Getting ready for benches. Need a little advice.

[Keysplayr]

Ok, so I plan on a series of tests similar to what I did with 2900XT vs. 8800GTS640 a while back. Just bought an XFX5870 and installing a fresh copy of Win7 64 on the hard drive dedicated for the 5870 install. I'll be doing the same on another identical drive for Nvidia. Right now, I'm letting all the auto updates happen, but while I'm waiting, I just wanted to know the best way to install AMD's latest driver for this card. Should I, or should I not install the CCC?

What are the advantages/disadvantages of installing it, or not?

Should I look out for any issues concerning CCC?

Is CCC needed for specific functions? If there is no ingame AA, will I need CCC to force AA?

Things like that.

Any help appreciated.

Here is a photo of the new batmobile

P.S. This thing is long. I have about 1/8th inch clearance from my drive cage, and it's a big case. "WHEW".

Thanks guys/gals.

Keys

UPDATE: List of games/benchmark utilities I have so far.

Crysis full
Crysis Warhead full
Fallout 3 full
Cryostasis full
Batman Arkham Asylum full
Far Cry 2 full
ARMA II demo
Dirt 2 demo
Unreal Tournament III full
3d Mark Vantage
Stalker CoP benchmark utility
Unigine Heaven Benchmark
Left for Dead 2
Dead Space full
Resident Evil 5



Working on:

Trainz 2010
Modern Warfare 2
Bad Company 2
Bioshock 2
Wolfenstein
Mass Effect 2
Aliens vs. Predator
Anno 1404
Dawn of War II
HAWX

 

[Tempered81]

I don't use CCC because Ati tray tools does all the basic 3d options. I hear Ati tray tools has conflicts with Win 7 sometimes. For stuff like stream, avivo, eyefinity, multi-display; you may need CCC to access all the controls.

I did a few tests on my 4850, and doing just the driver install, vs. full CCC install makes almost zero difference in frame rates during the Borderlands benchmark.

Say you want to bench Modern Warfare 2, just load up the latest WHQL from amd's website and do the default install. Same goes for your geforce card. Sounds like a practical way to get straight forward results from your benches. If you choose to install just the display driver, you will need either CCC or ATT to force AA, AF, Vsync in titles that do not include these as in-game options.

Overclocking, fan control, bios customization, and the like can be handled through RBE, gpu-Z, Afterburner, AMDgpuClock tool, and att without the need for CCC if you choose.

Btw, sweet card. Reference design? (Black or red DVI's)?

 

[Keysplayr]

Thanks Tempered! I guess I'll have to install CCC then, just for forcing AA where required alone.
This is an XFX card. It has black DVI connectors.

Anyone else with some suggestions?

 

[Keysplayr]

Also, should Catalyst A.I. be left alone? Or disabled?

 

[dug777]

I'm one of the few on here who has been very happy with CCC for some time

I don't notice any of the oft moaned about 'bloat' with a fast quad and beaucoup de rams, it's entirely self explanatory to force settings, and overdrive seems to work very well (at least for my 4850 the overdrive limit is 800 and mem is off the charts too, my card will do 780 core and around 1070 on the ram so it's more than sufficient).

Overdrive gives you manual fan control too.

As far as I am aware it leaves all the power reduction stuff working when you oc with CCC too, and no third-party app is convenient.

But I'm no 'power-user', I just like to fiddle until it's stable and then leave it be...I used to like playing with rivatuner and ati tool but at some stage I lost interest and it all became too hard

EDIT: I leave Cat AI enabled, although I've always been sceptical about 'optimisations', I recall an AT review that suggested they could discern no IQ hit and a minor to nonexistent FPS boost. Sounded ok to me and I have never been able to tell the difference myself when I have played with it

Edit: not really on topic, but (and I haven't really looked too hard), I can't see how to oc my gf's 9600GT through the nvidia control panel. Or was that something that was moved to ntune? All the best really, I'd get shot if I fried it!

 

[Keysplayr]

Thank Dug! I just want to make sure that nothing is done to inhibit performance in any way shape or form. I want this out of the way now, so it doesn't come and bite me in the buttocks after ALL my benches are done. In other words, I want a pristine running environment for this card.

I love doing these bench tests. But MAN O MAN is it monotonous installing every game and their respective latest patches. YEEEEEEEEESH..... Snorage..

 

[lavaheadache]

I'm glad you are doing this. This way I'll know which way to fall off the fence when all the smoke clears and cards become available. Hell, maybe I'll pitch you an offer for your 5870 when you are done testing it since it's a no brainer which you'll keep. =)

 

[Keysplayr]

I'm glad you are doing this. This way I'll know which way to fall off the fence when all the smoke clears and cards become available. Hell, maybe I'll pitch you an offer for your 5870 when you are done testing it since it's a no brainer which you'll keep. =)

Sounds like a plan. Now that you opened that door, I'll make sure you get first dibs on it if I decide to unload it.

 

[WelshBloke]

Soooooooooo does this mean you've got a 470/480gtx in your hot little hands?:thumbsup:

 

[shangshang]

Unless you really need a feature on AtiTools... or CCC is causing issues... you should stick with CCC.

ATI put a lot of man-hours into developing CCC... test it... so my bet is they know their own stuff better than any one else

 

[Keysplayr]

Ok, so the full 10.2 Cats including CCC has been installed.
Now for games and benchmarking utilities. (All will be patched to the latest)
So far I have:
Resident Evil 5
CoD W@W
Far Cry 2
Crysis
Crysis Warhead
Dark VOID
Cryostasis
Batman: Arkham Asylum (Need to buy 2nd copy of this due to single reg)
Unigine Heaven Benchmark
3D Mark Vantage

List any other games you would like to see benched and I'll see if I can get them.

 

[Voo]

Well so far you don't have any DX11 game in your suite - ok there are only 5-6 games atm and I think several that will be released before March 26 - but I think I'd make sense to test both cards in DX11 mode. Though no idea which games use more DX11 codepaths than others..

 

[CitanUzuki]

dx11 games would make sense. Stalker COP you can just get the benchmark for. Operation flashpoint and ARMA 2 seem to bring current systems to their knees, so maybe those would be more appropriate than something like RE5(correct me if im wrong but doesn't it cap the fps?).

 

[Keysplayr]

Got the Stalker COP bench utility and the ARMA II Demo. Seeing about Flashpoint.

 

[happy medium]

Some racing love?
Dirt 2
Need for Speed shift

Edit: BAD Company 2?

 

[dguy6789]

Unreal Tournament 3
Team Fortress 2
Need for Speed Shift
World of Warcraft

 

[Soleron]

Not that I expect you to comment, but if you're benching a GTX 480 against a 5870 you've already admitted it's not competing against the 5970. Just like you did a 2900XT against an 8800GTS because it clearly didn't compete with the 8800GTX.

If I'm not mistaken, that's more concrete than anything I've read about the underwhelming performance.

 

[happy medium]

Or mabe the price of the gtx 480 is more comparable to the 5870?
I hope so.

Edit: mabe he couldn't buy the 5970. I don't see any on newegg.

 

[tviceman]

Games that aren't CPU limited and can take advantage of quad core processors are great. L4D2 utilizes quad cores well, as does Dragon Age: Origins. I also think it is imperative that, if you're going to be testing the 5870 vs. GF100, then you should have AvP, Stalker Call of Pripyat, Dirt 2, and Metro 2033 since all utilize DX11 and tessellation.

So, once again:

L4D2
Dragon Age: Origins
AvP
Stalker Pripyat
Dirt 2
Metro 2033 (when it's released, of course)

 

[faxon]

Can you do startrek online? If you don't wanna get a sub for it PM me and we can work something out. I saw a toms hardware review and the results for it seemed really skewed, with a GTX 260 being like as fast as a 5850 or something. I was gonna bring one of mine to my friends house to test against his 260 but if you're doing testing you should check it out. It's a TWIMTBP game as well if that matters

 

[Voo]

Benching MMORPGs is usually a mess and it's even more problematic to get meaningful and consistent data from them than usual, so I would take these benches with a grain of salt..

 

[Keysplayr]

Not that I expect you to comment, but if you're benching a GTX 480 against a 5870 you've already admitted it's not competing against the 5970. Just like you did a 2900XT against an 8800GTS because it clearly didn't compete with the 8800GTX.

If I'm not mistaken, that's more concrete than anything I've read about the underwhelming performance.

What are you doing Soleron? Talking about admissions and "concrete" info, when I haven't even run a bench yet. Still setting up the system and installing games.
I want to bench the fastest single GPU AMD card against the fastest single GPU Nvidia card.

Don't even consider my 8800GTS vs 2900XT benches. Both cards were already out in the wild well before I purchased them both.
Everybody was constantly arguing which was faster. We already knew the 8800GTX blew it's doors off. I already possessed a 8800GTS640. Apoppin and myself had agreed to do our own testing and compare notes. He actually had the 2900XT and purchased a 8800GTS640.

"If I'm not mistaken, that's more concrete than anything I've read about the underwhelming performance."

Don't you think it would be most prudent to actually WAIT for the benchmarks first? Just a thought.

 

[palladium]

Fallout 3 (used to be AMD's playground, see if recent drivers change the scene)

 

[Keysplayr]

Fallout 3 (used to be AMD's playground, see if recent drivers change the scene)

Ah, yes. I have Fallout3.

 

[happy medium]

Keys ,when is the NDA officially lifted? Whats the arcticle being published if you can answer that?