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

[moonbogg]

I have strange feelings about this. The driver and game packages are fantastic, no question about that. What bothers me is that AMD has the motivation of a drowning man trying to save himself, and it shows with this excellent move of theirs. It is a special move. It's rare. It's unsustainable.

 

[raghu78]

newegg and superbiz already have the Never Settle game bundle offer on the HD 7900 cards. wow that was quick
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...=1&srchInDesc=
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...=1&srchInDesc=
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...=1&srchInDesc=

http://www.superbiiz.com/query.php?s=hd+7970
http://www.superbiiz.com/query.php?s=hd+7950

 

[96Firebird]

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.

Wrong.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/5312/amd-radeon-hd-7970-now-for-sale

Most of them are at the AMD MSRP of $549, though the Asus card is $589, and XFX's custom cooled and overclocked model is at $599.

 

[Rvenger]

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).

It actually fits to a reliability stand point. KIAs are actually reliable cars whereas BMWs tend to fall apart and become costly.

 

[Zanovar]

Team green is seeing red.

Hahaha

 

[Arkaign]

It actually fits to a reliability stand point. KIAs are actually reliable cars whereas BMWs tend to fall apart and become costly.

This is really silly. I haven't had any Nvidia or AMD cards fail me, and I've had dozens of each. Currently have a 6950 2GB and a 670 FTW 2GB, along with a 7750 or something in the GF's pc.

Sometimes AMD/ATI is better, sometimes Nvidia is better.

Right now AMD is definitely better imho.

 

[Pheran]

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

That is hilarious. Let's generously assume that you game for 4 hours per day, EVERY DAY. That means you will use up an additional 20kWH per year (4x14x365). The average price for residential electricity in the US is about 12 cents/kWH. So that 14W will cost you $2.40 per year *if* you manage to maintain that 4 hours per day gaming average.

 

[Meghan54]

nvm.....I was just going to pick on the poor nvidia shills here who have nothing better to do than post in AMD threads and bitch about something that matters not one whit to them, only posting to bait or troll, as nvidia owners seem well versed in doing.

 

[Rvenger]

This is really silly. I haven't had any Nvidia or AMD cards fail me, and I've had dozens of each. Currently have a 6950 2GB and a 670 FTW 2GB, along with a 7750 or something in the GF's pc.

Sometimes AMD/ATI is better, sometimes Nvidia is better.

Right now AMD is definitely better imho.

Don't you remember the GTX 570 issues with overclocking? AMD cards are built with better components, better power delivery, better heatsinks and it is obvious in this years release. 4 phase power for the GTX 680... C'mon. Its like sticking a car battery in your boat.

 

[boxleitnerb]

http://www.computerbase.de/artikel/grafikkarten/2012/bericht-amd-catalyst-12.11-beta/9/

36% faster with no AA, 25% faster with 4xMSAA+FXAA.

I meant power usage

 

[Rvenger]

Wrong.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/5312/amd-radeon-hd-7970-now-for-sale

There was an article where they did actually drop the price but it wasn't passed on to the consumer. We saw the price drops but they didn't show up anywhere on the e-tailers. (I work for one of the vendors) It probably wasn't an official MSRP drop so I can't really go any further on this matter.

 

[DiogoDX]

newegg already has the Never Settle game bundle offer on the HD 7900 cards. wow that was quick

Nice. Is good to see deals like this.

 

[RussianSensation]

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.

Possibly lower prices from NV, some new game bundle from NV, NV introducing it's own Big Bang drivers that improve their cards performance. Lots of great things can come out of this for the gaming market but no let's talk about margins, market share and how AMD is desperate to sell cards because they are a budget brand like Kia.

For anyone interested, terms and conditions of the game bundle including dates for redeeming the titles.

 

[Mir96TA]

Are those Drivers has been release yet ?

 

[raghu78]

Possibly lower prices from NV, some new game bundle from NV, NV introducing it's own Big Bang drivers that improve their cards performance. Lots of great things can come out of this for the gaming market but no let's talk about margins, market share and how AMD is desperate to sell cards because they are a budget brand like Kia.

hardwarecanucks for once criticized Nvidia bluntly. They said Nvidia's entire GTX 600 product stack needs price cuts and better game bundles across the stack.

 

[SPBHM]

Are those Drivers has been release yet ?

not exactly, Guru3d had it for download for a short period,
I'm using it with my Radeon HD5K, and I didn't notice any gain worth mentioning (but I only tested in 2 games)

but
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/20116032/Benchx/AMD_Catalyst_12.11_Beta1.exe

this is an early beta with many bugs, the official version should be available soon...

 

[DiogoDX]

Are those Drivers has been release yet ?

No oficial release.

 

[badb0y]

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.

Why don't you actually respond to the people I was referring to? There is a reason I posted that last "paragraph" the way I did. The people who are bringing up the whopping 14w increase and AMD's profitability are just looking for ways to dismiss this as something bad when in fact it's a good thing for everyone. You know you have run out of arguments when you start pulling at straws like profit margins and a 14w difference in power consumption.

Now 14 watts might be something big for you but for the average person living in the U.S. 14 watts is nothing.

 

[KingFatty]

I have strange feelings about this. The driver and game packages are fantastic, no question about that. What bothers me is that AMD has the motivation of a drowning man trying to save himself, and it shows with this excellent move of theirs. It is a special move. It's rare. It's unsustainable.

Well, if almost drowning can lead AMD to release drivers with such a bonus performance, maybe it's a good thing?

Or, maybe the improved drivers are a side-effect of their work on the 8XXX series, and it was inevitable?

 

[Arkaign]

Don't you remember the GTX 570 issues with overclocking? AMD cards are built with better components, better power delivery, better heatsinks and it is obvious in this years release. 4 phase power for the GTX 680... C'mon. Its like sticking a car battery in your boat.

It's not obvious to me. My 670FTW and my XFX 2GB 6950 have both been bulletproof. If you want to nit-pick, there are bad cards from each side, but imho it's rare enough that it's a non-issue for almost anyone.

Doesn't the 680 use less power than a 7970 anyway? I thought that was a different design, similar to how the 480 was a power hog vs. the AMD 5870? The 5870 probably wasn't capable of as much power delivery as a 480, but that doesn't mean it wasn't an awesome card.

So yeah, I think saying that either NV or AMD have poor quality right now is BS.

 

[thilanliyan]

It actually fits to a reliability stand point. KIAs are actually reliable cars whereas BMWs tend to fall apart and become costly.

But those bits that fall apart are definitely higher quality aren't they?

Anyway, as I said, sontin's car analogy was horrible. In terms of performance and "reliability" of nV and AMD cards there's not much in it.

 

[Arkaign]

But those bits that fall apart are definitely higher quality aren't they?

Anyway, as I said, sontin's car analogy was horrible. In terms of "reliability" of nV and AMD cards there's not much in it.

Exactly.

 

[NIGELG]

If Nvidia is BMW then AMD is Bugatti.

Just to add to the car analogies.

 

[taltamir]

But sometimes it is free

I agree.

So why are you so insistent that it always costs 14W

Have you actually read my posts?

I said that I think those improvements ARE worth it to me and ARE pretty nifty.

What I took ubrage at was the reducto ad absurdum and strawman fallacy used to attack those who make a perfectly legitimate complaint. A complaint I do not share with them. Nor do I insist on the "facts" they provided being true.

Whether it takes 14w or is totally free is IRRELEVANT to everything I said because all I said was that a specific argument is unfair and made up of fallacies.
The argument in question, the one getting all those pluses from people did NOT claim that certain "facts" were false data aka "no it does not take 14w extra, that claim is false".
It instead dismissed (using both a strawman and a reducto ad absurdum fallacies) complaining about it as unacceptable.
Effectively saying "I accept your claim that it takes 14w extra, and the fact you complain about it makes you a fanboy"

I don't see why pointing that this is what it did should make the me the target of so much hate and such attacks (EDIT: Not from you particularly; but the sum of the replied I have received). As well as continuing strawman attributing to me nonsense that I never said and is in fact the exact opposite of my own statements and opinions.

 

[96Firebird]

I don't see why pointing that this is what it did should make the me the target of so much hate and such attacks. As well as continuing strawman attributing to me nonsense that I never said and is in fact the exact opposite of my own statements and opinions.

Welcome to VC&G, surely you've been here a while, right?