Cat 8.8 Beta review (Powerplay 2.0 working)

[GAR]

I don't know about with crossfire, but CCC works for me in Vista x64. I won't deny that ATI's drivers suck (as does the CCC), but they suck comparable to nvidias. Have fun going green, if drivers are what you want I'd suggest getting an Intel card.

I used an nvidia card on vista 64 for 1 1/2 years without issues, from my exp. nvidia has better drivers. I can sit here and name 20 issues i have had with ati, but i cant think of 3 from nvidia, good hardware is nothing without better drivers.

[STaRGaZeR]

I used an nvidia card on vista 64 for 1 1/2 years without issues, from my exp. nvidia has better drivers. I can sit here and name 20 issues i have had with ati, but i cant think of 3 from nvidia, good hardware is nothing without better drivers.

Please do, I'd want to hear them.

[Helmore]

I don't know about with crossfire, but CCC works for me in Vista x64. I won't deny that ATI's drivers suck (as does the CCC), but they suck comparable to nvidias. Have fun going green, if drivers are what you want I'd suggest getting an Intel card.

Intel is even worse than NVIDIA or AMD at graphics drivers, at least that is what their chipset graphics drivers so far have shown. I just hope they change that when Larrabee arrives.

BTW GAR, are you complaining about some problems with Beta drivers? Or did you have some official drivers? If it's the former then I'd say stop complaining as there is a reason for the driver to still be in a beta phase.
About driver problems, I have never had any of those, not with NVIDIA and not with ATI. So I don't have any brand preference based on driver problems.

[Rammsteiner]

nVidia drivers have on major problem:

The interface is crap, I had a 7900GTX and sold it after a week cause I hated the interface. Some people like it, I dont. AMD's drivers are way easier and nicer interface wise. They might have some bugs now and then but hardly are an issue.

Either it's fixed in the next driver or you simply switch back to the previous one

[GAR]

Intel is even worse than NVIDIA or AMD at graphics drivers, at least that is what their chipset graphics drivers so far have shown. I just hope they change that when Larrabee arrives.

BTW GAR, are you complaining about some problems with Beta drivers? Or did you have some official drivers? If it's the former then I'd say stop complaining as there is a reason for the driver to still be in a beta phase.
About driver problems, I have never had any of those, not with NVIDIA and not with ATI. So I don't have any brand preference based on driver problems.

Ive actually had problems with beta's and non beta's, uhhh and just because its not official, doesnt mean its not supposed to install, my issues have been with installation, CCC not working, older games running slow, DX errors all over the place, the only games that work are Valve games work flawless, COD 4 works flawless, many games ive tried have had issues.

[GAR]

nVidia drivers have on major problem:

The interface is crap, I had a 7900GTX and sold it after a week cause I hated the interface. Some people like it, I dont. AMD's drivers are way easier and nicer interface wise. They might have some bugs now and then but hardly are an issue.

Either it's fixed in the next driver or you simply switch back to the previous one

Actually, judging by your sig i can tell you are a AMD fanboy, as drivers progress for the 4800 series, this is with vista 64 and crossfire, things get worse....and if you read my comments, i always say this is my own experience, and i dont care for yours or anyone else, because im the one with the issues, i dont need to hear how nice your drivers and computer is, the fact is you dont have an identical setup as mine, and dont tell me some B/S like reinstall your OS, this is all with brand new OS install. And like i said, from MY OWN EXPERIENCE i have had no issues with nvidia in vista 64, prior to this card i had plenty of nvidia cards for 2 years running vista 64.

[Helmore]

You should not portray your own experience as a general fact then, you are only talking about a specific case and not for every single system.

[STEvil]

I hate CCC, since they went to it i've had nothing but issues.

The actual drivers have never given me an unsolvable issue though.

[kryptobs2000]

nVidia drivers have on major problem:

The interface is crap, I had a 7900GTX and sold it after a week cause I hated the interface. Some people like it, I dont. AMD's drivers are way easier and nicer interface wise. They might have some bugs now and then but hardly are an issue.

Either it's fixed in the next driver or you simply switch back to the previous one

I like the CCC interface over nvidias in regards to their 3d settings (AA/AF etc). I like how they show a preview window of before and after, but why can't you expand the left ing column! How ing elementary is that ? And I really really miss nvidias game profiles when moving over to ATI. I just don't bother using AA/AF a lot of times due to how cumbersome that is.

[STaRGaZeR]

Actually, judging by your sig i can tell you are a AMD fanboy, as drivers progress for the 4800 series, this is with vista 64 and crossfire, things get worse....and if you read my comments, i always say this is my own experience, and i dont care for yours or anyone else, because im the one with the issues, i dont need to hear how nice your drivers and computer is, the fact is you dont have an identical setup as mine, and dont tell me some B/S like reinstall your OS, this is all with brand new OS install. And like i said, from MY OWN EXPERIENCE i have had no issues with nvidia in vista 64, prior to this card i had plenty of nvidia cards for 2 years running vista 64.

Your problem is Crossfire, drivers for CF sucks a$$. Remove one of the cards and play a bit, you'll realice all those problems are gone. This will not fix your extrange installation issues though.

[GAR]

Your problem is Crossfire, drivers for CF sucks a$$. Remove one of the cards and play a bit, you'll realice all those problems are gone. This will not fix your extrange installation issues though.

Yes i realize problems are probably due to crossfire, BUT i dont want to be stuck with a single 4850, i game on a 24" lcd so i need more power for AA/AF use, anyway im thinking about a GTX 280, single GPU is the best solution, slapping 2 gpu's with a bridge is still gonna give same issues , from now on, i will stick to a single powerful gpu.

[Cooper]

So what ARE the problems in apps GAR ?

[STaRGaZeR]

Yes i realize problems are probably due to crossfire, BUT i dont want to be stuck with a single 4850, i game on a 24" lcd so i need more power for AA/AF use, anyway im thinking about a GTX 280, single GPU is the best solution, slapping 2 gpu's with a bridge is still gonna give same issues , from now on, i will stick to a single powerful gpu.

I know, just saying the problem is limited to CF only. You should have gone with the GTX280 from the beginning if you want that perfomance and you don't want CF/SLI problems.

[GAR]

So what ARE the problems in apps GAR ?

Well i tried the new Flatout game, with 8xaa it runs at 2fps, even without AA, frames dip below 30 alot, GTA SA runs like crap, my 7800gtx runs it better, World in conflict wont run, grid gives errors and goes to desktop, i can name a few more but its gonna be a waste of time, someone is going to preach on how they love amd, and they wanna give amd driver team a hug and a kiss, lmao anyway, enless you can help me, dont bother quoting me, its useless.

[purecain]

if ccc isnt installing correctly (which does happen) then you need to reinstall vista... i've only had to do this when i've been playing with beta drivers and they havnt uninstalled correctly....

ati drivers vs nvidia.... ati everytime..imo....

powerplay 2.0 seems to of been an advertising gimmick...

gar... i play grid and have never had an error whilst using crossfire... and all those other issues, well i can see a fresh install in your near future....

[GAR]

I know, just saying the problem is limited to CF only. You should have gone with the GTX280 from the beginning if you want that perfomance and you don't want CF/SLI problems.

I got the cards for $275 out the door, i can still sell them and make money so at this moment its a matter of when i choose to sell, which is very soon.

[GAR]

if ccc isnt installing correctly (which does happen) then you need to reinstall vista... i've only had to do this when i've been playing with beta drivers and they havnt uninstalled correctly....

ati drivers vs nvidia.... ati everytime..imo....

powerplay 2.0 seems to of been an advertising gimmick...

Do you ever read peoples posts when you reply to them? i said this is a brand new install and this has happened before with NEW installs.

[gosh]

http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?p=2795856

[Toysoldier]

Well i tried the new Flatout game, with 8xaa it runs at 2fps, even without AA, frames dip below 30 alot, GTA SA runs like crap, my 7800gtx runs it better, World in conflict wont run, grid gives errors and goes to desktop, i can name a few more but its gonna be a waste of time, someone is going to preach on how they love amd, and they wanna give amd driver team a hug and a kiss, lmao anyway, enless you can help me, dont bother quoting me, its useless.

I haven't had a single of the issues you describe. All the games mentioned runs great.
I'm not going to preach, but it seriously looks like you have some issues with your rig. Have you tried express removing ATI drivers and then running driver sweeper in safe mode ( http://www.guru3d.com/category/driversweeper/ ) ? and then remove any left over ATI files and then install the drivers again ?

If you can't play GRID or WIC then there is something very odd going on and it's not just your ATI cards fault.

[Mechromancer]

I haven't had a single of the issues you describe. All the games mentioned runs great.
I'm not going to preach, but it seriously looks like you have some issues with your rig. Have you tried express removing ATI drivers and then running driver sweeper in safe mode ( http://www.guru3d.com/category/driversweeper/ ) ? and then remove any left over ATI files and then install the drivers again ?

If you can't play GRID or WIC then there is something very odd going on and it's not just your ATI cards fault.

+1, your rig is the culprit. Swallow your pride and do some troubleshooting before you noob it up at XS. DriverCleaner and DriverSweeper will get you going again. Use them in Safe Mode.

[initialised]

I have a few systems on the bench I can try these on, will try and get 3D06 numbers tomorrow. Just in time for our i34 show systems!

8.52, 8.6 and 8.7 vs these.

As far as I know PowerPlay is for use on Hybrid (7x0G) boards and should shut down discrete graphics when not in use. To do this the feature must exist and be enabled in BIOS and the primary display must be attached to the onboard video card. In Crossfire systems it operates in a similar way, powering down all but the primary card.

Links to my DropBox for the Cat 8.8 first time I've tried this, let me know if it works:
Vista
XP32

[gosh]

ATI PowerPlay™ Technology

* Advanced power management technology for optimal performance and power savings
* Performance-on-Demand
o Constantly monitors GPU activity, dynamically adjusting clocks and voltage based on user scenario
o Clock and memory speed throttling
o Voltage switching
o Dynamic clock gating
o Central thermal management – on-chip sensor monitors GPU temperature and triggers thermal actions as required

[GAR]

I haven't had a single of the issues you describe. All the games mentioned runs great.
I'm not going to preach, but it seriously looks like you have some issues with your rig. Have you tried express removing ATI drivers and then running driver sweeper in safe mode ( http://www.guru3d.com/category/driversweeper/ ) ? and then remove any left over ATI files and then install the drivers again ?

If you can't play GRID or WIC then there is something very odd going on and it's not just your ATI cards fault.

Yeah i use drive cleaner and driver sweeper, i get 20k in 3dmark 06, and 13k in vantage, its not my rig, its the drivers, are you using vista 64?

[dnottis]

Finally got them to install after 3 tries, CCC still doesnt work under Vista 64, I can care less if anyone agrees, ATI's drivers suck a$$

CCC works fine here, Vista 64. Reinstall FTW!

[Shadowmage]

Uh huh, nope, because two things affects power consumption, voltage and frequency (well and heat, but that's another history). Frequency is the same, and voltage can only be changed via BIOS in the 4870. So

No, that's not correct. The activity factor (ie. what parts of the chip are in use) is also a major part of the power equation (for dynamic power consumption).

Assuming that the drivers control PowerPlay (which controls clock gating as well), it could be possible that the new drivers tweak the clock gating parameters much more aggressively than the previous drivers, assuming that ATI provided opcodes to do this.