AMD releases their Dual Core Optimzer

[Rage187]

http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=32790

Intended for all owners of dual-core processors, AMD Dual-Core Optimizer is a piece of software that allegedly improves gaming performance by bypassing Windows' API in some specific situations.

 

[FelixDeCat]

Cool. Ill try it out today.

 

[Rage187]

My 3dmark scores didn't budge; hopefully someone will figure out what games this supposedly affects.

 

[thescreensavers]

is it for amd x2 Dual core cpu, b/c its under the FX/64 Cpu on amd website

it adds "/usepmtimer" to boot INI

and installs a new cpu driver

and adds a program that boots with the computer which is "amd_dc_opt"

 

[formulav8]

I was downloading the latest CPU driver for a customers computer and saw that download. Its supposely makes it to where apps that use the RDTSC from the cpu will have more accurate timing. Because when windows switches the app back and forth between cpu's, the rdtsc value can be off. You usually have to set your app affinity to one of the cpu's. At least, thats what I had to do when I made a realtime cpu clockspeed monitor.

I could be way off though, but that is the impression I got when I quickly clanced over it.


Edit: Well, what I said does appear to be correct. I no longer have to set the programs affinity to just one core. I can leave the affinity to both cpu's and the rdtsc value be perfectly synced.



Jason

 

[Noubourne]

Well that doesn't sound very impressive at all.

 

[Griswold]

Originally posted by: Noubourne
Well that doesn't sound very impressive at all.

Probably because you didnt understand what it is or you just read the gibberish from INQ instead of reading the full description at AMD.

They may call it "DC optimizer" but that doesnt mean you can beat your meat over some higher benchies - it is supposed to solve performance problems, as in stuttering or superspeed, in games - think "MS hotfix".

I highly doubt that you'll see any increase in performance in games if you havent had any problems before.

 

[Kakumba]

as Griswold mentioned, this seems to incorporate the MS hotfix. Will be using this when I get the new computer up.

 

[Keysplayr]

So, any X2 owners with before and after benches?

 

[Lord Banshee]

I'll do a before and after of a *couple* if there is a demo to test for free?

I know Fear's demo does FPS ,is there a Quake4 demo that has benchmarking?, 3dmark06 will get done and PCmark05. I'll post later.

 

[Nightmare225]

I, for one, am very interested in seeing those benchies...

 

[jm0ris0n]

Benchies !

 

[starwars7]

should I use it for my opty 165?

 

[MBentz]

Originally posted by: starwars7
should I use it for my opty 165?

If everything is working fine, I would wait for some comparison tests. I have a 165 and I'm not too worried.

 

[RallyMaster]

Originally posted by: Nightmare225
I, for one, am very interested in seeing those benchies...

indeed

 

[keeleysam]

I installed it on my Opteron 165 gaming rig (in sig), and I no longer have periodic freezes in games.

Thanks OP!

 

[Rage187]

not problem bro, I'm really interested in more user experiences so if this did somthing for you please say which game if you could.

EDIT: My experience, GTA:SA and VC have stop studdering everytime I got in or out of a vehicle, which is pleasant.

 

[Rage187]

anyone else?

 

[Amaroque]

Well, I'm not a gamer...

I was having a problem with WMP pausing on me when loading videos (I even reinstalled WMP, but that didn't help). This patch *seems* to have taken care of the problem.

 

[CP5670]

So does this solve the dual core affinity problems for good? I definitely have to give it a try in that case. I have been seriously considering swapping out the dual core in my main computer for the single core I have because of these problems. (the stuttering occurs in a number of old games, even with the normal AMD driver and the MS hotfix installed, and alt-tabbing to set the affinity often screws the game up)

 

[Unkno]

i have one question....would i need to uninstall the amd cpu driver (for dual cores) before installing this "optimizer"?

 

[LittleNemoNES]

im sure it wouldn't hurt.

 

[Lord Banshee]

Does nothing for performance so i hope it is in stablity (but personly i have not had any problems with my system)

Here are my benches

-----Before-----

3dmark06
SM2/SM3/CPU/Total
1685 / 1663 / 1950 / 4276

Doom3
10x7(MQ)=125.2 / 16x12(HQ)=97.4

Fear Demo
Min / Avg /Max
Med(10x7) 73 / 116 / 253
High(16x12) 31 / 50 / 104
Max(16x12) 18 / 33 / 67

Pray Demo
10x7(MQ)=97.2/ 16x12(HQ)=50.4

PCMark05
6374


-----After-----

3dmark06
SM2/SM3/CPU/Total
1685 / 1666 / 1976 / 4286

Doom3
10x7(MQ)=150.7 / 16x12(HQ)=97.4

Fear Demo
Min / Avg /Max
Med(10x7) 70 / 117 / 255
High(16x12) 32 / 52 / 105
Max(16x12) 18 / 32 / 67

Pray Demo
10x7(MQ)=97.2/ 16x12(HQ)=50.6

PCMark05
6235

Only thing that concerns me is the 100pt PCMark05 decrease, the doom3 i think it is a mess up from the first run.

*edit redid PCMark05, now only a 100pt difference.

 

[Griswold]

Havent had any problems with games before installing this (CnQ OFF and AMD processor driver 1.2.2 installed, no MS hotfix) nor did I experience any changes after installing it (same with the latest processor driver 1.3.2). If you do not have any problems with your rig, you might as well skip this.

 

[dmens]

Inq: "The predecessor of Reverse-HT available for download".

What the hell are they smoking over there? First of all, isn't RDTSC a x86 macro-instruction already? How could you "access" the TSC more directly? There's no mechanism available for that, except for debug TAP ports (maybe), and that is off-limits for software anyways.

Secondly, the TSC is just a counter used by the OS to time events. It has absolutely nothing to do with the so-called reverse-HT. And the TSC is usually used by the OS anyways, so what kind of performance gain do they expect?

Here is a tidbit I found on the web which I suspect to be the same utility for windows:

"The current generation of Opteron processors do not provided a frequency independent TSC. This causes wild clock skew on systems that change frequency while use TSC as a gtod source. This patch provides a work around by transitioning all processors to the same frequency at the same time, so that the TSCs on each processor are never incrementing at a different rate."

So the patch forces simultaneous transitions on the clock/power control logic so the TSC doesn't get out of wack and confuse the OS. This reverse-HT rumor is getting completely out of control.