMinionX, great, did you actually use the driver, pr jsut start posting pics? 3dmark stutters BAD.
Yea i know but everything was working fine, the guys at [H] seem impressed.

And they obviously still don't know what they are talking about...FPS and 3DMark numbers, do not a product make!

My 2900's are currently faster, quieter, and cooler, and 2x3870x2. They also have less prominant "stutter"(the cards emit high amts of electrical noise when stuttering, too), and don't show artifacts while in 2D. 8.3 is nnot available yet...maybe when it comes things will be better.

[Eastcoasthandle]

OK folks the Cat 8.3 is ready for download :up:

[pazza316]

Guys what improvements are you seeing on CrossfireX, in actual games?

[Eastcoasthandle]

Please make sure you uninstall the Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Redistributable program found in "Add or Remove Programs" (from other Cat installs that use this program) before install Cat 8.3. I have found 2 of them installed on my computer. It appears they do not uninstall along with the rest of the drivers (not sure of Vista users).

[ZoLKoRn]

Already on AMD site now for 8.3 version :up:

http://game.amd.com/us-en/drivers_catalyst.aspx

[w0mbat]

AA working w/ X1900 XT @ XP32bit @ UT3, GoW, Stranglehold, MoH: A & BioShock :)

[Eastcoasthandle]

Anti-Aliasing Enhancements

This release of Catalyst™ introduces anti-aliasing support for all Unreal Engine 3.0 based games (running in DirectX 9 mode). Users can enable Anti-Aliasing for titles such as Gears of War and Unreal Tournament 3 by simply enabling Anti-Aliasing within the ATI Catalyst™ Control Center.

Did they forget:
-Frontline Fuels of War
-BioShock
-Medal of Honor: Airborne


And Future games like:
-Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 (3-18-2008) (Ding-Ding)
-Tom Clancy's EndWar
-Huxley
-Turning Point: Fall of Liberty

They really need to let people know what kind of games to expect using their drivers for AA.

[ghost101]

i think "such as" means "for example". They dont have to list every game using the ut3 engine. Besides, including future games itd be a very long list.

[Monkeywoman]

w0mbat, what OS are you using? i have xp x64, is it worth it for up to update from 7.10 to 8.3?

[Eastcoasthandle]

i think "such as" means "for example". They dont have to list every game using the ut3 engine. Besides, including future games itd be a very long list.

Thus the reason why I said they needs to market their drivers better. They shouldn't expect people to know what games use Unreal 3 engine. Specially when you imply they don't even know. :up:
It possible that it could lead to people thinking that this (and future) drivers are only good for those 2 games when it's not.

[003]

I like the tessellation part a lot, hope programmers will use it extensively :up:

Yeah, and even though the HD2900 series has the exact same programmable tessellation unit as the HD3800, they only say the HD3800 will be supported. This is really starting to piss me the :banana::banana::banana::banana: off, owners of the HD2900 cards are getting the shaft and features that are supported in hardware by the 2900 such as tessellation are only getting software support on the 3800.

What the :banana::banana::banana::banana: is the reasoning behind that? :down: And crossfireX only works in vista? This is :banana::banana::banana::banana:ing gay.

[w0mbat]

@Monkeywoman: Im running XP-32bit and its one good driver, its worth updating :)

Rainbow Six: Vegas & Frontlines: FoW also confirmed working w/ AA.

[v_rr]

Great driver launch.
It must be a pararel driver development team working on these ones.

With this launch they only have to keep correct bugs and optimizing crossfire-X. that looks much more apelative right now.

[C-N]

Got my 3870 x2 up & running using the Catalyst v8.3 all is well, 3DMARK06 runs 19k with my Q6600 @ 480 X 8 & my RAM @ DDR1200 CL5 so I'm a happy camper.

One small niggle is ATI Overdrive is not there, I've scouted about & it appears from what others with earlier cards are saying that the Power Color BIOS has the Overdrive feature disabled anyone else got this issue?

CN:)

[WrigleyVillain]

Yeah, and even though the HD2900 series has the exact same programmable tessellation unit as the HD3800, they only say the HD3800 will be supported. This is really starting to piss me the :banana::banana::banana::banana: off, owners of the HD2900 cards are getting the shaft and features that are supported in hardware by the 2900 such as tessellation are only getting software support on the 3800.

What the :banana::banana::banana::banana: is the reasoning behind that? :down: And crossfireX only works in vista? This is :banana::banana::banana::banana:ing gay.

QFT. All those dancing bananas are justified.

[CyberDruid]

I got some dancing bananas for ya. It does not work with the HD3870X2...

Just installed 8.3 and ran 3D06 and got identical scores...it's a load of crap.

[Unbornchild]

One small niggle is ATI Overdrive is not there, I've scouted about & it appears from what others with earlier cards are saying that the Power Color BIOS has the Overdrive feature disabled anyone else got this issue?


Because you have a p35 chipset (PCI-e 1). You'd need a PSU with a 8-pin cable or/and x38/48 (PCI-e 2.0) to get the Overdrive option in CCC.

[STaRGaZeR]

Because you have a p35 chipset (PCI-e 1). You'd need a PSU with a 8-pin cable or/and x38/48 (PCI-e 2.0) to get the Overdrive option in CCC.

Uh, I think the only requirement is the 8pin PCI.E power conector.

BTW, anybody have AA working in UT3 engine titles using DX9 and Vista64? Gears of War doesn't work... :(

[C-N]

Because you have a p35 chipset (PCI-e 1). You'd need a PSU with a 8-pin cable or/and x38/48 (PCI-e 2.0) to get the Overdrive option in CCC.

Thanks for the reply I was starting to think this Powercolor was a 1/2 crippled chunk blower.

Interesting about the P35 v1 & x38/48 v2 PCI-e specs I'll have to do a bit more investigating on that one. I am hoping to crossfire this card with another on an x48 board, probably the DDR2 ASUS Rampage so it would be worth knowing about.

I just found out about the 8 pin connector so it looks like the card will be fine once I work out how to power it properly. Its typical my OCZ 1010w PSU is almost new :rolleyes:

CN :)

[003]

BTW, anybody have AA working in UT3 engine titles using DX9 and Vista64? Gears of War doesn't work... :(

Works fine in UT3 for me under XP x64. Can't say performance is anything to brag about..

[ChaosMinionX]

ChaosMinionX, great, did you actually use the driver, pr jsut start posting pics? 3dmark stutters BAD.


And they obviously still don't know what they are talking about...FPS and 3DMark numbers, do not a product make!

My 2900's are currently faster, quieter, and cooler, and 2x3870x2. They also have less prominant "stutter"(the cards emit high amts of electrical noise when stuttering, too), and don't show artifacts while in 2D. 8.3 is nnot available yet...maybe when it comes things will be better.

I am currently benching all of it, I have yet to see any stuttering from my cards. Are you sure you uninstalled 8.2/ or whatever you had properly? Because I had a stuttering problem when I had remnants of old drivers, and bad entries and whatnot.

I also dont see how your 2900s can be faster than even a single 3870 X2, and I have also not seen any 2d artifacts are you sure your card isnt damaged? I heard some stuff about bad cores on 3870X2's floating about, might be something to look into man....


I got some dancing bananas for ya. It does not work with the HD3870X2...

Just installed 8.3 and ran 3D06 and got identical scores...it's a load of crap.

What does not work?

[STaRGaZeR]

Works fine in UT3 for me under XP x64. Can't say performance is anything to brag about..

Mmm seems that XP32 & 64 works, but I just can't enable it in Vista64. I will ask a friend that has it too for confirmation...

[Syn.]

Uh, I think the only requirement is the 8pin PCI.E power conector.

BTW, anybody have AA working in UT3 engine titles using DX9 and Vista64? Gears of War doesn't work... :(

Tried it in Frontlines: FOW and the AA seems to be always disabled as the level loads no matter what AA setting i use.

[initialised]

I got some dancing bananas for ya. It does not work with the HD3870X2...

Just installed 8.3 and ran 3D06 and got identical scores...it's a load of crap.We saw a boost of ~1k in 3DMark06 and a gain of ~2K by enabling quadfire on 2x 3870x2s.

1x2 (8.2) = ~16k
1x2 (8.3) = ~17k
2x2 (8.3) = ~19k
E8400, 4GB 800MHz 4-4-4-12, P5N, V64

[ownage]

Driver work fine for me.
On a dutch forum i read someone had a huge performance increase with Crysis@dx10 and COD4 with 2 hd2900xt's crossfire'd.

[zerazax]

i bet 3d06 is going to get you CPU limited at that res hence a lot of scores aren't increasing w/ CF.... guys using LN2 and stuff are getting high high scores w/ quads at 5ghz+

[cadaveca]

I am currently benching all of it, I have yet to see any stuttering from my cards. Are you sure you uninstalled 8.2/ or whatever you had properly? Because I had a stuttering problem when I had remnants of old drivers, and bad entries and whatnot.

I also dont see how your 2900s can be faster than even a single 3870 X2, and I have also not seen any 2d artifacts are you sure your card isnt damaged? I heard some stuff about bad cores on 3870X2's floating about, might be something to look into man....



Will do, thanks for confirmation. Cards were boxed until yesterday, my second set. I'll try your suggestion, although I DID remove drivers first...re-installed .net, etc, etc..:confused: window scroll and 3dMark are affected currently, but doesn't matter, i think, as offical driver has been released.

And yes, 2900's are per-clock faster than 3870's, by a fair amt(notice the top guys still suing 2900's to break records, not 3870's:stick:). Cooled under HR-03 R600's, voltmoded, 900mhz core is a breeze(ES cards now, higher default vmem). Haven't modded bioses yet for 3870x2...

[ChaosMinionX]

Will do, thanks for confirmation. Cards were boxed until yesterday, my second set. I'll try your suggestion, although I DID remove drivers first...re-installed .net, etc, etc..:confused: window scroll and 3dMark are affected currently, but doesn't matter, i think, as offical driver has been released.

And yes, 2900's are per-clock faster than 3870's, by a fair amt(notice the top guys still suing 2900's to break records, not 3870's:stick:). Cooled under HR-03 R600's, voltmoded, 900mhz core is a breeze(ES cards now, higher default vmem). Haven't modded bioses yet for 3870x2...

Ahh yeah, uninstall the drivers with ATI's program (express uninstall+manager)....then use DriverCleaner to remove ATI/CCC/Hydravision/Uninstall Utility/Install Manager....

Then get a registry cleaner and run that and also look for any ATI folders left in the install directory, and also clear the extraction directory.... I also used M$ MSI Cleanup Utility, it got rid of all the old ATI stuff in there.

And 2900s being faster than 3870s per clock is due to the 512bit bus ey?

[Monkeywoman]

Ahh yeah, uninstall the drivers with ATI's program (express uninstall+manager)....then use DriverCleaner to remove ATI/CCC/Hydravision/Uninstall Utility/Install Manager....

Then get a registry cleaner and run that and also look for any ATI folders left in the install directory, and also clear the extraction directory.... I also used M$ MSI Cleanup Utility, it got rid of all the old ATI stuff in there.

WOW, thats a lot of stuff u did. y doesn't ati make an "upgrade" button?

[ChaosMinionX]

WOW, thats a lot of stuff u did. y doesn't ati make an "upgrade" button?

Alot of stuff, but makes it like the drivers were never installed at all... I live by doing a complete uninstall, have had some unpleasant things happen installing over top of drivers. Especially ones that have significant changes such as 8.3

[SparkyJJO]

Running an X1950XT - any point to me upgrading drivers on that? I have 8.2 right now.

[cadaveca]

Ahh yeah, uninstall the drivers with ATI's program (express uninstall+manager)....then use DriverCleaner to remove ATI/CCC/Hydravision/Uninstall Utility/Install Manager....

Then get a registry cleaner and run that and also look for any ATI folders left in the install directory, and also clear the extraction directory.... I also used M$ MSI Cleanup Utility, it got rid of all the old ATI stuff in there.

And 2900s being faster than 3870s per clock is due to the 512bit bus ey?

Honestly, I am not sure, but my own testing with all three cards confirms that R600 is faster than RV670, but RV670 will scale higher, defeating R600 under such circumstances. I tend to notice the difference more than some, due to running 2560x1600 most often, so yeah, I blame the membus a bit.

I do the same, but manually do what drivercleaner does...sometimes it will remove something that was needed, and doesn't deal with additional stuff required by the drivers, which I like to update on every install. Takes some times, but as you've seen yourself, works well.

WOW, thats a lot of stuff u did. y doesn't ati make an "upgrade" button?

There used to be one, but in the end, changes were not complete if for some reason part of the installed driver had a earlier date or file version than that of the previously installed driver.

Sparky...you'll have to wait a couple days before we can tell...I've got X1950Crossfire set-up, I'll let ya know in the coming days..end of my workweek today ;)

[SturmoV]

I lost the Crossfire tab in CCC after upgrading to these... :confused:

P.S nevermind, returned after a hard reboot.

[STaRGaZeR]

- Remember what I was saying about Crysis, getting crappy fps in some places in DX9 mode due to cards going to 2D mode? It's fixed in 8.3 :D

- Remember Jedi Academy not working with the 3800 series? It's fixed now :D

But...

- I can't enable AA in Unreal games.

- In the Video section, Basic Color controls work just fine. But Advanced Color (Color Vibrance & Flesh Tone Correction) and Advanced Quality (Edge-Enhancement & De-noise) does nothing for me, playing video with and without overlay, with different video renderers and with different players.

Any suggestions?

[Syn.]

WOW, thats a lot of stuff u did. y doesn't ati make an "upgrade" button?

Earlier version had an upgrade option i guess that went away when there where few conflicts happening.

[w0mbat]

Alot of stuff, but makes it like the drivers were never installed at all... I live by doing a complete uninstall, have had some unpleasant things happen installing over top of drivers. Especially ones that have significant changes such as 8.3

AA @ UE3 games :up:

[GunterFalstaff]

has anyone else noticed that this 8.3 driver is a big joke??
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=179548
after the upgrade my computer has been runnign worse than when using 8.2... what gives?

[w0mbat]

@GunterFalstaff: Yes, on ur PC - but on all others its going well.

[Eastcoasthandle]

I was playing BF2 yesterday and noticed that the Cat's AF is on. Even though it's set to application by default. Here look at this:

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a154/eastcoasthandle/bf2/th_BF2_PreviousCat.png (http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a154/eastcoasthandle/bf2/BF2_PreviousCat.png)
Prior cat

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a154/eastcoasthandle/bf2/th_BF2_Cat83.png (http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a154/eastcoasthandle/bf2/BF2_Cat83.png)
Cat 8.3

Both have the same in game settings and with the same Cat settings. Yet Cat 8.3 AF appears to still be on.

The cross walk and the lettering on the store fronts offer the best example. You may need to get a close up on the lettering on the store front.

[Syn.]

I was playing BF2 yesterday and noticed that the Cat's AF is on. Even though it's set to application by default. Here look at this:

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a154/eastcoasthandle/bf2/th_BF2_PreviousCat.png (http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a154/eastcoasthandle/bf2/BF2_PreviousCat.png)
Prior cat

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a154/eastcoasthandle/bf2/th_BF2_Cat83.png (http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a154/eastcoasthandle/bf2/BF2_Cat83.png)
Cat 8.3

Both have the same in game settings and with the same Cat settings. Yet Cat 8.3 AF appears to still be on.

The cross walk and the lettering on the store fronts offer the best example. You may need to get a close up on the lettering on the store front.

Damn its been ages since i saw the streets of Karkland.

I think the only way to know for sure if there is a FPS drop, AF is very angle dependent so it could be just that you are looking at it from different postion.

[Eastcoasthandle]

No, that's not the case. Even when AF 16x is enabled it makes no difference unlike the previous drivers

[Syn.]

No, that's not the case. Even when AF 16x is enabled it makes no difference unlike the previous drivers

Ok but does the FPS drop with 8.3?

[cadaveca]

FPS drops HUGELY running 2x 3870x2 whne apps first load(then it will slowly speed up). DRivers work partially...

default 3dMARK(3.6ghz quad):

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm06=5594901

2650x1600:

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm06=5594958


SO far Souce-based games work, Bioshock does not, Hellgate London does not.

[STaRGaZeR]

I've submmited a ticket to ATI regarding the issue of AA not working in UE3 games under Windows Vista. The answer is the following:

Our engineers have notified me that it is currently a known issue that they are aware of and they would be addressing it in an upcoming driver.

[Sly Fox]

Still getting 30 FPS in Cod4, 55 in UT3, and 30 in Crysis with these drivers on a 3870x2.

All multi-GPU fixes and whatnot, and the system detects both cards.

I'm 99% certain it's a Vista 64 bug and the cards are staying in 2d mode.

Anyone know of good Sapphire 3870x2 bios I could use to fix this? And perhaps turn the fan up too.

Thanks.

[road-runner]

I just installed Vista Business 64 bit with 2-3870x2s and a new QX9650 cat 8.3s. Scores are depressing with 3DMark06 at 4200mhz and stock video cards. http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm06=5622671

[Monkeywoman]

23k isnt bad. id say by 8.5 u'll be at 25

[Mad1723]

Hm, question... Is the AGP hotfix is included in this package?

[Rigman]

Does anyone know if there is a Vista 64 driver for the MSI 3870X2's yet?

[Syn.]

Does anyone know if there is a Vista 64 driver for the MSI 3870X2's yet?

Dude....... http://game.amd.com/us-en/drivers_catalyst.aspx?p=vista64/common-vista64