Catalyst 8.3 drivers, when will they be available and who will benfit?

[Sjors E]

I know that sometime this week the new Catalyst drivers (8.3) will be launched by AMD/ATI

I heard that 780G boards performance will imrove daramitcally and I was wondering what kind of performance improvements can be expected with the X38 chipset.

CPU: Q6600 @ 2.4 Ghz Cooled: TRUE 120
MOBO: Asus P5E
GPU: 2x Saphire Radeon 3850 256MB @ CrossFire
RAM: 4 x 1GB Kingston PC 6400

 

[dadach]

dam...i got abit x38 board with 2x3870x2 sitting at home waiting...they need to hurry up the release, as we can read from anandtech that they are ready to go...will let you know the benchies

 

[Sjors E]

Business wire says march 5:
Milestone ATI Catalyst? 8.3 Release Unlocks quad- and Triple-GPU Performance and ATI Hybrid Graphics for Windows Vista®

 

[dadach]

ATI Catalyst 8.3 is scheduled to be available as a free download starting Tuesday, March 4 online at http://ati.amd.com/support/driver.html.


hell yes!

 

[Sjors E]

You're right, I was just about to edit my post

Interested in your benchmarks by the way!

 

[Killrose]

Too bad the 780G doesnt have a good CPU to go with it and unfortunately it is only going to look good against the 690G. The rest of the field will have old nvidia chipsets and everything else will be running chipsets with Intel CPU's and it's not going to make the 780G look any better. The onboard GPU with add on card xfire is cool, but you are limmited to a crappy sub-par GPU upgrade path.

 

[bryanW1995]

still not out yet. I'll keep checking, though!

 

[nitromullet]

I wonder what the hold up is on these drivers... In the press release they mention the 8.471-Beta2_080214a-059709E-ATI drivers... These have been available for download on the rage3d forums for almost a week now, but require an inf file modification or installing as a an included inf supported card, neither of which have been very successful with my X2. They obviously have the drivers, release em already.

 

[Sylvanas]

It's been March 5th here for more than 15 hours, I want em early .

 

[bryanW1995]

where are you, burbank?

 

[Sylvanas]

Australia Cmon Vr-zone usually has stuff up for DL early heh.

 

[BFG10K]

Out.

 

[dadach]

lol cmon ati...we need 64-bit

hopefully they are not somehow behind on 64-bit drivers

 

[Sylvanas]

Originally posted by: dadach
lol cmon ati...we need 64-bit

hopefully they are not somehow behind on 64-bit drivers

It's a matter of hours/minutes... thats guru3d releasing it, not on ATI's site yet. Just be patient it'll be up on 'AMD GAME' for all versions soon.

 

[dadach]

after unpacking the drivers it seems that there are both driver packages, so ill give it a go when i get home

 

[Bateluer]

Originally posted by: dadach
/taps foot

Such impatience . . . *checks the ATI website again*

 

[teey7]

8.3 available on guru 3d now.

 

[Bateluer]

Originally posted by: teey7
8.3 available on guru 3d now.

For 32 bit Vista only.

Methinks most people likely have 32 Bit XP or 64 Bit Vista.

 

[dadach]

give it a go it seems it has 64-bit drivers

 

[nitromullet]

Confirmed. These work for 32-bit and 64-bit.

edit: the guru3d drivers aren't the actual *Official* release drivers. They are the 8.471 rc1 drivers from Feb 22 with a modified inf file that makes the installer work for all cards.

 

[hclarkjr]

64 bit driver now posted on ATI website http://game.amd.com/us-en/driv...vista64/common-vista64

 

[Sjors E]

Finally! wondering what the improvement will be like.. Hope it will have impact on crysis FPS!

CPU: Q6600 @ 2.4 Ghz Cooled: TRUE 120
MOBO: Asus P5E
GPU: 2x Saphire Radeon 3850 256MB @ CrossFire
RAM: 4 x 1GB Kingston PC 6400

 

[Foxery]

32bit drivers for XP and Vista are out. Full listing:
http://game.amd.com/us-en/drivers_catalyst.aspx

Not much longer 'til the new Folding@Home GPU client comes our way as well!

edit:
D'oh, there's a dedicated thread with the link. I'm blind.

 

[Apocalypse23]

for those of you with a pair of 3870x2s, please post benches for Crysis and other games in crossfire with these new drivers.

 

[Sylvanas]

Originally posted by: Sjors E
Finally! wondering what the improvement will be like.. Hope it will have impact on crysis FPS!

CPU: Q6600 @ 2.4 Ghz Cooled: TRUE 120
MOBO: Asus P5E
GPU: 2x Saphire Radeon 3850 256MB @ CrossFire
RAM: 4 x 1GB Kingston PC 6400

From what I've read there is a sizeable increase in Crysis FPS. The release notes say 15% in DX10, some over at Rage3d saying +50% min fps, will try these when I get home.