Anyone have a nice performance boost with the new Cats?

[WA261]

I did not...went from 6888 to 6907 in 3DMark03...

With all the hype about these drivers, I was really expecting more.

 

[bunnyfubbles]

Have you tried anything OTHER than 3Dmark before concluding that these new drivers offer no performance gains? 1024x768 is not a resolution to test a 9700/9800 on so um yeah...

Perhaps performance gains would be in areas that 3Dmark (especially 2k3) isn?t really meant to test such as FSAA and AF and even higher resolutions. Also drivers aren?t always about more performance but fixing problems with running games...

 

[Thor86]

I could care less about Futuremark scores. But in any case, most of my gaming performance has been improved in DirectX games mainly. No more game stuttering, which was the case anyway with the Cat 3.2s.

GTA Vice City runs great now, and no more map texture loading delays fixed from Cat 3.1s.

Ralleysport Challenge runs smooth as silk now with the 3.4s.


One gripe about Cat 3.4s:

Half-Life (CS Mod) there is a 5 second delay when hitting escape button now as opposed to completely freezing up, and whenever exiting and resuming a game, some map textures get corrupted in OpenGL mode - specifically the C4/bomb placement and map textures in de_cobble specifically. Haven't tried DirectX.

That's all I had time for to test

 

[lung]

The general image quality seems to be a bit better now. As well, I do see a good framerate boost of about 10% in most every game I have tried so far. My 9700 Pro just loves these new drivers.

 

[dguy6789]

My 9000 pro is getting huge performance in most all the games I play, increses by as much as 40% in some, i have not tested AA or AF, but i will later, these are great drivers, in fact, i think my 9000 pro may be a little faster then my 8500 now

 

[Rogozhin]

My 9700 non pro is getting large perfornace gains in Forgotten Battles, 3dmark2003, rallisport challenge, raven shield, and UT2003.

rogo

 

[Rogozhin]

You need to delete the ati.dll files in system32, the registry entries, and the driver and control pannel in add remove progams to get it working correctly though.

rogo

 

[poMONKey]

the rolling lines are GONE!!!... thats a cool thing

my 3dmark scores are way up and w/8x agp enabled, im getting a 200+ point increase in 3dm2001se

never had any issues with games freakin out... rallisport challenge, ut2003, q3, wolfie, comanche4, and sof2 all have and continue to run sweetly...

thanks ati... im getting my $$$ worth!!!

 

[WA261]

Originally posted by: Rogozhin
You need to delete the ati.dll files in system32, the registry entries, and the driver and control pannel in add remove progams to get it working correctly though.

rogo

I used RegCleaner to remove everything. I know 3DMark03 does not count for much. It is NOt a game, it is not something to base my entire system on, but it is a prog to check the performance of a GPU. When I 1st posted with my 9800Pro, people were saying "Oh wait for the new cats..your card will fly!" This is the only reason I say I have no performance gain..because I am basing it off of 3DMark03 and things peeps said.

 

[AgaBoogaBoo]

I'm still stuck on a Radeon VE but I haven't been playing games for some time, so no biggie for me. Anyway, I'ms tarting to get back into gaming, and yes I'll be upgrading fairly soon. But, I too noticed an improvement. You know, if my Radeon VE and the 9x00 line card gets improvement, isn't it possible those with the 8500 or 7x00 cards will also see an improvement? I would think they would, and you know, if you think about it, had ATI found this improvement some time back, their launch of the 8500 may have turned out to be somewhat better.

 

[Ltroy24]

Downloading the new drivers now ill try em on my 8500 and try to remember to tell ya the results.

Luke

 

[BoomAM]

My 3dmark 2k1 scores stayed the same, but my 3dm2k3 scores went up by 400points.

 

[1ManArmY]

R they worth getting? What new bugs are introduced? I am using cat 3.2 and am getting 15,300 in 2001SE and 4650 in 2k3.

 

[EdipisReks]

unreal 2 is running on average about 15 FPS faster than it did. this is at 1024x768, everything turned to high and detail textures turned on. not too shabby.

 

[Goi]

Originally posted by: EdipisReks
unreal 2 is running on average about 15 FPS faster than it did. this is at 1024x768, everything turned to high and detail textures turned on. not too shabby.

No way...15FPS? That's unreal!

 

[EdipisReks]

Originally posted by: Goi

Originally posted by: EdipisReks
unreal 2 is running on average about 15 FPS faster than it did. this is at 1024x768, everything turned to high and detail textures turned on. not too shabby.

No way...15FPS? That's unreal!

i know, i was very surprised. i had been running the Omega's, so i wasn't expecting anything dramatic. 50 average on the level i was playing on vs. 36 is nothing to sneeze at. stuttering and occasional drops to very low frame rates are also gone.

of course, it's entirely possible that there was something wrong with my driver install, and uninstalling what i was running fixed the problem. however, i'd like to attribute it to ATi's driver team.

 

[Narse]

Just an FYI for everyone, In the new 3.4s there is a dual monitor bug, If you are using 2 displays you must disable the 2nd display before you will be able to change AA and AF. If you leave the 2nd display enabled you can move the sliders but they will not take effect. If you disable the 2nd monitor and then change the settings it will work. You can then reenable you 2nd display