ATI to respond with a performance driver

JPB

Diamond Member
Jul 4, 2005
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LOL. oops. Didnt see this.

Please lock my thread mods :)
 

geoffry

Senior member
Sep 3, 2007
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How is it that these companies take so long to "unlock" performance of their cards? Is it a tactic in case the other comes out with something a little better than they thought and it gives them a sort of quick response, or is it just *really* hard to write very efficient drivers?
 

deerhunter716

Member
Jul 17, 2007
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Yeah - damn good question. Does make you wonder how much is still left "unlocked" they never bother with as they work on the next card to release.
 

JPB

Diamond Member
Jul 4, 2005
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Originally posted by: deerhunter716
Very nice and will be curious to see how they stack up in the "Nvidia hand-picked games"

:roll:
 

will889

Golden Member
Sep 15, 2003
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Originally posted by: deerhunter716
Yeah - damn good question. Does make you wonder how much is still left "unlocked" they never bother with as they work on the next card to release.

Or still somehow "locked" like NV's digital vibrance (unless you use rivatuner to unlock it again) ...
 

DaveSimmons

Elite Member
Aug 12, 2001
40,730
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Why performance improves:

Step 1: write a general-purpose driver that works reasonably well for everything

Step 2: spend a lot of extra time adding optimizations for specific games & engines, and re-optimizing for new games.

Given a finite amount of time and resources these will often happen one after the other rather than in parallel.

Fallout 3 wasn't out when I bought my 4870 in July, so ATI's driver programmers had no way to write game-specific optimizations for the shipping version of the FO3 code.
 

apoppin

Lifer
Mar 9, 2000
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alienbabeltech.com
Originally posted by: geoffry
How is it that these companies take so long to "unlock" performance of their cards? Is it a tactic in case the other comes out with something a little better than they thought and it gives them a sort of quick response, or is it just *really* hard to write very efficient drivers?

i don't think so

it is just a metaphysical event that it happens close to each other

Look at it this way, IF AMD could have got 10 more percent performance out 2 months ago, do you not think they would have taken it back then?
- the gap would be wider now

i believe that they just work on their drivers continually. Both Companies have relatively new architecture that was released about the same time. Both have extraordinarily talented driver teams working to squeeze every bit of performance out of their HW for their company's success. So it appears reasonable that they might find ways to make their respective new architecture perform a little better.

And look what happened. Nvidia has the Big Bang 2 drivers for PhysX and CUDA and ATi is introducing Stream

metaphysical ,, coincidental .. cosmic timing .. luck .. chance

i think it is hard to write very efficient drivers for relatively new architecture. Maybe i could ask the Cat guys at ATi about it. Perhaps later on.
rose.gif

 
Oct 16, 1999
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I'd much rather see them add custom resolutions & game profiles like Nvidia has. I moved to an HTPC w/ an Nvidia card after using one with an ATI card and these features come in handy. On the flip side though this Nvidia card has overlay & vmr problems that the ATI card didn't have.
 

cmdrdredd

Lifer
Dec 12, 2001
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Originally posted by: nRollo


"Way to go ATi!" ??

For what? Promising drivers that will increase performance?

What if they increase performance 1-3%? What if they double performance?

The kudos seem premature.

It means they're listening to end users which is more than I can say for Nvidia many times.

Besides, it really doesn't make much difference if Nvidia's GTX280 beats the HD4870 or vice versa. I mean, they both perform to my acceptable levels.
 

nRollo

Banned
Jan 11, 2002
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Originally posted by: cmdrdredd
Originally posted by: nRollo


"Way to go ATi!" ??

For what? Promising drivers that will increase performance?

What if they increase performance 1-3%? What if they double performance?

The kudos seem premature.

It means they're listening to end users which is more than I can say for Nvidia many times.

Besides, it really doesn't make much difference if Nvidia's GTX280 beats the HD4870 or vice versa. I mean, they both perform to my acceptable levels.

I agree with the second part of this.

I was just trying to say that congratulations are premature here. Would be like me posting "55nm GTX280s rumored out soon- way to go NVIDIA!".

Parts might turn out good, might not. Drivers might turn out good, might not.
 

cmdrdredd

Lifer
Dec 12, 2001
27,052
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I mean, I basically flipped a coin and ended up with an HD4870. Saved a bit at the time, but hey...either way would work out for me. GTX260 or HD4870. For me it's 6 of one and not enough difference to care about the other half dozen.
 

apoppin

Lifer
Mar 9, 2000
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alienbabeltech.com
Originally posted by: nRollo
Originally posted by: cmdrdredd
Originally posted by: nRollo


"Way to go ATi!" ??

For what? Promising drivers that will increase performance?

What if they increase performance 1-3%? What if they double performance?

The kudos seem premature.

It means they're listening to end users which is more than I can say for Nvidia many times.

Besides, it really doesn't make much difference if Nvidia's GTX280 beats the HD4870 or vice versa. I mean, they both perform to my acceptable levels.

I agree with the second part of this.

I was just trying to say that congratulations are premature here. Would be like me posting "55nm GTX280s rumored out soon- way to go NVIDIA!".

Parts might turn out good, might not. Drivers might turn out good, might not.

'Way to go' is an expression
--it might also refer to a bad way to go ,, but it is a way

:p

However, from the context and the exclamation point, it appears that the OP does what you also do, prematurely congratulate the company you support

and, yeah .. from apoppin:

way to go AMD .. if you even get only +1-3% improvement

. . . you will inspire Nvidia to give us even more from their drivers

rose.gif


. . . and then you will attempt to top it with promise of a future increase


WAY TO GO!!!
- it is the American way ..
. . . competition is awesome!

[at least neither company are asking congress for money and they are actually giving us support .. as we expect]
 

Wreckage

Banned
Jul 1, 2005
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Posting links from a site called "fudzilla" would be like posting news from a site called "bullpoopmothra"
 

solofly

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May 25, 2003
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http://www.fudzilla.com/index....view&id=10575&Itemid=1

ATI's new driver comes on December 10th

We managed to find out that some of these optimizations are also going to wait for the next Catalyst 9.1 which should probably come sometime next year. The optimizations are going to influence both single board and CrossFire configurations and the only issue are the titles for which Nvidia apparently had more time to optimize than ATI.
 

Paratus

Lifer
Jun 4, 2004
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Originally posted by: solofly
http://www.fudzilla.com/index....view&id=10575&Itemid=1

ATI's new driver comes on December 10th

We managed to find out that some of these optimizations are also going to wait for the next Catalyst 9.1 which should probably come sometime next year. The optimizations are going to influence both single board and CrossFire configurations and the only issue are the titles for which Nvidia apparently had more time to optimize than ATI.

My guess would be January 09. You know just sayin....... ;)
 

nRollo

Banned
Jan 11, 2002
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Originally posted by: solofly
http://www.fudzilla.com/index....view&id=10575&Itemid=1

ATI's new driver comes on December 10th

We managed to find out that some of these optimizations are also going to wait for the next Catalyst 9.1 which should probably come sometime next year. The optimizations are going to influence both single board and CrossFire configurations and the only issue are the titles for which Nvidia apparently had more time to optimize than ATI.

There was a good read linked at the bottom of the page "related articles" you linked to Solofly:

New GTX 260 with new driver leaves 4870 beaten and scarred

Contains some benches for games that aren't in the five usually reviewed. HUGE wins for the Core216 over the 1GB HD4870 at Company Of Heroes, FEAR, World In Conflict, and Crysis Warhead. When you add these 4 to the other 5, that's 9 games with decisive to huge victories for the NVIDIA part. Good news for gamers!

More specifically on topic, this may be the first time I've ever seen a soft launch of a driver. Used to happen with hardware, but "we're going to launch a faster driver in 3 weeks"?!

I don't think anyone doing holiday shopping can use that info- especially when they note some of the titles won't be done till next year.

Apparently the era of "driver wars" is upon us.

You're done in this thread, Rollo.

-ViRGE