AMD Framepacing Driver 13.8 review

[3DVagabond]

He's referring to the AT review that is the subject of this thread: http://www.anandtech.com/show/7195/amd-frame-pacing-explorer-cat138

See the edit now. It wasn't so clear before. :thumbsup:

 

[Silverforce11]

Except they now DO have good out of the box CF experience (at least on a single non-4k monitor in DX10/11 games), to nudge you back towards the topic of this thread...

Sorry they still dont. Until they have smooth gameplay on multi monitor, they are not offering a complete package. Sure, I can use radeon pro to smooth it out, but if they think they can charge similar $$ to NV's top card when I HAVE to use 3rd party tools for it, they are simply WRONG.

If its cheaper, I can see a case for some quick tweaking to get it running good, but at the same price, no way.

AMD obviously have the same feedback because nobody in their right mind would have folked out $1000 for it.. hence, the price drops.

 

[Black Octagon]

I agree that 1k was too expensive for the 7990, but as you yourself have pointed out, this is no longer the case.

The question of whether CF has an acceptable out of the box experience is a DIFFERENT question, and I maintain that (based on reviews and user reports) it is now acceptable on single monitors running DX9/10 games. This does not mean that I think that the 7990 should now go back up in price to a grand, but rather than the out of the box experience is now acceptable. Period

 

[3DVagabond]

Sorry they still dont. Until they have smooth gameplay on multi monitor, they are not offering a complete package. Sure, I can use radeon pro to smooth it out, but if they think they can charge similar $$ to NV's top card when I HAVE to use 3rd party tools for it, they are simply WRONG.

If its cheaper, I can see a case for some quick tweaking to get it running good, but at the same price, no way.

AMD obviously have the same feedback because nobody in their right mind would have folked out $1000 for it.. hence, the price drops.

Even assuming similar quality, the 690 is just a better overall card (Needs more vram though to be worth a grand). Because of the heat it produces, Tahiti's power usage limits it in a dual GPU card. For single monitor though the 7950 in crossfire would be my choice for dual GPU. It fits the prerequisite of being faster than any single GPU, has enough vram to keep up with the gpu horsepower, and for the money you can't touch it's raw performance.

 

[Dankk]

Uggh... more bizarre performance issues. Fired up GRID 2, and immediately, I noticed that I was only getting ~40 FPS... in the menu. Then I actually started a race. My framerate dropped to a paltry 20 FPS or so. Definitely not normal.

Then I rebooted my machine, ran GRID 2 again, and my framerate was back up to a normal ~70 FPS on Ultra settings. Which is where it should be.

Is anyone else having this problem? Anyone at all? That's COD:BOII, Sleeping Dogs, and now GRID2 I've tested now. I get absolutely awful performance in games sometimes, and then it's fixed by a simple reboot. I don't understand it at all.

I've checked my CPU and GPU usage. Afterburner reports my clocks correctly (1100/1400). GPU usage is exactly where it should be... 100% without Vsync/FPS-limiter. Nothing's hogging my CPU. I have no malware installed, no overbearing background processes.

I just don't get it. I'm getting bad performance out of nowhere. Any other tips before I do a driver-wipe and revert? I can't be the only 13.8 user having these issues.

 

[Silverforce11]

if your pc runs fine, then suddenly slows down for no apparent reason, but is fine after a reboot.. it sounds and smells like a virus, malware or the likes eating up CPU cycles after detecting active net connection after a period of time post boot. etc. You monitor the CPU usage carefully?

 

[Dankk]

if your pc runs fine, then suddenly slows down for no apparent reason, but is fine after a reboot.. it sounds and smells like a virus, malware or the likes eating up CPU cycles after detecting active net connection after a period of time post boot. etc. You monitor the CPU usage carefully?

Yeah, I've been monitoring my CPU usage. Like I said, I have no malware. I even ran a full Malwarebytes system scan in safe mode just to be sure. Comes up with a clean slate.

 

[KompuKare]

Yeah, I've been monitoring my CPU usage. Like I said, I have no malware. I even ran a full Malwarebytes system scan in safe mode just to be sure. Comes up with a clean slate.

May I recommend Process Explorer?
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-gb/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx

While it doesn't make it easy, at least with ProcExp you can see things like hardware interrupts (meaning: most likely a bad driver), svhost (meaning: CPU hogging service and ProcExp can list which services are running in each svhost) and so on. Which can help you to trace a badly behaving program/driver/service.

Point being: there are plenty of things which can behave like malware but are just the result of some bad programming. Of course the easiest way to eliminate these things is probably a clean install preferably to another drive so you can go straight back to the old install if that doesn't solve the problem.

 

[Eymar]

I just don't get it. I'm getting bad performance out of nowhere. Any other tips before I do a driver-wipe and revert? I can't be the only 13.8 user having these issues.

Have the same issue (<40fps in menu, game. Vsync on, 60hz 1080P single monitor, Ultra settings) with 7970 crossfire (all default clocks, CPU, GPU), I'm thinking a re-install of GRID2 is in order. I'll try the reboot, but I turn off crossfire then go into the game which is still laggy with respect to FPS, then go to video settings and switch refresh from 60hz to 50 to 60 again with the last switch the FPS is very noticeable (ie. menu screens definitely running in 60FPS and same goes in game). Don't really want to spend too much time trouble shooting so probably do reinstall of win 7 if fresh install of driver and game doesn't work (thankfully game is using steam cloud so no worry about save progress).

 

[Bubbleawsome]

As I do not have the resources to test the 7990 with 13.8, do you guys think it is worth it at $649?

 

[3DVagabond]

As I do not have the resources to test the 7990 with 13.8, do you guys think it is worth it at $649?

In a word, yes. That level of performance on a single card for $650 is good value. We need to know the rest of your system, though. The biggest issue with the 7990 is heat. If it's put into a case that doesn't offer enough ventilation the card will throttle. There's also power draw, which generates the heat, and whether your PSU is up to it.

 

[Bubbleawsome]

In a word, yes. That level of performance on a single card for $650 is good value. We need to know the rest of your system, though. The biggest issue with the 7990 is heat. If it's put into a case that doesn't offer enough ventilation the card will throttle. There's also power draw, which generates the heat, and whether your PSU is up to it.

It would go with a new build. My current rig would be very unbalanced. i7 870, 8GB 1033 RAM, hd 7770, 550w PSU, dell OEM case with 1 92mm fan and 1280x1024 screen.

 

[3DVagabond]

It would go with a new build. My current rig would be very unbalanced. i7 870, 8GB 1033 RAM, hd 7770, 550w PSU, dell OEM case with 1 92mm fan and 1280x1024 screen.

LOL. Wouldn't be the optimum system to add a 7990 to.


Exactly when are you planning on building? Have you selected any of the components yet?

 

[Bubbleawsome]

LOL. Wouldn't be the optimum system to add a 7990 to.


Exactly when are you planning on building? Have you selected any of the components yet?

It'll be either a 4770k or 4830k build, 16GB RAM and will be built at christmas, the 7990 is for if the 9000 series doesn't come out or the titan doesn't get cheaper by then.

 

[3DVagabond]

The 7990 @ <$700 is a fair price if you need a single card. Personally, I would opt for a pair of 7950's at <$500. The only drawback the 7990 has is it's a lot of power for a single cooler to handle. I've read reviews where the 7990 throttled at stock clocks in a case. It needs a case with excellent airflow and typically isn't going to O/C as well as 2x single cards.

If you decide to go with 2 cards look for a mobo that uses triple spacing (2 empty slots in between the cards) for the pci-e slots to allow good airflow between the cards.


Edit: If AMD's next gen isn't out by then though, I'll eat dirt.

 

[railven]

Anyone notice weird GPU usage lately? I wonder if I'm doing something wrong...

Playing FFXIV and GPU load is as following:
GPU1 - Secondary card - 99%
GPU2 - Primary card - 53%

Kind of weird, I've noticed this lopsided load in Bioshock: Infinite too.

Any ideas why?

 

[spat55]

I don't get hardly any microstutter on BF3, and not any I have noticed on Tomb Raider, some games are bad for it, but on the whole it isn't to bad. The one thing I have noticed now is that I can play them both maxed out with 60FPS yay!

 

[spat55]

Anyone notice weird GPU usage lately? I wonder if I'm doing something wrong...

Playing FFXIV and GPU load is as following:
GPU1 - Secondary card - 99%
GPU2 - Primary card - 53%

Kind of weird, I've noticed this lopsided load in Bioshock: Infinite too.

Any ideas why?

Can be bad scaling, BF3 and Tomb Raider use 99% on both, but some games that are not so supportive use only 60% or less on the slave card. Sometimes adding some extra details on like AA can make it go up slightly without damaging performance. I would have thought being a AMD gaming evolved title it would scale better than that though. I would test it but have uninstalled Bioshock now.

 

[railven]

Can be bad scaling, BF3 and Tomb Raider use 99% on both, but some games that are not so supportive use only 60% or less on the slave card. Sometimes adding some extra details on like AA can make it go up slightly without damaging performance. I would have thought being a AMD gaming evolved title it would scale better than that though. I would test it but have uninstalled Bioshock now.

In my situation, Slave card gets pegged at 99% it's my main card that seems to not want to go over 60%.

 

[TerryMathews]

In my situation, Slave card gets pegged at 99% it's my main card that seems to not want to go over 60%.

Check temps between the cards. I wonder if the slave card is throttling?

 

[railven]

Check temps between the cards. I wonder if the slave card is throttling?

Slave card is usually 5c behind master card with auto-fan. So last night playing Bioshock: Infinite this is what I saw:

GPU1-Slave: 99% load, 65C, Fan @ 50%, clocks 1050/1525 @ 1.125v
GPU2-Primary: 55% load, 60C, fan @ 33%, clocks 1050/1525 @ 1.125v

If I set the fan to 75% Manually, it changed to the following:

GPU1-Slave: 99% load, 60C, Fan @ 75%, clocks 1050/1525 @ 1.125v
GPU2-Primary: 55% load, 52C, fan @ 75%, clocks 1050/1525 @ 1.125v

My temps have recently been a little higher since I built a new desk, where my old desk PC was open in all directions, new desk PC sits under so it's a little more confined (and boy do my feet/legs stay nice and warm ) but temps are only ~2-3C higher than normal (I got decent cooling.)

I personally don't think anything is throttling, just find it weird how CFX loads the GPU now versus before. I wonder what they changed in their drivers.

 

[UaVaj]

GPU1-Slave: 99% load, 65C, Fan @ 50%, clocks 1050/1525 @ 1.125v
GPU2-Primary: 55% load, 60C, fan @ 33%, clocks 1050/1525 @ 1.125v

I personally don't think anything is throttling, just find it weird how CFX loads the GPU now versus before. I wonder what they changed in their drivers.

that is interesting how AMD loads the GPUs to control microstutter.

at the end of the day. all that matters is. if the runt frames are minimize beyond noticing. this new driver seems to fix most of the issue. no where near nvida quality, however seems acceptable. good for amd.

sadly - day late and dollar short.
sold 7970 xfire and bought 680 trisli almost a year ago.

 

[SolMiester]

Uggh... more bizarre performance issues. Fired up GRID 2, and immediately, I noticed that I was only getting ~40 FPS... in the menu. Then I actually started a race. My framerate dropped to a paltry 20 FPS or so. Definitely not normal.

Then I rebooted my machine, ran GRID 2 again, and my framerate was back up to a normal ~70 FPS on Ultra settings. Which is where it should be.

Is anyone else having this problem? Anyone at all? That's COD:BOII, Sleeping Dogs, and now GRID2 I've tested now. I get absolutely awful performance in games sometimes, and then it's fixed by a simple reboot. I don't understand it at all.

I've checked my CPU and GPU usage. Afterburner reports my clocks correctly (1100/1400). GPU usage is exactly where it should be... 100% without Vsync/FPS-limiter. Nothing's hogging my CPU. I have no malware installed, no overbearing background processes.

I just don't get it. I'm getting bad performance out of nowhere. Any other tips before I do a driver-wipe and revert? I can't be the only 13.8 user having these issues.

It has already been stated that 13.8 is for CF (Frame Pacing), not single card improvements...You should go back to 13.6

 

[BallaTheFeared]

13.8b seems to have some improvements for single and cf.

 

[Shmee]

also, it looks like 13.8b2 has fixes for Doom 3 BFG, which I know I had issues with in earlier 13.x drivers.