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

[Termie]

I know AMD's cards, at the moment are a better value, but that doesn't matter for me and here is why: I cannot erase from my mind the negative connotation that the name "AMD" has. For me, AMD has tainted ATI gpu's forever with their abysmal CPU performance and the fact that they have gone great lengths to make their brand name synonymous with "mid range" "low performance" "low power consumption & cost" etc. It is a psychological thing for me and I admit that, but I also can't change it. AMD does not equal high end or high performance, so I don't buy their stuff.
Combine this with my brand loyalty to Nvidia and satisfaction with their products, and the fact that AMD is a sinking ship that I want no seat on, and you have a recipe for a customer that AMD can't win over. Call me a troll or whatever you want, but I am not alone here and these are the reasons that AMD is tanking and people don't buy their stuff anymore.

This is exactly the reason why I don't even want to post at AT anymore. Comments like this that ruin the overall experience for others. Its been explained many times and it just remains transparent to some. Well Ill just leave this one go for the others and I just want to say farewell to all.

-Rob

You both contribute a lot to this board, but it looks like you've both been amped up a bit by this thread. Perhaps you should both unsubscribe from it and take a break for today. Moonbogg - it seems like you are happy with your setup, but you shouldn't stop others from discussing their preferred setups. And Rvenger, there's certainly no reason to quit the forum all together.

 

[NTMBK]

I know AMD's cards, at the moment are a better value, but that doesn't matter for me and here is why: I cannot erase from my mind the negative connotation that the name "AMD" has. For me, AMD has tainted ATI gpu's forever with their abysmal CPU performance and the fact that they have gone great lengths to make their brand name synonymous with "mid range" "low performance" "low power consumption & cost" etc. It is a psychological thing for me and I admit that, but I also can't change it. AMD does not equal high end or high performance, so I don't buy their stuff.
Combine this with my brand loyalty to Nvidia and satisfaction with their products, and the fact that AMD is a sinking ship that I want no seat on, and you have a recipe for a customer that AMD can't win over. Call me a troll or whatever you want, but I am not alone here and these are the reasons that AMD is tanking and people don't buy their stuff anymore.

That's the single most ridiculous thing I've read on here in a long, long time. I mean... wow. It's a sodding piece of hardware, not a status symbol which will define who you are to your compatriots. If you're refusing to buy a product which performs better and has a better price than its rival simply because of the other products that company produces, then you're a fool.

 

[tHa ShIzNiT]

I think this has become something that just needs to be argued for the sake of arguing. The NV is currently making a good chip and AMD is currently making a good chip. This thread started out to show how the newest drivers helped bump up performance and that is a good thing. it has turned in to a penis swinging party about "oh my 680 is better than your 7970 because it uses X power or has Y mode that works in 3 games blah blah blah" it's not necessary and counter productive. I can understand logical price to performance arguments being a factor but seriously guys watts to performance increase is a bit too far...

Yes, they are both making good chips. But one is making them a bit faster AND a much better deal for consumers price-wise. That is the point people are trying to make. And fanboys are coming in here trying to argue it and they are just flat out wrong.

 

[balane]

I know AMD's cards, at the moment are a better value, but that doesn't matter for me and here is why: I cannot erase from my mind the negative connotation that the name "AMD" has. For me, AMD has tainted ATI gpu's forever with their abysmal CPU performance and the fact that they have gone great lengths to make their brand name synonymous with "mid range" "low performance" "low power consumption & cost" etc. It is a psychological thing for me and I admit that, but I also can't change it. AMD does not equal high end or high performance, so I don't buy their stuff.
Combine this with my brand loyalty to Nvidia and satisfaction with their products, and the fact that AMD is a sinking ship that I want no seat on, and you have a recipe for a customer that AMD can't win over. Call me a troll or whatever you want, but I am not alone here and these are the reasons that AMD is tanking and people don't buy their stuff anymore.

And for sure nVidia cares about you and loves you back. You're a company's dream my man. They fantasize about getting customers like you. Apple has millions of them. You've sworn allegiance to a large corporation. Too funny.

 

[jackstar7]

That's a cop out, why are they loyal to Nvidia - why are more loyal to Nvidia than AMD?

Sorry I missed this. You apparently need to read up on market psychology and other customer-related information that's out there.

Most people make a single buying choice and subsequent choices match the initial choice based on brand, rather than going through the efforts to re-evaluate all of the new data available.

And I think you're just being silly if you think people are more loyal to one brand over the other. It's not a brand thing. It's a people thing. There are a lot of people on various sides of any product, issue, etc. that pick their side and ride it out regardless of new information that would contradict their previous choice.

You want it to be about the one thing, but it's about the other thing. It ain't about the parts. It's about the people.


Huh. Turned out moonbogg made a perfect example of himself about this. New information does not penetrate or alter his perceptions of the brand. It's a lazy enthusiast who doesn't want the actual best for their money... but that's how it goes for a lot of people.

 

[nOOky]

Someone obviously doesn't remember when an AMD processor was the thing to have as a gamer, and people still kept buying Pentiums out of brand loyalty, not because they were better.
I don't really care why people buy what they buy. The smart decision is to research what your needs are, then go after price and specs. Some people just stay brand loyal regardless, which is fine also, just don't feel the need to tell others what they buy is stupid because of it's brand name.

 

[Zxian]

I know AMD's cards, at the moment are a better value, but that doesn't matter for me and here is why: I cannot erase from my mind the negative connotation that the name "AMD" has. For me, AMD has tainted ATI gpu's forever with their abysmal CPU performance and the fact that they have gone great lengths to make their brand name synonymous with "mid range" "low performance" "low power consumption & cost" etc. It is a psychological thing for me and I admit that, but I also can't change it. AMD does not equal high end or high performance, so I don't buy their stuff.

Your inability to "erase" the connection between lackluster CPU performance and competitive GPU performance is your own fault and nobody elses. All of my desktop systems at home have Intel CPUs and AMD GPUs. Why? Because for a given price both companies provide better performance. nVidia has no viable GPU offerings at the $200-300 price point.

Combine this with my brand loyalty to Nvidia and satisfaction with their products, and the fact that AMD is a sinking ship that I want no seat on, and you have a recipe for a customer that AMD can't win over. Call me a troll or whatever you want, but I am not alone here and these are the reasons that AMD is tanking and people don't buy their stuff anymore.

You're a very small portion of the population. Brand loyalty in computing is something that you'll only find within the enthusiast community. The average person on the street cares about the money in their wallet and the value of the product they're getting off the shelf. Your belief that the general populace follows the same principles that you do is simply flawed.

The days of terrible buggy ATI drivers are long gone and ATI/AMD has provided an equal quality product at a competitive price. AMD's financial problems are in large part due to their CPU division. AMD's acquisition of ATI is IMO the large part of what is keeping them afloat.

 

[KompuKare]

That's the single most ridiculous thing I've read on here in a long, long time. I mean... wow. It's a sodding piece of hardware, not a status symbol which will define who you are to your compatriots. If you're refusing to buy a product which performs better and has a better price than its rival simply because of the other products that company produces, then you're a fool.

I wanted to buy a nuclear power plant, but when I saw these cheap GE lightbulbs in the supermarket I just knew GE were out of the running...

(Which after Fukishima might not be such a bad thing, of course.)

 

[RussianSensation]

I also see it fixes the flickering in Project CARS in crossfire. Good to see since I don't get any performance improvement, bug fixes are nice.

You wouldn't see it. The memory management inefficiency that improved shader core utilization was a problem related to GCN architecture, not VLIW. Therefore, there should be no significant increases for VLIW architectures in Project Cars. They are present for HD7970 though, ranging from 11-15%. This is why you should trade your HD6990 for a 7970 1100mhz Gigabyte! :awe:

Anyone see HD7950 925mhz Sapphire for $270 on newegg? Very good deal. If you sell all the games, that's like getting a 7950 for $170-180 and overclocked to 1100-1125mhz, this bad boy gives GTX680/7970GE a run for the $.

 

[Endymion FRS]

This Never Settle thing really got me wondering. I have a 6950 that is currently being RMA'd, so how likely is it I get a 7850 back instead? Not very? I know the 6000 series doesn't benefit from the performance boosts, and 7950s are dropping to where I would feel comfortable selling my 6950 that I'll get back for 180-ish and using some money from selling my Xbox to pick up a 7950. Combine this with me really looking forward to Far Cry 3 and wanting Sleeping Dogs... would this be smart, upgrading so soon?

 

[notty22]

Laptops last for a decade+. Nice troll, but that's a pretty poor attempt to minimize NVIDIA's bumpgate failing.

How is it confusing? It clearly labels in each release why they updated a new version.

Not worth the time.

 

[VulgarDisplay]

This Never Settle thing really got me wondering. I have a 6950 that is currently being RMA'd, so how likely is it I get a 7850 back instead? Not very? I know the 6000 series doesn't benefit from the performance boosts, and 7950s are dropping to where I would feel comfortable selling my 6950 that I'll get back for 180-ish and using some money from selling my Xbox to pick up a 7950. Combine this with me really looking forward to Far Cry 3 and wanting Sleeping Dogs... would this be smart, upgrading so soon?

Hard to say. The sooner you sell your 6950 the more chance you have of making a few more bucks off of it. However, waiting about 3-4 more months could get you a glimpse of the 28nm refresh parts coming early next year.

The only bad part is that new parts coming out will devalue your 6950 even more. Especially if some of the rumors pan out, such as the 8870/8850 offering performance on par with the gtx680 in a midrange part.

With these new drivers I'd actually love to see a benchmark of a highly OC'ed 7870 vs. a stock 670/680. Wonder how far off it is.

 

[skipsneeky2]

Anyone see HD7950 925mhz Sapphire for $270 on newegg? Very good deal. If you sell all the games, that's like getting a 7950 for $170-180 and overclocked to 1100-1125mhz, this bad boy gives GTX680/7970GE a run for the $.

That is a very very sweet and excellent value card,whats the typical overclock for one of these RussianSensation especially on stock voltage and how much better off would it be over my 1050/1450 7850 in BF3?

My 7850 will go to 1100/1450 as a max with its 73% asic but for some reason both msi afterburner and asus gpu tweak locked me out of voltage with 12.11 and limited me to 1050......so looking for a new toy i will have better luck with.

 

[MrK6]

Not worth the time.

Then why bother replying? But you're right, if you're going to troll you're wasting the forum's time.

Anyone see HD7950 925mhz Sapphire for $270 on newegg? Very good deal. If you sell all the games, that's like getting a 7950 for $170-180 and overclocked to 1100-1125mhz, this bad boy gives GTX680/7970GE a run for the $.

Yep, incredible value right there. There's really nothing else to recommend atm in the enthusiast's tier considering price/performance.

 

[AdamK47]

From AMD rep

"We are pushing out a new beta, beta 4, some time today. It will be packaged under the same executable as driver revision 9.01.08, probably around 2 PM EST. This beta is primarily designed to fix a crash in MOH:WF on CrossFire configs.

It will not include the Tahiti idle clock fix, as we are still investigating the cause."
http://www.overclock.net/t/1318756/amd-12-11-beta-drivers/70#post_18431422

For those of you who actually use their hardware rather than argue over it, the beta 4 version of the 12.11 drivers have been released.

http://support.amd.com/us/kbarticles/Pages/AMDCatalyst1211betadriver.aspx

 

[Elfear]

I know AMD's cards, at the moment are a better value, but that doesn't matter for me and here is why: I cannot erase from my mind the negative connotation that the name "AMD" has. For me, AMD has tainted ATI gpu's forever with their abysmal CPU performance and the fact that they have gone great lengths to make their brand name synonymous with "mid range" "low performance" "low power consumption & cost" etc. It is a psychological thing for me and I admit that, but I also can't change it. AMD does not equal high end or high performance, so I don't buy their stuff.
Combine this with my brand loyalty to Nvidia and satisfaction with their products, and the fact that AMD is a sinking ship that I want no seat on, and you have a recipe for a customer that AMD can't win over. Call me a troll or whatever you want, but I am not alone here and these are the reasons that AMD is tanking and people don't buy their stuff anymore.

I guess if you're ok with your "psychological thing" costing you a good chunk of change, by all means. I think JHH owes you a big hug.

OT - Downloaded the new 12.11's and my bitcoin hash rate went up by 15-20 Mhash per card. Power draw went up about 10W total. Whatever bottleneck AMD removed for gaming seems to have improved mining performance as well.

 

[tweakboy]

New 12.11 beta 4 are out!!! I believe you can get it from ati site or guru3d ,, thx,, gl

just reminding everyone,, Im sure most of you already knew this.. thx

 

[skipsneeky2]

These 12.11 drivers are freaking fantastic,amd must have a new driver team or something to pull such a rabbit out of their hat.

Kinda laughing at nvidias attempt to steal the thunder with their new beta driver,amd still has the better value going on with their free games despite nvidias new drivers.

 

[Keysplayr]

These 12.11 drivers are freaking fantastic,amd must have a new driver team or something to pull such a rabbit out of their hat.

Kinda laughing at nvidias attempt to steal the thunder with their new beta driver,amd still has the better value going on with their free games despite nvidias new drivers.

It's called terror of losing their jobs so do it right or get axed. Kudos to the driver team. Free performance is always welcomed!

 

[Endymion FRS]

Hard to say. The sooner you sell your 6950 the more chance you have of making a few more bucks off of it. However, waiting about 3-4 more months could get you a glimpse of the 28nm refresh parts coming early next year.

The only bad part is that new parts coming out will devalue your 6950 even more. Especially if some of the rumors pan out, such as the 8870/8850 offering performance on par with the gtx680 in a midrange part.

With these new drivers I'd actually love to see a benchmark of a highly OC'ed 7870 vs. a stock 670/680. Wonder how far off it is.

Oh I know about the devalue, if I choose to sell it will be long before 8xxx. It just feels weird wanting to buy a new card one year later, but the bundle has two games I actually was going to buy later, as well as a massive performance increase for a game I normally play (BF3). None of which happens if I stick with the 6950.

AMD just had to be awesome right now, didn't they. :\

 

[Phynaz]

So, to sum up what some people are saying...AMD bundles games with older cards and they are desperate...Nvidia bundles games with cards at launch and they aren't desperate.


And giving users better performing drivers are a bad thing, but deprecating drivers is a bad thing too.

Did I get that right?

 

[chimaxi83]

So, to sum up what some people are saying...AMD bundles games with older cards and they are desperate...Nvidia bundles games with cards at launch and they aren't desperate.


And giving users better performing drivers are a bad thing, but deprecating drivers is a bad thing too.

Did I get that right?

Yes, basically. Nvidia can do no wrong, and higher stock prices directly correlate to more fps. Didn't you get the memo? :Colbert:

 

[BallaTheFeared]

You guys really nailed it, way to go. Was nice having a real conversation around here for a change!

 

[notty22]

Then why bother replying? But you're right, if you're going to troll you're wasting the forum's time.

Yep, incredible value right there. There's really nothing else to recommend atm in the enthusiast's tier considering price/performance.

Actually I realized how ignorant you are on hardware, if you believe that 10 year life post. That's going back to near win2K. And I decided not to argue with you, because I've seen you in action, even when obviously wrong/mistaken argue/insult to you are red in the face.

 

[balane]

With these new drivers I'd actually love to see a benchmark of a highly OC'ed 7870 vs. a stock 670/680. Wonder how far off it is.

I very seldom run benchmarks. As long as I'm happy with the performance of whatever game I'm playing I'm good. Here's two benchmarking tools I had to run.

Resolutions are the same on both, 1920x1200. Obviously the systems are not identical in performance but both are IB systems with adequate RAM. Win 7 64 bit. Identical versions of both benchmarking apps.

3770K | 16GB | Z77 Pro4 | GTX 680 , 310.33 Drivers , Stock Clocks

3570 | 8GB | H61M-DGS | HD 7870 , 12.11 Drivers , OC to 1220/1450