AMD "Never Settle" 12.11 Driver - benchmarks are in!

Page 6 - Seeking answers? Join the AnandTech community: where nearly half-a-million members share solutions and discuss the latest tech.

chimaxi83

Diamond Member
May 18, 2003
5,457
63
101
Yes, its a grand conspiracy as to why they're improving their drivers and offering bundles. Let's not buy their hardware because of it!

Again, the only people that seem to care and bring up financials are Nvidia fans. Weird.

My DC II 680 was on water, and the voltage mod/hotwire thread I made on here is still up.
 

badb0y

Diamond Member
Feb 22, 2010
4,015
30
91
Really guys? Crying about free performance and games? Nice showing your true colors to everyone.

Everyone wins in this scenario, people who own 7xxx series cards get a free 5-10% performance, people who are buying new cards get a REALLY solid deal with the free games, people who have nVidia cards will probably soon see a performance driver of their own, people who like to buy nVidia cards - this might actually pressure nVidia in to lowering prices or offering better deals.

I don't know why you guys would try to spin this any other way. Everyone wins, stop crying about trivial shit "Oh but the power consumption went up 14w lol wow way to burn my house down AMD" or "PROFIT PROFIT AMD TOO STUPID TO MAKE MONEYS, WHY BUNDLE SO GOOD? Cause AMD sux keke"

93095c_4031009.jpg
 

Rvenger

Elite Member <br> Super Moderator <br> Video Cards
Apr 6, 2004
6,283
5
81
That's nice, but it doesn't change the fact that AMD is offering these bundles and better perf/price because they aren't getting the sales they want.


AMD always offered bundles.


Winzip Pro (yeah I had to add that because I mistakenly got an AMD voucher for purchasing a GTX 670)

Battlefield 3
Deus EX: Human Revolution
Total War: Shogun 2
Dirt 3
Dirt Showdown
Nexuiz
Sonic Generations
Farcry 3
Hitman Absolution
Sleeping dogs


In the last 2 years, Nvidia offered:
Batman AC
BL2

Am I missing anything else?
 

Rvenger

Elite Member <br> Super Moderator <br> Video Cards
Apr 6, 2004
6,283
5
81
Everyone wins in this scenario, people who own 7xxx series cards get a free 5-10% performance, people who are buying new cards get a REALLY solid deal with the free games, people who have nVidia cards will probably soon see a performance driver of their own, people who like to buy nVidia cards - this might actually pressure nVidia in to lowering prices or offering better deals.

This!
 

blastingcap

Diamond Member
Sep 16, 2010
6,654
5
76
Really guys? Crying about free performance and games? Nice showing your true colors to everyone.

Everyone wins in this scenario, people who own 7xxx series cards get a free 5-10% performance, people who are buying new cards get a REALLY solid deal with the free games, people who have nVidia cards will probably soon see a performance driver of their own, people who like to buy nVidia cards - this might actually pressure nVidia in to lowering prices or offering better deals.

I don't know why you guys would try to spin this any other way. Everyone wins, stop crying about trivial shit "Oh but the power consumption went up 14w lol wow way to burn my house down AMD" or "PROFIT PROFIT AMD TOO STUPID TO MAKE MONEYS, WHY BUNDLE SO GOOD? Cause AMD sux keke"

93095c_4031009.jpg

+1
 

BallaTheFeared

Diamond Member
Nov 15, 2010
8,115
0
71
Let's drop what I said before, it's not going to go anywhere positive around here.


Did they mention anything about the missing trees, is that part of the missing building bug and the reason the drivers were pulled?

Someone said it doesn't impact performance, but I'm guessing the missing elements is the reason the drivers were pulled.
 

notty22

Diamond Member
Jan 1, 2010
3,375
0
0
AMD always offered bundles.


Winzip Pro (yeah I had to add that because I mistakenly got an AMD voucher for purchasing a GTX 670)

Battlefield 3
Deus EX: Human Revolution
Total War: Shogun 2
Dirt 3
Dirt Showdown
Nexuiz
Sonic Generations
Farcry 3
Hitman Absolution
Sleeping dogs


In the last 2 years, Nvidia offered:
Batman AC
BL2

Am I missing anything else?

Yes, Nvidia has offered up other game offers than you mentioned. I'm not sure it needs to be a pissing match point.
Mafia II
Starcraft II
Just Cause
Civ V

Different scenarios/time periods when those were offered. I still have the paper sheets/keys for most of those above.
 

Bryf50

Golden Member
Nov 11, 2006
1,429
51
91
Any of the sites do any testing on Guild Wars 2? Also it seems a lot of sites didn't test WoW but there's some huge performance increases there. I run WoW on a single 7870 for windowed mode and it was killing my system in some areas.
 

taltamir

Lifer
Mar 21, 2004
13,576
6
76
I don't know why you guys would try to spin this any other way. Everyone wins, stop crying about trivial shit "Oh but the power consumption went up 14w lol wow way to burn my house down AMD" or "PROFIT PROFIT AMD TOO STUPID TO MAKE MONEYS, WHY BUNDLE SO GOOD? Cause AMD sux keke"

You juxtapose a serious and valid argument with a strawmen that is so ridiculous it does not even be actively refuted by you. Thus combining strawman argument AND Reductio Ad Absurdum. (normally multiple fallacies are stated one after the other, maybe even concatenated in a run on sentence... but not simultaneously in the same statement... I have to say I am impressed)

Power consumption going up 14w is a very serious drawback and very reasonable thing to complain about.
It is not FREE performance when you pay more money on your utility bill.

That being said, overall I think it is worth it and that it is a welcome and impressive improvement from AMD... But I am going to support dismissing a legitimate concern with fallacies.
 
Last edited:

RussianSensation

Elite Member
Sep 5, 2003
19,458
765
126
AMD has/had big performance problems.

As did NV but you keep ignoring it. All those titles like Anno 2070, Shogun 2, Alan Wake, etc. ran much slower on NV cards and they only fixed 1 of those - Shogun 2. You seem to continue to ignore major performance gaps NV still has in Metro 2033, Arma II games and so on.

What you see is a result of bad sales of the Radeon products. Price cuts and more bundles are marketing instruments to increase them. nVidia did not need it in the last month. It's like saying that BMW should notice that KIA is giving more stuff for free away if you buy a KIA car.

So AMD is KIA and NV is BMW? I've never seen a KIA beat BMW's cars in any professional reviews. I've also never seen a KIA that offered better materials quality than a BMW. The reference designed GTX670/680 use budget components / cost cutting measures were implemented in their reference designs. NV even banned voltage control due to electromigration above 1.175V + minor dynamic GPU voltage adjustment. AMD cards have no problems taking 1.25-1.3V without failure and in fact AMD warranties them up to 1.256V in GE form. I guess you are saying KIA has better quality than BMW then? It's not AMD's fault so many NV consumers are brand attached like Apple customers are. That's their reality and they tried to combat it with lower prices on HD4000/5000/6000 series and it clearly didn't work. This is why years of developer relations and driver updates helped to cement NV's brand as a safer buy for many customers. Now that AMD is throwing $ at developers and driver optimizations, you seem to have nothing but negative to say about them, while continuing to ignore performance gaps NV's cards have in a ton of games.

Not only that, but AMD now offers more performance, more overclocking with voltage tuning and dual-BIOS switches for safe flashing, and with this game bundle way more value at the same time - an unheard of in the GPU industry. Sorry, not everyone wants to pay $50-100 for the NV brand name or PhysX. 8800GTX/GTX280/285/480/580 were faster and in the case of GTX480/580, they offered clear advantages in the form of superior DX11/tessellation performance, more VRAM and better overclocking headroom than 5870/6970. GTX680/670/660Ti offer no such advantages over 7970GE/7970/7950, perform worse and have worse overclocking headroom. Not sure how in the world you managed to compare AMD's products to Kia. Maybe only in your mind.

GTX680 now loses not only to 7970GE, but even to the 7970. At 1600P, 7970GE is now 15% faster at 1600P, which means 20-25% faster than GTX670.

12-11-DRIVERS-86.jpg


Gigabyte GTX670 = $400 with no games.
Gigabyte GTX680 $505 with no games.
Gigabyte GTX680 4GB for $580 with no games.

vs.

Gigabyte 1100mhz 7970 = $450 with 3 free games.

Or maybe HD7970 GE cards still don't exist to you?

What happened to NV's BL2 game bundle? That dried faster than water in the dessert. NV didn't even have it going for more than a month. I guess if you are an NV shareholder, you must be loving it that NV continues to sell cards without offering much in the way of value to gamers. If gamers still buy NV cards without price drops from NV, they only have themselves to blame for NV's ability to keep prices high this entire generation. Ironically it sends a signal to NV that they really don't need to improve drivers that much, or offer faster cards than the competitor. Many of us have long suspected that NV loyalists will wait 6-9 months to give their $ to NV or buy NV cards even if they are slower or as the case has been since June, pay more for worse performance. Everything you say only solidifies this view as you have quickly turned to profit margins, contract losses to OEMs, etc. and forgot what these bundles and drivers are all about - us gamers and future prospective buyers in the DIY PC market. I guess only NV offers value to gamers, but when AMD does it, they are desperate and budget brand like KIA? It can't possibly have anything to do with NV being like BOSE, charging exorbitant prices for the brand when a competitor offers more value and performance?

How quickly people forgot what made GTX670/680 special - launching with faster performance and offering more value by undercutting AMD's HD7950/7970 cards. Using your logic, I guess NV was desperate too then because they undercut HD7970 by $50 with the 680? OR you are saying they had GK110 in their pocket but purposely held it back because their GTX660Ti could compete with the HD7970? You are not being consistent. When NV offered more value in March-early June 2012, gamers praised them and many people here only recommended NV cards. Now AMD continues to offer way more value and performance and hopefully NV will respond, resulting in stronger competition.

Maybe you missed this earlier quoted in the thread: "From a price / performance standpoint, there are actually very few reasons to recommend the GTX 680 at this point and at higher detail settings there&#8217;s just no competition."
 
Last edited:

MrK6

Diamond Member
Aug 9, 2004
4,458
4
81
Awesome is an understatement, jaw-dropping is more accurate. I can't think of a driver release ever that marked this kind of improvement. I'm glad AMD's software team is starting to kick it into high gear, kudos to them. Hopefully the driver is released when I get home as I'd like to check performance against my original BF3 benchmarking last January when the 7970 first came out. I'm intrigued to see what kind of performance increase there will be.
Really guys? Crying about free performance and games? Nice showing your true colors to everyone.

Everyone wins in this scenario, people who own 7xxx series cards get a free 5-10% performance, people who are buying new cards get a REALLY solid deal with the free games, people who have nVidia cards will probably soon see a performance driver of their own, people who like to buy nVidia cards - this might actually pressure nVidia in to lowering prices or offering better deals.

I don't know why you guys would try to spin this any other way. Everyone wins, stop crying about trivial shit "Oh but the power consumption went up 14w lol wow way to burn my house down AMD" or "PROFIT PROFIT AMD TOO STUPID TO MAKE MONEYS, WHY BUNDLE SO GOOD? Cause AMD sux keke"

93095c_4031009.jpg
+2

It's pretty obnoxious to see NVIDIA fanboyism and shilling so rabidly entrenched that they can't even appreciate something that will eventually benefit everyone. As you said, it's good to see the true colors come out.
 

hyrule4927

Senior member
Feb 9, 2012
359
1
76
You juxtapose a serious and valid argument with a strawmen that is so ridiculous it does not even be actively refuted by you. Thus combining strawman argument AND Reductio Ad Absurdum. (normally multiple fallacies are stated one after the other, maybe in a run on sentence... but not simultaneously in the same statement... I have to say I am impressed)

Power consumption going up 14w is a very serious drawback and very reasonable thing to complain about.
It is not FREE performance when you pay more money on your utility bill.

Do you look at power consumption when you buy your motherboard? Because power consumption at load and idle can vary by more than 14 watts just based on your motherboard choice.
 

blastingcap

Diamond Member
Sep 16, 2010
6,654
5
76
You juxtapose a serious and valid argument with a strawmen that is so ridiculous it does not even be actively refuted by you. Thus combining strawman argument AND Reductio Ad Absurdum.

Power consumption going up 14w is a very serious drawback and very reasonable thing to complain about.
It is not FREE performance when you pay more money on your utility bill.

Apparently you can get "free" performance sometimes. It varies from game to game. E.g., http://hexus.net/tech/reviews/graph...chmarked-surprising-performance-gains/?page=5

As more reviews roll in we may get a better sense of how much power goes up by on average, but even 14 watts at load isn't much unless your PSU was already being pushed to the limit. 0.014 kWh, and even at exorbitant 40 cent/kWh rates (rates you'd see in Hawaii/EU), that's like what, half a penny per hour of gaming. If it meant IDLE load went up, that's a bigger problem as many people idle their PCs longer than they play games and +14 watts at idle would be HORRIBLE.
 

Arkaign

Lifer
Oct 27, 2006
20,736
1,379
126
AMD's GPU side of things continues to be the opposite of their CPU side, hahaha. :D Truly impressive.

I love my 670 FTW, but have been advising people for months to go with the 78xx/79xx just for the $/performance factor.

7xxx launched at stupidly high prices, but that's been fixed now.
680/670 launched faster than original 7xxx, but that's been fixed now.

First impressions do mean a lot though, and many are still under the impressions from the 7xxx vs 6xx reviews from the 6xx launch time, when Nvidia kicked AMD to the curb for a bit. At that time, there was NO reason to buy a 7970 vs. even a good 670 card, other than to waste money (or if you're one of those bitcoin weirdos, lol), but now it's the exact opposite. 670/680 seem a waste of $ compared to a decent new-model 7970.
 

taltamir

Lifer
Mar 21, 2004
13,576
6
76
Do you look at power consumption when you buy your motherboard? Because power consumption at load and idle can vary by more than 14 watts just based on your motherboard choice.

Of course I look at it. 14 watts add up.

Apparently you can get "free" performance sometimes.

True, you can improve efficiency and its "free" to the user (it cost development money to have the software engineers improve the driver though).
But what does that have to do with dismissing the issue at hand of the performance NOT being free to the user, costing them extra 14w during operation?
 

raghu78

Diamond Member
Aug 23, 2012
4,093
1,476
136
It's pretty obnoxious to see NVIDIA fanboyism and shilling so rabidly entrenched that they can't even appreciate something that will eventually benefit everyone. As you said, it's good to see the true colors come out.

thats correct :thumbsup: the nvidia fanboys are used to being on top for a long time from 8800 GTX right upto GTX 580. For the first time they have to come to terms with the fact that AMD has the fastest GPU. And thats not easy i guess.

I think they will return to their normal state when GK110 again takes back the single performance crown although at a cost. perf/watt will go out the window. 1440p and higher resolutions will become preferred resolutions . testing at high levels of MSAA like 8x will be preferred. whatever makes the GTX 780 look really bad ass. :cool:
 

Rvenger

Elite Member <br> Super Moderator <br> Video Cards
Apr 6, 2004
6,283
5
81
Power consumption going up 14w is a very serious drawback and very reasonable thing to complain about.
It is not FREE performance when you pay more money on your utility bill.


I can't believe this was brought up. LOL

Sig worthy!
 

Rvenger

Elite Member <br> Super Moderator <br> Video Cards
Apr 6, 2004
6,283
5
81
7xxx launched at stupidly high prices, but that's been fixed now.

Actually that was misinterpreted a little. The 7970 actually launched at $479 and not $549. The retailers didn't pass the savings onto the customer.
 

NIGELG

Senior member
Nov 4, 2009
852
31
91
That KIA/BMW comparison is the the most asinine,absurd and ludicrous analogy I've ever heard in these forums.

Seems like some folks just wants the thread to end in wreckage.

Now I've got the final push in getting my 79xx card and my new PC before AMD'S PC's get obsolete...lol.
 

thilanliyan

Lifer
Jun 21, 2005
12,060
2,273
126
Why should i give AMD props for this? Should i give Opel props for selling their stuff cheaper and with more features than BMW?

This car analogy is horrible. BMWs in general perform better than Opels and the previous Kia you brought up. They also use better quality materials and arguably have better engineering. Hence they cost more.

Compare AMD and nVidia, where AMD performs better, and at least on their reference cards, AMD does a better job in the design IMO (ie. their reference cards are robust designs). Likening nVidia with BMW is laughable...they are not leading in performance, and the quality of their reference cards is debatable (especially this gen).
 

MrK6

Diamond Member
Aug 9, 2004
4,458
4
81
Of course I look at it. 14 watts add up.

True, you can improve efficiency and its "free" to the user (it cost development money to have the software engineers improve the driver though).
But what does that have to do with dismissing the issue at hand of the performance NOT being free to the user, costing them extra 14w during operation?
But sometimes it is free, which was demonstrated. So why are you so insistent that it always costs 14W, when it clearly doesn't? Way to make a sweeping generalization, you should go study fallacious arguments again.